United Conservative Party (UCP) leader Danielle Smith made an appearance on Global News Calgary and Edmonton Friday morning and told them she hopes to put COVID-19 in the “rear view mirror.”.“I think that people want to look up. They want to look at all of the things that are going to be coming for Alberta,” Smith said..During the interview, Smith also talked about the last five days of the election campaign and some of the things the UCP is doing..“One was our major announcement yesterday about our retention tax credits that we're doing, one is 'Alberta is calling tax credits.' So anyone who comes to work, and stays for a year will get $1200,” Smith said..“And then we also have a graduate retention tax credit.”.Smith said if a student goes through a one-year program or up to a four-year degree, they will get anywhere from $3000 to $10,000 as a tax write-off..“In addition, we're doing auto credentialing as well. We've already gotten this across the province where anybody who has maintained a professional status and their college will get automatic recognition here,” Smith said..“The next step is to do this internationally. We know we have so many international health professionals [who] had a difficult time getting their credentials recognized and we're going to be accelerating on those.”.Smith said she believes those three things will keep graduates in Alberta, attract new graduates, as well as attract international workers..Smith then spoke about healthcare when asked what the UCP is doing to speed up building of hospitals..“Well, I can tell you one of the things, look at the Calgary Cancer Centre. I think that took 10 years from conception until completion. I'm hoping we'll be able to do it in a faster time frame. I've seen some really innovative approaches where we spend more time on the front end on design,” Smith said..“Once you start building you can build very quickly and I think that's what we're going to be looking at doing is how can we accelerate some of those, find some efficiencies so that we can build more and build them faster.”.Smith said it's “very clear” in the Calgary area, the north part of the city needs some additional hospital services and that will also have to support Airdrie..Smith then mentioned how paying down Alberta's debt is important..“One of the things that was really important to us is making sure that we pay down debt. For us to save money on financial matters. We also put $2 billion in the Heritage Savings Trust Fund that allows us to earn investment income and we also limited year-over-year spending increases on operations, Smith said..“So with those kinds of measures, we feel like we put forward a prudent plan. We also put in balanced budget legislation. So we will run a balanced budget that's one of the things that's a guarantee.”.The battleground for votes for the UCP and NDP in Calgary was also discussed..“We think the investment in support for the Calgary arena partnership with the Calgary Flames, it was one of the things we wanted to make sure that we were supporting,” Smith said..“We're coming in with infrastructure investment to help with the LRTs to help with the streetscapes, to help with the underpasses, the public areas and a community arena. And it seemed like that investment was what managed to get it to the finish line and it's going to be not just an event centre, it is going to be an entire district. So they will be hotels and retail restaurants.”.Smith said she believes what the UCP did is going to be a “dramatic improvement” in that area..“The other thing we know we need to do, though, is we have to address the public safety crisis that we've seen, sadly, a number of people to come into mental health and addiction,” Smith said..“We have a robust plan to make sure we have everybody who wants to access publicly funded treatment does have the ability,” Smith said..“We've expanded on the treatment facilities.”.Smith also said the UCP is not going to tolerate public disorder..“This is part of the reason why we invested 100 more police officers in Calgary and Edmonton. We've got our sheriff's embedded in both Calgary and Edmonton. There are integrated teams that are working with Calgary to ensure that the transit is safe,” Smith said..“We also PACT teams which are the additional health professionals that are embedded with these teams to connect people to the services that they need. So those are the things that I think are going to be really important in improving the vibrancy of downtown.”.Smith plans on spending the rest of the day door knocking in Calgary.
