Politics Archives - Page 9 of 12

Presentation to the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs

26Apr

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Agencies, Intergovernmental, Opinion/Research, Politics

Presentation to the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs

On 31 March I made the following presentation to the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs about my Parkland paper Can AIMCo be Fixed? You can view the presentation on Youtube here. The discussion after the presentation was stimulating and wide ranging and highlighted concerns about government politicians interfering with public sector pensions. The Medicine Hat News had a story about the presentation on 13 April 2022. Below are my speaking notes and below that is a PDF of revised slide deck. (One of the numbers in Figure 2 had to be restated.) "Good afternoon everyone! I am speaking to you from Treaty 6 territory, a traditional gathering place for diverse Indigenous peoples including the Cree, Blackfoot, Métis, Nakota Sioux, and many others whose histories,...

27Feb

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Budget, Economic Data, Energy, Government Finances, Opinion/Research, Politics

Budget 2022: the 2023 election begins

Analysis and Opinion On Thursday afternoon, 24 February Travis Toews tabled his fourth budget. From the standpoint of the United Conservative Party, the budget was an unadulterated triumph. Sure, higher oil prices had something to do with the anticipated surplus in 2022-23 ("a traffic cone could balance Alberta's budget," NDP opposition leader Rachel Notley proclaimed before the speech). admitted Toews to interviewers, but other revenue sources were healthier. By sticking to the fiscal plan as outlined in September 2019 by the MacKinnon panel, the government had done the hard lifting of keeping expenses from growing and attracting investment and Albertans were now reaping the fiscal and economic rewards. In this post, I examine the budget address of Toews, its key messages and its impli...

21Jan

By Bob Ascah1 Comment

Energy, Energy, Politics

Gordon Laxer on Big Foreign Oil

Balancing perspectives: Why was foreign influence exercised in Alberta’s Oilpatch not investigated by the Allan Inquiry? Gordon Laxer is one of Canada’s foremost political economists. He was the founding director of The Parkland Institute at the University of Alberta and is the author of many books, articles, and opinion pieces on Canada’s oil and gas sector. Abpolecon.ca is pleased to share with our readership Dr. Laxer’s recent work on foreign influence and control in Canada’s oil and gas sector. In a report, co-published by the Council of Canadians and CPPA Saskatchewan and B.C., entitled “Posing as Canadian- How Big Foreign Oil captures Canadian energy and climate policy,” he counters the widely derided Allan Inquiry report into foreign funding. Laxer finds it hypocritical of UCP polic...

9Jan

By Bob Ascah2 Comments

Budget, Energy, Government Finances, Politics

Alberta’s Revenue Options: Presentation to Association of Retired University Professors, U of A

Presentation On Thursday, 6 January I was invited to make a presentation on what the province's revenue options were going into the next budget. Provincial budgets by law must be presented before the end of each February. The presentation generated a great deal of discussion which will be touched on below. The PDF of presentation can be found at the foot of this article. The purpose of the discussion was to stimulate an exchange of ideas concerning what future Alberta governments might do to raise more revenue. I began by defining what I saw as the problem. The first problem is the Alberta government's over-reliance on resource royalties to fund its spending. The second issue is that Alberta has not achieved a budgetary surplus without resource revenue since at least 1965. The first ch...

31Dec

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Environment, Government Finances, Intergovernmental, Opinion/Research, Politics, Rural

2021 Top Stories

Politics During 2021 Alberta’s political oxygen was consumed almost entirely with COVID-19- a topic Abpolecon.ca kept in the background. The third, fourth (Delta) and fifth (Omicron) waves rolled over the province and Kenney’s government was consistently found wanting. Not only was 2021 defined by the premier’s mishandling of COVID - the “best summer ever” but the NDP consistently out fund-raised the UCP. On top of these failures was a sexual harassment suit, an ill-timed UCP Christmas reception, and 22 constituency associations demanding the leadership review be bumped up to March (the effort was denied by the party Executive). By September Kenney was regarded as a “dead man walking.” In December, former Wildrose leader and UCP leadership contestant Brian Jean resurfaced as UCP candidat...

