I thought this was a pretty smart ad on Alberta’s affordable housing crisis and the provincial Tory government’s lack of action on the issue. Credit goes to Dave Sawchuk and Q99 FM Radio in Grande Prairie for doing this one up.
Props to the daveberta reader who sent this my way.
As Alberta’s affordable housing crisis continues to explode, a new poll has been released by the Calgary Herald detailing Albertans attitudes towards rent control:
Big city support for rent control
A new poll finds that a majority of Albertans in the province’s two largest cities overwhelmingly support rent controls, which have been rejected by the Tory government.
An Ipsos-Reid survey provided exclusively to the Herald Monday found 78 per cent of home owners and 92 per cent of renters in Calgary and Edmonton support having government limits to rent increases.
“Some landlords are gouging and that’s not fair,” said Calgarian Daniel Johnson, 60, who recently received notice that rent for his one bedroom apartment is jumping to $1,075 from $575. He said although he understands that there needs to be moderate housing price increases, he strongly supports rent controls.
Renters are citizens just like everybody else and they are afforded no rights under the current system,” said Johnson, who is working to establish a tenants group in Calgary. “If there was balance throughout it would be better.
Don Braid hits it right on the mark in his article in today’s Herald:
The Tories have 19 MLAs from Calgary, one-third of their entire majority.
Theoretically, the government should be well-informed about what’s going on in the city, and how people are feeling.
Too often, though, MLAs who pass on the gritty news from the inner city are ignored. The ones who win a happy reception are more ideological Tories who say what the inner circle wants to hear.
Renters and homeowners are not feeling so ideological. They want a solution to the rent crisis.
By-Elections in Calgary Elbow and Drumheller-Stettler were called this afternoon.
Writ Day: June 12.
More detailed post coming soon.
UPDATE:
Here’s what the media is saying about the June 12 By-Elections in Calgary Elbow and Drumheller-Stettler:
Maclean’s: Cracks in Tory Monolith
Calgary Sun: Candidates off and running in Calgary Elbow and Grit feels Tories on a De-Klein
Edmonton Sun Grits anxious for Calgary Elbow
CBC: Alberta By-Elections to be held in June
770 CHQR: Former Klein Strategist Fears Riding May Go To Liberals
Dan Backs, the Independent MLA from Edmonton Manning who was kicked out of the Alberta Liberal caucus last November is seeking the Tory nomination in that riding. Backs will be running against former PC MLA Tony Vandermeer for the nomination (Backs narrowly defeated Vandermeer in 2004).
MacEwan College Political Science Professor Chaldeans Mensah described the situation perfectly:
Chaldeans Mensah, who teaches political science at MacEwan College, said Backs is “a bit opportunistic” since his prospects of re-election are slim as an independent.
The Alberta Liberals will soon nominate Edmonton Lawyer Sandeep Dhir in Edmonton Manning. I was actually quite excited when I heard Sandeep was running as I know he will be a great candidate and MLA. His community experience includes serving as President of the Edmonton Inner City Housing Society, and involvement with the Theatre Network Society and the Law Society of Alberta.
Rumour has it that Ward 3 City Councillor Janice Melnychuk is considering carrying the New Democrat flag. But more recent rumours suggest Melnychuk is having second thoughts about jumping to the provincial scene to attempt to join the four-man New Democrat caucus. Melnychuk would be a strong candidate, but I wouldn’t blame her for wanting to stick to City Council.
The area covered by Edmonton Manning has been represented by three parties over the past 21 years. As Edmonton Belmont it elected NDP MLA Tom Sigurdson (1986-1993). Since being created in 1993, Edmonton Manning has elected one Tory MLA – Tony Vandermeer (2001-2004) – and three Liberal MLA’s – Peter Sekulic (1993-1997), Ed Gibbons (1997-2001), and the breifly Liberal Dan Backs (2004-2006). Regardless, Edmonton Manning will be a hard fought race as it will likely be hotly contested by all three parites.
On another note, it’s been rumoured that Alberta Alliance leader Paul Hinman is trying to negotiate his way into the PC caucus…
Only a week after Premier Ed Stelmach ruled out using rent control to deal with the skyrocketing cost of housing and then changed his mind, PC Party delegates forced Stelmach to change his position another 180 degrees to turn against the use of rent control (again):
In the [PC] party’s annual general meeting, delegates rejected a motion to adopt the resolutions of an all-party legislature committee that had urged Premier Ed Stelmach’s Tory government to adopt rent controls.
