Halfway through mandate, NDP gets 'mixed reviews' from Calgary business community

At the halfway point of their first term in office, Alberta's NDP government is getting mixed reviews so far from the local business community, says the head of Calgary Economic Development.

And increasing the number of face-to-face meetings is one way of improving relationships between business leaders in Calgary and government leaders who live and work in Edmonton, said CED president and CEO, Mary Moran.

"The thing I always communicate to the NDP government is Calgary is a city that has 134 head offices in an eight block radius, we're used to doing six or eight meetings in a day and we love to see the whites of people's eyes," she said.

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"Doing a deal at a Tim Hortons is not an uncommon thing here which is a little bit different than Edmonton. So we're encouraging them to come down to Calgary and start to meet with people face-to-face."

Economic Development and Trade Minister Deron Bilous was in Calgary onFriday forthe release of CED'sannual report to the community the first time an NDP cabinet minister has been at the annual event, said Moran.

"We travel with them a fair amount, we work with them a lot," she said. "They're a phone call away, from our organization's perspective, but I do encourage them to show up in Calgary a lot more than they have in the past."

The province was mired by one of theworst recessions in years whenthe NDP ousted the Progressive Conservatives from power in 2015.

Because of that, pollster Janet Brown says the party's political fortunes will rely, in part, on how fast oil prices pick back up and the unemployment rate comes down.

"They're really suffering in terms of popularity," she said. "They need to shore things up. I think it's more likely that they'll get to four years and think: we need more time."

According to fixed-date election legislation, Albertans will next go to the polls in the spring of 2019.

Notley said Friday she intends to follow both the spirit and letter of that law.

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