Wednesday's letters to the editor highlight concerns over the Rossdale Flats redevelopment, health bureaucracy costs, and electoral boundary changes in Alberta.
Rossdale Flats project courting flood disaster
Re. “Rossdale redevelopment moves ahead,” April 21
Now I truly believe our city council is quackers. Building on a flood plain is inviting disaster. Any Edmontonian who lived here in the mid-1980s remembers the spring flood where the North Saskatchewan River inundated the entire river valley.
Keep the area for historical and recreational use or build the houses on stilts.
Maureen Elhatton, Edmonton
Spending more on health bureaucracy
While waiting for question period to start last Tuesday, where I saw behaviour that would not be tolerated at a kindergarten, I visited the legislative library to review audited governmental financial reports. They are online but it is a treat to visit the leg library.
I am really concerned about health-care spending in Alberta, particularly as quality and access are major ongoing concerns. One of the most startling findings was that the government’s health-care bureaucracy (Alberta Health) is more expensive now. In the 2024/25 year, two years after the May 2023 election gave the Smith/UCP government majority rule, this bureaucracy cost us $104,861,000, a jump of $43.3 million from the 2022/23 year.
In 2022/23, only 1.115 per cent of total health-care spending went to this bureaucracy, while in 2024/25 it was 3.74 per cent. I guess it is true that bureaucracy is often associated with red tape, rigid rules, and delays. It is interesting that the Smith/UCP government set up a red-tape ministry, with their October 2025 mandate letter boasting an achievement of “Cutting red tape across government by 33 per cent.”
Donna M. Wilson, Edmonton
Put a stop to UCP election-rigging
It is outrageous to me that the UCP is rejecting the map created by an independent commission, in what we know to be gerrymandering. The whole point of the process is to keep politicians out and keep the process fair to all Albertans and this is certainly not the case now, with this last move.
Danielle Smith and the UCP have interfered, in a blatant attempt to control elections and benefit themselves. All Albertans should be concerned about this and the fact that the UCP knew it was so objectionable that they did it in the dead of night.
The UCP can’t get away with rigging the next election. All Albertans need to make their voices heard and put a stop to this.
Liz Greenaway, Edmonton
Electoral commission’s cost wasted
Premier Smith announced that the work of the boundaries commission appointed by her at a cost of $2 million is irrelevant. She wants urban-rural hybrid ridings, which combine urban areas with the rural areas around them. These new pie-shaped hybrid ridings, with a tiny bite of urban voters drowned out by the rural Conservative voters, will guarantee the majority of UCP MLAs in the 2027 election.
