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mla salary freeze honest or politically convenient?

I suppose Albertans are supposed to be grateful about the proposed voluntary salary freeze by PC MLAs? But just how seriously should we take this move?

It was only 8 months ago, when the price of oil was rolling high, that Premier Ed Stelmach and his Cabinet gave themselves a 30% to 34% pay hike in a closed-door meeting where Ministers hiked their salaries by $42,000, to $184,000, and Stelmach’s by $54,000, to $213,450 (making Stelmach the highest paid Premier in Canada). As far as I can’t remember, none of the 71 other PC MLAs publicly questioned the pay hike.

Albertans may also remember that in another closed-door Cabinet meeting nearly a year ago, Stelmach and his cabinet changed Alberta’s proposed conflict-of-interest rules so that they wouldn’t apply to any PC Ministers retiring or defeated after the March 3, 2008 election. This decision was made behind closed doors only hours before Stelmach called the 2008 election, and exempted out-going Ministers such as former Finance Minister Lyle Oberg and Energy Minister Greg Melchin.

So, when I hear Premier Stelmach tell Albertans that PC MLAs are “going to show leadership in this regard,” I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t start showing leadership a year ago?

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Dave Taylor David Swann Ed Stelmach Hugh MacDonald Kevin Taft

david swann meets ed stelmach, and faces challenges from inside the liberal caucus.

Liberal Opposition leader David Swann and PC Premier Ed Stelmach met yesterday to discuss niceties and the upcoming provincial budget. This is a positive step for both party leaders, and I hope that for Albertans sake, some semblance of civility can be preserved between the two men.

Swann’s challenge will be to balance the ‘spirit of cooperation’ while actually providing an effective opposition to the governing PCs in the Legislature (and this is probably as difficult as it sounds). It remains to be seen if the toxically partisan environment in the Legislative Assembly will allow any civility between the two party leaders to survive when the Legislature begins sitting in February. Up until the Fall 2008 Session of the Legislature, the tension between Stelmach and former Liberal leader Kevin Taft had gotten so heated that Stelmach would frequently accuse Taft of being a Red Menace.

He must also be weary of not taking a route too close to the one taken by former Liberal leader Ken Nicol. When replacing defeated leader Nancy MacBeth in 2001, then-Lethbridge-East MLA Nicol’s quiet and polite tone made it easy for the Klein PCs to railroad over the Legislative opposition and the Raj Pannu-led NDP to garner much of the media attention, leaving the newly reduced Liberal caucus (7 MLAs elected in 2001, down from 18 in 1997) in their weakest position in over a decade.

While striking a conciliatory tone with Premier Stelmach may be a productive start, Swann is likely aware of the challenges he faces within his caucus.

Managing Edmonton-Gold Bar MLA Hugh MacDonald and Calgary-Currie MLA Dave Taylor are likely going to be key challenges in keeping the rag-tag caucus together. MacDonald, who appears to have become almost obsessed with unearthing PC scandals, has fine-tuned the exercise of crying wolf, diluting the opposition Liberals’ position on many issues. As Swann’s former leadership challenger, Taylor holds some forceful opinions on the direction of the opposition and the Liberal Party which clash with some of Swann’s ideas (not that I believe a different name will solve the Liberal Party’s organizational and psychological problems, but more on that later).

If Swann is to lead an effective opposition in the Legislature, his caucus will need to reign in wild card Hugh MacDonald, while managing Dave Taylor’s recently bruised ego.

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2009 Federal Budget Jim Flaherty Michael Ignatieff Stephen Harper

canada’s 2009 liberal budget.

Imagine that, Stephen Harper, Canada’s 10th Liberal Prime Minister?

After taking a glance at the 2009 Federal Budget released this afternoon, I’ve come to the conclusion that if didn’t know much about Canadian politics, I wouldn’t have a hard time believing that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

And though it was presented by Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, the increased spending, tax-cuts, and bailout funding for declining industries made it easy to imagine that this budget could have been presented by past Liberal Finance Ministers John Manley or Ralph Goodale.

Partisan gender-bending aside, it’s not difficult to understand why the NDP and Bloc Quebecois are opposing the budget, but it may be more difficult for Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff to effectively oppose it.

