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Alberta Royalty Review Alberta Tar Sands Peter Valentine

suiting up for spring session #2: the valentine report.

Just in time for the Spring Session of the Alberta Legislature to start, former Auditor General Peter Valentine’s long-time coming report, “Building Confidence: Improving Accountability and Transparency in Alberta’s Royalty System,” on the accountability of Alberta’s oil and gas royalty review collection system has been released and the reaction seems to be a bit scattered…

Disappointing Valentine royalty report makes things murkier than ever (Paul Simons, Edmonton Journal)

New report looks like a whitewash (Graham Thomson, Edmonton Journal)

No “super-ministry” needed to handle royalties (CBC)

Valentine’s massacre more like a pillow fight (Don Braid, Calgary Herald)

I Read Dunn and Valentine and I Still Don’t Know If Albertans Are Getting Their Fair Share of Royalties (Ken Chapman)

Gov’t says it may have gotten it wrong (Edmonton Sun)

A Billion Questions (Jeff Cummings, Metro)

Royalty Regime up in the air (Neil Waugh, Edmonton Sun)

Public Confidence Continues to Erode in Department of Energy (Alberta Liberals)

Valentine Report New Spin on Bad News (Alberta NDP)

Expect this to be a hot topic when Spring Session begins…

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Blogs Federal Liberals

daveberta.ca leaving liblogs.ca

Just a quick note to let readers know that I’ve officially requested to be removed from liblogs.ca. As I no longer associate myself or this blog with the Liberal Party of Canada, it seemed like the honest thing to do (as opposed to the dishonest thing to do). As previously mentioned, I haven’t held a membership or been active with the Liberal Party of Canada for a couple of years and the recent quality of federal-level leadership from all parties have convinced me to keep my federal partisanship at an equal null (also, if someone figures out what the Liberal Party of Canada is standing for today, please let me know).

Like many politically active and aware Canadians, I’ve had a difficult time getting excited about politics with the current lack of political leadership in this country. This has led to a pretty strong disenchantment with the current pack of political leaders. Though I continue to support individual MPs and candidates on the federal scene (such as Elizabeth May, Irwin Cotler, Jim Wachowich, Olivia Chow, and Nathan Cullen), I can’t help but wonder what the days of Canada’s exciting leaders felt like – Lester B. Pearson, Robert Stanfield, Pierre Trudeau, etc and etc. I’m sure that I’m not the only Canadian look forward to the day when we will again witness some real debate on the federal political scene in Canada.

One would have hoped that three well-educated leaders like Stephen Harper (M.A. in Economics from the University of Calgary), Stéphane Dion (Ph.D. from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris), and Jack Layton (M.A. from York University) would be able to raise the level of debate in the House of Commons, but it seems to have degenerated into something that would be more appropriate to a group of political bloggers…

Even imagining what the days of notable provincial leaders – Peter Lougheed, Allan Blakeney, Bill Davis, and René Lévesque – felt like leaves this politico wondering how Canadians ended up with their current (and for a large part uninteresting) group of provincial premiers. Is being boring an electoral strategy? Premiers Ed Stelmach and Dalton McGuinty would certainly lend credence to this theory.

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Canadian Politics Edmonton-Strathcona Rahim Jaffer

dear rahim jaffer, mp edmonton-strathcona.


Above is a pamphlet mailed out by my MP, and below is a letter signed and sent by my house mate and I to Rahim Jaffer, the Edmonton-Strathcona Member of Parliament in question.

Rahim Jaffer, M.P.
7516 Gateway Blvd.
Edmonton, AB T6E 6E8

April 6, 2008

Dear Mr. Jaffer,

On April 4, 2008, we received a pamphlet from your office featuring a
graphic of Jack Layton’s giant floating head and a hopelessly out of
scale CN Tower. We were somewhat puzzled as to why our
Conservative MP would be advertizing for the NDP until we noticed the
text, “NDP Opposition: Selling Out Hard-Working Alberta Families.”

As these types of pamphlets seem to be the only type of
correspondence that we receive from your office, we can only assume
that your full-time job as a member of the governing party is not to
govern, but to attack the opposition (which already finds itself in a
weakened position without your help).

As two constituents and voters in Edmonton-Strathcona, we would
much rather see you earn your re-election through hard work rather
than American-style smear tactics which I can only imagine contribute
to the decision of hordes of voters who chose to not participate in our
democracy. As we evaluate our voting options in anticipation of the
next federal election, we hope that you refocus on representing us,
your constituents, rather than the Conservative Party war room.

Govern yourself accordingly,

(The Undersigned)

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bad zombie movies

violence of the lambs.

If you’re looking for a movie to rent this weekend (because of all the snow, if you’re in Edmonton…), here’s what happens when good sheep go baaad…

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Alberta Views Magazine

alberta views magazine blog.


As you can probably tell from the title of this post, Alberta Views Magazine has launched a blog.

