Friday’s letters: If Alberta separates, Edmonton should leave Alberta

For the safety and prosperity of all fellow residents, if Alberta tries to separate from Canada, Edmonton must separate from Alberta. As a Canadian enclave freed from the shackles of the polluting oil and gas industry holding us back from diversification, we would be Canada’s sixth-largest provincial economy by GDP and fifth-largest province by population.

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Edmonton already has irreconcilable differences with the Alberta government. A city-province would be free to write our own progressive, equitable, and resilient provincial laws. The Alberta government would no longer be able to force our region to pay for the entire province’s social costs. If you think this is ridiculous, how do you think the latest UCP-organized Alberta separation sounds to its many opponents?

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Adam Bentley, Edmonton 

Costly COVID shots put kids at risk

Does Premier Smith think every parent has the ready cash to pay for their COVID vaccinations so they will not get sick and expose their children to the illness? Has our premier ever cared for a deathly ill child? Does she want the health of the children of this province put at risk because she doesn’t believe in vaccinations? Just a few questions for the woman who leads our province.

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Nancy Leavitt Mereska, Two Hills

Infill isn’t affordable housing

So government officials, city councillors and other people think that infill is for affordable housing problems. I suggest these people give their head a shake. I live in the Holyrood area and they been building these infills for probably seven years now. The first two that got built sold for over $800,000, then the other two that got built sold over $600,000. Then three years ago, they built two more and they sold for over $700,000, with one of the infills three metres above the permit issued. We were informed by the city after it was built. I wrote back to the city asking where the inspectors were and that it was a little late to be informed. Never heard anything back.

With all the infill being built, the city is collecting double property taxes now from one lot. Where is all that money going? The only people who are benefiting from these infills are the city, developers and real estate agents. So infill is not helping solve affordable housing problems; they’re overcrowding and destroying older neighborhoods. And they’re letting developers build what they want.

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Ken Loiseau, Edmonton

Smith doesn’t listen to experts

The most dangerous people are those who have power and do not know what they do not know. Rather than surrounding herself with qualified people, Danielle Smith, like Donald Trump, purports to be an expert in many areas in which she has no expertise and takes advice only from those who share her fact-free opinions.

David Steele, Saskatoon

Letters welcome

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