Hunter sees big things on the horizon for Taber-Warner in 2026

Posted on February 12, 2026 by Taber Times

By Trevor Busch
Taber Times
editor@tabertimes.com

With 2026 now well underway, Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter is optimistic for the future of the region despite domestic and international challenges making their impact on the province’s economy.

Hunter views the tax break the UCP implemented in 2025 as a key factor in assisting with affordability issues in 2026. 

“Conservative governments are focused on jobs, economy so I think we did a great job on that this year, obviously we brought in the tax credit so every individual will save $750 on their taxes, and households can save $1,500 which is going to be very helpful during this time when we’ve got affordability issues. So that was probably one of the biggest things that was great. Obviously, we have brought in quite a few pieces of legislation. I will say that the goal of our government has been to try to make it so that Alberta is a place where people can come and the people who are here can raise a family, start a business, and live quite well.”

Job creation is firing on all cylinders, says Hunter. 

“The Alberta advantage has been quite, quite successful still. Again, with the tax breaks, we were continuing to reduce regulatory burden, and how do we know that it works? Well, last quarter, we know that we produced 70 per cent of Canada’s private sector jobs. So that’s a big indicator to me that we’re doing something right here.”

With a huge population influx to grapple with, infrastructure concerns will remain an issue for the province in 2026. 

“Working through health and education right now, when we had 600,000 people move in over the last six and a half years, we’ve been overwhelmed by the need for schools and hospitals and wraparound services,” said Hunter, who also serves as Minister of the Environment and Protected Areas. “There’s a major pressure in each of those areas, and we’re trying to address that. So building schools, refurbishing schools, building out our hospital programs, our surgical programs, our health in general, that’s what we’re trying to do. But there’s always a bit of a lag effect when you have that amount of people moving in so quickly to being able to get the services up to speed. For example, to build a school, it’s three to five years, and there’s more in the five years than three. So in the last six years, we’ve had so many people move – hundreds of thousands of people move in. You just can’t build the schools fast enough. So we’re trying to be able to figure out how to address the classroom sizes, trying to address the complexity. Because there’s lots of people who moved in that didn’t have any English skills, that came from war-torn countries, they’re going to need to have wraparound supports as well. So we’re trying to get caught up and get our teachers the supports they need so that they enjoy the work that they do.”

Rome wasn’t built in a day, the popular adage contends, and Alberta is no different in assessing the critical needs of a growing province.

“We’re going to continue on with the work we’re doing on refocusing in education and in health. We’re going to continue on with developing the school programs so that they get the supports that our teachers and their schools need. Those are big, big projects, and so they’re multi-year projects and things that we need to make sure we get right. So that’s what you will see in 2026 as well. But you’ll also see us trying to address another big issue that’s coming, and that is that we’re going to have more senior citizens in 2026, and it’s just going to get far more – we’re going to have a million seniors by 2030 from what I understand. So we have to make sure that there’s seniors homes for them, and make sure that there’s low-cost housing for them, and those are the types of things we’re also really working on,” said Hunter. 

Hunter laid much of the blame for increasing inflation and affordability concerns at the foot of the federal government, citing COVID-era policies for which we are only now seeing the trickle-down effect.

“Affordability is still the number one issue that we’re hearing in my office. Unfortunately, that is more of a macro issue. This is kind of what’s going on all over the world. So with supply chain issues, it drove up the price during COVID and after COVID. It’s come down a bit, but it still needs to come down quite a bit more. Unfortunately, when prices go up, they don’t come down. And so we’re dealing with that. I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again: the other reason why inflation is still a struggle is because the federal government – and most federal governments in the world did this – printed a whole bunch more money, and that’s got to work its way through the system before that inflation starts to come down. It’s more of a macro issue than it is a micro, provincial issue, but we are trying to do what we can do here. I know that Minister Neudorf (Affordability and Utilities) is doing some really good work trying to be able to bring down the cost of utilities. I know that with Premier Smith working with Prime Minister Carney on new energy, utilities, clean electricity regs and putting a stop to that, that’s going to also bring down the price as well. Ever since that’s happened, about $5 billion in new utility build-outs is starting to happen again, and that couldn’t happen under those clean utility, clean electricity rates. So as we bring on supply, it will drive down that equilibrium price.”

