Danielle Smith address audience in Fort McMurray
Calls for sovereignty mix with frustration over classrooms, surgeries and government spending
FORT McMURRAY, AB. — Premier Danielle Smith found a mostly friendly audience as the Alberta Next panel came to Fort McMurray Tuesday night. Close to 250 people filled the theatre at Keyano College, where many backed ideas like pulling out of the Canada Pension Plan and replacing the RCMP with a provincial police force.
The mood was different than earlier stops in Edmonton and Red Deer, where protests and shouting matches erupted. Some in Fort McMurray voiced strong support, with one calling Smith his “favourite premier in the history of all of Alberta.” Others pressed her on concerns about crowded classrooms, reduced surgical beds and the province’s plan to charge most residents for COVID-19 vaccines.
“What we’re talking about tonight is Ottawa over-taxing us,” Smith told the audience, pausing after a woman loudly challenged her claims on education funding. She later added, “As long as we continue to have a federal government that prevents us from being able to generate the wealth, we’re going to have these chronic problems.”
Some questioned whether the province could manage programs more effectively. One man, citing the $70 million purchase of a controversial children’s medicine, asked, “Why should we trust you to manage it better?” Another said recent government decisions “call to question their ability to be qualified to lead anything.” Smith defended the vaccine policy by saying, “People can be mad about our change on vaccines, but that’s the prime example. The federal government funded it for three years and then defunded it out of the blue.”
The conversation also turned to Alberta’s place in Confederation. Some argued separation is the only path forward, but Smith pushed back. “I don’t know that it gets any easier to build a pipeline to the B.C. northwest coast if we are a separate country,” she said. “Let’s find ways to make the federation work so people do not feel like they need to put a ballot question forward like that.”
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