As part of their new endeavour into cyberspace, the good folks at the Alberta Views Blog will be issuing a series of challenges to Albertans every month. I took them up on their first challenge and this is what resulted…

For those of you not familiar with Alberta Views, it’s a great Alberta-based magazine focusing on the “unique political, social and cultural life of Alberta from a progressive perspective.” And they do a pretty good job at it.

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Alberta Politics Ken Kowalski

suiting up for spring session #1.

With the Spring Session of the Alberta Legislature set to begin on April 14, here’s a part of the pre-game show that I will be spotlighting over the next ten days…

– Back for a 9th season. It’s unlikely that anyone in the Tory caucus will take a run to unseat the Boss Hogg of Alberta politics from his throne. Yep, I’m speaking of Speaker Ken Kowalski (Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock). Kowalski was re-elected to his 9th term in the Assembly on March 3 after having been first elected MLA in 1979 (which also happens to be the same year that the Dukes of Harzzard aired…).

– Keep an eye on the guy from the north. After getting the boot in Tory Premier Ed Stelmach’s post-election cabinet, Guy Boutilier (Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo) might not be too happy-go-lucky about his new backbench real estate (in both Legislature office and assembly seating terms). Boutilier was first elected MLA in 1997 after serving as Mayor of Wood Buffalo. If anything, he’ll at least have former Klein-era Ministers Heather Forsyth (Calgary-Fish Creek) and Pearl Calahasen (Lesser Slave Lake) to keep him company in the backbenches…

– New faces in the 11-member opposition. Newly elected Alberta Liberals Kent Hehr (Calgary-Buffalo) and Darshan Kang (Calgary-McCall), and New Democrat Rachel Notley (Edmonton-Strathcona) are the new faces in Alberta’s opposition benches. It will also be interesting to see how Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft (Edmonton-Riverview) and New Democrat leader Brian Mason (Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood) carry themselves in this session following their setbacks in the March 3 election.

– Who art thou? With Tory MLA Sharaz Shariff’s defeat to Darshan Kang in Calgary-McCall, the Assembly will be looking for a new Deputy Chair of Committees. Following the last election, Shariff was outsted as Deputy Speaker by fellow Tory MLA Richard Marz (Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills) in a seemingly obvious Rural clique v. Calgary power struggle in the Tory caucus. Though most all Albertans could probably care less who the Deputy Speaker and Deputy Chair of Committees are, they are important indicators of the power politics of the governing caucus.

– License Plates. As far as I can tell, Heather Klimchuck (Edmonton-Glenora), a rookie Tory MLA and Minister of Service Alberta is going to be spending most of her time overseeing the important project of designing Alberta’s new licence plate.

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Uncategorized

what about alberto-canadian?

Looks like we’re a country of mutts. Your’s truly included.

About 53 per cent of the province’s population reported having more than one ethnic origin in 2006, compared with 48 per cent in 2001.

Across the country, the proportion of people who reported multiple ancestries was 41 per cent in 2006, compared with 38 per cent in 2001.

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Alberta Tar Sands Exxon Mobil Corporation Imperial Oil Kearl Lake

and in oily tar sands news…

Habitat – 1
Imperial Oil – 0 (well, not really zero, but for the purpose of this post…)

A major oil sands expansion has been thrown into doubt as it has lost a critical permit to proceed. The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has revoked the water permit for Imperial Oil’s Kearl expansion in the Athabasca oil sands.

A spokesman from the DFO said “[Imperial Oil has been notified by letter that they are not authorized to procees with any works or undertakings that will cause harmful alteration or disruption or destruction of fish habitats or that destroys fish.”

Imperial Oil is majority owned by the Exxon Mobil Corporation.

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Federal Liberals

shhhh…

…don’t tell anybody that I’m running.

UPDATE: Here’s the list…

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Uncategorized

100-miles from your kitchen table.

After picking up Discovering the Unknown Landscape: A History of America’s Wetlands by Ann Vileisis while I continue my research on wetlands habitat protection, I stumbled upon an online video interview Vileisis gave on her newer book, Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get it Back.

Kitchen Literacy sounds like a fascinating book and as I am planning to spend part of my summer seeing how long I can last on the 100-mile diet, I plan to pick up Vileisis’ book and give it a read.

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AEUB Alberta Politics

and the award goes to…

With the Spring Session of the Alberta Legislature set to begin in just only weeks, the provincial scene is starting to come alive again after the post-election hangover/depression is starting to wear off (depending on which side of the Legislature your team is sitting on)…

– The Alberta Liberal Caucus was sworn-in today. The 9-member Official Opposition will include new faces Kent Hehr (Calgary-Buffalo) and Darshan Kang (Calgary-McCall). The Alberta Liberals recently announced their shadow cabinet which includes Hehr taking Justice and Attorney General, Solicitor-General and Public Security, and Kang taking Transportation and Service Alberta.