A weakness Ignatieff may be able to grab onto is the funding of municipal infrastructure development, of which many projects are set up on a 1/3, 1/3, and 1/3 funding arrangement between the Federal, Provincial, and Municipal governments. This will pose a challenge to many municipalities who cannot afford the 1/3 (or are located in provinces unwilling or unable to provide their 1/3 of the funding). This afternoon on CBC Newsworld, Flaherty suggested that in certain cases, the Federal Government could provide up to 1/2 of the funding in order to fill the gap.

A positive solution to this problem would be for the Feds to provide a loan financing or transfer program for municipalities in these situations (I’m not competely sure that one does’t already exist).

Here is a short list of some points in Budget 2009 that caught my eye:

– $12 billion infrastructure building program (including new and accelerated funds)

– $225 million over the next 3 years for broadband to unserved communities. According to University of Ottawa Professor Michael Geist, Australia has committed $4.7 billion to a similar project.

– $28.6 million over the next two years to the Canada New Media Fund, and $14.3 million annually thereafter.

– $30 million to community newspapers and magazines (not known how much will go to CanWest)

– National Securities Regulator: The Conservative Government will be moving forward with willing provinces (8 provinces, minus Alberta and Quebec) in creating a new National Securities Regulator.

– Up to $2 billion to support deferred maintenance and repair projects at Post-Secondary Institutions

Some Alberta Related:

– $130 million for twinning of Trans-Canada Highway through Banff National Park

– $37.6 million for Mackenzie Valley Gas Project (environmental assessments, coordination, and Aboriginal consultations).

– $81 million over the next two years for program management and additional assessments of federal contaminated sites, which may include Edmonton International Airport.

– Provincial-Federal Cost-sharing priority project: Telus World of Science in Calgary.

– No funding for the twinning of Highway 63 to Fort McMurray.

Word Count:

– Budget Document: Action (300 times), Tax (1,031), Spending (133). (h/t @mastermaq, @cbcnews).

– Budget Speech: Economy (29), businesses (27), recession (17), tax relief (15), stimulate (12), hope (1) (h/t the Hook)

– Mike Soron has created an entertaining wordmap of the budget speech.

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John Baird Lloyd Bertschi Stephen Mandel

municipal pre-budget wish-lists.

In advance of today’s Federal Budget release, Alberta’s municipalities have prepared their wish-lists:

– City of Calgary:

In anticipation, Calgary has provided a list of projects that could be started within 120 days, ranging from a ordable housing to new LRT lines to green initiatives.

The city, which is spending $4 billion on capital projects over the next three years, has a much more expensive list that is unfunded.

– City of Edmonton:

Edmonton has identified $2.4 billion worth of projects that could start immediately if federal funding becomes available in Tuesday’s budget.

These include the $825-million extension of the LRT from downtown to NAIT, $462
million for new buses and $50 million to revitalize 118th Avenue.

– City of Lethbridge:

Lethbridge Mayor Bob Tarleck echoed those sentiments, saying tax cuts are not the answer.

Instead, he said, the government needs to do something “sharply focused” on a short-term basis, such as labour intensive infrastructure programs.

Tarleck suggested the creation of affordable housing or retrofitting existing housing to make it more energy efficient, would help the economy and those living on the streets.

– Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel also joined other Big Cities Mayors in calling for accelerated infrastructure funding.

– The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association:

…(AUMA) is encouraged to learn that tomorrow’s federal budget will contain new dollars for infrastructure projects, including for green infrastructure, in time to fight the recession.

AUMA President Lloyd Bertschi says this commitment today by federal Infrastructure Minister John Baird, along with the federal government’s pledge to accelerate existing infrastructure funding, will create thousands of new jobs and speed up much-needed repairs to Alberta’s municipal infrastructure

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Uncategorized

why does canada still have a governor general?

After yesterday’s 7 minute and 30 second Speech from the Throne, I have some serious questions about the purpose of the Governor General in Canada (questions like, why do we still see fit to continue having a Governor General?). I posed this question on twitter, and received some great responses (I feel like @ricksanchezcnn!).