While dealing with the Trump White House today is much like a mouse fighting an enraged, chest-beating gorilla, Hunter applauded early contacts between Premier Danielle Smith and President Donald Trump in 2025 which he argues were chiefly responsible for the province avoiding heavy and escalating tariffs on oil and gas. 

“The protectionist policies that we see coming out of the United States right now is not helping us – 80 per cent of our exports go to the United States. And anytime the United States – and this isn’t the first time they’ve done it – move into the protectionist realm, that can have a real effect on us. Now, I would take my hat off to the premier, because she actually specifically went down to the United States, talked directly to President Trump, and said, ‘Listen, this whole tariff on the bitumen and the oil and gas that’s coming from Alberta is not a good idea, and this is the reason why it’s not gonna be good for you guys.’ She was able to convince him that that wasn’t a good idea, because where that was going was the Trump administration putting on a tariff, and then the federal administration up here putting on a counter tariff on that oil and gas, and that would have just ramped up to the point where we shut down our oil and gas exports. And so if that had happened, we probably would have lost $14 to $17 billion in royalties, which would have really negative impact for our government to be able to provide services. Think about what that would have done to our economy – our economy is very, very much a petrol economy, and so we would have been in real trouble – and the premier staved that off. She is the one who helped us avoid that bullet.”

Hunter pooh-poohs critics who say Smith should have stayed home.

“In hindsight, the reality is that I’ve had people say, ‘Well, she shouldn’t have gone down there.’ Do you not know how bad it could have been? Hindsight always shows us whether it was the right thing to do or not. And even others – the Prime Minister, other ministers, (said) she did the right thing.”

Still cruising for a fall 2026 opening, the twinning of Highway 3 ran into some opposition in Grassy Lake with regard to a bypass, but the province has tried to do what they can to address those concerns.

“The Highway 3 twinning is just fantastic. They’re moving along with that really well, they’re going to finish that (this) year. We tried to make sure that we listened to the concerns,” said Hunter. “I know that in Grassy Lake there was (concerns), they wanted to make sure that they have eastbound lane egress, and we were able to do that and tried to address their concerns the best we can. And when you make change orders at the last minute it’s not an easy thing to do, so we had to work through some of that stuff and try to make it so that it works for them in Grassy Lake. That’s going to be a great addition for my riding, for this area and for the agri food processing corridor.”

In lock-step with the twinning project, Hunter says he is still focused on continued investment and development for the Highway 3 Agri-Food Corridor. 

“We’re still building out – we’re still working on the agri food processing corridor between Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. That’s still very much something that I’m quite passionate about. And I would say that we’re still moving forward in a strong way. The only hiccup that I’ve seen happen is with the United States saying ‘do it in the United States and repatriate all this stuff.’ That’s been a little harder for us to be able to get some of these companies to come in. They’re (saying) we might need to put something in the United States for now, but who knows what will happen in the future? I still think we have a great value proposition. I think that we do it right. To give you an example, for a crop of potatoes, it uses about 14 inches of irrigation. And in Idaho, the average is 36 inches. So you can see how different we are and how much better we do it here.”

Southern Alberta’s agriculture industry remains an attractive proposition for value-added players to consider investing their dollars, says Hunter.

“So when companies and different organizations are looking at the efficiencies, they see that we’ve done it very, very well here and and I think that that’s going to be one of the reasons why, in the future, I think we’ll bring in those companies that (realize) it’s a better place to set up in southern Alberta, just because our input costs are going to be cheaper. We’ve done a great job in terms of making sure that we’re sustainable. Right now, down in Idaho, they have over-subscribed, or they’ve overdeveloped their water licenses, and so there’s big lawsuits going on down in the States. And so are they going to have the ability to increase production down there? I doubt it in Idaho, I don’t think so. And I don’t think that they’re going to be able to do it in Washington, either. Washington is still pulling down dams down there, so I’m not sure if they’re going to have the water capacity, whereas here we’re building off-stream storage. We’re building the Chin Reservoir. We’re building Deadhorse. We’re building these off-stream storages that are going to allow us to be able to have that expansion.”