NDP gov’t can’t claim as much of the credit as they are taking

I read with interest Lethbridge East MLA Maria Fitzpatrick’s monthly column in the Lethbridge Herald, “Fighting for southern Albertans.” First, I will agree that when the NDP formed the government they were faced with very tough decisions based on the state of one of Alberta’s most important industries, fossil-fuel energy.

There are two parts to Maria’s column that I need to question regarding clarity and accuracy. She says with her government, along with other stake holders, they pushed forward on multiple major infrastructure projects. Included in these were the U of L Destination Project, TE building at Lethbridge College, renovations to Wilson Middle School and the Chinook Regional Hospital expansion, to list the major ones.

This is true, but to the casual or ill-informed reader, one might interpret that all these major projects were indeed projects initiated by the NDP governments, when in fact, most if not all were started by the previous Conservative government.

The reason I challenge the way that Maria presents her government is because of her fellow MLA from Lethbridge West, who made some comments in a recent news story in The Herald. Shannon Phillips stated during her talk to SACPA: “We reject this notion we should continue the unpopular legacy of not building a damn thing.”

This statement is simply not factual and in truth, the previous Conservative government was spending billions of taxpayers’ dollars on new infrastructure. It would have been difficult if not impossible to stop these projects by the NDP government.

My other issue is where Maria discusses the “Peaks to Prairies” vehicle-charging stations. To move to electric vehicles these will be needed, but to say these charging stations will be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy is simply not true. The electrical grid system doesn’t work like that. Electric generation, be it coal, natural gas, hydro, wind or solar, all goes into the electrical grid and is distributed as needed. The only way you could power these charging stations 100 per cent by renewable energy is if they where directly hooked up to solar panels or a wind turbine. I don’t think that would be very reliable or feasible.

Although the NDP government inherited a major Alberta industry in trouble, they did nothing to help it out in their first three years in power and, in fact, worked hard to make it difficult for the energy sector to recover. Barrie Orich

Lethbridge