Question: davecournoyer Could someone please remind me why we have a Governor General?

Responses:

crazydan @davecournoyer I wish we have a “strong” republican movement in Canada like Australia. But that’s a long-shot dream.

dkaszor @davecournoyer To take ceremonial and some diplomatic duties off of the plate of the PM.

CitizenFish @davecournoyer Oh, you know. “Tradition”

bgrier @davecournoyer Uh, in case the government has ‘…fallen and can’t get up.’?

ConalPierse @davecournoyer Because somebody needs to wear all those fancy capes we have lying around, and Mr Dress-up is gone, man. Gone

glenkruger @davecournoyer so the PM can tell them what to do

djkelly @davecournoyer Because no federal politician wants to re-open the constitution

jdarrah @davecournoyer I have no idea. “Throne” is keeping Canada from an identity as a place in the world.

phendrana @davecournoyer To represent the state in a non-partisan fashion – sometimes it is really needed. She was doing a different function today.

KenChapman46 @davecournoyer To give retired CBC on-air people a job?

chrishenderson @davecournoyer those sad European monuments don’t tour themselves.

keppykarpala @davecournoyer not only that but why is the Queen still the head of state? It’s all about tradition and ritual.

AB_get_rich @davecournoyer Because its one of the few visible things that make us not American.

chigaze @davecournoyer http://tinyurl.com/24dlww 😉

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Alberta Oil Sands Robert Silver

an oil sands poker face?

Just how strong a hand are the Oil Sands for the Provincial and Federal Government to play with the new Obama Administration? Not very, according to Robert Silver.

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Ed Stelmach Norman Kwong RCMP Investigation

air ed.

The Alberta’s taxpayer-funded Government’s fleet of airplanes flew empty 230 times in 2008.

Now, I have no problem with the Government owning and using airplanes, but it should be as cost and time efficient as possible, and this doesn’t seems to be the case:

“Government officials have said an Edmonton-Calgary flight in one of the fleet’s Beechcraft King-Air planes costs about $3,000. That works out to about $1,500 a seat, if there’s just two passengers.“

A WestJet Edmonton-Calgary return-flight would cost an estimated $342.65. That’s over $1,100 more affordable (if the $1,500 is referring to a return flight, which I’m not sure that it is). The Edmonton Journal article reports that Lieutenant Governor Norman Kwong took 94 one-way flights last year, and Premier Ed Stelmach took 93 flights in 2008 and 111 in 2007 (often between Edmonton and Calgary).

It’s probably pretty cool to have access to your own fleet of airplanes, but if the PCs are serious about trimming costs (a position which seems to change by the week), they should start with their own perks.

On the topic of the taxpayer-funded Government airplanes, the RCMP are continuing their investigation (which included raids of Alberta Justice and Service Alberta offices) into criminal conduct in the falsification of a misleading government memo submitted into a 2005 public inquiry conducted by Alberta’s Information and Privacy Commissioner.

The public inquiry attempted to determine why Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation delayed release of the flight logs of the taxpayer-funded airplanes, and 2007, the Privacy Commissioner ruled (pdf) that the PC Government deliberately withheld the flight log information for political purposes until after the 2004 election.

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Affordable Housing Brian Heidecker Carl Amrhein Indira Samarasekera Sol Rolingher Tuition University of Alberta

live-blogging/freezing against the fees.

7:48am – I’m standing outside University Hall at the University of Alberta with over 500 students who got up early to protest tuition and residence fee increases. It’s freezing cold outside, so it’s really great to see so many people out facing the cold and being active citizens!

8:00am – I’m now sitting in University Hall and there’s a nervous tension in the air. The Board of Governors are sitting, preparing for their meeting while the chants of “access now!” are coming from just outside room.

8:03am – The meeting has begun and I’m thinking this might be painful to live-blog. The Board Chair Brian Heidecker is now talking about agenda items. I think he might rival Premier Ed Stelmach for charisma.

8:06am – Chairman Heidecker is now praising Barack Obama.

