The recent Lac La Biche all candidates debate was dominated by economic concerns, current taxes, and the oil industry. Only 4 of the 6 candidates for the riding attended the debate. Scott Berry, the Libertarian candidate, and David Yurdiga, the Conservative incumbent, were not able to attend the debate. Liberal candidate Kyle Harrietha, NDP candidate Melody Lepine, Christian Heritage Party candidate Roelof Janssen, and Green candidate Brian Deheer all showed up for the debate ready and eager to let their voices be heard. A lot of the debate questions centered on the economy, the oil industry, and the tax situation. Most of the candidates repeated their party lines, and the debate did get quite serious at times. There was discussion about rail transport for bitumen and other oil industry products versus pipeline transport, and talk about how the taxes are affecting communities and people in the area.

After the Lac La Biche debate and the economic concerns that many of the candidates heard from people who attended Harrietha discussed the plan that the Liberal party has with local media. “I think we communicated clearly the Liberal Party’s platform to invest in infrastructure in order to jump start the economy. We believe that it will create jobs and help grow the economy and prepare our communities for the next time when the economy booms and oil goes up. The Liberal party believes that the time to invest is now.” The stance that the Liberal party has taken on corporate taxes was not very popular with the crowd though.