– Alberta MLAs are getting a 4.7% raise this week (their salaries are tied to an annual adjustment). We’lla ll be looking forward to seeing newly elected Tory MLA Carl Benito (Edmonton-Mill Woods) come through on his election promise to donate his salary to a scholarship program.

– After six-months on the job, Alberta Energy and Utilities Board Chairman William Tillman has resigned. Tillman took over the position following last year’s AEUB spy scandal, in which it was discovered that the provincially-appointed AEUB had used public funds to hire a private investigator to spy on central Alberta landowners and their lawyers.

– And the awards goes to… Tory Premier Ed Stelmach for placing a strong second in the Fossil Fool of the Year Awards…

Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach has won the dubious title of Fossil Fool of the Year runner-up, beating out several of North America’s top energy and automaker chief executives.

Stelmach picked up 25 per cent of more than 6,000 votes cast worldwide and will be crowned ‘Canadian Fossil Fool of the Year’ on Tuesday, April 1 by San Francisco-based organizer, Energy Action Coalition.

The premier was nominated in the international vote for his staunch support of oilsands development in northern Alberta with “the potential to lay waste to an area the size of the state of Florida,” says the coalition.

Stelmach finished second in voting behind Bank of America chief executive Ken Lewis, who has attracted the ire of environmentalists for funding various coal-power projects.

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Mary Robinson

mary robinson in edmonton.

Former Irish President Mary Robinson will be speaking in Edmonton this week.

This year’s lecture, a signature event in the U of A centenary crown, is scheduled for Wednesday April 2, starting at 7:30 p.m. at the Citadel Theatre.

Tickets are on sale at the U of A International Centre or through the Citadel Theatre 780-425-1820.

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Be Arthurs Born Ruffians Miriam Smith Oh Susanna Rainer Knopff Ted Morton Varscona Theatre

no morton points scored here.

After having spent most of my day sitting in Rutherford Library pouring over a series of response articles between the Ted Morton and Rainer Knopff duo and the feisty Miriam Smith, I think my brain is very close to reaching the ‘mush’ point. As interesting as I find the Court Party debate, I think I’ll save writing a post about it until later…

I had some good solid fun checking out the Born Ruffians show at the Velvet Undergroud this weekend. The Born Ruffians are on tour now, so I’d recommend you check them out if they’re playing in a town near you… you should also check out their MySpace page for some sample songs. Here’s the video for their song ‘Hummingbird’…

And of course, as I seem to do at the end of month, I was at Oh Susanna at the Varscona Theater last night. If you haven’t been, you should. They put on a good show and rarely disappoint. The Be Arthurs were there too and gave the audience a hilarious rendition of Bitches ain’t Shit.

If you’ve never heard the Be Arthurs, here’s a clip from one of their live shows.

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Boycott Beijing Summer Olympics 2008

it’s easy to boycott beijing’s summer olympics.

If you haven’t read it already, make sure to check out Naheed Nenshi’s op-ed in yesterday’s Calgary Herald in which he articulately explains why he will be joining a growing list of Canadians in deciding to individually boycott the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Nenshi gives a shout out to bloggers who have jumped on the Boycott Beijing 2008 effort (this blog specifically. Thanks, Naheed!), but if you’re looking for more information on the Boycott Beijing 2008 movement you can check out my previous post, Laura at We Move to Canada, and Reporters sans frontières.

In more recent news, French President Nicholas Sarkozy has stated that he may boycott the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games in protest of the recent situation in Tibet.

“Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, has led a chorus of European criticism over China’s actions in Tibet, refusing to rule out a boycott of the Olympic Games opening ceremony.

The publicity gained by anti-China protesters abroad have generated a fiercer response to China’s actions in Tibet

“I don’t close the door to any option. I want dialogue to begin and I will graduate my response according to the response given by Chinese authorities,” Mr Sarkozy said.”

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Alberta Politics

doug horner, alberta’s minister of advanced education health & technology

And here I thought Raj Sherman (Edmonton-Meadowlark) was the Parliamentary Secretary to Health & Wellness Minister Ron Liepert (Calgary-West), but according to the mandate letter sent this week by Tory Premier Ed Stelmach to Advanced Education & Technology Minister Doug Horner (Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert)…

You will work with the Minister of Health and Wellness to:
• Increase access to quality health care and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health care service delivery, and
• Ensure Alberta has the health care professionals we need to meet future demand, and

Lead the following initiatives:
• Increase the number of physician graduates from 227 to 295 by 2012;
• Increase the number of Registered Nurse graduates from 1,375 to 2,000 by 2012; and
• Increase the number of Licensed Practical Nurse graduates from 559 to 1000 by 2012.

Doug Horner’s mandate letter seems to have more to do with Liepert’s portfolio than his own. Maybe after his tenure in Education, Stelmach wants someone to keep a close eye on Minister Liepert…

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