Future on agenda at Alberta Next panel discussion
By Lethbridge Herald on September 13, 2025.
Alexandra Noad
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Many passionate questions and comments were directed to Premier Danielle Smith at Thursday night’s Alberta Next Town Hall held at the Agri-Food Hub, with topics covering a variety of issues on Alberta’s relationship with Ottawa.
There were six different videos presented to the registration-only audience, each including a different topic, which was followed by an open mic for audience members to voice their questions and concerns.
Several instances were noted where those watching the town hall online could hear moderator Bruce McAllister, executive director of the premier’s office, react to questions by either laughing or groaning. Meanwhile, those who questioned the nature of the videos, and event itself, as propaganda, had their microphones shut off.
Former Lethbridge mayor David Carpenter, who attended live, also noted the McAllister took direction from the premier as to who should answer the question, if the question should be answered and when the mic should be cut off.
Discussions centred on equalization payments, a new tax system, a new pension plan for Albertans, a new provincial police service and immigration policy.
One citizen pointed out the hypocrisy of turning down federal pharmacare, dental care, and housing initiatives and then claiming the federal government doesn’t want to give Alberta money.
Smith replied that provinces are often rewarded for keeping their resources in the ground and there needs to be a reform that is fair for everyone. She also noted that substantive changes are made about every five years, but the current equalization formula is going on nearly two decades.
She later added that many provinces are working on developing their resources for both their own use as well as new markets, especially in light of Canada’s tenuous relationship with the U.S. in recent months.
“I think everyone is seized by this idea that they should develop their own resources, not only for their own use, but to develop new markets.”
Regarding an Alberta pension plan, Canada Pension Plan legislation states that a province can opt out of it, as long as it has its own pension plan which provides equal or better benefits for their citizens.
The UCP claims that Albertans pay $3 billion more than they receive back, mostly because Alberta is a young working province compared to others. By exiting out they claim Alberta would get a lump payout of $140 billion, which the government believes is more than enough to get the ball rolling.
“Over time (the CPP) has gone from $150 million in management expenses to $6 billion and they’re getting worse results now with their active management than they did under the passive management.”
Carpenter pointed out that CPP liability for Alberta’s earliest exit from the plan would almost be $2 trillion and asked what the province estimates its share is going to be, and how it plans to pay that debt. Smith claims that today’s CPP contributors pay for today’s recipients and that will continue.
Trevor Tombe, an economist with the University of Calgary, added that an APP would currently have a 3-1 ratio of workers, to seniors which will be more than enough to cover liability down the road.
Neither touched on the topic of what Alberta would owe to CPP if it were to exit.
When the subject turned to an Alberta provincial police service, many people from rural areas and family of RCMP members noted that some detachments are understaffed which can result in long wait times for help. Many offered support for a new province-wide service.
With Canada covering 30 per cent of the cost for RCMP, there was concern that municipalities would be held responsible for the amount. Smith noted that places like Grande Prairie actually ended up saving money by having their own police force.
Smith said the province is changing laws so sherifs can be affirmed as police and peace officers, putting them on a pathway to become peace officers.
Another hot topic was immigration, with many immigrants both supporting and opposing the idea of regulating the number of immigrants allowed into Alberta.
One immigrant said her son, a first-generation Canadian, is having a hard time finding work due to many entry-level positions being taken by newcomers.
Smith said the province plans on prioritizing applicants who want to set up a business and those who have a job, and will contribute as a taxpayer over those seeking asylum and post-secondary students.
One immigrant said the blame towards the federal government – the “us vs. them” mentality, with immigrants blaming immigrants for the lack of jobs – is wrong.
Smith pointed out that 450,000 people have come to Alberta in the last three years, 200,000 of whom are students, and that there is no way they could build schools fast enough to accommodate them.
She also said she had a constructive meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday.
“We’ve actually come to an agreement on a whole pile of things that I hope you’ll be able to see in the coming days and weeks.”
After each open mic on the topics, a vote was held to see where people stood on the issues. Every single issue saw the “yeas” win;Â
But Carpenter said he’s concerned about whether it was a valid vote. Carpenter and others noted how skewed the questions were, often holding back key information such as the liability debt to the CPP. He also questioned how people who lived outside of Lethbridge were able to show up early when the location wasn’t available to most registrants until Thursday.
He suggested that the majority of attendees were party members of the UCP.
After speaking with a few people afterwards, Carpenter said it was clear to him that very few felt their questions and concerns heard and answered.
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These gatherings are scripted and managed by the UCP with the intent to silence dissent. They are basically an echo of APP separatist propaganda.
Well said.
I attended and witnessed fairness by the panel moderator, giving several of the frustrated attendees far beyond their alloted time of 45 seconds when their microphones were cut! There were several hundred people at the event and there had to be some rules and time limits for all to bring forth their concerns.
