Meet your candidates: Earl Dreeshen (CPC), Red Deer- Mountain View

Having been involved in government for over 30 years, Conservative Earl Dreeshen is no stranger to Central Alberta.

After serving two terms as the MP for Red Deer following wins in the 2008 and 2011 elections, Dreeshen was then first to serve as MP for the newly formed Red Deer-Mountain View in 2015 with 74% of the votes. He is also father to Devin Dreeshen, the current MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake.

How do you plan on getting more money for Canadian families? 

“Well, one of the key things that Andrew Scheer has said is he wants to make sure that we can get money into the pockets of Canadians, so in order to do that we’re cutting taxes and leading a government that’s going to live within its means. Quite frankly it’s a sad commentary that 2⁄3's of Canadians feel that they either can’t pay their bills or feel that they have nothing left at the end of the month after they do it. So when you have 50% of Canadian report being overwhelmed by their debt, can’t save for retirement, and just trying to keep their head above water, we have to make sure that we can do some things to get money back in their pockets. What we’re looking at, as we talk about scrapping the carbon tax, removing the GST off home heating bills and home energy costs, the universal tax cut for hardworking taxpayers, those are some of the key things that we’ve gone back to the Children's Fitness Tax credit, and Children’s Arts and Learning Tax Credit, these are really important things that people are looking at and trying to find a way to manage their own household, and the government should be thinking that way, and we’re proud to be part of that type of process.”

Canadians are saying they care a lot about the environment. What issues do you see as having the biggest impact on the environment, and how do you plan to address it? 

“First of all, being a farmer myself, and understanding the significance of our land and our air and water that we have, I think that’s just a critical part, and so, we’re looking at all aspects of this. so when we’re talking about the environment, we understand that if you want to lower Canada’s emissions getting a carbon tax is not the way to make that happen. And as an environmental policy it’s a failure. We’ve seen it happen in Australia where they had it and they got rid of it. We had the same situation when they were talking about a North American price on carbon, but then the US decided that they weren’t going to saddle their people with that. 

We have to make sure that we have something that’s made in Canada and something that we can be sure of. So that’s where our plan to protect the environment deals with three specific things: First of all, making sure that we have green technology engaged and not taxes, and with that we need to look at a cleaner and greener natural environment and that takes the land and the water and the air into consideration. By the same token, we have to take this climate change fight globally because the issues and the C02 that is being emitted all over the world is affecting our country as well. So that’s really what we looked at. There will be no sweetheart deals for anybody under our plan those that go beyond certain limits are going to have to pay for that. So these large emitters, they’re going to be required to invest in technology. We’ve done that here in Alberta many years ago, and there is just some very unique innovative approaches that people have for taking C02 out of the atmosphere. So we’re excited about that, and we know that we’ll be able to create more jobs in Canada as well through this technological growth, as we do lower global emissions. 

What issues do you see in our education system, and how do you plan on addressing it? 

“First of all, on one front, myself, being a farmer and a former teacher, I believe that it’s very important that we have our educators understand the significance of agriculture, where our food comes from, and I’ve done a lot of work trying to bring our veterinary schools that are ag schools together with the education department and the two major Universities that we have here in Alberta. I think it’s a very important aspects so that people understand that we have the safest food in the world, and it’s something that we should be proud of. 

From the aspect of where can the federal government show leadership, that’s where we are looking at a Registered Education Savings Plan. Again something that is going to be tangible for the average family. Being able to put more money into the account, increasing that up to $2,500 a year and boosting the maximum lifetime grant from $7,500 to $12,000, this is something that is going to give young families the opportunity to save for their children's future, and that’s something that we feel is very important. 

On the other side of the education system, I was also a key part of the Post-secondary Education Caucus a number of years ago, where we are looking at the way in which Universities are able to take funding that the government gives, and make it work for their communities and I think that’s something we should also work on.” 

How do you plan to manage the healthcare needs of our aging population?