8:16am – Not sure who the Governors of Alberta’s largest public post-secondary institution are? Here’s a list:

William Cheung, Gordon Clanachan, Marc de La Bruyère, Brian Heidecker, John Hoddinott, J.D. Hole, Agnes Hoveland, Linda Hughes, Michael Janz, Don Matthew, Janelle Morin, Jay Nagendran, George Pavlich, Gerard Protti, Sol Rolingher, Oliver Rossier, Indira Samarasekera, Bruce Saville, Don Sieben, Ben Whynot, Dick Wilson

4 women, 17 men. Pretty reflective of the Alberta’s population, student population, etc, etc, etc…

8:21am – President Samarasekera is now talking about India and CANDU nuclear reactors. Here’s an interesting read on that topic (h/t @AB_get_rich).

8:25am – Holy Web 2.0, Batman! Governor Michael Janz is tweeting from the meeting.

8:32am – Provost Carl Amrhein is about to start their presentation to justify this year’s tuition hike. Amrhein takes the time to preemptively call the student position ‘inaccurate‘ before starting his presentation.

8:37am – I’m curious how many people in this room find themselves in this category?

8:44am – University VP Finance Phyllis Clark is presenting the ‘institutional budget risks.’ Just about as exciting as it sounds.

8:49am – GSA President Ben Whynot is schooling the Board Members on the responsibility of Governors towards the institution while starting the presentation from Graduate Students. “Dissatisfaction with current investments” includes funding disparities across departments, hefty differential fees for international students, & lack of access to childcare for graduate students. U of A Graduate students accessing childcare pay an average of +$700 per month (it may be just me, but that sounds like a lot!)

9:02am – Thinking about how difficult it must be for Governors to actually wade through the positions of the administration and the students. How do you tell what is reality and what is positioning and agendas?

9:08am – Students’ Union President Janelle Morin is beginning her presentation. Commenting on students’ role on the board. “My obligation to highlight one area where the University is falling short” “gaps between students school costs and their expected revenue flow” “tuition is poised to pass $5,000 this year“

9:15am – Morin: Average accumulated debt for a U of A undergraduate student is $23,000. Over half of undergraduate students graduate with debt.

9:18am – Morin: Average earnings of an Albertan with a Bachelors Degree: Men: $70,000; Women $54,000.

Students’ Union summary: improve access, improve quality.

9:21am – Heidecker has opened the floor to questions and observations from the Administration and the Board members on the three presentations. Having been to this kind of meeting in previous years, I know the kind of gold mine for quotes this can be. Let’s go!

Provost Amrhein – ‘Post-secondary education is a shared responsibility between the Government and the people.’ Shouldn’t the Government be the people?

9:28am – Calling this meeting frustrating would be an understatement. Can someone convince me to run to become the Students’ Union Board of Governors Representative? They’re all wearing nice suits. Maybe I’d be able to get a nice suit too? I don’t think I’d wear a suit. This board needs less ‘suits.’

9:31am – Governor Sol Rolingher: “I made the decision to have a child while in University. It happened. I don’t know why.” Rolingher then went on to explain that ‘it is a herculean task to overcome financial deprivation, but it’s part of being on campus and learning.’ (rough quote). Keep in mind that he said this while wearing a very very nice business suit. Doesn’t it make you feel better that this public board is filled with men of the people like Rolingher?

9:43am – Provost Amhrein: The tuition increase covers salaries and benefits.

From Maclean’s:

“According to the University of Alberta’s fiscal statements for year ended March 31, 2007, U of A president Indira Samarasekera was paid $591,000 in salary and benefits. Her Number Two, provost Carl Amrhein, earned even more: $599,000.“

9:48am – 4.1% tuition increase passed. 17-3. Barely any debate from the Public Members of the Board. Alumni Representatives Dick Wilson and William Cheung voted for the increase. In 2008, Alumni Rep Ruth Kelly took a stand and voted against the increase.

10:15am – The presentations regarding residence rent increases are done. Good presentations all around. The University is still dealing with massive deferred maintenance costs caused by the cutbacks in the 1990s. Students are facing a 8% increase, giving students a 30%/$1000 increase since 2006 = $220 per month increase since 2006.

