Danielle  Smith's meeting with  Calgary's Chinese community 

Started by bosman, 2024-12-28 20:18

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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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