Neudorf sees accomplishments, dealt with recall challenge in 2025

By Lethbridge Herald on January 2, 2026.

Herald File photo by Al Beeber Minister of Affordability and Utilities and Lethbridge East MLA Nathan Neudorf talks to the crowd at a fireside chat hosted by the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce Tuesday at the Sandman Hotel.

By Alexandra Noad

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter-Lethbridge Herald 

Nathan Neudorf, MLA for Lethbridge East says 2025 has been a great year with many accomplishments for his constituency.

Some highlights include three new schools being built, two of them are nearly completed, significant funding for water and wastewater treatments.

He adds that Lethbridge has also received funding for the Catheterization Lab along with the modernization for the dialysis unit, which will increase patient capacity by 40 per cent and the University of Lethbridge will be opening a medical school.

As the Minister of Utilities and Affordability, he was able to pass two bills which would lower the cost of utilities as well as protect ratepayers.

Bill 52 restructured the electricity market to allow for some hydrogen blending and some cost allocation to protect ratepayers.

Bill 8 prioritizes data centres who bring their own generation to protect ratepayers and requiring them to have a responsibility to pay a share of the existing infrastructure.

Neudorf says Albertans should see a decrease in their bills in the future with the implementation of these bills.

The year also came with challenges for Neudorf, the most prominent one being the recall petition, which was approved by Elections Alberta in late November.

Despite rumours circulating suggesting his involvement or relationship with Ryan Tanner, the applicant of the petition, Neudorf has denied these allegations.

He adds that he looks forward to the day when he can focus on the “job at hand,” but in the meantime he’s focusing on trying to make life better for Albertans.

“I’ve spent a lot of my time predominately focused on my role as a presentative and my role in ministry to try to make lives better for the people of Alberta.”

While the recall has been emotionally taxing on him, Neudorf says he hopes to continue to work hard for the betterment of his constituency and all Albertans.

“As minister, I work extremely hard on their behalf and I’d like to be able to continue to do that to the best of my ability for as long as they’ll elect me and not have it derailed by special interest groups or disagreements over policy.

When the Herald asked about the funding to Elections Alberta, who requested $150 million to implement the recall legislation and only received $1.5 million, Neudorf says Elections Alberta is one of the better funded election offices in the country and the overload of work they are dealing with is due to the misuse of the recall legislation.

“Our priority is to ensure that Elections Alberta has the funding it needs to fulfil its core mandate, while balancing that with our responsibility of using taxpayers’ dollars wisely.”

With a couple of highly targeted recall petitions currently happening, including the Premier and the Minister of Education, Neudorf says if they don’t get the required signatures, it will provide an indication that the rest wont either, so the future of the recall legislation will be dependent on the outcome of those petitions.

“I hope we can address people’s concerns in a responsible way (where) they won’t be needing to finalize the outcomes (of the petitions), but nothing’s decided at this point and we’ll see what happens when we get there in the new year.

A highlight for Neudorf this year was the memorandum of understanding with the federal government, which he was one of five ministers involved, and says it’s a historic win for Albertans.

In his ministry alone, Neudorf says five key stakeholders intend to pursue roughly $6 billion of private investment with a possibility of expanding upwards of $18 billion of private investment in the future which will both generate jobs and strengthen the economy.

Looking into 2026, Neudorf says he will continue his work on bringing nuclear energy to the province along with strengthening agreements with British Colombia, Yukon and Northwest Territories.

He adds that he is looking forward to taking ideas to Albertans to get their feedback in the new year and in the meantime hopes everyone has a great holiday season.