“First of all, the health and social program guarantees that we’ve made is a commitment to ensure that the Canada health transfer, and the Canada social transfer, continue to increase by at least 3% a year, as it’s been properly mandated in legislation. So these are transfers that we will continue and that was a commitment we made when we were in government a number of years ago. And so, therefore, the first thing is that the provincial governments can count on some stable a predictable health and social programs funding for the future. 

I think one of the key things we just announced a short time ago, was an investment of $1.5 billion in this first term to purchase MRI machines, and CT machines, first of all to replace the aging equipment but also to add machines across the country to reduce wait times for potential life savings test for Canadians. And this is something that in my discussions with different people over the last couple of weeks has really been significant, because they understand that we can deal with the medical imaging equipment and we can increase the potential for life saving tests, and more importantly, to get the tests done when they should be done to try and reduce wait time, that would be critical. 

And if you think about the amount of money that Canadians pay in taxes, certainly they deserve timely access to quality health services. So if we can maintain and increase the dollars the provinces have to work with, and with this injection of funds to help that bottleneck at the diagnostics side of healthcare, I think really that becomes one of the key things that we can do. And of course we’ve seen it locally, we understand what the concerns are, and there’s lots of different things that one can look at and certainly we would encourage the provincial government to look at all those possibilities.”

How do you plan to address any shortfalls in our healthcare system, such as a lack of services and facilities in Central and rural Alberta? 

“I was very proud as a member of the ag committee to have helped spearhead a mental health study for farmers, ranchers and producers. This covered so much of what this question is all about; how do you make sure the proper kinds of services are available to those in rural and remote areas? And we’ve seen some initiatives, 4-H is engaged in this, we have Farm Credit Canada helping with it, we’re looking at ways where suppliers that are bringing equipment out or materials out to farmers, and kind of keep an eye on our neighbors like we used to do many many years ago. 

So that is part of it, something that’s really a tangible part. And of course, mental health issues, they’ve always been around, there’s always a concern associated with it. We have to deal with, sadly, the amount of drug pressures that they’re that is increasing. But we have to make sure we deal with that part first, because the homelessness is something that, if you can’t get those strong supports in your life you feel like you have nowhere else to turn. I think that’s really one of the key things.

And in order to help fight poverty, quite frankly, we need to find ways of creating stable and long-term jobs for Canadians. That’s really where there’s no greater opportunity to feel pride then to have a job that you’re happy to go to and you realize that it’s helping your family move forward, so that’s one of the key things and we’d like to kind of tie up all of those things together and certainly we do have an awareness of the concerns that are out there.”

What services do you think should be created or enhanced to address our major social issues, like homelessness and unemployment? 

“With the social program guarantee we have to make sure there is money there. We of course, recognize the role that the provinces have in looking after many of these issues, but certainly, a pilot have taken place in the past where people have really focused on that issue. I know that Red Deer has done an amazing job on homelessness efforts that have been put in by the municipality, and they worked with the province. So I really think that, of course, they are the ones that are best suited to be able to deal with the issues that take place in their community, and of course that’s why we need to be sure that can continue to communicate with our municipal partners and look at the needs that they have, and I'm sure that’s the way for us to be able to come up with some real tangible solutions.

Does that mean financially supporting those programs that are more designed by cities, or are you guys hoping to encourage more of that at a provincial and municipal level?

I think they key thing is, I mean the money, first of all, does go to the provinces for many of these. There are various initiatives that have come with the federal dollars to tackle specific issues, and I can consider that as something that one would look at, not program-specific but something that would happen for individual cases and pilot cases. But quite frankly, as we look to the future, we have to make sure that we have a good working relationship with the municipalities and the province in order to tackle this, because coming in with a national program from the federal government telling the various communities, with so many differences we have across this country, is too often money that is not well spent, and so that’s why it should be with those people that are the first providers and closest to the problem.” 

How do you plan on supporting Alberta’s core industries, such as oil and gas, tourism, forestry, and agriculture?  

