Who exactly is this government listening to?
By Lethbridge Herald on August 30, 2025.
Rob Miyashiro
Lethbridge West MLA
Last week, I had the pleasure of walking in the Whoop-Up Days parade alongside my colleagues Kathleen Ganley, MLA for Calgary-Mountainview, and Naheed Nenshi, MLA for Edmonton-Strathcona and Leader of the Opposition. It was a hot morning, but the energy was high as we chatted and shook hands with so many of you along the route.
One question kept coming up:
“Who are the UCP listening to—and why are they wasting time and taxpayer dollars on things like separation and a new police force?”
It is a tough question to answer. But here are some of the concerns I have heard:
The UCP announced a plan to move almost all AISH recipients to a new program, ADAP, requiring them to reapply for the support they already receive. Clients could then reapply to AISH, making me wonder if anyone in the UCP knows that AISH stands for Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped. The UCP seem to have forgotten the words assured and severe!
Meanwhile, our local MLA for Lethbridge-East and Minister of Affordability and Utilities, Nathan Neudorf, seems more focused on redrawing electoral boundaries than addressing affordability including the rising costs of utilities. His submission to the Electoral Boundaries Commission achieves one thing and that is to disregard the city’s municipal boundaries entirely in future provincial ridings. Everyone’s favourite local historian and city council member Belinda Crowson had presented to the Electoral Boundaries Commission in person and spoke there about how Lethbridge’s provincial ridings have aligned with municipal boundaries since 1909! Why move away from municipal boundaries now?
While the UCP pushes long-rejected ideas and costly distractions, Albertans continue to struggle with:
– Sky-high utility bills, worsened by the renewables moratorium that drove billions in investment out of the province.
– Average insurance rate hikes that are the highest in Canada over the last ten years.
– New charges for essentials like COVID vaccines and eye exams for children and seniors that all other provinces provide free of charge.
It is hard to believe this government is listening to everyday Albertans. But they certainly are listening to lobbyists.
What constituents tell me is that they feel they are worse off now than they were a decade ago and they don’t know if their grown kids will stay in the province with these affordability concerns. Young families have told me they don’t know how they will afford the day care bills now that the government has removed subsidies! Seniors’ finances are stretched with
new charges for eye exams, driver’s license medicals, and now COVID vaccines! People are under significant financial pressure because of this government but there is even more that is causing me concern.
Dr. Shelley Duggan, President of the Alberta Medical Association, recently highlighted two troubling policies: the COVID vaccine rollout and the AISH-to-ADAP transition. In both cases, the government ignored experts and those with lived experience. Family physicians, separately, raised concerns about the time required to complete forms for AISH clients applying for the federal Disability Tax Credit—money that the province plans to claw back.
If you have struggled to get a doctor’s appointment lately, ask yourself why the government just required nearly 77,000 AISH recipients to get a doctor to fill out a form—only so the province can take away a federal benefit meant to help people with disabilities.
That is thousands of hours of doctors’ time, and in turn taxpayer dollars, spent on paperwork that benefits no one but the provincial government’s agenda.
And the waste does not stop there. This fall, municipalities will be forced to hire staff to hand-count ballots due to the province’s ban on vote tabulators—a cost that will have to show up on your property tax bill in coming years.
These are the kinds of costs to the entire system that are really troubling, pointless, and wasteful.
From a provincial police force to a pension plan and even a separate tax collection system, the UCP keeps reviving ideas Albertans have already rejected.
So again, I ask: Who is this government really listening to?
By contrast, the Alberta New Democrats launched a listening tour of Alberta on August 18 in Lethbridge. Our leader, Naheed Nenshi, and my colleagues, will spend the fall at townhalls across the province so that we hear straight from you. We had hundreds of people come out to share their concerns and their ideas at the first one. It was truly wonderful to be a part of that and if you missed the Lethbridge one you can always email me at Lethbridge.west@assembly.ab.ca or call my office at 403-329-4644. We know there is a better way, and we know that way is one we will achieve together. Better Together, with the Alberta NDP.
23-22
Agreed…re: the Lethbridge Whoop-Up days parade, it was noted by some bystanders that there was clapping from the crowd for the NDP contingent but not for the UCP.
Another example of the modus operandi of the Smith UCP is my co-paying of $49 at my recent visit to my optometrist for an eye exam. It used to be covered for seniors. When I remarked that it was yet another reason I would not be voting for the UCP, the staff member said many folks have said the same thing.
Yeh I’m really pissed as I have to give up my right to 5 coffees at Starbucks a year. How dare they take free stuff away from me, makes me cry like a baby. I want people to pay for free stuff for me.
i get a sense from your entries that your heart withers by the day
I wonder who wrote your venomous column, one thing for sure it was not you Mr. Miyashiro, you simply don’t have the ability to put two sentences together. However it was assuring to see you “three stooges” (Miyashiro, Nenshi and Ganley) in the parade, you are in fact alive! You have not been viable up to that point, where were you on Canada Day and other community events?
Your column fails to make mention of the fact that a recent Lege poll on the Government of Alberta report card show that Premier Danielle Smith’s popularity is up a full 7% since last August while Mr. Nenshi’s popularity is on a continuous decline!
With the Federal NDP now tanked and practically broke, what say you about Alberta NDP viability?
Can’t wait for the next Provincial election so we can vote you out of office! (Or perhaps you will pull a “Shannon Phillips” and dissert us mid-stream)???