Intergovernmental Archives - Page 2 of 5

Frustrations of a FOIPP applicant- the case of the Alberta Pension Plan (Part 1)

24Mar

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Government Finances, Intergovernmental, Opinion/Research, Politics

Frustrations of a FOIPP applicant- the case of the Alberta Pension Plan (Part 1)

Updated 25 March 2024 Last summer the Globe and Mail ran a series of important articles about the failure of Canada’s freedom of information legislation to provide meaningful information to the public. While this issue is endemic across provincial and federal governments, the series singled out Alberta’s FOIPP (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy) system as being especially vexatious. Specifically, The Globe initially sought basic information about the tracking system requests for “data fields from each ministry’s FOI tracking system, such as when requests were received and completed and whether any information was provided.” The Alberta government, unlike every other jurisdiction in Canada, denied The Globe’s requests, claiming “no records” existed – even thoug...

22Nov

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Energy, Environment, Intergovernmental, Politics

Where is Brian Jean? Alberta Energy and Mines Minister Missing in Action

Updated 2 December 2023 I receive about two to three dozen emails from the Government of Alberta news service (Alberta.ca/News) each week. These emails keep me up to speed with what is going on with the Government of Alberta. Perhaps half of these releases are not significant recognizing special holidays or special days or weeks that government ministers or departments wish to acknowledge. Some are for junkets of MLAs travelling to various conferences. Perhaps 10 per cent are substantive and feature the premier and the relevant minister issuing statements which are picked up by the media. Many coincide with major news conferences such as the recent one on health care reforms. Most unusual these past six months has been the virtual non-presence of the Minister of Energy and Mi...

16Nov

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Economic Data, Energy, Environment, Intergovernmental, Opinion/Research, Politics

Alberta 5, Ottawa 2- Re. Impact Assessment Act (Part 2)

Before turning to the dissenting opinion, it may be instructive to note some of the key points made by the Alberta Court of Appeal (ABCA) in their 10 May 2022 reference decision. The reference opinion may be found at CanLit. ABCA Majority In the majority ABCA opinion, considerable space was devoted to the history, purpose and scope, of the section 92A resource amendment (paras 74-83). The majority contended Provincial governments should not be faulted for focussing their attention on matters important to their citizens. That includes not only the environment but also the economy. It is a false dichotomy to suggest that the two are mutually exclusive. Without a strong economy, a province’s ability to respond to the needs of its citizens, including meeting the challenges of climate chang...

Alberta Pension Plan- conversation with retired professors at UofA

6Nov

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Demographics, Economic Data, Employment, Financial Institutions, Intergovernmental, Opinion/Research, Politics

Alberta Pension Plan- conversation with retired professors at UofA

I was excited to present to retired professors from the University of Alberta last Thursday my views on the marketing campaign by the Alberta government to "engage" the public on the supposed benefits of an Alberta pension plan. My focus was on the political messaging. The Youtube video can be viewed here. The political messaging created by the Government of Alberta is an expensive communications effort (close to $10-million of Albertans’ tax dollars). The friendly website "Alberta Pension Plan" begins with “What’s in it for you.” The web page design is classically an appeal to Albertans’ sense of place and community with pictures of the Rockies and foothills and wistful pictures of a handsome seniors’ couple. The pitch focuses mainly on the benefits that would be supposed...

The Premier’s Renewables Moratorium Fails Her Constituents in Medicine Hat

3Sep

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Employment, Energy, Environment, Intergovernmental, Politics

The Premier’s Renewables Moratorium Fails Her Constituents in Medicine Hat

Updated with related information 4 September 2023. This post is contributed by Dr. Ian Urquhart who is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta. He is the author of Costly Fix: Power, Politics, and Nature in the Tar Sands published by University of Toronto Press in 2019. Representing a local constituency – this duty distinguishes the responsibilities of a Canadian premier from their closest American counterparts, state governors. Premier Smith showed little concern for those responsibilities when she slapped an industry-wide seven month moratorium on approving new renewable energy projects. The billions of investment dollars put at risk by the moratorium includes hundreds of millions of dollars in solar for her constituency of Brooks-Medicine Hat. DP Energy ...