Meanwhile, as Stelmach continues to not act on the issue, it seems like Albertans are being left to dry in a climate of skyrocketing rent costs.
Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft has been continuing to hammer the Stelmach Tories on the issue.
Liberal Leader Kevin Taft says both Premier Ed Stelmach and Housing Minister Ray Danyluk got farm support payments last year.
Taft says its ironic that they take farm support cheques but wont help people struggling with soaring housing costs by imposing rent controls.
He says some Albertans are being forced to sleep in their cars and trucks because soaring rents and a shortage of housing.
Edmonton City Councillor Michael Phair responded
“It’s very misguided,” Phair said. “There are many people who rent across the province who will be quite disappointed that the [PC] party didn’t take a different course of action.”
Long-time Calgary Alderman Joe Ceci responded:
“I think it’s indicative of the fact that the grassroots of the Tory party doesn’t have the best interests of low-income people in mind,” he said.
It seems that the Stelmach Tories have found themselves squarely on the wrong side of an explosive issue.
As someone who presented recommendations to the Affordable Housing Task Force earlier this year, it’s disappointing to see that the Provincial government hasn’t taken a strong leadership role on the issue.
Alberta’s Tories are holding their annual convention in Edmonton this weekend and I’m sure it will be less exiciting than last year’s convention.
As the Tory convention is going on in Edmonton, the waves of discontent continue to spill out on to the front pages of the Calgary dailies as Mayor Dave Bronconnier continues his massive assault on the rural-based Tory government of Premier Ed Stelmach. On the affordable housing issue, I think Bronconnier is clearly in the right. This is a province-wide issue that requires provincial leadership, not scattered municipal projects.
Graham Thomson has some interesting commentary on how Stelmach has shot himself in the foot over the affordable housing issue:
But then some Calgary journalists began poking at Stelmach. Why was he so upset with the story of one Edmonton woman? Didn’t he realize Calgary tenants have been hit by huge rent increases for months?
That’s when Stelmach unwittingly unholstered the gun and took aim at himself.
“I wasn’t aware of anybody getting a $1,000 increase,” he said. Bang.
The Calgary journalists were gobsmacked. They have been writing stories about Calgarians being hit by $1,000 rent increases since last August. There have been so many of those stories that journalists have stopped reporting on them and have moved on to heartbreaking tales of tenants being gouged by $2,000 a month rent hikes.
And here’s Stelmach saying he’s not aware of what’s going on in Alberta’s largest city. He tried to look compassionate but ended up looking clueless.
If Calgarians thought the new premier was too much of a northerner before, they must be thinking he’s from Inuvik today.
This will only add to Stelmach’s troubles in Calgary. For weeks, he’s been hammered by Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier who feels betrayed by the new provincial budget. Bronconnier says there are so many strings attached to municipal grants the city is effectively hog- tied when it comes to spending money on necessary projects such as LRT expansions.
The Stelmach government, says Bronconnier, obviously doesn’t understand the city’s issues.
Bronconnier is wildly popular in Calgary. Stelmach is not.
Does this remind you of something?
Stelmach’s position on affordable housing was made even more confusing when he did a complete 180 on his government’s position on rent controls (See: May 3 and flip to May 5).
I don’t know about you, but all this tension will sure make the upcoming by-elections in Calgary Elbow and Drumheller-Stettler interesting and leaves the opportunity open for Kevin Taft’s Alberta Liberals to make more inroads into Calgary.
For those of you interested in this sort of thing, here’s a breakdown of the financial statements of the Alberta PC‘s, Alberta Liberals, and Alberta NDP from 2006.
The individual contribution data isn’t yet available on the Elections Alberta Electoral Finance, but hopefully it will be up soon.
Though the individual contribution breakdown will give us a better idea of where the contributions are coming from, looking at the raw numbers shines a light on some interesting trends.
First, the Tories were still dominant in the money section. This is no surprise. The Alberta PC’s form the current government and have a well established fundraising base in corporate Alberta. Being the last year of the Ralph Klein dynasty, 2006 was an exiciting year for the Alberta PC’s with the attention and funds garnered from their leadership race, this is what I’m assuming a large part of the 1374% increase in “other sources” is about (membership sales, leadership candidate deposits, and the aparatus of this activity).
