Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft unveiled his vision for the Edmonton region Wednesday, with a campaign promise to build more LRT stations and add hundreds of new teaching positions at the University of Alberta.
"This city's reputation as an economic, education and cultural hub is truly impressive," Taft said. "And if that is what Edmonton has to offer now, imagine everything it has the potential to become."
Liberal Leader Kevin Taft, announcing his Edmonton-region agenda Wednesday, said funding would come from monies earned on the province's natural resources.
(CBC)
Taft said the LRT investment will help ease urban sprawl issues and improve the environment by cutting carbon dioxide emissions.
The election promise to add 500 faculty members and 2,500 new graduate students at U of A will allow the region to become a global centre for medicine, engineering, arts, humanities and social science, Taft predicted.
Taft also listed four other Liberal priorities for the Edmonton region.
- Expand the River Valley from Devon on the west to Fort Saskatchewan on the north.
- Dramatically improve funding to the region's arts and cultural community.
- Attack homelessness through affordable housing and by funding new projects and regulating rent increases.
- Increase municipal funding for police from $16 per capita to $20 per capita.
Taft would not give specifics on the cost of his plan Wednesday, but said he will provide it in coming weeks.
"We will come up with a detailed costing of our program through the course of the campaign. We are very careful about costing these things out," he said.
But he did say the money for the projects will come from the party's Funding Alberta's Future plan, which calls for 35 per cent of all resource revenues to go into an endowment fund predicted to reach $15 billion by 2021.
Taft's refusal to provide specifics about costs left one student leader lukewarm about his funding plan for the university.
"I want to see the numbers," said Michael Janz, the U of A student union president.
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Alberta Votes 2008 »
- It's 'Ed's Empire' after Alberta election sweep
- Political observers in Alberta are calling it remarkable and opposition politicians are wondering what hit them after Ed Stelmach guided his Conservative party Monday to one of its biggest majorities ever.
- Low voter turnout in Alberta election being questioned
- As Premier Ed Stelmach and Alberta Conservatives savour their sweeping election victory, some people are raising a nagging concern: why so few people bothered to vote.
- Albertans elect historic 11th straight Tory government
- Voters in Alberta stuck with tried-and-true blue, giving the Progressive Conservative party an unprecedented 11th consecutive majority government in Monday's provincial election.
- Political tide turns in Edmonton
- Alberta Progressive Conservative Leader Ed Stelmach has proven true to his word, putting the "Ed" back in Edmonton.
- Conservatives' Calgary fortress resists change
- The Progressive Conservatives' fortress in Calgary stood strong as the party took 18 of the city's 23 ridings Monday night.
Riding Profiles
More Alberta Votes Headlines »
- It's 'Ed's Empire' after Alberta election sweep
- Political observers in Alberta are calling it remarkable and opposition politicians are wondering what hit them after Ed Stelmach guided his Conservative party Monday to one of its biggest majorities ever.
- Low voter turnout in Alberta election being questioned
- As Premier Ed Stelmach and Alberta Conservatives savour their sweeping election victory, some people are raising a nagging concern: why so few people bothered to vote.
- Albertans elect historic 11th straight Tory government
- Voters in Alberta stuck with tried-and-true blue, giving the Progressive Conservative party an unprecedented 11th consecutive majority government in Monday's provincial election.
- Political tide turns in Edmonton
- Alberta Progressive Conservative Leader Ed Stelmach has proven true to his word, putting the "Ed" back in Edmonton.
- Conservatives' Calgary fortress resists change
- The Progressive Conservatives' fortress in Calgary stood strong as the party took 18 of the city's 23 ridings Monday night.
