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First Nations lawyer and community leader Brooks Arcand-Paul will be the NDP candidate for Edmonton-West Henday in the next Alberta provincial election.

“People in West Henday are concerned about the decisions being made by the UCP, and after speaking with my neighbours and family I realized I couldn’t stand on the sidelines anymore. It’s such an honour to have this community put their faith in me to be their representative for the next election,” said Arcand-Paul.

“When I was in law school in Ontario I was always determined to come back to Alberta, especially after seeing the good work that Rachel Notley was doing in government. The UCP are taking the province in a direction that is driving young people away and leaving many Albertans behind. I am excited to join Alberta’s NDP in building back a province where everyone can succeed.”

Arcand-Paul holds a juris doctor from the University of Ottawa, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alberta.

Prior to becoming the in-house legal counsel for the Alexander First Nation, where he provides legal advice and manages the legal affairs of the Nation of around 2,300 people, Arcand-Paul was in private practice at MLT Aikins doing litigation work in the areas of Indigenous and employment law.

“From cutting AISH, to the opioid poisoning epidemic, to waging attacks against doctors, the UCP are continuously attacking the rights of Albertans, and I know we would be better off with an NDP government,” said Arcand-Paul. “The reputation of Alberta is being damaged by the UCP which is causing young people to leave. Rachel Notley and Alberta’s NDP are planning for the future of the province, and I want to do everything I can to help repair the province’s reputation.”

Arcand-Paul lives in the West Henday area with his partner and their golden retriever, close to much of his family.

Arcand-Paul is also the Vice President of the Indigenous Bar Association, a national advocacy organization that represents over 300 Indigenous judges, lawyers, academics, and students across the country.

“My family, my nieces and nephews, all work, learn, and access services in West Henday. Making sure this community has access to public healthcare, education, and the daily resources we need is very important to me,” said Arcand-Paul. “The community is growing quickly, and it needs strong supports and strong representation to ensure all the people who live here can thrive. I know that I can be that voice, and there isn’t a team I would rather do this important work with than Rachel Notley and Alberta’s NDP.”

An NDP government will bring billions of dollars in new investment and job creation in agriculture and agri-food to rural Alberta with a new strategy.

Raising crops and livestock is foundational to our economy and the food we grow here is exported all over the world. The demand for that food is going to increase by as much as 50 per cent in the next 25 years.

If we are prepared, the growth in global food demand represents billions of dollars’ worth of new jobs and new investment landing largely in rural Alberta. That is the opportunity we must seize — thousands of new jobs, billions in new investment in rural Alberta.

A broad consultation process identified major roadblocks that are holding back the development of value-add agricultural industries in Alberta, namely a lack of capacity in regulatory agencies that leaves projects waiting for years instead of months for an answer, a lack of access to capital both for industry to build facilities and for their municipal partners to build the infrastructure that serve them, a lack of robust rural broadband internet, and lastly, a lack of political leadership in government to champion the sector.

An Alberta NDP government will take eight specific actions:

1. Create an Alberta Value-Add Incentive Program that provides financial incentives to build or expand an agricultural value-add facility in Alberta. The exact form of the incentive – loan guarantees, grants, or tax credits – would be steered by a task force.
2. Create a Local Food Incentive program, which is geared towards smaller projects that serve local needs.
3. Bring on more staff to speed up the processing of agricultural and agri-food proposals.
4. Provide navigation services to guide entrepreneurs and innovators through the various approvals from all the relevant departments.
5. Lower the cost of capital borrowing for municipalities, bringing it back down to the rate the province gets after the UCP jacked it up, and ensuring that provincial infrastructure priorities align with local plans.
6. Make sure that AgTech is embedded in Alberta’s tech strategy.
7. Connect rural Alberta to reliable, affordable, broadband Internet.
8. Undo the damage caused by the UCP and strengthen post-secondary schools.

The times when there is no ambulance available to respond to a call in Edmonton have exploded over the past three years under the UCP, according to new AHS data acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request.

In May of 2019 there were 13 Red Alerts in Edmonton, totaling about 20 minutes. In May of this year, there were 859 Red Alerts for a total of 24 hours and 42 minutes. In January, there were 1,233 Red Alerts, for a total of 39 hours and 41 minutes. There have been more than 20 hours’ worth of Red Alerts in Edmonton for every month this year there is complete data for.

“These numbers show the full impact of the UCP’s failures with our healthcare system,” said David Shepherd, Alberta NDP Critic for Health. “The UCP is putting Alberta families at risk and failing frontline workers.

“We know that this has ripple effects outside of the City of Edmonton and for the first time, paramedics in Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, St Albert, Fort Saskatchewan and Sherwood Park have spent more time responding to calls in Edmonton than in their own communities.”

In January, the UCP appointed an advisory committee led by two UCP MLAs, and unveiled a 10-point plan to address the crisis.

“It’s clear that the UCP’s 10-point plan is not fixing the problem,” Shepherd said. “It’s clear that an advisory committee led by two UCP MLAs is not fixing the problem. AHS’ own EMS dashboard shows that wait times for ambulances are longer than ever. We’ve seen horrible incidents in Calgary of critically injured Albertans waiting and waiting for ambulances to arrive. This is a crisis.”

Shepherd repeated the three calls for action from paramedics.

“We need more paramedics, and we need to take better care of the ones we already have.

“The government needs to commit to getting EMS crews off shift, on time. The additional hours that paramedics spend stuck at overwhelmed hospitals is one of the main drivers of burnout and turnover in EMS.

“Second, the government needs to offer every paramedic a full-time permanent contract instead of the 89-day temporary contracts that make up about 40 per of the EMS workforce today.

“Lastly, the government needs to urgently expand harm reduction services that save lives and reduce the incredible burden the drug poisoning crisis has put on paramedics and emergency room workers.

“The UCP should have acted on these calls months ago. But I urge Jason Copping to act on them today.”

The Alberta NDP is calling on the UCP government to immediately address the cost-of-living crisis and take the pressure off hard-working Albertans who are struggling to make ends meet.

We are in the worst crisis of affordability in 40 years and Albertans need help today. The UCP has made a bad situation worse by increasing income taxes, property taxes, school fees, utilities, auto insurance, tuition, debt on student loans, park and camping fees while also cutting benefits for families.

The Leduc and District Food Bank Association is seeing an increase of 25 to 35 per cent of clients and some months it’s even higher. Many of those new clients have never used a food bank or needed any type of social services before.

The majority reported that their clients’ reasons for accessing the food bank are rising utility costs, static government benefits, unemployment, inflation and rising food costs.

Not only is the crisis in the cost of living forcing some Albertans to choose between paying their bills and putting food on the table but food banks are also hurt by the rising cost of food, utilities, transportation and fuel, which is challenging their ability to serve their community.

Despite benefiting from soaring energy prices the UCP government has stood idly by while Albertans across our province struggle with financial pressures from rising gas prices that impact their ability to get to work, to rising utility bills that impact their ability to keep the lights on, to rising food prices that limit what they are able to put on the table.