Lethbridge Herald

By Letter to the Editor on April 11, 2015.

A recent Crowsnest Pass Herald article entitled “Council takes a firm stand against AltaLink” made me sit up and take special notice.

Particularly eye-opening were the comments attributed to AltaLink’s John Grove, who is reported to have told Crowsnest Pass municipal council “to refrain from sending a letter (to government officials) outlining É opposition to the project.”

The referenced project: AltaLink’s proposed $750-million Castle Rock Ridge to Chapel Rock transmission line.

Crowsnest Pass Mayor Blair Painter is reported to have said, “Grove suggested we not send the letter as it might jeopardize our relations with Edmonton.”

Reading the mayor’s statement, I have to believe AltaLink has revealed that all its community consultation, open houses, route-finding exercises, environmental assessments and other work is mere window dressing. It appears AltaLink believes it can do whatever it wants, and that the Government of Alberta will stand behind this outcome, regardless of the wishes of Albertans.

What, exactly, did AltaLink’s John Grove say and, perhaps more importantly, what message was he attempting to communicate?

The article raises many questions, such as: Does the Government of Alberta use its power to punish people who express concerns with industrial development?

Is AltaLink’s CEO Alberta’s de facto premier?

Do Premier Prentice and AltaLink’s CEO sit behind the same desk and to whom are we speaking when we address either?

If cash-strapped Albertans don’t want to pay $750-million for a transmission line many reviewers don’t feel is necessary, to whom do they address their concerns?

David McIntyre

Crowsnest Pass

Lethbridge Herald

By Letter to the Editor on April 11, 2015.

Deeper skims into disposable income and net pay don’t heighten our standard of living. Can “progressive” taxes address Alberta’s debt? This idea of the solution is one big facet of the problem.

A little government is necessary, but we have way more than that. Taxation is government greed. Instead of preparing for bad times, policy-makers run up the usual expenses and bill us. They use, elsewhere, predatory measures against personal finances to cover an unaffordable status quo.

The government of Cyprus seized private savings two years ago to avert bankruptcy. The Greek government now plunders its own citizen’s pensions so it can meet IMF and EU obligations. Poor households, already without nearly 86 per cent of their former income, lose a further nine per cent to tax increases.

The next involuntary forfeiture introduces a change in account-holder status: depositors become “creditors” to whom the system owes money. Good luck collecting! The policy’s ideal because it leaves people without recourse.

U.S. Civil Asset Forfeiture laws are so abused that Ottawa issued a travel advisory against carrying large amounts of cash into the United States. Victims have a poor track record of getting it back.

In Alberta we haven’t reached those extremes – but we’re on that road, and the latest budget didn’t roll back the general hit.

Jim Prentice gesturally cut caucus pay by five per cent. If he’d cut 25 per cent, he would’ve been serious. If the budget had phased out unseen cadres of deputies, assistants, executives and managers, secretariats and commissions, he’d have fully changed the game. What we see instead is that Prentice fronts a self-protective establishment. We had no direct say when it broke its own law against going back into debt; we’re at its whim on the new election. Among the first acts of a trustworthy Opposition administration should be to open all the books, and show us how the money’s gone.

Freedom’s sticker shock, maybe … but the more beholden to government we are, the less freedom we really have.

Tom Yeoman

Lethbridge

By Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press on April 10, 2015.

Lethbridge Herald

By Letter to the Editor on April 8, 2015.

Wake up, Albertans! It is time to start fighting against the dictatorship we have. No opposition, no democracy, our opinions are not listened to, nobody protects us from the abuses the government is doing against the citizens.

We have learned about dictatorships in another countries but now we have one in our house. Premier Prentice is protecting wealthy companies’ interests by making us pay for every single service. Are we to blame for the low gas prices? We have saved some pennies by getting the gas at a low price. Now Prentice is making Albertans pay to keep rich people’s privileges, by bringing the gas prices higher. But that is not enough for him; he brings out premiums for health care, taking away more than we have saved.

The federal Conservatives are bringing down Canada’s international reputation by military intervention in other countries to fight terrorism, an idea created by the real terrorists in the Canadian government. Harper and Prentice are the real terrorists. Their political decisions are against human rights. When is this abuse to stop? Albertans have the answer.

Roberto Hernandez

Lethbridge

By Lethbridge Herald Opinon on April 8, 2015.

Rules do give premier the power to call an election ahead of Election Act schedule

It was a good idea at the time.

Alberta’s Election Act set the stage for regular elections every four years.

