Smith touches on a number of issues during local town hall

Posted on October 24, 2024 by Ryan Dahlman

By Brendan Miller
Southern Alberta Newspapers

More than 250 residents attended a joint town hall forum and discussion at Medicine Hat College on Oct. 9 featuring local MLA and Premier Danielle Smith and Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Justin Wright, who touched on a variety of provincial and regional topics.

The town hall began at 7 p.m. and allowed both Smith and Wright to answer pre-screened questions before addressing questions from members of the audience.

Transportation

Smith spoke about an ongoing progress to twin Highway 3 and says the province is still in its consulting phase for the 30-kilometre leg from Burdett west to Seven Persons.

“We’ve got a functional planning study completed,” says Smith. “We have to continue to consult with stakeholders to finalize the alignment, sometimes the difficult part is getting everybody to agree with you.”

Smith explained work on the eight-phase highway project will pick up after phases closer to Taber have been completed and construction points toward the border.

Smith says she is ambitious to see air travel grow in small and medium sized communities, and says a recent regional economic development grant of $125,000 will help fund the local airport’s 20-year strategic plan for growth and development.

“The Medicine Hat Regional Airport is a strong value proposition for our region, offering daily flights to Calgary and serving approximately 80,000 each year through WestJet,” said Smith. “But we can do better. We are proud to help promote this investment in regional travel – which will help create jobs and attract investment – to the city and region.”

A currently used 34-seat Saab 340B airplane will be replaced with a 78-seat De Havilland Dash 8-400 (known as the Q400).

A 7 a.m. departure from the Hat each day will arrive in Calgary at about 7:45 a.m., while the return flight will leave Calgary at 11:40 p.m. and arrive in the Hat 55 minutes later.

Education

The premier received applause from supporters after mentioning new school academies that have been supported by the province, including the Southern Alberta Flight Academy and the South Alberta Fire Rescue Academy.

Smith also spoke about the province’s recent commitment of $8.6 billion as the UCP says it will create more than 200,000 new student spaces by 2031, pointing to the Holy Trinity Academy which is currently in tender and set to begin construction in early 2025.

Smith also addressed her government’s controversial transgender and gender identity legislation in schools.

“Kids should not be making adult decisions at the age where they don’t understand the consequences of that,” said Smith. “And that’s part of the reason why we’re bringing legislation where we are not going to allow puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for kids who are 15 and under.

“Those are adult decisions that have to be made by adults once they understand whether they want to have children and to be able to preserve those choices.”

Crime

The premier recognized the work of local police and Alberta Sheriffs for shutting down a property in Riverside that was known for drug and violent activity this May through the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods unit.

“This work was done by the terrific men and women with our SCAN unit.”

Health care

Smith said her government is working to attract more skilled health-care workers to the province and says through the introduction of the Alberta Advantage Immigration program, Alberta has added more than 420 health-care professionals since 2023.