Danielle Smith's meeting with Calgary's Chinese community won some hearts, but not all
Calgary's Helen Yu attended a meeting with the Premier on Saturday, where she was disappointed she couldn't ask a question about accessibility issues. a question about accessibility issues.
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Danielle Smith visited the Edgemont Community Association for a meeting Saturday with some members of Calgary's Chinese community to answer questions and socialize, but a change in format left Helen Yu feeling a little out of place.
After a brief speech, Smith took about three questions from audience members, which were presented by a third party who translated Smith's answers into Cantonese.
That doesn't sit well with Yu, who has lived in Calgary for 25 years.
"Two years ago, I remember we had a similar event east of Calgary," Yu said. "At this event, we had (individual) sessions to ask them three questions.
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"I like to see the premier connect directly with Albertans," Yu said. "Today they didn't have that session. The guy asked the questions directly. I was disappointed.
"It's not a good format."
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith during a meeting in Calgary on Saturday. New Year's Eve Celebrations
Event organizer Janet Hu, who works for the City of Calgary, was more enthusiastic, praising the premier for coming to Edgemont to help celebrate Chinese New Year closer to the end of January.
"We are very fortunate to have the provincial premier here to celebrate the New Year," Hu said. "Thank you so much."
She said Edgemont has 4,600 Calgarians of Chinese descent, and nearby Hamptons has about 3,000.
Hu said about 100,000 people of Chinese descent live in Calgary.
Smith spoke mainly about efforts to improve border controls in an effort to minimize tariffs that Donald Trump is threatening to impose on Canada, and his efforts to strengthen the province's health care system. She said the new format could allow for the integration of Chinese medical practices into the health system, which Hu approved.
"The (Chinese medical) tradition is over 3,000 years old," she said. "We really want to see Chinese doctors. (I) would like to see Chinese medicine in the health system."
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SUSTAINABILITY
Yu said she approved of Smith's "wise and realistic" approach to dealing with Donald Trump, but what she wanted to talk about was why, she said, Albertans pay so much for electricity.
"Did you know that Alberta's electricity costs are the highest, with the exception of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut? "It's crazy," Yu said, pointing to what she called a huge gap between the cost of electricity per kilowatt-hour in Alberta and the cheaper province, Quebec.
"If everyone else (in Canada), even under NDP governments, can be lower than us, that's wrong," Yu said.
"And the prime minister said Alberta is the fifth most livable country in North America.
'We can do better,' Yu said. 'We can do better than that.'"
Yu also said that between 2020 and 2023, the cost of living is expected to increase by 55%. "Who can afford it?" he asked. "We're all about 'making Alberta a better place' - and on this particular issue, it doesn't matter if you're Conservative, Liberal or NDP.
"So that's my question," he said, "and I wasn't allowed to raise my hand. I'm disappointed."
Although Smith did not address electricity taxes in his speech, he referred to Quebec — as an example of the type of provincial relationship he wanted Alberta to have with the federal government.
"We want to be like Quebec, where the federal government contributes to share the costs of the programs, but also allows the provinces to implement them in their own way," he said.
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