Skip to content

Cochrane hosts Banff-Airdrie forum with election day just around the corner

Eight candidates took part in a forum organized by the Cochrane and District Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday. Chamber president Ozzie Sawicki moderated the event. The only candidate not present was independent Ron Voss.

BANFF-AIRDRIE— About 200 people made their way to RockPointe Church off Highway 1A to hear from Banff-Airdrie riding candidates Tuesday (Sept. 14).

Protesters lined the road outside the church with signs that read “No mandatory vaccines,” “No communist China” and “Canada first.”

Eight candidates took part in a forum organized by the Cochrane and District Chamber of Commerce, with Chamber president Ozzie Sawicki moderating the event. The only candidate not present was independent Ron Voss.

Voters had the opportunity to submit questions to the Chamber of Commerce in advance of the forum. A few candidates were selected to answer a question and given two minutes to respond.

Much of the focus for the evening was on economic recovery — especially for Alberta’s tourism sector, as well as diversifying the energy industry, creating access to clean drinking water on First Nations reserves, increasing education and community supports around mental health and COVID-19 vaccination policies and passports.

Liberal Party candidate David Gamble said employing the carbon tax is essential to progress innovation of the industry and create future job security in more sustainable energies.

“The carbon tax is the one thing that we have that allows us to move forward with things like oil and gas, industry, any kinds of consumption that we do that is heavy carbon,” he said. “What it does is it allows us to have a price and a price that continues to go up, that allows us to ensure that companies will decrease their carbon.”

Gamble said the Liberal Party has pledged $2 billion to help transition oil workers and retrain them into new industries.

“We’ve got really smart people and energy here in Alberta. Those people are going to help us solve these problems. The carbon tax makes sure that there’s some pressure in the system so that we’ll actually get the job done.”

Maverick Party candidate Tariq Elnaga said jobs are transitioning in Alberta to a point where oil and gas companies and workers are so stifled that they are leaving the country.

“The way I look at it is, it’s not a question of green energy versus oil,” he said. “But it’s a question of where do you want the oil from? Do you want it from Saudi Arabia? For as long as we need oil, every drop of that oil needs to come from Western Canada. I truly believe that environmental growth and responsibility isn’t going to come from a punitive tax that pushes innovation away from Canada, but it actually comes from things like innovation, technology and education.”

Caroline O’Driscoll, who is running as an independent, said she would apply her master’s degree in science in sustainable energy development to further the conversation of tackling Alberta’s energy transition. O’Driscoll argued that creating networks between people, strong financial planning and using natural resources responsibly for future generations are the three pillars of sustainable energy development. 

“What is happening is a lot of our government leaders don’t really seem to understand what sustainability is about,” she said. “There are three critical pillars here and they all have to be in balance in order to get win-win results.”

Green Party candidate Aidan Blum said he has close ties with oil and gas and that his family has benefited from jobs in the industry, but also seen a lot of suffering at the hands of its economic instability.

“The moment it hits the fan, like in 2014, when the recession hit, where were those companies to bail out working people, where were those companies to bail out you?” he asked. "They weren’t there and neither was the government. One of those players was supposed to be there for you and they weren’t. There is no just transition if we don’t bring every working person along with us and that includes the 500,000 people that call the oil and gas industry their form of employment.”

Blum said there is a lack of support for the hundreds of thousands of oil and gas workers who often must isolate themselves from their families going away to work for weeks at a time just to put food on the table.

Candidates also discussed the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on mental illness due to unemployment, loneliness and an overall loss of normalcy in their daily lives.

Former Ontario Conservative Party MLA, Derek Sloan, appeared as an independent candidate. He was removed from the Conservative caucus in January after it was revealed that he accepted a donation from a known white nationalist. 

Sloan said the Liberal's expanding medical assistance in dying to those with mental illnesses in the middle of COVID-19 is not helpful and that the government instead needs to stop measures like lockdowns.

“We’re seeing mental illness, anxiety, eating disorders, all of these things, overdoses, suicides skyrocketing,” he said. “This is something that needs to be addressed. For one, we can’t be locking everybody down again. When we’re locked down for months on end this is where these problems fester. Targeted measures are fine — we cannot shut down the economy and our society again.”

The topic of Truth and Reconciliation came up at the forum, as did basic access to clean drinking water on reserves.  

Cochranite of 16 years and People’s Party of Canada candidate Nadine Wellwood said the Liberals have had enough time to deliver on their promise of clean water.

“There is absolutely no excuse for anybody in Canada to have to boil their water,” she said. “The reality is our reserve systems are broken. The paternalistic Indian Act is broken and we need to do better. People need to stand firm in their beliefs for what they want and we need to work together with our Indigenous populations, not just platitudes and false narratives because it suits some politician’s needs.”

Wellwood provided a medical exemption and was the only candidate in attendance not wearing a mask.

The topic of masks, vaccines and vaccination passports has been a contentious one in the province. Blake Richards, the Conservative Party’s incumbent for the riding said he believes Canadians maintain the right to make their own decisions about their health care.

“Where there’s provinces putting these things in place, where there’s employer putting these things in place, we would encourage there to be an alternative, such as rapid testing or other things that could be put in place so that people can make a choice about their own health care and still have an opportunity to participate within our country, in society,” he said.

New Democratic Party candidate Sarah Zagoda said she saw vaccine passports as an overreach of government, but the growing number of COVID-19 cases changed her opinion.

“Our economy needs to keep going, it has to keep growing,” she said. “Reflecting on the greater good, it’s a provincial mandate so if they want to implement that, it will be on our province. For international, the whole world is going toward vaccine passports. If we want to have tourists come back and we want to increase our economy we can either get on board or get left behind.”

Candidates will have their last chance to address Banff-Airdrie voters in a forum before election day in Airdrie on Sept. 16 at the Bert Church LIVE Theatre at 6:30 p.m. 

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks