EDMONTON — Premier Danielle Smith and Official Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi exchanged verbal shots over emergency room wait times, Alberta independence and cost of living, in the first sitting of the spring 2025 Alberta legislative assembly on Tuesday. .ER wait timesThe issue of Alberta's overcrowded emergency rooms dominated political discussion during the gap between legislative sessions, following the death of Prashant Sreekumar on Dec. 22, who passed away from a heartattack after waiting eight hours to receive treatment at Edmonton's Grey Nuns Hospital.Nenshi kicked off the first Question Period following the incident by questioning Smith about why a fatality inquiry to help understand the concerning circumstances surrounding Sreekumar's death has not been scheduled yet, despite the Smith's government saying they intend to call one. Smith responded by telling Nenshi that the Minister of Hospital and Surgical Health Services, Matt Jones, has told her that all other inquiries, such as the one being conducted by the chief medical officer, must be completed before they can schedule one."We want to get to the bottom of it as much as anyone else," said Smith. "I can tell you that my four ministers, who each have a piece of the health care system under the new refocusing, we meet weekly.""This is very much on our minds about how we're going to improve the health care system, from emergency rooms to the patient experience, to surgeries, to attaching people to family doctors.".Alberta independenceNenshi then turned his attention to Alberta independence and renewed his challenge for Smith and the UCP caucus to sign his pledge declaring that they are proud to be Canadian and committed to Canada, while denouncing the independence movement. In turn, Smith rebutted that the UCP caucus has a policy, as they have consistently stated, dating back to the fall. They are in favour of a "sovereign Alberta within a united Canada."She then stated that she is proud to be Canadian, and added that, unfortunately, many Albertans have lost faith in Ottawa following federal policies under Justin Trudeau's that crippled the province for a decade, and she has been left to restore their faith. Repeating his recent favourite line, Nenshi said the UCP's policy is "word salad" and likened it to someone saying they are "a single person within the confines of your marriage." To this, Smith quipped that his reference to "a single person within the confines of your marriage" should be understood to refer to the Alberta NDP's relationship with the federal NDP party and to leadership candidate Avi Lewis' stance against pipelines. .Cost of livingNenshi's final set of questions focused on the cost of living, and he began by sharing his recent experience of driving through Calgary and seeing "4,000" individuals waiting in line at the food bank. He then asked her, "So many people are struggling to make ends meet." Smith said that the key to cutting what Nenshi referred to as "child poverty" is to give Albertans and youth the first chance at new jobs because that is what allows them to support themselves, their families and their communities.She also turned her attention towards poor federal immigration policies that have flooded Alberta with immigrants, while simultaneously turning their focus away from economic immigrants who come to Canada with jobs lined up, and instead focused on asylum seekers and international students. "Mr. Speaker, even though we have a powerful economy that is able to generate more jobs than anywhere else in the country, we still have a limit to how many newcomers we are able to support when they arrive," Smith said. "That's why, Mr. Speaker, we want to make sure that we have a conversation about this and a vote on it in the fall."Albertans will head to the polls for a referendum on stronger provincial control over immigration, and other constitutional and policy issues, on Oct. 19.
