United Conservative Party leadership candidate Rebecca Schulz speaks to Red Deerians at a town hall Tuesday at the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

By Alessia Proietti

Town hall in red deer

UCP leadership candidate Rebecca Schulz says ‘no’ to feds and ‘yes’ to municipalities

Aug 10, 2022 | 4:04 PM

United Conservative Party (UCP) leadership candidate Rebecca Schulz says Alberta needs to say ‘no’ more to Ottawa, and ‘yes’ more to municipalities.

Speaking at a town hall on Tuesday at the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame, the current MLA for Calgary-Shaw was most recently the Minister of Children’s Services before stepping down to run for the party leadership.

Schulz says based on her conversations with Albertans, the consensus for a leader is one who will defend the province’s constitutional rights.

However, Schulz expressed how this goal can be accomplished, “without additional headlines” related to fellow candidate Danielle Smith’s Sovereignty Act proposal.

“I believe things like the Sovereignty Act, they sound great when we’re frustrated and I agree with the intent because I know that people are frustrated, but anything that is going to drive investment, jobs and people out of Alberta, I am not interested in,” she said.

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“My approach is this: when the federal government tries to infringe on areas of provincial jurisdiction, things like the emissions cap or the fertilizer cap, we just say no.”

She used the example of Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe publicly denouncing the federal government’s reduction on fertilizer usage.

She says this ties into her position to not push for a provincial police force, stating it is not a top priority for many municipalities and the millions in start-up costs could be better spent towards rural crime and community safety, proposing a few alternatives.

READ MORE: Alberta police force would cost millions more but could see better service; report

As a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative, Schulz shared that there should be less government, not more, to allow for economic growth.

Not only does she say she would immediately appoint a deputy premier and team within her first 10 days, but she would make changes to the premier’s office in structure and staffing.

“What is frustrating is when we have a process that drives decisions [instead of] people driving decisions,” she said.

To support her views on limited bureaucracy, she referred back to her work in 2020 regarding duplication reduction by eliminating accreditation for child care centres while maintaining licensing.

She says the government needs to clearly communicate why and how decisions are made so that citizens understand, regardless if they agree or not with the choice.

“I don’t believe that all Albertans think they’re going to agree with the government 100 per cent of the time, but they want to know that their government is listening to them, understands the challenges that are facing Albertans every single day, and can make good decisions on their behalf, [while] and also [having] the humility to admit when we didn’t quite get it right,” she said.

Finally, Schulz says decisions for healthcare cannot be made from Calgary and Edmonton.

“We absolutely do have a very serious situation in our healthcare system and that is a healthcare system capacity issue. We are not unique, but I do think we have to take some bold and creative steps moving forward to address that issue. Part of that, is starting with local decision making,” she said.

“We have to say yes when people in communities across Alberta, frontline healthcare workers, have ideas about how we can do things better.”

Particularly for central Alberta and rural communities, she says she would find alternatives to paramedic responsibilities regarding inter-facility transfers by piloting frontline recommendations and changing the core-flex shift model by transitioning on-call positions to on-duty, among other solutions.

In response to a pandemic question concerning a potential rise in cases, Schulz said she would not impose a lockdown as it has not reduced the spread of the virus and believes vaccinations are a personal choice. Rather, she says the focus should be placed on mental health supports and improving the healthcare system’s weaknesses.

Originally from rural Saskatchewan, Schulz is the mother of two daughters, aged seven and four, with a degree in English. She became involved in politics in 2009 working for the Premier’s Office in Saskatchewan under Brad Wall.

MLA for Red Deer-South Jason Stephan has held a town hall for each UCP candidate.