mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@MHNmocranker
Drew Barnes had a hectic Thursday evening during his town hall event.
Around 130 people turned out to ask the MLA questions, many of which came from teachers angry at the United Conservative government potentially taking away their ability to control their pension.
“(Thursday) night went well,” said Barnes. “I’m really appreciative of everyone who came out and I’m thankful for the good discussion we had.”
Barnes says he looks forward to speaking further with local teachers on the matter.
“I’m grateful that so many came out,” he said. “It’s important to hear about their ideas and concerns – that’s how we’re going to build Alberta.
“I hope next time we have twice as many people and we have people from even more trades come out.”
As for other issues, Barnes says there is a lot to think over.
“People are proud of Alberta, our agriculture, our oil and gas industry and our public services,” he said. “There’s fear though. There’s fear where the economy is going. There’s fear around what it will take to protect our public services.
“We just want to be a strong economy and that has been tough for the past number of years.”
The UCP has the next week off because of Remembrance Day, but Barnes says he will be sharing what he heard as soon as he can.
“I’m going to tell everybody there,” he said. “I’m going to share that teachers are very concerned about their pension fund. I’m going to share that Cypress-Medicine Hatters want a referendum on equalization way sooner rather than later and that they’re still concerned about the debt.”
Barnes says he will be holding another town hall event and that people can follow his social media platforms to stay up to date.
