Smith, Notley speak to rural Alberta municipalities
Posted March 31, 2023 4:41 pm.
As Albertans get set to head to the polls less than two months from now, Friday, municipal leaders from around the province were in Edmonton as Premier Danielle Smith and opposition leader Rachel Notley made their pitches to be the premier of Alberta.
“30 per cent of the province’s revenue come out of that region of the province. Why can’t we make sure that more dollars are coming back to support that growth,” said Smith. “Some of the larger cities, if you look at how much dollars come out in education portion of the property taxes versus how many dollars come back from the provincial government, sometimes there’s a big mismatch.”
Smith pledged to have more dollars going back into rural Alberta if re-elected into the premier’s office this May.
The premier answered some questions from rural leaders after her speech, but none from the media. The premier did not mention anything related to a recently leaked video appearing to show the premier speaking to controversial street pastor Artur Pawlowski about intervening with prosecutors for his trial.
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Instead, the premier elected to focus on campaign promises to rural Alberta.
“In each of our major economic hubs, we should make sure that people are able to have as many services as possible close to home. We’re starting that as you can tell with healthcare.”
Notley also spoke and took questions from the crowd, adding her party is ready to rebuild relationships between municipalities and the province.
“So we have heard over and over and over again from people who are not new democrats supporters — but just hard-working municipal leaders — who want stability and confidence and a responsible reliable partner.”
On the leaked video, Notley reiterated her call for an independent judicial review, responding to the premier’s claims that she only spoke to Justice Minister Tyler Shandro and the deputy attorney general about COVID prosecutions.
“No, no, she was talking to them about how they were conducting the trail, how they were conducting the charge and cases and the deputy attorney general is a prosecutor.”
