Travis Toews talks health care and fighting Ottawa

He is the candidate with the most current UCP MLAs endorsing him at the moment.

Travis Toews is one of seven leadership candidates for the United Conservative Party vote. The former Finance Minister was asked about how to differentiate yourself in a crowded campaign, health care, his plans to take on Ottawa, and associations with the outgoing Premier Jason Kenney after Monday’s candidates forum in Vermilion.

The MLA for Grande Prairie-Wapiti is a rancher and depending on polls is ranking second or third in the eyes of UCP voters.

For similar stories on Danielle Smith and Brian Jean, click here.

Health care

“I would immediately appoint an Associate Minister for Health Care capacity, who I would task with a working with health care credentialing bodies to ensure that there’s a pathway for the thousand of foreign trained healthcare workers that we have in Alberta right now, that there’s a pathway to get their accreditation and into the system. I think that’s critical,” Toews told Lakeland Connect on how improve the hospital situations in the Lakeland, as an example.

“Right now we have, I would suggest, hundreds of bright, young Albertans, who’ve gone out and got a medical degree at accredited universities in Australia, the US or elsewhere, [have them] come back to Alberta to get an internship…very often we’ll never get those individuals back. We have to work and find a way to increase the number of spots for interns for again, foreign trained, Alberta natives, but foreign trained in accredited universities to come back and do their internship and residency right here in the province.

“We need to expand the number of healthcare seats we have in our post-secondary institutions. We need to allow more seats in training in our schools of medicine, we need to allow more training for LPNs and even health care aides. Budget 2022 allocated $200 million for additional seats in our post secondary institutions. We need to expand that program in healthcare disciplines to ensure that we can create capacity in the intermediate term.

“And lastly, we need deep structural reform at AHS. Right now, certainly in my region, the highly centralized decision making model at Alberta Health Services is failing not only Albertans, but most acutely, frontline health care professionals,” said Toews.

Defending Alberta against Ottawa

Each candidate has proposed measures that either advance the work of the previous government in creating provincially based programs like the Alberta Pension Plan, an Alberta constitution, or a Sovereignty Act.

Toews has perhaps the most aggressive policy any one of them has proposed. While looking at changing the equalization formula and fiscal stability, he is also proposing passing enabling legislation, to have, “a potential suite of targeted levies on goods and contracts we can begin to apply and escalate as needed” against Ottawa.

“Should the federal government attack our vital economic interests and no amount of pushback is successful, then having this enabling legislation that allows the Alberta government to put implement targeted levies or duties on goods or services from other parts of Canada, other regions of Canada that would support this federal government’s economic policy, I believe that we would have a tool with real teeth. We need to have it in our toolbox and be prepared to use it,” said Toews.

Toews advocates for an Alberta Pension Plan as well. He says most of the ground work has been laid to achieve it.

“I know it holds great potential for Alberta in the future. But this is an issue we have to handle carefully, or we could lose it for future generations of Albertans. I’m unwilling to do that for any political gain. So I talk about a strategic approach on an Alberta Pension Plan, we have to be strategic in both methodology, tactic, and especially timing, so we don’t lose this great opportunity for future generations of Albertans.”

Associations with Kenney

Nearly two dozen MLAs have publicly endorsed Toews in his campaign, and some pundits have suggested he is seen as the candidate most similar to Kenney considering his position in the party.

He was asked how he views this perception.

“Firstly, the Premier and I share a commitment to fundamental, conservative values. He gave me a lot of deference and latitude to deal with fiscal decisions, hard fiscal decisions, and economic decisions in the province. And we made great progress. I mean, we’ve taken a fiscal trainwreck to now a balanced budget, through all three years of the fiscal plan. We’ve taken an economy that was flatlined for years, to an economy that’s going to lead the nation in the next two years, we’ve made great progress. And again, we share a deep commitment to fundamental conservative values.

“But here’s where we’re very different. It’s in our leadership style, tone and approach. Look, I’ve been in the private sector right until 2019. I’m a rancher from rural Alberta. That’s not the Premier’s story. We’re very different individuals. I will bring a very different leadership tone and style and approach to this province. And I think right now that matters.

“As I travel the province I hear from a lot of Albertans, a lot of conservative-minded Albertans and Albertans generally feel they haven’t had a voice. I will bring a leadership style that ensures that they have a voice, through their government MLA, and through engagement in rural Alberta. That’s absolutely critical. That’s leadership,” said Toews.