“It wasn’t that long ago where the prime minister said that we couldn't shut down the oil sands immediately, they were going to have to phase them out. Well, we have seen exactly how they’ve done that, and the hurt that there is in Western Canada. There has been untold growth and wealth that has come from our natural resources that’s pumped billions of dollars into the coffers to deal with the programs and services that we just spoke about, to help the homelessness issues, and poverty, and so on, and to make sure that we had money for our health care system. But quite frankly, we’ve got to that stage right now where billions of dollars, tens of billions of dollars, are leaving the country because they just do not feel that there is any appetite by this federal government in order to have any major projects that are going to be involved with the natural resources completed.

What we’ve looked at, what we are looking at, is, first of all, canceling the carbon tax as mentioned earlier, we have to repeal Bill C-69 which is the one that is putting such stress on any potential new pipelines to be built. The shipping traffic problem. We have to end that ban on shipping traffic that takes place in British Columbia. The US can shift their oil down the west coast, we know have reports of Russia taking its oil and shipping it down the west coast, selling it to the western United States, but we can’t take our Alberta oil and get it there. And of course, there are so many indigenous groups that are wanting to be partners with us, so they have concerns and issues, and that’s another thing we have to deal with. And of course, when we speak about the indigenous consultations we have to make sure there’s some clear timelines, so we have to make sure that we get them right up front and we have to understand that the majority of the indigenous population are excited about having these resource opportunities and things for their young people to do to. So this is critical, and of course in conjunction with that, sadly we have to make sure we ban foreign-funded advocacy groups that are continuing disrupting our approvals protest, because that has been the whole reason, all you have to do is find one weaker link in the chain and you go after that and it just causes no end to problems. It’s more important than as a federal government that you’re prepared to resort federal jurisdiction whenever is necessary, and that’s how you get national programs done.

So with that, our energy corridor concept, it will take some time but believe me, I would much sooner be bringing Alberta oil into refineries in Quebec and in the Maritimes then having them buy Saudi oil and by the same token, I would be happy to have Quebec hydro electrifying Western Canada rather than us going and picking up electricity from Montana where they have coal-fired plants. It’s something that we just have to recognize that if you want to build a nation, you have to understand the nation, and you have to care about everybody.” 

 What major infrastructure projects do you see as a high priority for our area?

“I’ve always felt that the place for the federal government is dealing with those things that are extremely important to those communities. They don’t necessarily be that flashy, you know, building community centers and so on, I think it’s something that’s best left to the municipalities and so on. But if you’re dealing with water, and wastewater projects, I remember when we were in government that was something that was very well appreciated by the municipal folks, I mean, that was really a critical part. And of course, when we talked about infrastructure and the pipeline projects, we have so many people in Central Alberta that are engaged in oil and gas, and that is a major project that we need to see done. It doesn’t need, like the one we have now, it doesn’t need to have government dollars, it just needs to have the opportunity for these companies to do what they do best, and certainly governments do not build pipelines best. So I think that’s important.

One of the other things as well, and I’ve been an advocate for this, is a rural broadband. These are concerns that we have. We did a study and I was proud to be able to be a part of that study on the promotion of rural and remote broadband throughout the country. Central Alberta, Olds specifically, has done a great job dealing with this, and we need to make sure that we are uppermost in everyone's mind when this takes place because as we deal with our farming businesses and the amount of data that is used there of the analysis that is required to make that particular industry run properly, I think infrastructure associated with broadband is one of those things people should really be concerned about.”

Is there anything else you would like to add?

“I’ve been talking to a number of seniors, and they’re concerned about the healthcare system. That’s really been one of the most significant things. And of course, affordability is important to them as well and we’ve made a number of changes that’s going to put money in their pockets. So I think that they should be very pleased with where we’re going with this, and of course, I believe that helping every family look after themselves is really something that is where they get the greatest sense of pride and we’re prepared to work with them all the way along.”