Notley argues growing Lethbridge needs to ‘focus on its future’

By Lethbridge Herald on March 24, 2022.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley speaks to members of the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce Thursday afternoon during a luncheon at the Sandman Signature Hotel

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman – Lethbridge Herald

In a visit to the city on Thursday, NDP leader Rachel Notley addressed key ideas her party is putting forward to the people that call Lethbridge home.

“Ideas that Shannon (Phillips, Lethbridge-West MLA) and I are hearing from Albertans through our economic blueprint that’s taking shape at albertasfuture.ca,” said Notley during a press conference.

Notley spoke to the media after addressing members of the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce during a luncheon at the Sandman Signature hotel.

She said her party has introduced an Alberta Venture Fund allowing all Albertans to invest in tech startups and scale-up in our province.

“We will also bring back and improve the Alberta investor tax credit, this was a program that was working under our government helping small businesses to expand and grow their operations,” said Notley.

She said the UCP cancelled it but they have heard from many small business leaders and other entrepreneurs and innovators that they want it back.

“They want us to make it better so I made that commitment yesterday and I spoke about it again today,” said Notley.

During her speech with the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce she also spoke about the needs of the city.

“Lethbridge is growing and we need to focus on its future,” said Notley.

She said we need to attract more doctors, build more schools, expand opportunities in agriculture, and reinvest in our postsecondary institutions.

She also spoke about ways of improving Alberta’s economy and one of the main factors being retention of young families in the province.

One of the ways to retain them, argued Notley, is by creating affordable childcare which she said they were happy to know Alberta finally signed up for it, but unfortunately it is not happening soon enough.

“What we saw in the budget that was just released is that they don’t actually plan to fund their half of the project until the very end of the fourth year. What that means then is that Albertans will get less than what is happening in other provinces that are actually committed to an affordable childcare plan,” said Notley.

She speculates the present UCP government is hoping to wait out the current federal government with the hope that a difference in Ottawa might lead to cancellation, so the province could cancel their own commitment.

“What it means is that Albertans will be at a competitive disadvantage because our childcare costs will not come down as fast as they come down in other provinces,” said Notley.

She said that will affect people’s decision on where to live to be able to expand their family.

“Alberta’s biggest resource is our ability to attract and maintain young, well educated families, diverse families here in the province. We start losing that, our economic advantage is also going to be something we lose,” said Notley.

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