In terms of the general overhaul coming to Alberta Health Services (AHS) as a whole, he agrees that changes to the system are necessary, but questions the approach the current provincial leaders are taking. He fears that, if the NDP party is successful in the next provincial election, they may need to put AHS staff through more changes before reaching a model they feel is adequate.
Red Deer is also in the process of developing a new permanent shelter that is needed to serve its vulnerable communities, but has struggled to find a suitable location four times. The City has turned to the province for assistance in defining the shelter’s purpose to help with the issue.
Related: City council approves provincial EOI request for permanent shelter project
“Ultimately we do have to respect the municipality and we have to respect the municipality’s role in finding the location, but the job of the provincial government is to fund those services,” Nenshi says. “We know some of the challenges that come with large shelters, we also know how to do it better. The role of the province here is to take that knowledge, to make sure that we’re sharing it, that we’re using absolute best practices, but that we’re looking after vulnerable people in every community.”
He says that Red Deer is experiencing issues with mental health and addiction that are faced across the province and the right services need to be made available to help the people in those vulnerable populations.
Expanding on municipality roles and responsibilities, Nenshi expresses that the UCP’s Bill 20 and plans to create a provincial police force encroach on these roles and citizen rights to elect local representatives that reflect their needs.
On Bill 20, Nenshi says “It’s egregious, it’s anti-democratic, it’s a power grab, it’s ridiculous. It is all about putting money from developers and others into politics and subverting local democracy. And here’s the thing,” he continues, “the UCP doesn’t care. They just want to make sure that local councils are subservient to them, that they do what they want them to do, and I think it will backfire badly on the UCP because Albertans aren’t stupid. We want to hire great local politicians as much as we want to hire great provincial politicians.”
The proposal for a provincial police force is also a disregard of municipal interests, he adds, stating that the Alberta NDP has heard “loud and clear” from municipalities that they would prefer to work with the RCMP to improve services.
“I care about dollars and cents and an Alberta police service would cost tens of millions of dollars more than working with the RCMP so in my mind, let’s work out the kinks with the RCMP who have always served us,” he says.
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On the topic of independence and responsibility among groups in the province, Nenshi is gauging member interest in the separation of Alberta’s NDP from the federal NDP body. He says the NDP is currently an exception to the trend, as the provincial chapters of the Liberal and United Conservative parties are not officially related to their federal counterparts, and individuals have expressed interest in joining the provincial party, but not the federal.
“I think the time is right for us to talk about this. It’s not going to happen right away, but I think the members deserve the chance to make a decision in what they would like to do. Regardless of what the members’ mandate is, I’ll move forward with that mandate, but certainly I think this is a conversation we have to have,” he says.
Related: Jagmeet Singh makes his case to Alberta’s new NDP leader amid party separation talks
Aside from potentially separating from the federal party, moving forward, Nenshi plans for his members to spend the summer listening, learning, and better understanding the communities they serve.
He says he is grateful for the work his predecessor Rachel Notley has done in making the NDP a “formidable political machine” up to this point, but that to get the party across the finish line in the next provincial election he will have to adjust the party’s approach.
“I’m a new member of the party, and I became a member of the party because I realized that what Rachel and others have built really reflected my values and I think they reflect the values of the average Albertan, so our job really needs to be to show Albertans that they’ve got a political home with us,” Nenshi says.
The party will be revealing more details of their platform and future plans in the coming weeks and months. More than just opposing and calling out the UCP for “picking fights” and “wasting money,” Nenshi says it’s all about “bringing people into a vision of an alberta that works better for all of us.”
For those voters who have been curious about supporting the NDP but concerned about the budget and economy, Nenshi says that the New Democrats have demonstrated through various leaders across the prairies that they are “better on the economy” and “better on the budget than the Conservatives typically are.”
“That is, I think, the real misconception, and that’s what we really need to show people is that pragmatic common sense investment in the things that make people’s lives better works better than wasting money on cut projects and on cronyism,” he continues, “that we see from the Conservative side of the aisle every single time. That’s a case that I’ve gotta make because I think people don’t believe that, and we have to be credible on these economic issues.”
After a “whirlwind” campaign that connected him to the hopes and dreams of Albertans across the province, Nenshi says he has found a home in the Alberta NDP, and hopes that other residents will as well.
“You can’t dream small when the sky is this big, so I think it’s time for us all to remember that we can have a better Alberta, we can work to a better Alberta, and that’s going to require all of us taking this path to build something better,” he shares.
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