Under the legislation, Premier Jim Prentice had until next spring to wait and face the electorate. Rules dictated an election had to be called in the fourth calendar year following polling day in the most recent general election. That would have meant Albertans would vote for their next government between March 1 and May 31 of 2016.

Of course, that is not going to happen. An election has been called, and Alberta will head to the polls this May instead.

The act also stipulates the Lieutenant Governor’s powers are not impacted, meaning the power to dissolve the Legislature is still in the hands of the Lieutenant Governor. Section 38.1 (1) states that power can be used, in Her Majesty’s name, when the Lieutenant Governor sees fit.

In reality, it is whenever the premier sees fit, as it is the province’s top politician who makes the request, and in this case, Prentice has decided to strike when the iron is hot, and when his opponents are most vulnerable.

No doubt, the Progressive Conservatives are in the driver’s seat. With 70 seats at dissolution, thanks in part to the defections of 11 Wildrose members who crossed the floor, the stage is set to return Canada’s longest-ruling political dynasty to power once again.

Time will tell whether Albertans – upset the provincial budget levied a host of tax and fee increases on the public, once again avoided touching the sacred cow of corporate taxes and also refused to hike oil and gas royalties – will be enough to derail the PCs.

Opposition parties have been buoyed by recent polls, which suggest gains have been made by the Wildrose and Alberta NDP, and the challenge Prentice faces with a $5-billion deficit is very real. Over four decades into power, the PCs have yet to develop a plan to wean Alberta off its resource revenue, and spending has been a major issue, as the province spends $1,300 more per capita than any other jurisdiction in Canada.

Those realities are staring the premier in the face, and party faithful know full well the dangers of letting those issues grow and fester for another year. A 2016 election, of course, would allow the province’s other political entities time to regroup, with new leaders in tow, develop more complete platforms and formulate a plan to take on the PC juggernaut

That was the intent of the Election Act. It was to level the playing field, give Albertans and its political parties a fixed election period and in general, boost the level of democratic transparency.

Unfortunately, the result has been the exact opposite. A chain reaction set off by Danielle Smith’s floor crossing has created a situation where every opposition party has a new leader. Smith, one election removed from leading in the polls until very late in the game in the battle against Alison Redford, is now out of the political game, and her former party must now rely on a new leader and a new slate of candidates in many ridings.

Fixed election dates would have prevented the manipulation of the system for the benefit of the party in power. Instead, we are left with a business-as-usual approach.

Time will tell if the calculated gamble by Prentice and company will pay off.

By Mabell, Dave on April 8, 2015.

Dave Mabell

LETHBRIDGE HERALD

[email protected]

They’re off and running, following Tuesday’s provincial election announcement. Three southern Alberta members of the legislature seeking re-election agree on one thing: it’s full speed ahead for the next four weeks.

Beyond that, their responses differ. For Lethbridge West MLA Greg Weadick, the election campaign is about the province’s finances.

“We’ve got to get our financial house in order,” and some budget cuts are required to make that possible, the Progressive Conservative member says. Albertans were expecting that, he suggests.

The province’s education budget has been trimmed, for example.

“The schools have been working to prepare for this,” Weadick says.

At the post-secondary level, Weadick says the loss of operating cash is less than 1.5 per cent. What’s important, he adds, is the government’s confirmation that funding will be available for the new science building at the University of Lethbridge – though a year later than expected.

“That huge project has been spared.”

For Livingstone-Macleod MLA Pat Stier, the region’s only remaining Wildrose member, the campaign is about debt and taxes.

“We are the only party that stands up for Albertans and advocates no new taxes,” he says.

The Prentice government, he points out, has ordered no fewer than 57 tax hikes – higher fees for everything from birth to death certificates.

“The government wants to tax every Albertan more,” and Wildrose officials estimate that could amount to $2,000 or as much as $2,500 a year for many families.

“We would look at cutting wasteful spending and corporate subsidies,” Stier says.

One of the latest examples of waste, he points out, is the Conservatives’ decision to pay $5.4 million to a golf course operator with Tory connections – and likely $15 million more to rebuild the Kananaskis links – in the wake of flooding in 2013.

Stier has called for an official investigation by Auditor General Merwan Saher. While the Tories are anxious to repair the government-built course, he says, many High River residents are still waiting to have their disaster recovery claims settled.

Water is also one of the issues for Little Bow MLA Ian Donovan, one of a dozen Wildrose MLAs who left the party last fall. Wildrose had no policy about irrigation system improvements, he says. And there wasn’t much of a focus on agriculture — the mainstay of the Little Bow economy.

