Tragic Death of Jim Prentice

I was totally shocked when I heard that former Alberta Premier Jim Prentice was killed in a plane crash last night near Kelowna, B.C. 

I was a big supporter of Premier Prentice.  I had the opportunity to talk to him on a couple of occasions, and I was impressed with his ability to see a reasonable compromise between groups that seemed otherwise at loggerheads.  I truly believe he would have become one of Alberta's best premiers ever, had he won the last election. 

That loss really hurt Jim and he dropped out of the political fray for a long time.  He was enjoying his private life and his family now he was semi-retired. 

My sincere condolences to his family and many friends both here in Alberta and in Ottawa.

Alberta's New Government

Were you shocked by the results of yesterday's provincial election?  I certainly was.

I was predicting a PC win with a smaller majority (around 50 MLAs) with a strong NDP Opposition.  Boy, did I get it wrong!  This is only the second time in Alberta's history that we've elected a left leaning government.

Our first was the Alberta Liberal government in Alberta's infant years as a province, back in 1905.  Ever since the Liberals were voted out in the 1920s, we've always chosen a right leaning government starting with the UFA (United Farmers of Alberta), then Social Credit and onto Peter Lougheed's Progressive Conservatives.  That four decade Progressive Conservative dynasty ended last night.

One politician I lament losing is Jim Prentice.  I realize that some of last night's results were partially of his making, but I believe the man is a true Albertan - and has always had the best interests of this province at heart.

I refuse to blow taps on this province I love.  People are citing NDP screw-ups in other provinces as a prediction of what will happen here.  I disagree.

Alberta is absolutely nothing like the other Canadian provinces which have elected NDP governments.  Our economy is strong here, despite the blip in oil prices.  They'll recover!  They always have.  Alberta's economy is still the envy of the rest of this great nation.

I say: give the Alberta NDP Government a chance.  I'm sure they will work hard to keep Alberta on top!  I believe the sun will continue to shine on this province.  And congratulations to Premier-Elect Rachel Notley!  I'm looking forward to working with you, and your new government, in the near future.

Questions for the Candidates: Heritage Savings Trust Fund

Back more than forty years ago, then-new Progressive Conservative Premier Peter Lougheed created the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund.

The fund was designed to be an investment in Alberta's future, and make funds available for those "rainy days" which occasionally strike this province.  I fully supported this fund, but I've never heard a definition of what would qualify as a "rainy day!"  By my calculation, we've had a couple of "rainy days" over the past few years yet I don't believe  the Fund was used to help any Albertans though those rough times.

We've heard the Prentice PCs talk about strengthening the Heritage Trust Fund, but I'd like to know what the other parties would do.

Question #4;  If your party forms Alberta's next government, what are you going to do with our Heritage Trust Fund and who and how will decide how it is spent,and by what criteria? 

Province and Airdrie Making a Great Start

I was very pleased to hear that the City of Airdrie and the Alberta Government have begun the initial steps in providing Airdrie with health care facilities worthy of that fast growing city.  A 24-hour emergency health care facility will be built in Airdrie using public and private money. 

I understand that the building will house 24 hour emergency clinic, doctors' offices, and medical related retail space.  Alberta Health Services will lease or buy one floor for its clinic, while doctors and retail space will occupy the other two floors of the building.   I also know that this whole project has come to fruition thanks to some local businessmen and, in a big part to a generous donation from an unknown benefactor!

This is wonderful news!   This will provide the 50,000-plus Airdrie residents - and the thousands of folks around that city - with a stop-gap facility, until the hospital is built.  

Now I'm hoping to hear soon that a site for the new Airdrie Hospital has been chosen.  I realize the hospital is quite a few years away.  Look at how long it took to create the South Health Campus in Calgary!

But that journey has now begun!  Well done Airdrie!

Our Premier Missed His Chance!

Shortly after the Provincial Budget was tabled in the Legislature yesterday, my son Rhys phoned me and said he thought that Jim Prentice had blown his big chance to put Alberta on a safer financial path.  After going over the details of the budget, I agree with him!

The Alberta Progressive Conservatives had a chance to really set things right in this province, but they wussed out!  They zapped the smokers and the drinkers, which is a usual target when the governments need more cash; the so-called "sin tax."  But then they hit drivers, too!  I think the fuel tax increase will do more harm than good.  Ours is a huge province, with very little public transportation except in the larger cities. 