Second, Kevin Taft’s Alberta Liberals raised over a million dollars last year. This is quite significant since I believe the last time the Alberta Liberals raised over a million was in 1993 (twelve years of inflation aside, it is still nearly 20% higher than their 2005 fundraising numbers, which is a significant sign of growth). The Alberta Liberals have also made a significant dent in their debt (a leftover from their disaterous 2001 election campaign) and have suceeded paying off over $350,000 in just two years.
Third, though the Alberta NDP were only able to raise half of what the Alberta Liberals raised, the NDP continue to attract more contributions from less than $375 crowd than both the Alberta Liberals and Tories. I see this as significant for a number of reasons. Most significantly, when the Federal Liberals introduced Campaign Finance reform before Prime Minister Chretien retired, the Conservatives benifited greatly from having a broadly developed base of supporters who contributed smaller amounts of donations in larger amounts. That said, I’m not convinced that Alberta will see any significant campaign finance reforms before the next election (the numbers also show the NDP running a deficit and an increasing debt).
The Alberta Alliance failed to submit their financial contribution data by the deadline. Does this mean they will be deregistered? I’ll have to find my copy of the Alberta Elections Act and read up…
Come and listen to a story about a man named…
The Calgary Sun is reporting that Alberta PC MLA’s have received over $1,000,000 in extra salary for Government Members committee work over the past year on top of their MLA base salary of $74,000. Here’s a list of some PC MLA’s and their extra collection:
CASH CROP
– Ray Danyluk – $47,132
Youth Secretariat
Advanced Education Comm.
N. Alberta Dev. Council
Court Workers Program Review– Doug Griffiths – $46,998
Standing Committees of the Legislature
Agenda and Priorities Comm.
Adv. Education Comm.
MLA Task Force to launch Rural Development– Carol Haley – $47,496
Standing Policy Comm.
Treasury Board– Denis Herard – $47,106
Comm. on Workers Compensation
Alberta Mental Health Advisory Comm.
Standing Policy Comm.– Ron Liepert – $40,381
Standing Policy Comm.
Trade and Transp. Comm.
Local Authorities Election Act Review
Regulatory Review Steering Comm.
Public Affairs Bureau Review
Alberta Film Commission– Rob Lougheed – $48,872
Standing Policy Comm.
Council of Status of Persons with Disabilities
MLA AISH Review Comm.
Treasury Board– Richard Magnus – $42,666
Standing Policy Comm.
Alberta Economic Development Authority
Treasury Board– Ivan Strang – $42,407
Standing Policy Committees
Endangered Species Conservation Comm.
Treasury Board– Len Webber – $40,500
P.I. and Security Guard Review
Healthy Aging and Continuing Care Comm.
Task Force on Continuing Care Standards
Alaska-Alberta Bilateral Council
You can take a look at all Government MLA committee appointments here.
This pointed out, I don’t believe that we pay our elected officials enough. With the current base salary looking like so…
MLA Indemnity – $49,836.00
MLA Tax Free Allowance – $24,918.00
(Total) – $74,754.00
…and MLA’s expectations to attend many upon many functions in their ridings and communities during their terms, the $24,000 tax free allowance disappears very fast. This said, I don’t think loading PC MLA’s with committee work or extra perks available only to Government Members is the solution to this problem. I would be very interested to know what type of work many of these committees have produced and if this work is actually worth the extra salary only available to Alberta PC MLA’s.
On a completely different note, the floundering Alberta Alliance held it’s AGM last weekend and elected a new executive headed by a familiar face. Randy Thorsteinson, founding leader of the Alberta Alliance and former leader of the Alberta Social Credit Party, is back as President. Thorsteinson left the Alberta Alliance leadership following his defeat against Innisfail-Sylvan Lake PC MLA Luke Ouellette in the 2004 provincial election. Cardston-Taber-Warner (and lone) Alliance MLA Paul Hinman was elected leader shortly thereafter.
Oh yeah, that guy…
Defeated former Tory Dauphin-child Jim Dinning released a list of the names of individuals and corporations who contributed to his failed Alberta PC leadership bid in Fall 2006.
