Business focus of Lethbridge Chamber election forum

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on May 17, 2023.

Herald photo UCP candidate Nathan Neudorf and NDP candidate Rob Miyashiro take part in the Lethbridge East portion of the forum hosted Tuesday by the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce offered business owners and members of the general public, an opportunity to ask questions to all electoral candidates during a forum Tuesday night.

Lethbridge West Alberta Liberal candidate Pat Chizek, NDP candidate Shannon Phillips and UCP candidate Cheryl Seaborn, took the stage first, while Alberta Party candidate Braham Luddu was once again absent from an electoral forum.

Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce CEO, Cyndi Bester said it was important for the business community to have an opportunity to address the candidates regarding their needs, as previous forums have addressed more general community needs.

“That is our role as the Chamber of Commerce, to have that voice of business… we all live and work and raise our children in this community, so those community questions are important but we also want to continue to engage with our employees and keep our employees employed, so that has to be part of the conversation,” said Bester.

Since safety is a concern for the downtown area and businesses in the area, Phillips was asked about her stand on re-opening a permanent Supervised Consumption Site, to what she answered No, unlike her fellow NDP candidate in a previous forum.

When asked for clarification after the forum on what seemed to be opposing views on the matter among both NDP candidates, Phillips said there was no confusion as they both agree on not re-opening a SCS.

“Let me be very clear, our approach to homelessness, mental health and addictions, will be far more complex than anything we have ever seen before. It will focus on housing, it will focus on primary healthcare and more than anything it will respond to the needs that are being identified by the community and social services agencies by community leaders and if that’s not what they’re asking for, which it isn’t ,that’s not what we will do,” said Phillips.

 She said in the very first instance this was not an approach that was brought by the NDP government that came out of thin air, it was a product of specific community asks and community consultations at that time almost a decade ago and things have changed since then.

When it came to attracting and retaining small businesses in Lethbridge, Phillips said the NDP is committed to eliminating the small business tax entirely, to make sure the market is competitive.

Seaborn on the other hand said the UCP wants to maintain the tax at the level it is now.

“The United Conservative government is business friendly, we know that the backbone of Alberta’s economy comes from small and medium size business I’m a small business owner so I’m very aware of that you have the support of government to be able to be successful,” said Seaborn.

During the second portion of the forum, UCP candidate for Lethbridge East Nathan Neudorf and NDP candidate for Lethbridge East Rob Miyashiro answered questions from media and the public.

When asked about what the UCP would do to retain students entering post-secondary, not only in Alberta but specifically in Lethbridge, Neudorf said within Budget 2023, the UCP is investing $193 million in post-secondary creating 8000 seats for programs like healthcare, technology and business.

“That’s the largest city expansion in Alberta’s history and what that means for us right here in Lethbridge is that the Lethbridge College and University together will have additional 57 seats for nurses training, they’re going to have a 100 seats for business science and computer science training and 25 seats for the graduates into the data science,” said Neudorf.

 He said they are helping the college and university meet that need for the next generation.

 “It’s our government’s intent that we have our kids go to our schools, to fill our jobs. We have been working with post-secondaries for that, aiming for that direction and is continually evolving, because what we now need is our business sector to engage with their post-secondaries to make sure that they are providing that information to meet the needs they see in the future,” said Neudorf.

When asked about how his party would attract tourism to Lethbridge to help the local economy he said it all goes back to making sure the city is safe and creating opportunities for small businesses to thrive.

 “If you have those things in place and you support the tourist attractions that we have in Lethbridge, you create a good ecosystem for those businesses to thrive and more people will come,” said Miyashiro.

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