“That was one of the challenges,” he says now. “It was hard to look constituents in the eye.”

But the Tories have earmarked money for irrigation system upgrades, he adds.

“Agriculture is the most important renewable resource we have in this province,” he maintains.

Health care spending remains an election issue as well, Donovan says, and the new budget includes plans to cut more of the fat out of the Alberta Health Services bureaucracy.

“There are 1,700 (vacant) positions at AHS that won’t be filled,” he says.

Instead, more health spending decisions will be made at the local level.

Donovan says it was also local-level consultation that led to recently announced plans for safety improvements at two critical highway intersections. Government officials recently confirmed plans for a traffic circle at the Highway 23 junction with Highway 519 near Nobleford, and for extended acceleration and deceleration lanes at the Highway 3 access to Coalhurst.

Two of the region’s current MLAs will be watching this election from the sidelines. Bridget Pastoor, who’s represented Lethbridge East for three terms, will be retiring from political life. And Gary Bikman, one of nine Wildrose MLAs who bolted to the Conservatives in December, was not nominated to run for the governing party in the Cardston-Taber-Warner constituency.

By Lethbridge Herald Opinon on April 1, 2015.

Province needs stable revenue, not repeat of same old formula

Bryson Brown, John Vokey and James Byrne

UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE

Premier Jim Prentice told Albertans to “look in the mirror” if they wanted to see who is responsible for Alberta’s sudden financial embarrassment. He himself is the leader of our perpetual party of government, with a long record that he seems bent on continuing: periodic surges of spending when times are good, followed by desperate, crude spending cuts whenever revenues decline.

Making cuts across the board gives an impression of toughness, but it hides the real problem: this government has no idea of how to prioritize and focus spending for Alberta’s future, and no will to build a stable revenue base that could support the planning we need to do.

It may not be what people want to hear, but Alberta’s biggest problem is with revenues. The flat income tax has mostly benefitted high-income Albertans. Adding a tiny bit of progressivity makes little difference – and some of that will soon disappear: the government has promised the extra 0.5 per cent of income tax Albertans earning over $250,000 will pay for the next few years will drop to the same level as the tax on income over $100,000 by 2019. The new “health-care fee” is just a surtax on income; it goes into general revenues, and reaches its highest level at an income of $130,000. And these increases are far from enough to put the budget on steady path. The obvious proof of this is that the government’s projection of future balanced budgets still depends on assuming oil revenues will rebound. Low taxes and low royalties for corporations remain, while higher taxes on individual Albertans and damaging cuts to basic services we all rely on leave most of the deficit in place.

Apparently, the government is also considering removing the cap on university tuition fees, making it even harder for children from lower-income families to pursue a university or other post-secondary education; Alberta already has the lowest rate of PSE participation of all the provinces. Of course, Alberta will also continue to have the highest school fees in Canada.

Alberta has already given up other sources of stable revenue: the electric power generation and the power grid for the entire province (Trans Alta), the telephone system (Alberta Government Telephones, AGT) and all the liquor stores. The first two of these also ensured that even the most remote Alberta citizen would have both electricity and a telephone line; the costs of extending these lines to remote locations were picked up collectively by the people of Alberta. These investments laid the groundwork for broader prosperity across Alberta. But they’ve been sold off, and the proceeds spent – worse, the new electrical system transformed Alberta from one of the lowest-cost regions for electrical power in North America to one of the highest; it was subsidized with $2.3 billion in public money to lower the spike in consumer costs.

Alberta has lots of room to raise income taxes and corporate taxes while remaining the lowest taxed jurisdiction in Canada. But rather than a gradual plan to fill the revenue gap, Mr. Prentice is imposing drastic cuts in the public sector. He told us that public-sector salaries there are far too high compared with the rest of Canada, when the difference between salaries in Alberta and the rest of Canada is even higher in the private sector. Worse, cutting peoples’ salaries will only amplify the recession that’s already taking hold here.

Underlying this mess is a simple fact: governments cannot plan and spend efficiently when revenues are unstable. Big cuts in lean times leave a mark: lost positions, tired buildings, deferred maintenance and missed opportunities. We try to catch up in the good times, but they don’t last long enough for our services and infrastructure to recover from the last round of cuts. And wild swings back and forth make it easy to argue for a new round of cuts; just start the clock when spending began to increase in the last recovery, and it looks as if spending is growing way too fast. But that’s an illusion (or a deception); teachers have gone through three years of zero increase in their pay scales, universities were cut by over seven per cent in the March 2013 budget and grants to the universities were cut again in 2014, with cuts of 1.4 per cent this year and 2.7 per cent next still to come.

