Women of ABpoli: Hot Flashes - Issue #5
This Week in AB
MUST WATCH: Equalization 101
Watch: Senator Paula Simons corralled Calgary economist Trevor Tombe; Eric Adams, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Alberta; Ken Boessenkool, professor of public policy at McGill University; historian Mary Janigan, author of new book about the history of equalization, The Art of Sharing; and University of Alberta political scientist Jared Wesley to talk about equalization and a referendum question Albertans will be asked to answer on October 18.
Spoiler alert: the referendum doesn’t do what Kenney keeps saying it will do...
On Your Own
COVID is over! It’s not, but as of August 16, Alberta will become the only jurisdiction in the entire world where isolation for COVID positive cases is “recommended” but no longer mandatory.
As other jurisdictions are still trying to increase vaccination efforts, Alberta’s government has decided they’ve done enough. It will now be up to the risk tolerance of everyone else who doesn’t know the person up-ventilation from them is positive.
Testing will be available in doctor’s offices and health clinics until August 31 and then only used to guide patient care.
The one bright spot is that a “wastewater baseline testing program will be launched to provide area trend information and monitor variants of concern,” according to the government’s press release Wednesday.
Alberta had an average of over 100 new cases per day in seven of the last eight days.
Money, money, money
Quarter 2 fundraising numbers are in!
NDP is outraising the UCP – still – but a surprise third place over the second quarter is the Pro-Life Party. Apparently, they figured out, for the first time since they took over the Social Credit party in 2016, that they could fundraise. After claiming zero dollars in donations in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, they have raised over $125,000 so far this year.
Alberta Parole Board won’t publish decisions
It was supposed to be part of asserting our independence from the federal government.
At the time, “Kenney criticized the transparency of the federal parole system and said Alberta will release more information about provincial parole decisions,” according to the CBC.
Now, a spokesperson for the UCP government simply falls back on “blame Trudeau”, telling the Edmonton Journal that “(t)here is no legislated requirement under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA) to post a public record for parole cases and outcomes.”
Promise made…
The Matts manage issues
When the UCP was elected, one of their first orders of business was to remove the electricity rate caps that the NDP had implemented. In December of 2019, Energy Minister Sonya Savage said the cap was removed “after ‘overwhelming’ feedback from consumers and industry stakeholders,” according to CTV.
Yes… consumers, in Alberta, wanted to pay more. Lol.
Saturday, Brian Bateson, “Issues Manager for the Premier of Alberta”, tweeted that it was NDP policies that “drove prices up”.
“All (the NDP) rate cap did was hide the cost on your power bill and shift it to your tax bill,” Brian Bateson, Issues Manager for the Premier of Alberta, tweeted Friday.
But Albertans aren’t paying less tax today than we were in 2017.
In fact, some of us will be paying more because the United Conservative Party removed the inflation index from personal income taxes in 2019, allowing for “bracket creep”.
According to stalwart supporters of conservative policy, including yester-year Jason Kenney, the Fraser Institute, and Canadian Federation of Taxpayers, bracket creep is a “hidden” and “regressive” tax increase.
The question then, is that if the actual price of electricity was subsidized by our taxes before the UCP formed government, and some of us, through bracket creep, will pay more tax, but those taxes are no longer going towards affordable electricity rates, insurance rates, post-secondary, $25/day childcare, or kin care… who’s benefitting from our tax dollars, if not us?
PickupTruck-gate (I wish I was kidding)
It started innocuously enough. A Toronto journalist had the nerve to write a story about how 75 per cent of people who own one said they don’t even really need them.
Most Albertans are already well-aware of this fact. It might even be why only 28 per cent of registered vehicles in Alberta are pickup trucks and not ~40 per cent of a potential voting bloc.
Jason Kenney then changed his profile picture to remind everyone that although he is a city dweller who dines at a Sky Palaces, he also owns a giant pickup truck to schmooze for votes in rural.