26Sep

By Bob Ascah1 Comment

Intergovernmental, Opinion/Research, Politics

A Pointless Vote- Opinion

Party National -Popular-Vote National- Seats Alberta- Popular Vote Alberta- Seats (2019) Liberals 32.4% 159 15.3% 2 (0) Conservatives 33.8 % 119 55.4% 30 (33) Bloc Quebecois 7.8 % 33 Not registered 0 Green Party 2.3% 2 0.9% 0 People's Party 5.1% 0 7.5 % 0 New Democrats 17.7% 25 19.0% 2 (1) Maverick Party 0.2% 0 1.3% 0 After 36 days of political blustering, Canadians learned "the morning after" there will be another minority government led by Justin Trudeau's Liberals. At 12 noon on 26 September MT Elections Canada shows the Liberals leading in 159 seats, the Conservatives at 119, Bloc at 33 seats, NDP at 25 and the Green Party with two candidates leading/elected. National Vote In the popular vote, the Tories lead at 33.7 per cent followed by the Liberals at 32.6...

2Aug

By Bob AscahNo Comments

ATB, Politics

Hyndman Papers: Treasury Branches (Part 2)

The 1980s brought what some considered to be unconscionably high interest rates to Canadians and Albertans. in 1979 Albertans went to the polls. A key policy measure was interest shielding program which assisted Treasury Branches' borrowers. The below memo written on behalf of the de facto inner cabinet succinctly terminated the program. ALBERTA EXECUTIVE COUNCIL FROM: Harry Hobbs Deputy Minister TO: Honourable Lou Hyndman Provincial Treasurer DATE: May 28, 1980 SUBJECT: TREASURY BRANCHE INTEREST RATES At its meeting of May 26, 1980, the Finance, Priorities and Co-ordination Cabinet Committee agreed that Treasury Branches would discontinue shielding of interest rates in view of the curren...

11Jul

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Government Finances, Health, Opinion/Research, Politics

Alberta Nurses- Poised to Strike?

Soon after Finance Minister Travis Toews announced a $17-billion deficit, on 6 July he fired a warning shot at the United Nurses of Alberta. While acknowledging nurses’ contributions to responding to the COVID-19 health crisis (“working diligently throughout”), the News release stressed “the important work of getting the province’s finances back on track.” The terse release reiterated the gist of the MacKinnon Report’s recommendations that for Alberta to rebalance its finances it must cut both the size of the public service as well as bring salaries and benefits in line with other provinces. According to Toews, nurses in Alberta get paid 5.6 per cent more than other comparator provinces (presumably B.C., Quebec and Ontario). This differential costs the Alberta taxpayers an extra $141-mill...

22Jun

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Agencies, Energy, Environment, Health, Politics

The times they are a’changin

Come senators, congressmenPlease heed the callDon't stand in the doorwayDon't block up the hallFor he that gets hurtWill be he who has stalledThe battle outside ragin'Will soon shake your windowsAnd rattle your walls… Bob Dylan On Thursday 18 June a remarkable event took place. The near simultaneous release of an Alberta Energy Regulator (AER)/Canadian Environment Impact Assessment Agency (CEIAA) joint panel rejection of the controversial Grassy Meadows coal project and a news release from Alberta's Environment and Energy ministers "respecting" the Joint Panel’s recommendations. The Thursday announcements followed declarations by federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson that all coal projects which produced selenium would be subject to federal review due to the environmental impa...

20Jun

By Bob AscahNo Comments

ATB, Politics

Hyndman papers: Treasury Branches (Part 1)

In these excerpts from the Hyndman papers are glimpses of both the political and administrative issues associated with a provincial government owning a de facto bank. The first memorandum, from the Provincial Treasurer to his deputy, suggests that just prior to the memo's execution an M.L.A., irate at being surprised that a Treasury Branch in his/her constituency had closed or was about to close, and they had been not informed. The closure of bank branches in rural areas during the 1980s and 1990s caused the federal government to require the banks to go though a reporting process and the giving of notice to communities about the intended branch closures. This was also adopted by the Alberta government around 2000 and still is included in the Mandate and Roles document which outlines a 9...