In my opinion, the fuel tax is just another punishment to Albertans for trying to move around their province for business or pleasure!

The health care surcharge won't even be applied to health care!  What kind of sense is that?  The well-to-do in this province were given a very small increase in their taxes and, from what I can read, the huge rich corporations got off basically scot free!

The ailing Heritage Trust Fund was propped up - instead of being drawn down to almost zero for this definitely "rainy day!"  Alberta's future education and health programs were ignored.  I guess the government expects all those folks moving into booming communities, like Airdrie, to drag their own hospitals, schools, seniors' care centres, and infrastructure in with them.  That, I gotta see!

Diversification was mentioned a few times. We'll have to see what comes of that.

The provincial opposition parties are in total chaos, so the Alberta PCs can't be worried about them, especially with their huge majority.   According to law, the Premier cannot call an election for another year yet. 

So why did he wuss out?  I don't know.

Looking in a Mirror

I don't understand what all the fuss is about over Premier Jim Prentice's comment the other day about Albertans looking in a mirror to see who's responsible for the state of the province's finances.

He's right!  Almost all Albertans have benefited from programs, facilities, and services paid for, in a good part, by non-renewable resource revenues.

No provincial sales taxes, no medical surcharges, no toll roads, low provincial income tax; mostly just oil revenues.  The provincial government has had no meaningful direction from voters to diversify that revenue base.

Diversification of industry would make our province less dependent on those oil revenues.  Then, when oil prices tank, the provincial finances wouldn't be in such deep trouble. When was the last time you heard a candidate from any provincial party mention diversification during a campaign, other than just paying it lip-service?

And our provincial government has been spending and spending.  What about saving and saving?  What happened to building up the Heritage Savings Trust Fund, for those "rainy days"?   Peter Lougheed, our fist Conservative Premier, set that up.  If regular deposits had been made to the Heritage Trust Fund over the past 40 years, it would be worth billions now!

And who among us gave back those $400 'Ralph Bucks' checks?  I look in the mirror and I see someone who spent his Ralph Bucks.  Do you?

Now when you and I, and our Premier, are peering into that mirror we're also seeing those responsible for surviving this downturn and fixing it so it won't happen again! 

Belt Tightening!

The reporter from the Rocky View Weekly phoned me, yesterday.  She had attended our council meeting last Monday.  She noted that in my report to council, I proposed some cutbacks in the budgets of three village departments; The Volunteer Fire Department, Public Works Department, and the Recycling Department.  She wondered why.

I explained that Beiseker faced some tough economic roads in 2014 and we need to get strong again!  Snow removal was a biggy last year.  The winter of 2013-2014 dumped huge amounts of snow on the village.  Our snow removal bill skyrocketed!  We also had a large amount in overdue municipal taxes not paid. 

These factors, plus a couple of large expenses put us in a "hand to mouth" financial situation.  That is not a situation that council is comfortable with!

Our Chief Administrative Officer has made enormous strides in collecting unpaid property taxes.  We've found that folks find in easier to pay their property taxes in monthly installments, instead of one big bill in the summertime.  Many have arranged to do this and our unpaid tax file has shrunk down to a very small amount!  But I still believe we must trim our expenses, too.

Premier Prentice has been telling us that Alberta's dependence on oil revenue puts the province's finances in jeopardy when oil prices drop to less than half of what they were a few months ago.  He has discussed different ways the province will manage their finances under the current circumstances. I think it is the responsibility of municipalities to also sharpen their pencils and trim their budgets accordingly.  I don't believe a huge property tax hike is the way to go!

Staff from each of the three departments I've named will determine if a cutback is possible without compromising the services the village provides.  They will report back to council. Our budgeting process will go on for the next few weeks.  By the way;  In future council meetings, I will be asking other village departments and service areas to consider cutbacks, too.   Stay tuned!

What do you think?  Get in touch with a village councilor and tell them what you think should be done.

Enough Rhetoric

I think everyone and his dog has had a kick at the Wildrose MLAs' floor crossing in Alberta's Legislature, last week.  Every journalist and coffee shop political analyst has an opinion, and none have been shy at expressing that opinion to the rest of us. 

