A candidate debate was held last Saturday night in Lac La Biche or the upcoming Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche provincial by-election.
The seat for the northeastern Alberta constituency has been vacant since last August when former UCP MLA Laila Goodridge left provincial politics after being appointed as the region's federal representative in the Conservative Party as a member of Parliament for the Fort McMurray-Cold Lake riding.
There are eight registered candidates in the race. The by-election for the MLA seat will be held on March 15 and advance polls are open in the constituency now.
Six of the eight candidates looking to take the constituency seat were on-hand at the Bold Center for Saturday night's forum that was hosted by the Lac La Biche and District Chamber of Commerce. The candidates offered their platforms and responded to questions from some of the 80 people in attendance.
The six in attendance were UCP candidate Brian Jean, Ariana Mancini with the NDP, Paul Hinman with the Wildrose Independence Party, Marilyn Burns with the Alberta Advantage party, Independent candidate Brian Deheer and Independence Party of Canada candidate Steven Mellott.
Liberal candidate Hussien Abdulhakim and Alberta Party candidate Michelle Landsiedel could not make the event.
Candidates
Brian Jean, UCP — Fort McMurray businessman, former MLA, MP and Wildrose leader
Ariana Mancini NDP — Fort McMurray teacher
Paul Hinman, Wildrose Independence Party — two-time MLA and current Wildrose Independence Party Leader
Marilyn Burns, Alberta Advantage Party — Lawyer and president of party
Brian Deheer, Independant, Lac La Biche resident and vice-president of Alberta Green Party
Steven Mellott, Independence Party of Alberta
From a head-table facing an audience of about 80 people in the Bold Center's Community Room, and playing to some viewers on a social media live-stream, candidates offered their platforms and responded to questions from some of the 80 people in attendance.
Much of the discussion and topics related to the general issues of healthcare, education, policing, Indigenous culture and the environment. While there weren't a lot of topics specific to the Lac La Biche area, many of the general topics offered some local connections.
All six candidates had two-three minute opportunities to share their platforms with the attendees at the beginning and at the end of the two-hour debate.
During the question-answer portion, the candidates shared their platforms, how they plan on supporting small businesses, the economy, rural crime and the implementation of a provincial police force.
Additionally, health care concerns in the riding and doctor retention, education and the contested provincial curriculum, the environment and addressing indigenous needs.
Education, curriculum and indigenous teachings
More needs to be done to encourage learning, but in order to support both indigenous students and others in the area, the system needs to be fixed, said Mellott.
“Our education system right now is broken,” he says the school systems need to work on implementing indigenous materials into the curriculum while supporting students' social and unique learning needs overall.
Currently, a French immersion public school teacher, Mancini says for the past 12 years implementing indigenous values aligned with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has persisted in the public school systems in the Fort McMurray area, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.
“They are small steps, we have a far ways to go, but I’m very proud that we are finally speaking the truth and learning about the truth of Canada’s history.”
While Mancini commended the efforts made by the school system, the UCP curriculum draft has dissuaded any efforts towards reconciliation for all schools across the province—primarily due to how indigenous people are portrayed.
“The UCP has continually undermined the indigenous people…the draft of the social studies curriculum continuously refers to First Nations people as they only exist in the past and that their oral history is no more than stories and myths,” said Mancini who has been a staunch education critic throughout the campaign trail.
Jean says it’s important to consult all indigenous communities and bring them to the table when making decisions that impact how their history is taught and portrayed in the curriculum.
Deheer who also agreed with Jean's statement added that indigenous students and community members that he has worked with in the area need to be heard and validated.
While Hinman and Burns believe that how indigenous people have been treated throughout Canada's history is horrendous, in order to seek a resolution all levels of government need to come clean and support indigenous people.
“We have a vibrant and exciting history for children to learn and we can make it that way, but we need to have the calibre of people that are writing the curriculum to do that,” said Hinman.
Rural crime and policing
Rural policing and the overall justice system lacks transparency, said Burns.
“It’s not just the criminal justice system, right now our entire justice system is so complicated that the ordinary person cannot understand it and we don’t have good access,” she said.
Not only did Burns advocate for better communication, but also giving more rights to residents through the justice system.
“Albertans must have the right to defend their own property and person,” she said.
Burns advocated for a provincial police force replacing the RCMP due to how the department supports residents in the province.
“Right now the RCMP are failing us. It takes hours to days for the RCMP to respond; that's not good enough. Alberta needs to have its own police force…that’s been on the desires of the hearts of Albertans for decades now, it needs to happen,” said Burns.
Hinman who also supports a provincial police force went one step further and said that the public needs to be involved and granted rights when it comes to policing decisions—especially in rural areas.
“The oversight will be elected civilians. This idea that politicians and bureaucrats are controlling our police and telling them what they can do is wrong. We need to put it back in the hands of the people again.”
While Hinman says more work also needs to be done with supporting mental health-related crime and prevention for everyone.