10:30am – Governor Michael Janz “the policy of student housing by our provincial government is unfortunate” “concerned that we are pricing students out” “original 6.4% increase in 2006 was supposed to be an emergency deferred maintenance cost. We are facing so much deferred maintenance costs that I’m afraid we’ll continue putting the cost onto students” “I’m concerned that this is contributing to an unsustainable levels of costs that we’re putting on students.“

10:32am – The meeting is still going. Call me a cynic, but I’m going to assume that the rent increase will pass with about the same amount of debate and similar vote tally as the tuition vote. Two and a half hours after the meeting began, life calls and I must depart. Thanks for tuning in!

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Uncategorized

restricted access.

You probably don’t know it, but when you wake up at 7am tomorrow morning to the sound of your alarm clock, the Board of Governors of the University of Alberta will be preparing to increase student fees for the 2009/2010 academic year.

Held at the ungodly hour of 7am each year, tomorrow morning’s BOG meeting will increase tuition fees by CPI and hike residence rent by 8%. This means that over the past 3 years, Alberta students living in residences at the U of A have seen their rent increase by almost 30% (over $1,000). Put another way: residence rates at the U of A will have increased by $220 per month since 2006 (private University-area housing has only seen an average increase of $205 per month since 2006).

Highlighting the challenges created by increased costs, the U of A Students’ Union has been running the Restricted Access campaign and will be showing their presence at a rally tomorrow morning. I will be joining them and may have a chance to post my thoughts live from the Board of Governors meeting if I can get a seat.

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Alberta Teachers' Association

the judge has a nose ring.

‘The Future: It’s why Teachers Teach,‘ is the slogan used in a new set of new TV and billboard ads from the Alberta Teachers’ Association that will run over the next couple of months. You can watch the TV ads here and here.

With the agreed ‘labour peace‘ between the Teachers’ Association and the Provincial Government set to last for another 4 years, it will be very interesting to watch how the ATA would react to potential cuts to education funding in the upcoming years.

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Anniversaries

4 years blogging.

I almost forgot, but this blog celebrated it’s 4th anniversary on January 20. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been blogging at daveberta since January 2005!

A big thank you to everyone for reading, contributing, and helping make this blog what it has become!

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Afghanistan Alberta Oil Sands Alison Redford Archie McLean Ed Stelmach Kent Hehr Lorne Gibson

alberta politics this week.

1) With inspiration from Barack Obama and Malcolm Gladwell, Jason Morris at Gauntlet.ca has some thoughtful insights on Alberta’s political environment.

2) Oil Sands Smog. An Environment Canada study obtained under the Access to Information Act predicts that sulfur dioxide will rise by up to 34 per cent by 2017 and nitrous oxides will rise by up to 24 per cent. Are you ready for acid rain in Fort McMurray?

3) While Chief Electoral Officer Lorne Gibson has called for increased transparency and accountability in party leadership races, Kent Hehr is asking Minister Alison Redford why Alberta Justice isn’t investigating 16 violations of election finances rules uncovered between 2006 and 2007 (including at least one violation committed by his party).

4) How are Alberta’s financial and economic prospects, Premier Ed Stelmach? Good, really bad, not as bad as I told you 24 hours ago, and rosy depending on which day of the week it is.

5) Good luck and safe travels to Journal reporter Archie McLean on his trip to Afghanistan. You can follow Archie’s Afghan tour at Assignment Afghanistan.

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Deficiencies of Parliamentary Democracy

alright throne speech – beat that.

United States President Barack Obama’s Inaugural speech.

(title h/t @ChromeSushi @amy_sparkplug)

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Environment UK Conservatives

uk conservatives gone green.

This shouldn’t be news to anyone who pays regular attention to the politics of the United Kingdom (as I know many of this blog’s readers do), but I found this article about the U.K. Conservatives move towards greener policies quite interesting.

Though it’s only an ocean away, the contrasts between the British Tories and North American Conservatives on environmental issues seems quite stark.

(h/t HughBartling.com)

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Alberta Oil Sands Michael Ignatieff

michael ignatieff on alberta’s tar sands.

(h/t Scott Ross)

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