Tragically, the government has no long-term plan beyond waiting for another boom – a boom which may never come, since the bitumen we produce is some of the most expensive and polluting oil in the world, and the threat of global warming means we can’t afford to burn all the fossil fuel reserves we already have. In the competition to decide whose reserves will remain in the ground, Alberta starts with a big handicap.

We need a new direction in this province, not a repetition of the same old story. With stable, balanced revenues Alberta could begin to plan for a future beyond oil – a future based on a wealth of renewable energy, strong agriculture and a creative, well-educated population. Without them, we’ll settle for a diminished future for our children, where once there was so much promise.

Bryson Brown, John Vokey and James Byrne are University of Lethbridge professors in the departments of philosophy, psychology and geography respectively. They were writing on behalf of 18 other U of L faculty members who are signatories to the column. The full list of signatories can be found at https://www.dropbox.com/s/h51yxpnu9w8c09w/sigs.html?dl=0.

By Simmons, Garrett on April 1, 2015.

Trevor Busch

Southern Alberta Newspapers

Cardston-Taber-Warner MLA Gary Bikman has lost the right to represent the Progressive Conservative Party in an upcoming provincial election following a nomination defeat over the weekend.

Bikman was trumped on Saturday by M.D. of Taber Reeve Brian Brewin, who managed to secure enough votes from party faithful to edge out the first-term MLA, who crossed the floor to the PCs in late 2014.

“I really believe in democracy, and I think I’ve done a good job on both sides of the floor,” said Bikman on Monday. “Having been on the other side in opposition, it’s been very interesting to now be part of the solution, and to look at some of the simplistic solutions that were headlined when we were on the other side, and see how inadequate and incomplete they are. But the fact that we had to rely on that probably says more about the media than it does about us.”

Saturday’s vote marks the second time in recent memory that a sitting PC MLA has been defeated in a nomination battle in the Cardston-Taber-Warner riding. Prior to the 2012 provincial election, PC nomination candidate Pat Shimbashi turfed sitting PC MLA Broyce Jacobs, but was ultimately unsuccessful in securing a position as the riding’s representative in the following election, going down to defeat to then-Wildrose candidate Bikman.

Displaying no bitterness about his nomination loss, Bikman instead heaped praise on his opponent’s character.

“I like Brian Brewin. I can tell you truthfully that if I wasn’t running, I’d have been voting for him,” said Bikman. “I wish Brian all the best, he’s a great guy and a great candidate. He’s a solid guy – a man of integrity, hard-working – he will be a good candidate and a great MLA. Brian had a great ground game in Taber and Milk River. I won in the other towns, but not as significant numbers as he was able to muster in his home base. He’s a good guy, and I’m confident he’ll do a good job.”

Bikman, along with nine other Wildrose MLAs, crossed the floor to the ruling PCs in a controversial move in late 2014. Over the past weekend, former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith who was part of the surprise exodus from Wildrose party ranks, was also defeated in her own nomination battle in the Highwood riding.

“I’m not totally surprised. I sensed, quite clearly, that there were still people upset with our crossing, and it created an interesting dynamic in the communities, and it manifested moreso in Cardston, Magrath, Raymond and Stirling. People haven’t really been able to get past that sense of betrayal.”

According to Shimbashi, who currently serves as Cardston-Taber-Warner PC constituency organization president, roughly 1,200 votes were cast in the riding, making overall voter turn-out higher than Highwood’s much-touted nomination vote which saw former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith suffer defeat at the hands of a relative unknown in Okotoks councillor Carrie Fisher.

“Brian and I have had a good relationship for the three years that I’ve been in play, through his role as reeve of the M.D. of Taber,” said Bikman. “He and I have worked together to advance the cause of the M.D. on drainage issues and other things that have been important to our constituents.”

Bikman will continue to serve as Cardston-Taber-Warner’s MLA until a provincial election is called. Much speculation is currently centered on the prospect of an early election call for spring, however the PC’s current mandate – achieved under the now-maligned tenure of Alison Redford – still extends into 2016.

Bikman thanked constituents for permitting him to serve them over his more than three years in office.

“I’d like to thank for them the opportunity that I have had to serve them, and that I’ve always worked hard to serve them the best way that I know how. I’ll continue to work as best I can until the election takes place. Life goes on, as far as continuing my services and my life. When all is said and done, with 40 grandkids and one more on the way – that’s a full time job. I’m happy that I served, and have no regrets about the things that we did. I always tried to act in the best interests of our constituency and our province – I put the party third.”