Travis Toews brought his campaign for the UCP leadership to the Pierre Poilievre rally in Grande Prairie earlier in July. Photo by Curtis Galbraith.

By Curtis Galbraith

UCP Leadership

Unity “mission critical” for UCP says Toews

Jul 26, 2022 | 6:00 AM

Travis Toews says his campaign for the leadership of the United Conservative party has included meeting with a lot of people around Alberta.

The Grande Prairie-Wapiti MLA says a lot of them feel “they haven’t had a voice the last two years.”

“(In) some causes, certainly in conservative circles, some members feel they kind of been cut off, labelled perhaps, ostracized. I’m ultimately calling those folks back in. Unity is mission critical for our conservative party in Alberta.”

Toews thinks there are many things going well in Alberta right now. He says the Alberta economy will lead all of Canada this year and in 2023; there is also a balanced budget for the first time in more than a decade.

At the same time, Toews believes the health care system is in trouble right now and that it’s an emergency in Alberta right now, especially rural health care.

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He says the first thing he would do if he becomes premier is appoint a panel to review bodies that give credentials to people that work in health care.

“Because right now, our capacity issues are largely due to a lack of staff, and we have thousands of foreign-trained health care workers in this province that can’t work in our system.”

Toews says he would also want to expand capacity at post-secondary schools in health care and, in the long term, see what he calls “systemic reform” at Alberta Health Services.

“AHS, based on my observations, is a very centralized decision-making model. In my observations of corporate structures, highly centralized decision-making models disengage front line staff, disengage your folks on the front line. I see that at AHS.”

Toews thinks such a model has been ” a disservice” to patients and health care workers.

Toews also thinks an Alberta Pension Plan has “great promise and opportunity.”

“I deeply believe an Alberta Pension Plan would be a great opportunity for Albertans and would ultimately diminish the net federal transfer that Alberta puts out to the rest of the country every year.”

Toews says legislation dictates that any provincial plan must have benefits that are equal and transferable.

Toews thinks there has been what he calls ” a disproportionate attack” on Canadian agriculture by the federal government.

“The ground beef labelling rules that Ottawa came out with. Now, fortunately, the industry pushed back, we pushed back, others pushed back, and the federal government backed down. That labelling was egregious in my opinion because it was inconsistent with a scientific approach on other food products.”

Toews says the federal government also wants to reduce fertilizer use, something he calls “a problem” given the current issues with food security around the world.

Toews says he wants to empower farmers and ranchers not burden them with more red tape.