By Mabell, Dave on April 8, 2015.

Dave Mabell

LETHBRIDGE HERALD

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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.”

April 1, 2015.

Dave Mabell

LETHBRIDGE HERALD

[email protected]

One disapproving poll doesn’t guarantee political disaster for the province’s Conservatives.

But Lethbridge political scientists say it could force Premier Jim Prentice to have second thoughts about calling a spring election.

“We’ll see how the premier responds to his internal (party) polling,” says Geoffrey Hale, a member of the political science faculty at the University of Lethbridge. If they’re similar to the results of a poll released by a national polling firm Tuesday, he could wait for a better time.

A Mainstreet Technologies poll of more than 3,000 Albertans, taken after the Conservatives tabled their tax-hike budget, showed Prentice’s party tied with the opposition Wildrose party at 30 per cent support.

The pollsters also reported 44 per cent of those who responded said Alberta should raise its taxes on corporations – a move the government refuses to do – while 49 per disapproved of the budget overall.

Particularly in Edmonton, they added, the New Democrats are also benefitting from voters’ rejection of the long-ruling Conservatives and their latest leader. In that city, leader Rachel Notley and her candidates are polling at 43 per cent of the decided voters.

Political scientist Faron Ellis, who leads a political opinion survey project at Lethbridge College, noted the Mainstreet poll was “a snapshot” taken just as Albertans were responding to the government’s plans for cradle-to-grave tax hikes.

“But they have been very accurate in the last few elections they’ve tracked,” Ellis said.

“They had a large sample size, and the patterns were very similar to ours” in recent Citizen Society Research Lab surveys.

Mainstreet said that sample gives it a margin of error of just 1.8 per cent, plus or minus, 19 times out of 20.

Given the timing, Hale said, “It’s not surprising that the premier has had a bit of push-back.”

“The budget was heavy on slapping the general public,” but Albertans expected to see big business step up to the plate as well. “There was political room for an extra point on the business income tax,” he pointed out.

But instead Prentice – formerly a bank vice-president with CIBC – told Albertans any tax increase would drive the big companies out of the province.

Prentice had promised Albertans a “transformative” budget, Ellis noted.

“But instead he raised taxes across the board – 53 of them – while still running a deficit.

“He’s done nothing ‘transformational’, and a lot of people don’t like that business got off scott free.”

For Hale, last week’s document amounts to “a stop-gap budget.”

“The subtext is, ‘See us after the election.’”

How soon that will come is a little less certain, Hale added.

“A week ago, a lot of people thought he would do the cynical thing and take advantage of the opposition’s weakness.”

Prentice engineered that weakness, Hale asserts, by co-opting leader Danielle Smith and eight of her Wildrose cohorts and then “hanging them out to dry.”

Now Smith, Cardston-Taber-Warner MLA Gary Bikman and central Alberta member Rod Fox – three of the nine who quit Wildrose – have lost their nominations while three more have walked away from politics.

Bikman and others, says Ellis, fell victim to local voters’ repulsion over Smith and most of her caucus seemingly abandoning their supporters. For once, he suggests, Albertans have drawn a political line in the sand.

“This flagrant opportunism has created a line that politicians can’t cross without raising the ire of the voters.”

 

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Letters to the Editor

The Pincher Creek Voice

David McIntyre

Dear Premier Prentice,
Yesterday afternoon, without really knowing where I was headed, I arrived at an ancient limber pine that, growing from a thrust-faulted alter of sandstone, lies within a spectacular natural sandstone amphitheater.

My wife and I refer to the location as a vision quest site, but it isn’t a prehistoric site as far as we know, or can tell, although it affords views of such sites, and of a Serengeti-like landscape – it’s drop-dead gorgeous – that’s rich in archaeological and paleontological treasures.

Yesterday’s footloose escape took me past blooming wildflowers, flocks of migrating birds, parades of mule deer and flocks of displaying wild turkeys. Overhead, an adult golden eagle soared over a cliffside nesting site.

Deer and elk sign covered the rough fescue grasslands, where the season’s first emerging Columbian ground squirrels could be seen, and where the skeletal remains of a black bear left me to wonder what had caused the animal’s death.

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, … but in another sense, I was looking at them, and the reason for sleepless nights. I was looking at the Crown of the Continent landscape where AltaLink proposes to erect a view-degrading, ecologically-destroying array of overhead transmission lines.

This morning, from my home overlooking Rock Creek on the eastern flanks of the Livingstone Range, I’m viewing, as I write this message, two moose and herds of mule and white-tailed deer. And I can glance up, above my computer screen, to see a large elk herd that, moving slowly, is grazing its way northward.

Within this same view, if AltaLink’s $750-million wish comes true, I’ll soon look out at – and under and through – approximately 3 km of lattice towers and screaming-in-the-wind transmission lines … all paid for by cash-strapped Albertans.

David McIntyre
[email protected]

 

James Wood, Calgary Herald More from James Wood, Calgary Herald

Darcy Henton, Calgary Herald More from Darcy Henton, Calgary Herald

Published on: March 30, 2015
Last Updated: March 30, 2015 8:17 PM MDT

A longtime Tory barred by the party from running for a Progressive Conservative nomination says he’s hurt and disappointed and may jump to another party after the way he’s been treated by the PC brass and Premier Jim Prentice.

The party announced just after midnight Sunday that Jamie Lall had been disallowed as a candidate in Chestermere-Rocky View, leaving former Wildrose education critic Bruce McAllister to be acclaimed to represent the PCs in the riding.

