Alberta Legislature back in session
By Lethbridge Herald on October 24, 2025.
Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald
Alberta’s New Democrat Caucus held 10 town halls this summer, knocked on countless doors, and attended numerous community events and festivals.
Lethbridge-West MLA Rob Miyashiro said he heard from Albertans over the summer that affordability is a key concern.
“We found that the UCP priorities are not the same as what Albertans want. The things we heard in Lethbridge are the things we heard consistently throughout the province.
He said the issues Albertans raised most often included cost of living and affordability, good jobs, a stronger economy, better health care, a properly funded public education system, keeping seniors’ pensions safe, and stating loud and clear that Albertans are proud Canadians.
“This morning Thursday), we found out that the UCP government is going to introduce back-to-work legislature on Monday, but we are going to vigorously oppose that, as we continue to stand with students and teachers,” said Miyashiro.
That included standing with them at the rally set to take place outside of the Legislature grounds.
“We will continue to support teachers in the fight for better working conditions and fair wages,” he said. “We will continue to stand with students to have a curriculum that works for them at the proper age level.”
Miyashiro, who was recently appointed shadow minister for municipal affairs, said it has to start somewhere, and one place to start is with a commitment from the UCP to build more schools, hire more teachers and teacher assistants.
“This issue dates back to the six-and-a-half years the UCP has been in power. They knew our population was growing, we could have been building x number of schools, hiring more teachers and treating them fairly throughout this whole process.”
When the UCP introduced the “Alberta is calling” campaign to recruit thousands of people to move to the province, they should have planned better as they did not have any regard on infrastructure, social supports, educational supports, or healthcare supports that all of them would require, said Miyashiro.
“Now they have moved here, and they are trying to blame them as the cause of all the problems. Well, they can’t have it both ways. They need to start somewhere with the education system building up the capacity.”
He said the NDP is aware this will take time, but the UCP needs to come up with a plan on how they will support the public school system to accommodate everyone, within the fastest possible time.
“Forcing them back to work under the same conditions doesn’t help without any hope or that things are going to change.”
He said the NDP also heard that the UCP is going to try and push the back-to-work order as quickly as possible through the Legislature.
“They’re going to try and cramp all the readings into one really short time period, they will invoke closure on the debate, so we will not be able to fully debate. It is possible that teachers will get forced back to work by Tuesday.”
Miyashiro believes the UCP government has not thought the move through. A quick turnaround may affect parents and students without proper notice, as some may have made arrangements for childcare or other plans and those may have to change from one day to the next.
“I don’t think they have given that any thought, and quite frankly, I don’t think they care.”
Speaking to other priorities for the new sitting of the Legislative Assembly, Miyashiro said the NDP will fight for Alberta’s place as part of Canada, as “we are better together,” and want to quash the talk on separation.
We are also going to bring forward proposals to protect paycheques, to increase minimum wage, to protect tips for service workers,” said Miyashiro.
He said they will also continue to push for a full public inquiry into the “CorruptCare” scandal, as it is essential to find out where taxpayers’ money has gone, and what it has paid for.
22-21
great news…not. given we have an utter misrepresentation in terms of seats held by our ucp versus the percent of votes cast, what we have is thwarted democracy that gives a carte blanche to the ucp to do as they please. and what pleases them seems to be pocket lining, nepotism, graft, sleaze, ineptitude. hey, calling all the coal cos of the planet to alberta: get in line to get your massive handout from the public trough!