Danielle Smith’s cabinet policy committees

9Jul

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Energy, Intergovernmental, Opinion/Research, Politics

Danielle Smith’s cabinet policy committees

Updated 10July 2023 On Thursday 6 July, Premier Danielle Smith announced the formation of her cabinet policy committees. These five committees, in addition to the statutory Treasury Board committee chaired by the Treasury Board President and Finance Minister Nate Horner, reflect the government’s key policy priorities for the next four years. The names of the committees are Alberta First Building Communities Economic Diversification Public Safety and Wellness and Legislative Review Committee. All committees are chaired by non-cabinet members and have a balanced number of backbench MLAs and cabinet ministers. In this brief I examine the significance and role of the committees as well as taking a more in depth look at the published backgrounds of the backbench chairs. “I want to thank the ...

The Conversation-Will Danielle Smith stay moderate or move back to the right — and towards Alberta separatism?

15Jun

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Credit Ratings, Environment, Health, Intergovernmental, Opinion/Research

The Conversation-Will Danielle Smith stay moderate or move back to the right — and towards Alberta separatism?

This article was published on 15 June 2023 in The Conversation. Reproduced with permission from The Conversation. With a fresh and workable majority, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is facing the choice of conforming to her moderate election stance or pushing the strategies of various quasi-separatist groups like Take Back Alberta and Project Confederation. If she opts to move from the centre to the far right again, controversies involving the federal government, government workers and environmentalists will ensue. As a political scientist, former Alberta public servant, financial institution executive and university administrator and researcher, I have been watching politics in Alberta for more than 40 years. At the present time, political pundits are contemplating how Smith, with a fre...

<strong>OSFI’s new guidelines: A step toward making banks and insurers more conscious of their climate impacts</strong>

22Mar

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Banks, Energy, Environment, Intergovernmental

OSFI’s new guidelines: A step toward making banks and insurers more conscious of their climate impacts

This article of mine was published yesterday in The Conversation. Reproduced with permission from The Conversation. After an extensive consultation process, the organization that supervises banks and large insurance companies in Canada — the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) — has released guidelines for financial institutions to address climate change. This is timely, considering banks and insurers are massive funders of the fossil fuel industry. The release of the guidelines, called the B-15, comes more than a year after a January 2022 pilot study by Canada’s central bank and OSFI on how resilient financial institutions would be under new climate policies. The study found that the creditworthiness of oilsands producers is expected to fall over the next few ...

Budget Speech- Annotated and The Economic Consequences of Mr. Toews

9Mar

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Budget, Credit Ratings, Employment, Energy, Fiscal History, Government Finances, Intergovernmental, Opinion/Research

Budget Speech- Annotated and The Economic Consequences of Mr. Toews

Budget Speech delivered on Tuesday 28 February 2023, Legislative Assembly of Alberta Mr. Speaker, I count it a tremendous honour to rise in the House today to present Budget 2023 – the fifth I have presented on behalf of Albertans. In the fall of 2019, I put forward a four-year plan to bring the province back to fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget. In some respects, these past four years have felt like a century – in part, due to the extraordinary global challenges we faced but also because of how far we’ve come. When, as a government, we took office in 2019, Alberta had an economy that was flat-lined, and we were spending $10 billion more than comparable provinces on services, without better outcomes. Our plan to strengthen Alberta’s economic foundation was two-fold: First, to bri...

30Jan

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Energy, Environment, Intergovernmental, Politics

Smith to Trudeau- Olive branch or iron fist in a velvet glove?

Last Thursday, Premier Danielle Smith wrote Prime Minister Trudeau about the “just transition” legislation that the Liberal government will introduce this year. At first blush this letter was seen as an “olive branch”. In Smith’s words:- We can continue with the endless court challenges, legislation to protect jurisdictional rights and inflammatory media coverage over our disagreements, or, as is my strong preference, Alberta and Ottawa can work in partnership on a plan that will signal to all Canadians and investors from around the world that our governments have cooperatively designed a series of incentives and initiatives intended to achieve the following objectives The attempt to dial down the rhetoric may be her government’s response to internal party polling that indicates fights ...