Fall sitting marked by troubling decisions
By Lethbridge Herald on December 27, 2025.
Rob Miyashiro
Lethbridge West MLA
With the return of the sun after Winter Solstice, I am reminded of the hope of this holiday season.
Hope was tough to hold onto through the recent fall session in the Alberta Legislature, a session that was marked by troubling decisions from the government.
The UCP repeatedly closed debate on major bills and voted down every amendment and bill proposed by Alberta’s NDP.
When we called for ethical governance (Bill 202), caps on auto insurance (Motion 504), and protections for workers’ pay (Bill 201), the UCP voted no. They even refused to affirm national unity (Motion 501), while simultaneously paving the way for a separatist referendum in 2026.
And instead of working with us on an urgent plan to recruit and retain family physicians as part of a larger plan to protect public health care access (Motion 506), they moved to adjourn debate instead. They also passed legislation to dismantle Alberta Health Services and introduce an American-style two-tier health system that will cost more but not improve access to physicians.
Changes to disability supports were another blow this session. Moving people from AISH to the new ADAP program will cut $200 a month from those who already survive on limited incomes. Many Albertans with disabilities are now wondering how they’ll afford rent and groceries.
The government claims ADAP will help people work more, but AISH already had work incentives. Instead, this change creates instability and hardship for some of our most vulnerable citizens, while adding layers of redundancy and red tape.
Every day, my office hears from people who are anxious and afraid. They know that when you live on a fixed income, even a small cut can mean choosing between food and rent.
These are real lives, and these decisions matter.
Increasingly, the UCP government has lost touch with the true concerns of Albertans. There is overwhelming opposition in Lethbridge to ideas like reintroducing coal mining in our headwaters, the source of our drinking water.
While Alberta’s New Democrats raised your serious concerns about coal mining in the Eastern Slopes, the UCP offered foreign coal companies more opportunities to endanger our headwaters and paid out $240 million in settlements to those companies after policy flip flops in 2020.
Perhaps most alarming, the UCP invoked Section 33 (the Notwithstanding Clause) four times to shield bills from Charter challenges. This unprecedented move stripped rights from teachers, parents, doctors, trans children, and women and girls in sport.
Teachers lost their right to collective bargaining. Parents and doctors lost the ability to make medical decisions for trans children. Women and girls must now declare sex at birth to play sports, already prompting Skate Canada to pull its competitions from Alberta.
These decisions have sparked outrage, and rightly so. No one wants the government to make their decisions in the doctor’s office!
When Section 33 was added to the Charter, it was meant to be used rarely and with voter consent. The UCP has done neither.
Instead, they’ve ignored Albertans’ priorities like health care, education, and affordability, while catering to separatist voices.
Meanwhile, the Auditor General reports $125 million wasted on a failed lab privatization, and questions about the Corrupt Care scandal remain unanswered. Albertans deserve better than a government that spends its time stripping rights and encouraging division while leaving families to struggle with rising costs and declining services.
There is a better way. Alberta’s NDP will keep fighting for the issues that matter to you: health care, education, environmental protection, and affordability. We’ll continue to introduce legislation that reflects the priorities of Albertans, because that’s what good governance looks like.
We believe in a province where the land and water are protected, where people can see a doctor when they need one, where classrooms have the resources to help every child succeed, and where no one is left behind.
My office will be closed from Dec. 24–Jan. 4, but emails will be monitored at: lethbridge.west@assembly.ab.ca. Please keep reaching out. Your voices matter, and together we can make sure hope is more than a word – it’s a reality for Alberta.
However you celebrate the holiday season, may it be filled with joy and light as we look forward to brighter days ahead.
23-22
The UCP in one word? Troubling…..nothing short of again, taking a wrecking ball to this province in so many ways…stuff that just cannot be made up.
You meaning troubling to the NDP/union status quo who don’t like being relegated to employees from being the controllers of taxpayers money. In other words a non compliant status quo government is troubling. Tough.