No reason was given and Lall said in an interview Monday that he’s still in the dark about why he was blocked, just days before the riding’s April 1 nomination date.

“People are going to connect dots. That’s up to them. I am in a lot of ways still in shock. It’s upsetting, it’s hurtful. I think that if there was some sort of smoking gun or reason, common sense would suggest it would be brought out before that,” said Lall, who noted he was vetted twice before being appointed as the PC candidate in Calgary-Buffalo in the 2012 election.

Lall, who is also president of the PC’s Calgary-McCall riding association, said he has been a loyal Tory but hasn’t ruled out joining, or perhaps even running for, another party in the election that Prentice is expected to call this spring.

“Anything is possible. I never thought my party, the PCs, would do this to me,” he said, noting that he had been approached by multiple other parties.

McAllister is one of nine Wildrose MLAs who crossed the floor en masse to the government benches in December. Three of the defectors — Gary Bikman, Rod Fox and former party leader Danielle Smith — were defeated for PC nominations on Saturday just hours before Lall was texted at 11:27 by PC executive director Kelley Charlebois that his candidacy had been disallowed.

Some in Lall’s camp have suggested the party was motivated to stop Lall’s candidacy because of concern about losing another ex-Wildrose MLA.

Lall said he doesn’t know for sure but “the timing would probably suggest that.”

McAllister’s campaign manager, Ken Boessenkool, has said he was absolutely confident the former Wildrose MLA would have won a contested nomination.

The PC party has refused to comment on the reason for disallowing Lall’s candidacy.

Prentice also refused to disclose details Monday but defended the party’s decision.

“They made their decision in the case of Mr. Lall for good reasons,” the premier told reporters Monday in Calgary. “I’m satisfied that they made the right choice in terms of what is in the best interests of the Progressive Conservative party.”

Prentice said only “four or five” of several hundred candidates vying for nominations as PC candidates in the province’s 87 ridings were disallowed, and the party had excellent candidates nominated.

Prentice also defended the PC party’s use of a private investigator as part of the vetting process in Chestermere-Rocky View, which has raised eyebrows in some corners.

Charlebois suggested in an email on the weekend that it was not unusual, saying that “a private investigator was hired to assist with vetting in all 87 riding nominations.”

Lall said Monday that investigator Gordon Bull was “aggressive” in pressing him for phone numbers of family and friends.

Pollster and political analyst Janet Brown said Lall has been a “loyal Conservative soldier,” who appears to be well-regarded by many within the PC camp.

“The premier does have the power to step in and override a local riding association. He’s got to be careful about appearing undemocratic and, quite frankly, mean-spirited,” she said.

With files from Trevor Howell, Calgary Herald

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By Amy Minsky and Vassy Kapelos Global News

OTTAWA — She came within inches of forming government in Alberta, then crossed the floor where she had to battle for her seat, but in the end lost it all. Now, former Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith is leaving public life.

Asked Sunday afternoon via text message whether she had a few minutes to talk about Saturday night’s shocking upset, Smith responded, “No. I am leaving public life.”

A follow up message asked whether that ruled out any future runs for public office.

“P#ss off,” Smith responded.

She later apologized, saying her response was inappropriate and that she wasn’t ready to speak to the media.

Despite losing the PC nomination, Smith remains MLA for Calgary’s Highwood riding until she either resigns or an election is called.

Smith found herself in a tough race to win the PC nomination for her riding after crossing the floor from the Wildrose Party last year. Several senior cabinet ministers campaigned on Smith’s behalf over the weekend in High River, fuelling speculation Alberta Premier Jim Prentice would simply appoint her as the candidate.

After 972 ballots were cast on Saturday, however, Okotoks councillor Carrie Fischer won the Highwood PC nomination.

Following her defeat, Smith said she didn’t regret crossing the floor, adding she looked forward to “seeing Carrie be successful,” urging all conservatives to “unite under Jim Prentice’s leadership.

Smith had many supporters in her riding before she crossed over to the Tories, but it remained unclear whether their support would carry over after what some felt was a betrayal.

Smith shattered her caucus in December when she led an en masse floor crossing, saying she no longer had the fire in the belly to oppose the premier.

Smith and eight of her Wildrose party colleagues were accepted into Prentice’s Progressive Conservative caucus, leaving behind a five-member rump while elevating the Tory majority to an overwhelming 72 seats in the 87-seat legislature.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was first published on Sunday, March 29 at 2:45 p.m. EST. It was later updated to include Danielle Smith’s apology. 

Global News reporter Vassy Kapelos’ text message exchange with former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith.

THE CANADIAN PRESS (WITH LETHBRIDGE HERALD FILES)

March 29, 2015

The former leader of Alberta’s Official Opposition and another former Wildrose member have paid a political price after crossing the floor to join the governing Progressive Conservatives. Danielle Smith lost the Tory nomination to Carrie Fischer in the riding of Highwood, south of Calgary, on Saturday while Gary Bikman lost the Cardston-Taber-Warner PC nomination to M.D. of Taber Reeve Brian Brewin.

Smith led eight of her colleagues of the Wildrose party, including Bikman of Stirling, across the floor to join the government last December in a stunning move that created a national stir among political watchers. More than 1,200 votes were cast in the Cardston-Taber-Warner nomination. Smith says she has mixed feelings with the loss. She says she’s disappointed but believes she helped make Alberta a better place.