United Conservative Party (UCP) leadership candidate Jason Kenney addressed local and provincial issues during tour stops in Bonnyville and Cold Lake.
Kenney held a rally in the two municipalities on Monday, Sept. 25, delivering his platform, and taking aim at the current NDP provincial government.
First, the tour stopped at the Bonnyville Seniors Drop-In Centre, before making its way to the Lakeland Inn in Cold Lake.
In front of large crowds of UCP supporters, Kenney painted the picture of his ideal Alberta.
“Alberta is the idea of a place where if you work hard you can get ahead. It's a place where you can achieve your dreams and fulfill your God-given potential,” expressed Kenney.
It wasn't long before he turned his attention to Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and the NDP, expressing worry for the immediate future of the province.
“That idea of Alberta is under attack right now with an ideological government that is informed with a failed ideology based on resentment. They seem to think they can redistribute wealth without somebody creating it in the first place,” Kenney expressed.
A repeated talking point over the two appearances was restoring investor interest in Alberta, specifically in the oil and gas industry.
Rattling off troubling statistics, he didn't hold back in assessing the province's current economic state.
“We have 205,000 Albertans who have lost work, another 50,000 looking for work, and another 50,000 that have left the province entirely,” said Kenney. “There has been $34-billion pulled out of the oil and gas sector in the last year alone.”
If elected leader of the UCP, and eventually made premier, Kenney promised to focus his efforts on recovering from that loss.
“Job number one is restoring investor confidence in the oil and gas sector. That will affect the Bonnyville-Cold Lake area and northeastern Alberta first and foremost. You guys have been hit harder because of the loss of that investment,” said Kenney.
One of the ways he intends to attract investment is by cutting the time it takes for a project to be approved.
According to Kenney, the same project that would be approved in a week in Texas, U.S., would take a year in Alberta. If elected, he intends to waste no time shortening that administrative process, and lowering taxes to lure major investments back to the province.
“We need to eliminate the carbon tax, and get other taxes down. We have to cut the red tape and approval time within the oil and gas industry, fight like hell for these pipelines to be built and, stop the NDP from driving up power prices,” he said.
During both appearances, Kenney opened the floor to the public. While a good number of questions were on his plan for the resource industry, residents also raised concerns over education.
“The NDP want to change who we are as a culture and what we value most. The way they would like to do that is through the education system. Their curriculum will be released next year for application in September 2020. We come to office in June 2019. I would freeze their curriculum and retain the current one,” noted Kenney.
Members of the crowd questioned how much of a priority rural communities would be with Kenney as premier.
“It's important for us to protect and grow rural communities. As our province becomes increasingly urbanized, we must be very deliberate about retaining a voice for rural Alberta. For example, I'm concerned about the NDP's redistribution of seats in the legislature,” Kenney expressed.
Without offering a clear stance on the issue, he called into question expanding rural constituencies.
That willingness to take local issues into account, combined with a focus on economic growth, earned him a handful of key endorsements over the course of the trip.
Bonnyville-Cold Lake MLA Scott Cyr announced he would be supporting Kenney.
Former MLAs Genia Leskiw, Shayne Saskiw, and Dennis Ducharme, along with City of Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland, also announced their endorsements.
“For young people that have gone to school and are trying to get jobs, it's a tough go right now. We really need to bring this province and this country back, and I think Jason has the qualities to do that, which is why I'm certainly endorsing him in this leadership race,” said Copeland.
The local endorsements add to a long list of contributions from members of both parties that make up the UCP. According to Cyr, this shows Kenney is the best option for change in Alberta.