Mancini echoed how more support is required for mental health, but also for the social welfare, affordable housing opportunities and education being made available for the residents in the riding. By leaders adapting and supporting those needs it can positively impact behaviour early on, she said.
“When we are talking about crime, when we are talking about our criminal justice system our best bang for our buck is investing in our proactive public school system,” said Mancini.
While creating opportunities to rehabilitate criminals and addressing their needs is vital, UCP candidate Jean says more officers and criminal justice staff, need to be hired and supported throughout the system.
“We have to also increase our peace officers, crown prosecutors, we have to expand our sherif programming…we have to get more boots on the street.”
While some candidates advocated for replacing the RCMP with a provincial police force, Jean says the relationship, connections and resources the RCMP has been vital to dealing with criminal activity in the province.
Mellott agreed that more officers covering rural areas are needed, but victims need to be given more rights to protect themselves while incarcerated individuals also need to be rehabilitated.
Environment
Deheer who has spent most of his career advocating for green initiatives and being involved in various watershed management groups said “the environment is the foundation that supports our lives, our communities and our economies.”
Considering the vast amount of “pristine land” and Alberta's long history of the oil and gas industry, “we have nothing to apologize for” says Hinman.
“We have the cleanest coal ... The pollution overseas is incredible, we are not doing a bad job here in Alberta.”
— Marilyn Burns, Alberta Advantage Party
Jean and Hinman both advocated for increasing non-renewable resources production while simultaneously taking care of the environment, and challenging federal oversight in environmental regulations like the carbon tax.
While pollution may be a problem, Burns says Alberta is handling the issue well and our industries perform well, but there is always room for improvement.
“We have the cleanest coal,” she said.“The pollution overseas is incredible, we are not doing a bad job here in Alberta.”
Mancini noted how residents in the area have concerns about the condition of Lac La Biche lake from blue-green algae blooms to the odour, she says finding solutions to not only clean the lake for use but the ramifications mismanaged lakes can have on tourism.
“We need to work on restoring Alberta's lakes. We need to work with agencies like Healthy Waters Lac La Biche, First Nations and Métis people.”
Additionally, adding hydrogen sources, geothermal energy, and more as green options, said Mancini would also create new jobs.
Finding alternative greener options is important, but supporting the oil and gas sector is vital and not disappearing anytime soon, said Mellott.
“Oil and gas is not going to go away in our life—or even our children's lifetime.”
While Mellott says he opposes windmills, looking into creating lithium-ion production in Alberta as a diversified option would be tangible, said Mellott.
Small businesses and the economy
The way to support small businesses that are the driving force in rural communities, Jean says is for the government to “get out of the way."
However, there need to be programs available for small businesses to be supported, said Jean.
Jean, Hinman, Mellott and Burns all advocated for federally run programs like Employment Insurance(EI) and the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) to be operated by the province.
One of the reasons, Jean says is due to the ”young population in Alberta” and the continuous financial support Albertans provide to other jurisdictions in the country.
Hinman advocated for more rural control, he says “our small businesses are regulated to death.”Rather, less oversight in most financial matters from not only the country but the province as well is required to move people ahead fiscally.
After speaking with residents Mancini said the concerns over insurance, food, housing and utility prices are impacting the riding significantly, and as a potential representative she understands.
“As your MLA I am going to fight for you, I am going to represent you because I am you,” said Mancini.
Burns says attacking rural communities is intentional because there is a motive to dismantle small communities.
“What we need to do to protect our small businesses is we have to fight this one-world government…we need to take control of our lives.” Additionally, the Alberta Advantage Party, says Burns has a referendum question that they plan to utilize on whether Alberta should leave the confederation—which candidate Mellott also approves of.
But most importantly understanding how expensive day-to-day bills have impacted residents within the riding and supporting the business through a flat eight per cent tax rate for small businesses, said Mellott.
Deheer advocated for supporting small business receiving support from the province, and acknowledging how vital working with local municipalities and organizations are for community growth.
Health Care and doctor retention
Alberta Health Services (AHS), says Burns is “destroying our system”, creating a provincial plan that creates a $500 yearly health spending account to utilize for personal wraparound health services.
Deheer says “there is a group of dedicated people working on retaining doctors” in Lac La Biche and supporting those groups is vital as an MLA working in office.
Mancini says doctor shortages in Lac La Biche over the years have impacted hospital services —like the obstetrics unit closure last month—and limited access to family doctors is a solution she is in front of.
Online questions during the debate came from a few outside sources, with one municipal councillor asking several on topics ranging from provincial policing to energy rebates. Other comments from the virtual audience focused on Indigenous issues. A large portion of the 43 comments recorded on the night's online discussion came from a single commenter who expressed a stream of concerns about over-reaching government actions, freedom rally organizers and the lies of mainstream media.
March 15 Election Day and advance polls
Advance polls will take place from March 8 to 12, followed by election day on March 15.
Following election night, the unofficial election results will be released and finally confirmed on March 25.
Lakeland This Week and Lakelandtoday.ca will have results of the election when they are available.