Though it’s only a partial list that doesn’t specify individual contribution amounts, it’s a huge list that totals over $1.7 million in donations to Team Dinning.
Oh, budget time… this was in my email box tonight…
“The long, tiring, unproductive era of bickering between the provincial and federal governments is over.” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, on the fiscal imbalance provisions of his budget today. [Umm… how about I buy him a beer if that is true in one year, and he can buy me one if some bickering occurs over equalization before then.]
Earlier today: “This is clearly a promise broken,” Calvert said. “It’s clearly a betrayal of a promise that was made not to the government of Saskatchewan but to the people of Saskatchewan.” [Hmm… I already win!]
Also, I had a meeting with Finance Minister Lyle Oberg today. I didn’t ask him what his thoughts on equalization and natural resource revenues were today…
As Nic has pointed out, the media has picked up on the equalization contradiction that I posted about earlier this week.
The Globe & Mail reported today:
OTTAWA — Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach’s office is overruling his Finance Minister and declaring that the province still opposes a controversial revamp the Harper government has planned for Canada’s equalization formula.
It is a blow to Ottawa’s hopes that opposition is dying down over a proposed new method of calculating federal payouts to poorer provinces, expected to be unveiled in Monday’s federal budget.
The move also could strain relations between the Harper government and Mr. Stelmach’s regime, federal Conservatives warn.
I’m sure there will be more than one media outlet waiting to see what both Premier Ed Stelmach and Finance Minister Lyle Oberg each individually have to say about the equalization plan federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty lays out in his budget next week.
Things are moving fast in the land of daveberta and I will have more time for some more quality substancial commentary after the end of this week.
A couple of things…
1. Alberta’s Speech from the Throne is on Wednesday. I’ll be there and will be providing my post-game thoughts following the first Speech from the Throne of the first Ed Stelmach PC government.
2. Ken Chapman and Larry Johnsrude have provided some good commentary on the recent semi-release of PC leadership campaign contributor lists from Ed Stelmach and Dave Hancock. I am in the process of writing a more detailed post about this, so look for it in the near future.
3. Just as the Federal Conservatives have finished nominating their Alberta candidates, the Federal Liberals are now beginning. The Edmonton Centre nomination date has been set for March 24. One of the candidates for nomination happens to be Nicole Martel.
4. Art Spiegelman will be speaking at the University of Alberta on Wednesday night as part of the University of Alberta Students’ Union’s Revolutionary Speakers Series.
5. Finally, on two completely non-political related points, I saw finally saw Borat this weekend and I have tickets to see The Police at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton on June 2nd!
First of all, I would just like to say that I was very glad to see The Departed emerge victorious during last weekend’s Academy Awards as Best Picture and Best Director for Martin Scorsese. Well deserved.
If you’ve noticed a break between posts, it has everything to do with the other stuff I keep myself busy with in my other life. I’m actually the campaign manager for a campaign of which I will not mention here. Ask me on March 9.
I’m looking forward to the upcoming Spring session of the Alberta Legislature. Just as I was excited when Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft announced an aggressive legislative agenda in the face of the “Conservative oppositon” as Taft called the Stelmach Tories, my good friend Duncan seems just as excited about Stelmach. It should be interesting to see how the session plays out. Rookie Premier, rookie Ministers, new dynamic within the Tory caucus. Power politics at play. Does the opposition smells blood? All-party committees? Two upcoming by-elections!
Will Alberta be raised to the level of legislative democracy shared by such beacons of democracy as the Republic of Vanuatu and the Federated States of Micronesia? We shall see.
Also, on another note, municipal politics are heating up in Edmonton as Councillors and Councillors-to-be are buying new walking shoes and warming up their campaign engines for an October 2007 election…
“With political change so rare, one-party politics has become entrenched in Alberta. The forces that drive political change in other jurisdictions – the legislature, public inquiries, interest groups, opposition parties, the media, and so on – have adapted to this reality in order to cope, or have been deliberately gutted, or have simply deteriorated to the status of a sideshow. As a result of this one-party dominance, democracy in Alberta has been pushed off the rails. It’s time to get it back on track.”
This is how Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft finishes the introduction of his new book “Democracy Derailed: The Breakdown of Government Accountability in Alberta – and How to Get it Back on Track.” I’ve had the chance to read through an advanced copy of the book and I have some thoughts as it is released today.