The rulle were clear and repeated several times during the session, 45 seconds per person and . . . :
Those who chose not to follow the rules were often the disreptful persons who wanted to grandstand or were just angry and were cut off, but not before been given far more time past the 45 seconds.
For the most part most were respectful!
Unlike other governments, this government is listening and some changes are already considered from these sessions. I have fought for change and I have not seen a government ready to listen, as this one!
I want Alberta to remain in Canada, I don’t want an APP, but I do believe Alberta as well as the rest of the provinces, territories and First Nations should be moving for a better relationship from Ottawa where all are treated fairly.
I do believe we need serious changes in our judicial and penal systems as well as policing.
The RCMP is a fine police force with many dedicated members, but many of those members do not like to be moved around the country constantly or have to put in the long hours of overtime many have to due to staffing shortages, so they are having even tougher recruiting problems than provincial or municipal forces.
The RCMP has stated for a couple of years they are considering ending municipal policing when the contract ends in 2032 and we must be prepared instead of scrambling last minute to replace it.
I didn’t support a provincial police force replacing the RCMP until I researched the issues further. The RCMP will still be looking after other areas, and they are necessary in many of those areas.
Finally . . . do you really think you would get enough signatures on a petition for a referendum to leave Canada or leave the CPP? And if so do you really think they would get enough to leave Canada or the CPP?
I doubt it! People will take surveys and answer the questions, but when it comes to putting their name and address on petitiions, they back away and refuse.
This government is listening and there are groups that in some surveys have equalled around 35%, which are now been givern their democratic right to be heard and access to our democratic process, which other governments have failed to do! Alberta and some other provinces have not been treated fairly, I support any Premier who tries to get the best they can for their province!
I applaud the Premier and the panel for going thoughout our province, in an effort to listen to what Albertans have to say, respectfully. Not many politictians are willing to face people in such close discussions, especially with all the threats they have to face!
The process was fair and those who refused to follow the rules were treated fairly!
If Danielle Smith and the UCP actually listened to what Albertans want, why were these town halls with a preset agenda that supports the UCP’s narrative?
Present agenda? I rarely get into debates online with people who will never absorb anything, but I will try this one time!
Were you there, first of all? If you were, and paid attention you would have seen the issues presented in the videos that showed both positive and possible negative sides in moving in the direction for each segment. It was balanced! Did you watch the videos?
The purpose was to listen to concerns and how many wanted to move in that direction, and for those who didn’t they had a chance to express their concerns in a respectful manner.
I have protested, I have lobbied governments, I have involved my MLA’s with concerns and the UCP did listen! The NDP forced the SCS on this city against many who were concerned. The NDP MLA and Noltley would not listen to the safety concerns, or concerns of the community. There was no consultation! We were successful in shutting down the SCS, peacefully and lawfully, without hollering at the NDP government or showing disrespect and definitely not by uttering threats!
I knew what was coming after seeing the carnage in Vancouver DTES. where people were overdosing after leaving the sites, where visibly pregnant women continually went in to inject herion and other opioids with no controls or young teenagers could freely come and go and the stats showed increases annually of addicts and fatal overdoses after the opened in 2003. Harm reduction and SCS’s enabled and encouraged addicts.
It was the UCP who put together an SCS Review Panel who went to communities and listened to their concerns, not the NDP!
They listened and shut down the SCS! They listened and focused on treatment and recovery programs and moved away from the SCS and harm reduction models that were not working!
For that, hundreds of young Albertan lives were saved and their families are not devastated from their loss from fatally overdosing.
The UCP listens, with common sense!
The UCP is currently moving around the province to hear concerns and after collecting those ideas, will decide how they will move!
Are you a clairvoyant? Can you see they are not actually listening and have already made their decision?
I watched the NDP destroy our province in just a few years, puting in place drug policies that has cost hundreds of lives and only magnified the problem. They had no panels and the MLA wouldn’t even listen to the business owners who were losing their livelihoods!
I have watched this Premier stand up for this province unlike any other, to protect our economy and protect our provincial rights in confederation, but I do not agree with everything she is doing . . . and that is why she is asking for input!
Sad you are too brainwashed into tearing down a government that you don’t see the truth!
The Alberta Next sham tour has a preset agenda, and I don’t have to attend any of these sham forums to know that, because the topics of the sham forums have already been made by Danielle Smith. It was a preset agenda.There was no balance, because people who were there, and had brought up legitimate concerns, were cut off.
After the UCP removed safe injection sites in Alberta, used needles have been seen lying around in public places, and on private property, which isn’t safe. People were overdosing in washrooms in businesses, such as grocery stores, and even dying.
