Phillips reflects on UCP failures as 2023 election nears

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on December 29, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

After a challenging year as part of the official opposition, New Democratic Party MLA for Lethbridge West, Shannon Phillips, said they are hopeful for a better 2023 with a provincial election on the horizon.
“Locally my focus has been on making sure that Lethbridge is heard. We have a provincial government that have been very focused on their own drama. This has been a year of high drama for them and their own internal soap operas, where our direction from our leader Rachel Notley has been to focus on local issues and the things that actually matter to Albertans,” said Phillips.
She said it turns out that people in Lethbridge and across Alberta do not really care about politicians who are focused on themselves, they want their elected officials to focus on the real problems they face in their daily lives.
“When you don’t have a family doctor, when there’s nowhere to send your lab results, when you can’t get a specialist appointment, where there’s only one OBGYN in the entire city, these are real issues for people,” said Phillips.
She said that on top of that when going to the grocery store, they are seeing a 40-year-high inflation, and utility bills are going through the roof, as well as car insurance.
“All of these things that the government could just stop making worse. People across the province deserve elected officials that are going to give voice to those things that are on their minds, and that’s what I focused on this year,” said Phillips.
She said one of the problems was Jason Kenney made a series of promises that he had no intention to keep, one of which was the fact that he was going to continue to fund healthcare.
“He did no such thing. He went to war with doctors and nurses and other healthcare professionals. He made all these big promises and completely under delivered on all of them and by last fall people were just utterly done,” said Phillips.
She said Kenney did not level with the voters about what it was actually going to take to make sure that we have economic resilience in this province, how we actually attract new investment.
“That was his approach and this new premier elevated it to high heart. There is no question that people are going to get tired, they’re going to see through it, and they see it,” said Phillips.
She said conservatives are just running around making selling snake oil promises to people while the healthcare system is falling and there is no action.  
“We just see zero action on things like housing and local social services, people see through it and provincial government is very close to people’s lives. Any small decisions really affect ordinary people,” said Phillips.
She said that when she has talked to people, many have said they care about health care, they care about affordability, they care about the future economy, and they care about social services.
Phillips said that when it comes to getting ready for a provincial election in 2023, they have already been putting in the work since last year since Rob Miyashiro was nominated as the NDP’s candidate for Lethbridge East in November 2021.
“This is the time of year where we usually take a bit of a break and then I will throttle it back up in January. This was the approach I took even when I was a minister, we didn’t stop in 2018, we began for well over a year out for 2019. (When) I campaign, we will do no different and that’s how you keep your feet on the ground and your head out of the clouds,” said Phillips.
As free political advice to the UCP, she suggested this is the time to start talking to voters.
“Because you’ve all just been talking to each other and that’s where poor decisions like this Sovereignty Act come into play, where you just barrelled forward with a terrible idea that chases investment out,” said Phillips.
She said that if there is a change in government in 2023, and the NDP has the privilege of governing the province once again, they will repeal the Sovereignty Act.
“It’s one of the pieces of our overall investment strategy. There’s a few other more detailed pieces in there in terms of attracting large capital investments, and some of an expansion of some investor tax credits, and some other pieces that we’ve committed to doing around making sure that companies can get regulatory approvals in a more expeditious fashion not just in the energy sector but for large projects such as we saw when we attracted the Cavendish facility here to Lethbridge,” said Phillips.
She said there is always pieces of work that need to be done in conjunction with municipalities around the Water Act, access to water allocations, issues that are key to attracting large scale employment investments in the private sector.
“We made those commitments at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, as well we have been very focused on our economic agenda and ensuring that we are accurately reflecting we’re a business community and making sure that voters in the business community, outside investors are hearing the right messages from the official opposition,” said Phillips.
She said they have a responsibility to the people of Alberta to demonstrate that there is a government in waiting who are prepared to not only undo the bad things, but also bring forward a series of practical substantive proposals that create an attractive investment climate for the right business.
“We have a young, educated workforce advantage, we need to keep people here not drive them out. We have excellent postsecondary institutions of which two are right here in Lethbridge and there are just so many advantages,” said Phillips.
She said what a government needs to do is engage with people, actually hear them out, really listen and take those good ideas and make sure they are practical, and achievable.
“We are focused on those things because we know that they will create jobs, good mortgage paying jobs, and ensure that we build on the strengths that we have. The province in both the traditional oil and gas energy sector and any emerging sectors,” said Phillips.
She said that for 2023 she needs to make sure that she takes what she has heard over the past year in terms of people’s concerns and ensuring the NDP are putting forward the right solutions.
“We have begun that work and certainly will have a lot more to say in the new year as we’ve gone through a number of consultations with people around housing, around downtown redevelopment and revitalization, and downtown public safety,” said Phillips.
She said she will make sure to make the needs of Lethbridge heard, as we are far from Edmonton and outside the big economic engine that is Calgary.   
“The big cities will take all the oxygen out of the room unless we make sure that we get what we need. For me, what I am very focused on after having listened carefully to people for the last year and stood on their doorsteps, and had meetings with folks and listen carefully to what all our volunteers are hearing back from people, is that our set of proposals is really specific to Lethbridge,” said Phillips.

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