#edmonton-manning

[the-quotable-alberta-hansard]

December 8, 2025

Ms Sweet: The parents of the children that this bill is supposedly going to protect did exactly what parents do. They said: “This does not protect my child. This takes away my child’s rights, and I’m going to stand up and protect my child. I’m going to go to court, and I’m going to make sure that these three pieces of legislation that are removing my child’s rights are struck down.” The government just couldn’t have it. They are so fascinated with this, so fascinated with parents seeking medical advice on behalf of their children to make sure that they grow up to be healthy adults that they just can’t stand it.

Yet they all stand up and say: “I’m a libertarian. I’m libertarian. I’m a conservative. I’m a libertarian.” The whole definition of a libertarian is an advocate or supporter of a political party that advocates only minimal state intervention in the free market and the private lives of citizens, private lives of citizens. Hello, friends over there. Want to remember your definition of who you’re supposed to be?

The Speaker: Hon. member, respectfully, through the chair, please.

Ms Sweet: It’s okay. They’re not here anyway.

The Speaker: Pardon me?

Ms Sweet: Yes, Mr. Speaker.

[the-quotable-alberta-hansard]

November 18, 2025

Ms Sweet: Now every single budget funding cut comes out of the very services that Albertans need, and now we’re going to start putting a marker on licences to deny even the basic services to the people that have come from away. To hear that Albertans come first and then if you are from away, you come second speaks volumes about how this government sees the very people that live here. It’s an embarrassment, and they should all really reconsider why they’re sitting in those chairs and maybe just stand up and fight for the very people that you represent.

[the-quotable-alberta-hansard]

October 27, 2025

Ms Sweet: One hour. It’s an absolute democratic betrayal in the making. Time allocation is a blunt instrument and not a shield for constitutional overreach. Time allocation is not a neutral procedural tool; it is a political weapon used to silence dissent. When paired with the notwithstanding clause, it becomes a double blow to our democracy: first by overriding fundamental rights, then by muzzling the debate around it. This is not legislative efficiency; it’s legislative authoritarianism.

[the-quotable-alberta-hansard]

May 12, 2025

Ms Sweet: What we saw was the rest of the government sector – and a couple of members, I believe, in our caucus were probably there at that time. It created a wildcat strike. Hospitals shut down. Teachers didn’t show up. Like, everybody just decided that at that point they’d had enough and they weren’t going to put up with it anymore. What I would say is that when that strike happened, the Klein government . . .

An Hon. Member: They broke the law.

Ms Sweet: They broke the law. That’s what you took from learning. I love how that’s what the government took from this: they broke the law. Not about the fact that maybe, just maybe, workers at some point – this is a history lesson, and there is a learning here. The history lesson to the whole thing is that you can’t treat workers one way – not pay them what they deserve to get paid, not do fair negotiation, not do fair bargaining, continue to offer them zeros, and expect that at some point they’re not going to say: enough is enough – and expect them to continue to show up.

[the-quotable-alberta-hansard]

December 2, 2024

Ms Sweet: What this government is very good at is blaming someone else. “It’s always the federal government’s fault. It’s always the municipality’s fault. It’s always someone else’s fault.” It’s never the province of Alberta’s fault; they’re perfect. [interjections] I love how everybody on the government side is like: yup, that’s true; it is everybody else’s fault.

Mr. Yao: Come on over, Heather.

The Speaker: Order. Order. Order. The hon. Member for Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo will refrain from using proper names in the Assembly. [interjections]

Ms Sweet: Oh, dear. Albertans should be seriously worried sometimes, I think, Mr. Speaker, like, honestly, if they saw what happened in this Chamber sometimes.

[the-quotable-alberta-hansard]

March 7, 2022

Ms Sweet: At some point do you not go, “Wait a minute; maybe this is too much”? A balanced budget is good on one hand, but we also need to make sure that the services that Albertans expect from their municipalities are going to happen. Like, is that not part of the role?

Mr. McIver: Yeah, it’s part of it. It’s part of the role of mine, it’s part of the role of municipalities, it’s part of the role of all of government to make hard decisions about what we can afford to do and what’s most important to do. We spend lots of time making these very tough choices and these very tough decisions for the benefit of Albertans and the benefit of Alberta municipalities, and quite frankly I’m very proud of the budget that that’s resulted in, which I’m defending my piece of here today.

Ms Sweet: You’re proud of the fact that some municipalities are raising their property taxes by between 6 to 9 per cent on their citizens because of the fact that there’s been so much cut out of their budgets?

Mr. McIver: Well, see . . .

Ms Sweet: That’s downloading it onto Alberta.

Mr. McIver: You make it a generalized statement there, and it’s not entirely fair.

[the-quotable-alberta-hansard]

November 23, 2020

Ms Sweet: So I would encourage the government to go back, to really rethink what the future of Alberta is going to be post COVID. What is the economy going to look like? Where will you diversify and invest? How are you going to encourage Albertans to look at, you know, different things and stay in the province, really? I mean, let’s start there.

Mr. Jeremy Nixon: Think more windmills.

Ms Sweet: Well, you know, windmills aren’t bad. They’ve been in Pincher Creek for a really long time, way before us. If the hon. member likes to cut comments, I’d love to see him stand up and actually say something on the record about what he believes diversification in his government would look like instead of just, you know, commenting across the floor because the reality of it is that Albertans are hurting right now. As much as I appreciate that the government likes to think that it’s great to heckle about that, the reality is that nothing has been done. My neighbours can’t pay their mortgages right now; 1 in 5 Albertans can’t pay their mortgages right now, and we’re standing here talking about $4.7 billion to corporations. What are you doing for Albertans besides heckling the opposition?  

[the-quotable-alberta-hansard]

April 6, 2021

Ms Sweet: Mr. Speaker, on April 18 the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry held a town hall with workers from Cargill who were concerned about the safety of their workplace where the minister reassured the workers that their work site was safe. Only it wasn’t. Shortly before that telephone town hall the minister was briefed by officials that two workers with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency had contracted COVID-19 from the Cargill plant. Two days after this town hall the plant was idled and went on to become the largest outbreak in North America. To the minister: why did you withhold this vital, life-saving information from the workers at Cargill?

Mr. Jason Nixon: Mr. Speaker, there again is the NDP playing political games with the pandemic, an unprecedented situation that our province and the world is facing. Our minister of agriculture is doing a great job leading an industry that is holding our province together, that is having one of the most successful years last year and this year that it has had in the history of our province. He’s going to keep doing that at the same time as working with the rest of cabinet and the Health minister to manage the pandemic. Albertans can rest assured that we’re not going to play NDP games.