But I think time's up!  Lets let the politicians on both sides of the Legislature get down to doing what they're supposed to do: legislate! 

In my opinion, a series of by-elections at this time would be counter-productive and a waste of money - and we've got less than two full years before the next provincial general election.  Let's wait until then.  Let's see what these new Conservatives can do. 

As we get closer to that mandated election time, each constituency association; Conservative and Wildrose, will have to decide who will be their candidates.  Until then, we should all listen and watch intently.

The Floor Crossing

The strange happenings in Edmonton these past couple of days has left me totally baffled!  Members of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in the Alberta Legislative Assembly up and crossed the floor to join the government!

Although I thought Danielle Smith and her Wildrose team never really managed to reach the level of what I thought an opposition party should be doing, they were at least trying.  In my opinion, a strong governing party needs a strong opposition sitting across from them.  The Wildrose party had the potential of being that strong opposition.  There are some excellent, hard working MLAs sitting on the speaker's left, including our own Bruce Rowe!  I thought they were getting stronger as an opposition.  Apparently I was wrong.

The other thing that bothers me is that these Wildrose MLAs were elected by their constituents as Wildrose Party members.  Now, they're crossing the floor to become Conservatives!  I'm hoping they polled their constituents to see if those folks who elected them don't mind that they taking that stroll.  At least they must try to justify that walk across the floor! 

In the late 1960s, a young Peter Lougheed led a handful of Progressive Conservative MLAs to be Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, against the ruling Social Credit government.  The Social Credit majority was so overwhelming, some of the Social Credit members had to sit on the Speaker's left because there was no more room for them on the Government side!

Yet Lougheed plugged away.  His credibility rose higher every time he stood to oppose the government.  Soon after the next election, he and his party was the government!

That short walk across the floor of the Legislature is a short walk for a man, but a long journey across the Alberta political landscape!

Airdrie Needs a Hospital!

The City of Airdrie is among the fastest growing communities in Alberta.  But I understand that, with a population approaching sixty thousand, Airdrie is still without plans to have a hospital there!

I think that is ridiculous and disgusting!  Calgary has the new South Health Campus, which is a beautiful facility, but it certainly was never designed to help the folks from up north here - it's just too far away!  We need a similar facility built somewhere right around Airdrie!  NOW!

I've been told that over 1200 babies are born in Calgary hospitals each year to Airdrie parents!   New moms are transported down one of the busiest highways in Canada, to a hospital many kilometers away from their home communities.  New dads have little choice but to either get a hotel room in Calgary, sleep on the hospitals' floors, or commute from Airdrie to visit their new families!

What kind of a system is that?

Those in the Provincial government say that Airdrie's huge and rapid growth was hard to predict.  Well, predict it or not, it's here!  So what is going to be done about it?

I say let's shelve the "Big City Charters," for now and concentrate all resources on addressing this health care crisis in Airdrie.  I'm sure the mayors of Calgary and Edmonton would both agree that this is a much more pressing problem!   Our new Premier, Jim Prentice, must be made aware of this situation.  He's been too quiet on this crisis so far. 

What are we going to do about it?

A Gentler Time in Politics

There was a gentler time in Canadian politics, where parties respected each other and each others duties.

For example, if the governing party elected a new leader who did not hold a seat in that Legislature or Parliament, usually a member of the government caucus would resign and open up a by-election in a "safe" seat.  The opposition parties would field a "token" candidate in that by-election, and effectively let the new leader run unopposed.  

Other by-elections would be fought tooth and nail to hopefully get the Opposition's message out and increase the number of members on the Speaker's left!  But the opposition realized that if the newly elected leader was defeated in the by-election, the government would have to appoint an interim premier or prime minister while they held another leadership convention, or another by-election. 

The day-to-day business of the government would be severely compromised for perhaps months! 

I believe it is the job of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition to offer legislative alternatives and to criticize the actions of the government.  It is not their job to prevent the government from governing!

In a legislative assembly or parliament, the opposition has many excellent tools in its bag to oppose the government's actions. But I think throwing a wrench into the whole political system should not be one of them. 

But I guess I'm thinking of a gentler time.