Red Deer-South NDP candidate Michelle Baer (center) speak with Red Deer-North candidate Jaelene Tweedle (left) and Innisfail-Sylvan Lake candidate Jason Heistad (right) at local campaign office on Wednesday. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

By Alessia Proietti

Pensions, taxes, and more

Local Alberta NDP candidates share plans to help seniors

May 10, 2023 | 9:14 PM

Local candidates for the Alberta NDP shared with Red Deerians on Wednesday their plans geared towards helping seniors.

Red Deer-South NDP candidate Michelle Baer and Red Deer-North candidate Jaelene Tweedle spoke to seniors and other members of the public at their local Campaign Office (100-4419 50 Ave).

“Seniors built this province and they deserve to be treated with respect. Rachel Notley and the Alberta NDP know that many seniors are on fixed income and just don’t have the room to absorb new costs,” said Baer.

Baer says the NDP will not raise income taxes or introduce a sales tax.

Instead, she says the party will act to lower personal costs for Albertans through measures like placing caps on car insurance premiums, lowering electricity bills, removing the $300 out-of-pocket cost for the shingles vaccine, and reversing the UCP’s $100 fee for the senior driver’s medical exams.

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She added that the party will protect the Canadian Pension Plan.

Tweedle said supports will be put in place to help seniors stay healthy within their homes by increasing homecare for 20,000 more Albertans over the next four years, which should improve access in rural and remote areas. She says they will also increase Family and Community Support Services like snow shoveling, lawn care, transportation, and meal preparations.

She added the NDP would expand the Seniors Home and Adaptation Repair Program, so seniors can make the renovations they need to stay comfortable in their homes, and reverse the UCP’s cut to rental assistance for low-income seniors.

Lastly, she says medicines would be made more affordable by reversing the UCP’s decision that removed spouses and dependents from the Seniors Drug Benefit, so they are put back on.

For those who wish to leave their homes, she said the party will increase seniors housing in both independent and community settings to offer more choice.

Tweedle stated that the plans are financially possible as in Fall 2022, Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley hired economist Todd Hirsch to give recommendations on Fiscal Strategy, to which they were all adopted. She says they have a plan to best allocate the anticipated $10 million surplus to meet existing needs and save for the future.

Alberta NDP plan to help seniors. Note 1: As the shingles vaccine is supposed to provide lifetime coverage, the NDO says they expect significant uptake/cost in fiscal year 2023/2024, with lower costs in future years. Note 2: The NDP says the amounts include the full cost to re-index all benefits, including the Seniors’ Benefit, Income Supports, AISH and PDD as previously committed. (Supplied)

Notley’s plan also included re-establishing the independent office of the Seniors Advocate and increase AISH and Seniors Benefits to keep pace with the cost of living and inflation.

“Albertans deserve to spend their retirement at home enjoying the things they love, not worrying if they can afford the care they need,” said Notley at her announcement in Calgary earlier on Monday. “Better care at home is what every Albertan wants for their parents and themselves as they age, and under an Alberta NDP government, every family will get it.”

The UCP committed to cutting taxes for all Albertans, beginning with personal income taxes, and create a new eight per cent bracket on income under $60,000 to save each Albertan $760 per year. They said they would extend the Fuel Tax Holiday for the rest of the year to offset the NDP and federal carbon tax, continue to index all tax brackets to keep up with inflation, and expand the Taxpayer Protection Act to ensure future governments get approval by Albertans through a referendum if they wish to increase personal and business taxes.