Residents and municipal politicians in the Peace Region made their opinions known to the Alberta Government on the province’s place in federation.
Peace River MLA, Dan Williams and Central Peace-Notley MLA, Todd Loewen co-hosted the Fair Deal Panel, in which the province is asking residents in town hall style meetings what a fair deal for Alberta would look like.
Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA, Tany Yao is also a fair deal panel member and was in attendance last night as well, and feels some themes are repeated no matter where a town hall meeting is held.
Yao says topics like firearm laws and the equalization formula, which sees money flow between provinces are regularly brought up by Albertans.
“Everyone is recognizing the disparity between the provinces and how we get treated by the federal formulas for funding,” says Yao.
“Everyone is clued into that and everyone has been very vocal about that so it is good to hear.”
Mackenzie County Reeve, Josh Knelsen was also in attendance and feels the province is not getting a fair deal from Canada.
“I would suggest any anyone that wants to receive transfer payments from Alberta should be doing so through a pipeline,” mentions Knelsen.
“In the form of a royalty or percentage but we need to get our products to market. If they want to benefit from our province, they need to have our products to do so.”
A few people in attendance did suggest separation but most people in the crowd said they are proud Canadians.
“People want to be part of Canada as we heard, but people are frustrated,” sates Yao. “We feel like we are being kicked when we’re down. When we see the federal government put out bills like C-48 and C-69, which directly attacks our products.”
Yao also heard the frustration of the crowd over importing oil from different countries.
“As we heard from them (the crowd), we are continuing to receive products from the Middle-East, Venezuela and it is very disappointing and is certainly a common theme that we have heard.”
– Kenny Trenton, Trending 55 Newsroom