The UCP and Danielle Smith doesn’t listen to the legitimate concerns of Albertans. Here’s a good example of that.
https://www.stalbertgazette.com/local-news/timeline-of-how-lobbyists-with-ties-to-ucp-pushed-coal-policy-rewrite-10119621
I am calling you out on your disinformation:
” . . .After the UCP removed safe injection sites in Alberta, used needles have been seen lying around in public places, and on private property, which isn’t safe. People were overdosing in washrooms in businesses, such as grocery stores, and even dying . . .”
You are very wrong! Do you even live in Lethbridge? Obviously not!
There are 95% less needles now, with drug users smoking their drugs vs injecting them. After the Lethbridge SCS opened, open drug use and groups of people hanging out around downtown businesses dramatically increased, with crime rising almost 6,000% in the area of the SCS and crime downtown showing dramatic increases. Business owners had to close their washrooms due to all of the drug users overdosing in them or spending hours in them, and police had to be called to remove them!
Many businesses failed because of the impacts! Others spent thousands of dollars securing there properties!
We had a $300,000 stand alone washroom downtown by the BMO that turned into a drug den, with several users inside of it often. The public rarely had access!
That is why it was removed, as many other perks the public had, such as bus shelters that became places to sleep and do drugs and benches, such as on the corner of 3rd and 6th street south, while some were burned, also assaults against the public, business owners and staff dramatically increased, after the SCS opened. Those numbers decreased dramatically after it closed. Obviously you have failed to understand the issues!
You speak of fatal overdoses . . . It has taken the UCP a few years to counter some of the devastation caused by the NDP harm reduction/SCS policies and we now see over 60% reduction of fatal overdoses in the Lethbridge area (note the statistics on AB government websites are not just for Lethbridge, but the region around Lethbridge as well), and province wide over 40% reduction in fatal overdoses in 2024, with stats showing even more reductions this year!
You seem to fail to verify information, just as the Associated Press and other agencies take news releases from Gaza from the Gaza Health Authority, which even the UN stated the death tolls were inflated, especially the woman and children totals. The GHA is Hamas since they cannot operate without Hamas and the Associated Press cannot get access without been allowed to be used as a propaganda machine for Hamas. From your comments, the disinformation-misinformation you have got from somewhere is no different than than falsehoods Hamas spreads. But that is there and we are better educated and wiser, and refuse to listen to the propaganda! The truth will succeed and the lies exposed!
Your comments show you have no knowledge of the issues in our city! I am guessing you just moved or you don’t reside here!
It appears that most of the article is about David Carpenter and his opinion.
He showed up wearing his medals, in a suit, and in a military tie, which was all alright, thank you for your service, however, he violated the rules that were repeated throughout the session and in several emails issued to all registered participants.
As someone who served, you disregarded the guidelines that nearly everyone at this meeting observed. Maybe do not wear your military tie and decorations if you wish to voice your disapproval of the policies mentioned outside of the rules the rest of us followed! We all had 45 seconds to speak, but when individuals like you disobey the rules, it takes up our time and prevents us from voicing our concerns.
In your remarks to the Herald, you are inciting fear and deceiving others. Asking how they knew the time when no one else did seems to support the conspiracy claim that the UCP recruited attendees from out of town. Are you serious? How can a retired military member and past Mayor promote such nonsense? Everyone knew the time and date it would take place in our city and that it would only take a short drive to get there once they knew! I could have driven from Calgary easily once I knew the venue!
Maybe you ought to employ that soft matter in your skull once in a while. Typical bogus charges by the NDP!
The article appears to reflect the typical NDP bias the Herald is known for!
What NDP bias? Here’s what actual Conservatives have said about the UCP and Danielle Smith.
https://www.reddeeradvocate.com/news/former-red-deer-pc-attorney-general-jim-foster-takes-issue-with-smiths-ethics-violation-6826729
https://lethbridgeherald.com/commentary/letters-to-the-editor/2025/01/27/smiths-mar-a-lago-trip-grounds-for-dismissal/
And yet less than a year ago:
‘Alberta Premier Danielle Smith received 91.5 per cent support for her leadership from members of her United Conservative Party who voted in Red Deer, Alta., on Saturday. “Our conservative movement is stronger than it’s ever been. Our party is more united than it has ever been.” ‘
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More misinformation-filled NDP propaganda in a last-ditch effort to get support! You have no hope if you have to lie to gain votes!
However, what do you expect when a large number of NDP supporters are “give me’s” who are constantly demanding more supports-more free rides, drug addicts, radicals attempting to impose unfavorable policies on Canadians, people who believe that we should foot the bill for needless surgeries, or people who accept that they want preferential treatment because they think they are a wolf, cat, squirrel, or other animal rather than a man or woman? They are incapable of comprehending basic common sense. You should not expect to have any sensible interactions with them because they have been brainwashed by the NDP’s misinformation propaganda!