Scott Sinclair, the member for Lesser Slave Lake
Speaking his mind about the government’s rural spending plans may have cost a northern Alberta MLA his caucus seat, but it’s also earned him respect from the Opposition.
Scott Sinclair, the member for Lesser Slave Lake, was punished for “simply standing up for his constituents, something every MLA is elected to do,” an NDP critic told the legislature March 11.
Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse, the NDP’s shadow cabinet minister for forestry and parks, characterized Sinclair’s ousting as a slight against rural Albertans and Indigenous communities.
“Instead of listening to a rural, Indigenous member of their own team, (the UCP) shut him out,” Calahoo Stonehouse said. “Instead of listening to the member for Lesser Slave Lake about his constituents’ concerns for better health care, better infrastructure so rural Albertans can get treatment close to home, or finishing critical roadways like Highway 88 so Albertans can travel safely, they fired him from their own team.”
“Rural Albertans and Indigenous communities expect better.”
Sinclair is a fifth-generation Indigenous businessperson. Elected in 2023, he is one of three Indigenous representatives in the legislature. The other two are Brooks Arcand-Paul and Calahoo Stonehouse, both shadow cabinet members for the NDP.
The UCP ousted Sinclair March 7 after he criticized the budget on social media. He then refused to confirm he’d vote in favour of the budget, so the party removed him and now he sits an Independent.
Sinclair’s post said he found most of the budget “at best, disappointing and, at worst, unacceptable for me, my family and my constituents.”
Calahoo Stonehouse, who represents Edmonton-Rutherford, said Sinclair accurately called out the UCP’s 2025 budget for doing “little to nothing” for rural Alberta while running a deficit of $5.2 billion.
“He’s right. It’s chaos, corruption and cuts,” Calahoo Stonehouse charged.
Finance Minister Nate Horner said the budget tabled Feb. 27 spreads proposed spending through Calgary, Edmonton and “everywhere else, corner to corner.”
He said: “I wish this budget didn’t have a negative sign in front of the $5.2 billion. Absolutely. But Alberta, leading the way before any other province had put their budgets forward, brought the tariff risk into our budget, into our baseline. B.C. didn’t do that. B.C. put an addendum to the side.”
As Alberta also deals with 4.4 per cent population growth, “we’re going to continue to build this province while weathering this storm,” Horner said.
Sinclair’s post said: “The continuous flow of our GDP to urban centers while rural Alberta — the backbone of this province — gets left behind is appalling.”
Sinclair also said health care in his riding has “hit rock bottom, and while I hear of positive changes happening elsewhere, they aren’t happening here. How are we to accept multiple emergency department closures when the nearest care is hours away?”
If it’s going to run a deficit — a move Sinclair said he doesn’t normally favour — he suggested that the UCP government stop closing hospitals, bring back local maternity services, allow for surgeries closer to home and build a helipad in High Prairie.
Horner had projects of his own to highlight in the legislature. As an example of budgeted geographic diversity, he pointed to $225 million over three years for school projects across Alberta, including planning and design for five new projects in the north.
Design and planning are also happening for widespread transportation projects, Horner added.
On his northern list were $101 million for Highway 63 twinning north of Fort McMurray; $87 million for a bridge in La Crete and $189 million for a replacement bridge in Beaverlodge; $80 million for the La Crete maternity and community health centre; and “on and on.”
Horner called it “absolute garbage” to say that critical infrastructure and corridors were ignored in Lesser Slave Lake, saying two schools, two road projects and an EMS facility are earmarked for dollars there.
“I don’t even like getting down into the riding level. I’m from a remote rural part of the world as well, if any of you aren’t aware,” said Horner, who represents Drumheller-Stettler.
“Sometimes things have to go on priority lists.”
Scott Sinclair was sacked earlier this month for speaking his mind and criticizing the UCP government’s budget tabled Feb. 27.
