Blake Richards MP for Banff-Airdrie was adamant to hear from the general public about their calms and concerns regarding the 2020 Federal Budget.
Spanning over the last week, Richards hosted a series of pre-budget consultations within Cochrane, Airdrie and Canmore, taking away key aspects and priorities for the upcoming year.
"It's important to give people the opportunity to be able to give their ideas and suggestions," said Richards. "We gathered a significant amount of feedback through both the public and online consultations."
Richards believes this government needs to understand the severity and extent of the concerns being raised in Alberta and voices need to be heard. A big part of his job is to make sure people in other parts of Canada fathom that when Alberta suffers the rest of Canada suffers, including our economy.
The annual consultations provided insight and a space to share discussions concerning the upcoming budget. It was evident that the unease addressed within constituents would echo similarities.
"People across the riding really feel that we need to see the federal government be more fiscally responsible and get their budget in order. Certainly lots of people bringing up increased taxation, things like the carbon tax, lots of concerns about government red tape that's been increasing. There's been 4,300 new pieces of regulation that affect small businesses, and obviously a lot of concern expressed about the current situation in Alberta and different ways and suggestions that we can get things moving again and get people back to work," explains Richards.
Between Cochrane and Airdrie the common topic was indeed geared toward getting the oil and gas sector back up and running. Something that Richards mentioned our friends over in the Bow Valley didn't touch much on seeing as they are heavily driven by the tourism industry.
While our fate for the next three years is that of a Liberal one, Richards is optimistic that common ground will soon begin to set pace. Although he says things like Bill C-69, Bill C-48 and the carbon tax have been very detrimental to Alberta, he remains positive and will continue to uphold the voices of Albertans.
"I'll summarize everything and take it forward to (Minister of Finance, Bill Morneau) and advocate for it and then continue to advocate for it in the house of commons and everywhere else that I can raise my voice," said Richards. "I think with a strong voice coming out of Alberta and Saskatchewan from MPs in our party, and the fact that we have a minority government, I'm certainly hopeful that the Liberal government will actually realize that this country is fractured a bit right now and in order to pull it back together they need to do some stuff to unify the country."
Richards added an energy corridor has been tabled which would allow the utilization of natural resources from Alberta to other parts of the country and vice versa. He says these suggestions among others need to be looked at in order to solidify Canada.
"I can definitely say from my part that I'm ready to work together with anyone and everyone from any political stripe to help unify the country and do those things, and I certainly hope that will be the case with all parties."
