Calahoo Stonehouse looks to fix social problems with economic solutions

By ANNA SMITH on April 30, 2024.

asmith@medicinehatnews.com

NDP leadership candidate Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse visited Medicine Hat on Saturday to connect with interested supporters, members and other citizens.

The first-year Edmonton MLA addressed gathered residents in order to offer up her platform for leadership, which she said comes down to three things.

It’s about water, economic diversification and then it’s about our children,” said Calahoo Stonehouse. “Alberta’s future is about taking care of our kids and that means taking care of our health-care system and our education system.”

Calahoo Stonehouse, who is from the Michel First Nation, opened her speech with background on her childhood along trap lines and farms, and how this formed a relationship with the ecosystems around her from an early age.

“Even then, I was talking about ecosystems and biodiversity,” said Calahoo Stonehouse. “We were hanging animals and we were going through what cancer looks like, or when an animal is sick. So these are things I knew at six years old, so by the time I got to do a Masters of Science, I was looking at water.”

She believes a person cannot fix issues if they don’t know them intimately, and as such, has spent a long time researching the various systems in place, from the justice system to the education system during her time as a vice principal, and social programs through the fostering and adoption of her first child.

And what she has found is many issues come down to economics.

“All the crises are colliding, we can’t fix health care, we can’t fix child welfare, if we don’t have money to do it. That’s the bottom line. We need strong finances,” said Calahoo Stonehouse. “And we look at the debt we’ve accumulated. In 2001 I think we were at $8 billion in debt in 2000. And I think within 20-30 years, we’ve gone up to over $111 billion in debt.”

Calahoo Stonehouse asks why the province does not own their own debt, nor do they invest in themselves. She acknowledged that oil production is unlikely to go down, but questions why the province has not invested in things such as carbon capture to offset the pollution and the health effects it causes.

“If we look at who invested in Alberta Oil Sands and what they did with their money – look at Norway, look at Switzerland, look at Germany – they invested, learned from us, took it back and now they have built societies where they pay for their children’s post secondary, where they do not have a housing crisis. Their police don’t carry guns and have never killed a citizen. Our societies are so foundationally different because they’ve invested in themselves.”

Above all, she says, the province needs the economy to thrive in order to feed families, empower people to do their jobs and to allow for the province’s future to grow up healthy and well educated. And at the heart of that is a much needed investment in water innovation.

“Water, of course, is foremost around everything because of where we’re headed, and the work that we need to do to protect Albertans and their economies,” said Calahoo Stonehouse. It is her hope that these issues will resonate with everyone, and that she can continue to build relationships with all sectors of the province.

However, with the upcoming NDP leadership election, she has two jobs first and foremost on her mind.

“One, beat Danielle Smith,” said Calahoo Stonehouse. “And two, clean up her mess.”

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