Democracy Derailed covers a wide range of political and ethical transparency and accountability issues in Alberta’s long-time Tory-dominated political scene. Throughout the 110-page book, Kevin Taft recounts his experiences as an MLA and leader of the Official Opposition in dealing with Alberta’s democratic deficit as well as presenting positive solutions on how to make democracy better in Alberta.
The issues addressed in the book range from Alberta’s lack of whistle-blower protection for public servants and the devolution of power from the elected Legislative Assembly to the lack of power held by Alberta’s Auditor General and the irresponsible use of FOIPP legislation to block opposition research and the lack of resources allotted to Opposition Caucus Offices in Alberta compared to those allotted to the PC Members Caucus and opposition caucuses in other provinces.
One of the interesting facts that Taft highlights is the lack of power held by Alberta’s Public Accounts Committee:
“Alberta’s Public Accounts Committee can meet once a week only when the legislature is sitting, which is all of three months per year. During approximately a dozen 90-minute meetings, the committee must review the spending of 24 provincial government departments with a combined budget of $24 billion.
That’s not all. Unlike the federal Public Accounts Committee, Alberta’s Public Accounts Committee cannot submit a report to the legislature. Legislators outside of Alberta find this restriction hard to fathom. Conservative Member of Parliament John Williams said “It’s shocking. I cannot believe a government majority would use their capacity to set the rules like that.””
According to Taft, underlying many of these problems is the near merger between the Government of Alberta and the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta (which formed government in 1971). This is problem which would occur after any political party has governed for over 30 straight years. Examples Taft uses include the appointments of partisan Tories as elections officials, the Calgary Ward 10, Kelley Charlebois, and Alberta Securities Commission scandals, the partisan nature of the Public Affairs Bureau, and the fluid movements of Rod Love and Peter Elzinga through Government, business, and the PC Party.
The book is also complemented by a website (www.democracyderailed.ca) which includes links and pdf documents sited in the book (such as Ralph Klein’s infamous plagiarized Chile paper), along with an online interactive message board and an online quiz.
The timing of the book is probably better than Taft and the Alberta Liberals had originally planned. With new and untested Tory Premier Ed Stelmach still learning the ropes, a March/April 2007 sitting of the Legislature, and a potential Fall 2007/Spring 2008 provincial election, Democracy Derailed will hopefully raise some much needed attention and debate on some serious problems facing democracy in Alberta.
I have a pretty good idea what would happen to me if I spent $29,000 in on a personal trip to Las Vegas on my work credit card…
Alberta’s Finance Department has confirmed an aide to a former MLA has paid back $29,000 in personal expenses he charged to a government credit card, including a Las Vegas hotel bill and luggage.
Sasha Angus worked at the legislature for 3½ years as an executive assistant to former MLA and economic development minister Mark Norris.
According to a 2004 memo leaked to CBC News, when Angus left government he owed $29,000 in personal expenses he had charged to his government credit card. The memo was addressed to then Finance Minister Shirley McClellan.
And it gets even more scandalously mysterious…
CBC News has asked to see the credit card records and correspondence related to the case, but the province refused.
Alberta’s Privacy Commission investigated the government’s refusal and has sided with CBC News.
“All of the records should be released in the … public interest of promoting government being open and transparent in its dealing with tax dollars,” said Privacy Commission spokesman Wayne Wood.
However, the Alberta government continues to block the release and has appealed the commission’s stand.
The office of Alberta’s auditor general also wants to see the records and wants to know why it wasn’t informed about the problem.
And from the Chair of Alberta’s Public Accounts Committee…
“This is an ideal opportunity for Mr Stelmach to keep his promise of transparency and release all government expenses,” said [Edmonton Gold Bar Liberal MLA] Hugh MacDonald, who is chair of the Public Accounts Committee. “The fact that the government refused to release the aide’s expense records to CBC throws their claim of openness and transparency right out the window.”
“It’s obvious this government is not learning from their mistakes – this is yet another example of lavish Tory spending,” added MacDonald. “What kind of control have we got on our spending? None!”
Other than this being a ridiculously outragous and irresponsible use of a public credit card, it got nearly no media attention. Had an Executive Assistant to a Minister in Ottawa benn caught spending $29,000 in Las Vegas, you can bet it would be all over the Alberta media…
