Sherwood Park MLA Kasawski: What are the UCP doing?

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Premier Danielle Smith is grabbing power from wherever she can as the governing party pushes forward with bill after bill despite widespread and very vocal opposition.

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The UCP just cannot seem to help themselves. Under fire, after giving themselves the power to remove democratically elected county councillors and overrule county bylaws, the UCP has decided to go one step further and give themselves the authority to oversee the Local Emergencies Act.  

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Oh, and also they are also giving themselves another six months in power. They are changing the date of the next provincial election, which is currently scheduled for May 31, 2027 to Oct. 18, 2027.

May is increasingly becoming a month when our province is dealing with natural disasters and emergencies. Fires, floods, and weather events, like extreme storms, make it a challenging time to have an election. It makes sense to move our elections to another time of year in Alberta.

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However, it also makes sense for the governing party to consult with Albertans before introducing legislation that extends their term in office. And the Official Opposition should have been consulted about a change in our fixed election date. Albertans could have considered giving our legislators six fewer months in office or making the change effective after the next election on a go-forward basis. Instead, adding six months to the government’s mandate, is simply a power grab by the UCP.

Consultation did not happen for Bill 18, Bill 20, and now Bill 21. The lack of transparency by the UCP before introducing this trifecta of bad legislation, has many, including myself, wondering where policy direction comes from for the UCP because it is not coming from Albertans.

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Nobody has ever brought up with me a need to undermine local decision making and impose more provincial authority and central command and control in Alberta

UCP legislation shows a deep level of distrust with municipal leaders, emergency responders and front line heroes to keep Albertans safe during a crisis. They are also revealing a lack of interest in our democratic traditions.

I come to elected office from a career in business. In business, we recognize that governments influence and regulate markets for our products and services, and we want the latitude to be entrepreneurial and succeed and fail on our own merit.

We also value our democracy, because without a strong democracy and respect for democratic traditions, private enterprise fails.

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The Alberta NDP Caucus has created a petition to give Albertans an opportunity to ask the UCP government to listen to Albertans who have grave concerns about the erosion of our democracy. 

I invite you to go to AlbertasFuture.ca to add your name and tell the UCP government to stop their attempts to control everything, everywhere, all at once.

Please reach out to me if you have any thoughts on this or other issues that are top of mind for you.

Kyle Kasawski is the MLA for Sherwood Park. If you have questions about this column or any provincial issues, he would like to hear from you. Find his contact information at meetkyle.ca

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