Canada
Derek Sloan, the former Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate (dropped after the first ballot) who was tossed from the CPC after urging delegates to vote for ultra social conservative policies at the 2021 convention, made a trip to Calgary to announce he is starting his own conservative party.
Sloan joins another black sheep conservative also-ran – Maxime Bernier, who quit the “morally corrupt” CPC under the leadership of Andrew Scheer (who Bernier barely lost to in 2017) and started his own party, the People’s Party of Canada – in the race for the bottom one per cent of Canadian votes.
The world
On July 20, Norway fined its female beach volleyball players for not wanting to play beach volleyball in less than what their undergarments cover. American singer/songwriter Pink offered to pick up the tab.
Laundry List: GoA Press Releases
Un-spun
DEADLINE EXTENDED: Are you an employee in the private sector who provided critical care during the pandemic? Does your employer support government wage subsidies? If so, they can still apply to increase your wage retroactively. If they prefer to leave federal funding on the table rather than benefit someone other than themselves, you might work for the UCP.
CONGRATULATIONS to Karen Sorenson on her appointment to the Canadian Senate! Is what Jason should have said. Instead, he whined about Alberta’s weird tradition of holding pretend senate elections.
The Aboriginal Business Investment Fund has approved $500K to design and build a new asphalt parking lot at the Piikani Travel Centre on Highway 3, east of Pincher Creek.
The Allan Inquiry, aka Anti-Alberta Inquiry, has finally been completed. The auditors found that over the last two decades, between $28-$59 million, or one to two years of the Alberta war room budget, could be tied to anti-Alberta energy campaigns.
Rinse and Repeat
Kenney announced $4.7 million out of the TIER fund which will “create a $28.6-million facility in Lethbridge County” that, from what I can tell, already exists. It’s unclear whether this is additional funding from TIER for Canary Biofuels, or previous funding for Invigor Bioenergy. Canary Biofuels purchased Invigor Bioenergy, inclusive of the Lethbridge plant, in March of this year.
The plant was originally under construction by Kyoto in 2012, at a cost of $32 million. In December of that year, the company received $31.4 million from the federal government. In 2014, Kyoto was granted creditor protection, at which point they claimed the plant “never operated at commercial production capacity” (page 3), but had been tested in 2013. The plant was purchased in 2015 for $3.2 million by a numbered company, later renamed Echo Resources Inc. At some point between then and 2017, Invigor Bioenergy became the owner, as the company received $1.1 million as part of a $60 million bioenergy investment from the Alberta government’s carbon tax program.
Delicates
We’re not getting anywhere near $10/day childcare, but to meet the unique needs of Albertans, child care subsidy will now be available for those making the median household income in AB, $90K, and a $125/family pre-school subsidy will be available for the same.
Grande Prairie will be introducing drug treatment courts to offer those who wind up in the criminal justice system for non-violent drug-related offences an opportunity to seek treatment. If only there was a way to reach people before they end up in the court system…
“You don’t need to have shitty people or their energy in your life. Walk away.”
July 24 is international self-care day – but if you keep up with Alberta politics, you should be practicing this at least one day per week.
Seriously, though, reach out if the days become too much: Mental Health Help Line toll-free at 1-877-303-2642, Distress Centre, Calgary, at 403-266-4357 (and 311), Distress Line, Edmonton, at 780-482-4357 (and 211), Crisis Text Line (AHS) Text CONNECT to 741741
Last Load
Still summer, still construction. Hwy 824 over Hwy 16.
July 28 is World Hepatitis Day. The theme for this year is ‘Hepatitis Can’t Wait. Don’t wait, get tested. Treatment could save your life.’
Edmonton’s Stollery Children’s Hospital will be in its own freestanding building in the future. The capital planning is to begin with $2 million from the Alberta government.
August will henceforth be known as Hindu Heritage Month.
July 30th is ‘World Day Against Trafficking in Persons’.
Investigation of injury sustained after contact with Edmonton Police Service.
Investigation into Edmonton Police Service officer-involved shooting fatality continues.
Thanks to everyone who has signed up, shared, read and laughed. Many happy returns to us all!