Premier Danielle Smith and the UCP have been on a rampage, tearing a page from Donald Trump’s playbook and chipping away at democracy and the rights and freedoms of Albertans.
TheRockies.Life decided to look in the rearview mirror at some of the low lights over the past 12 months of separatist stoking, corporation stroking, and attacks on transparency, honesty and stewardship of Alberta’s natural and human resources.
1. Bill 14 is bad news
When a government seeks to undermine arm’s length institutions that for good reason are independent of political influence, you know it’s up to no good. Bill 14, the Justice Statutes Amendment Act, proposes sweeping changes. They include controlling the names of political parties and bypassing the independent authority of Elections Alberta to approve citizen’s initiatives and instead place that decision in the hands of politicians.
2. The judicial branch is … undemocratic?
In early December, Danielle Smith said that Alberta’s courts should not be “gatekeepers,” as she disagreed with the Alberta courts putting a separatist referendum question under a constitutional microscope. Justice Minister Mickey Amery proposed a bill that would allow the Legislature to green light petitions whether or not they follow the laws set out in the Constitution. Smith praised the move, saying it would uphold democracy.
As all Albertan teenagers learn by Grade 9, Canada’s democracy is a tree with three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative branch represents voters, the executive writes laws, and the judicial branch interprets and enforces laws. The judicial branch keeps governments from becoming dictators and passing laws that go against the wellbeing of the people.
Alberta justice Colin Feasby has recently ruled that a vote on independence goes against Charter and First Nation treaty rights.
3. Bill 11, or two-tier health care
Democracy’s relationship with equality is complex, but the strongest democracies foster equality among citizens. However the UCP passed a bill in November that builds inequality into the health care system – doctors can now work in both the private and public health systems, and citizens can pay to receive treatment faster.
4. Trigger-happy use of Notwithstanding Clause
The UCP used a constitutional loophole known as the notwithstanding clause four times this fall to limit legal review and political debate and ram through bills. The first time, the government used it to force striking teachers back to work and clip their constitutional right to collectively bargain for a contract.
The other three times were to limit trans kids’ rights to choose their names and pronouns in school, to keep trans girls from playing on amateur female sports teams, and to keep trans youths under 16 from accessing hormone therapy.
The notwithstanding clause was never meant to be a tool for stifling workers rights and debate around civil liberties. It was a necessary compromise to get nationwide agreement on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms back in the late 1980s. “We should all be wary of normalizing the use of this dangerous clause to override important rights and freedoms,” says the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
5. A health scandal worth covering up
In February, AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos was fired. She alleges that this was because she was digging into exorbitant private surgery contracts that AHS accepted, and claims the government forced the AHS’s hand. A whole scandal ensued, complete with a third party investigation that was released in October.
The only problem with the investigation is that it “did not have the power to subpoena or hear testimony under oath. As a result, people had the opportunity to decline to be interviewed” wrote the Honourable Raymond Wyant in his final report.
6. The AER needs C.P.R.
In late August, longtime industry oil executive turned CEO of the Alberta Energy Regulator Rob Morgan, cancelled a public hearing on Mine 14, a proposed underground coal mine near Grande Cache. This unprecedented decision came after the mining company complained about the review process in letters to the AER and the energy ministry.
The AER is meant to be an independent, arm’s length agency tasked with reviewing and regulating Alberta’s mineral wealth in the best interests of all Albertans. Public hearings play a key role in transparency and decision making. So much for that. Conservation groups are challenging Morgan’s decision in court and the AER’s already tattered reputation is in ruins.
7. Hiring an insider to do an outsider’s job
Red flags popped up the moment Danielle Smith tapped double-dipping oil industry consultant and government advisor David Yager to lead the Mature Asset Strategy. It was supposed to be a road map for cleaning up an estimated $60 billion mess of abandoned and orphaned wells in the province. Not surprisingly Yager’s report included a clean-up fund that would be back-stopped by Albertan taxpayers, once again letting big oil off easy. Some things never change. Thousands of rural Albertans living with toxic, abandoned wells on their properties were furious.
“It is inappropriate to have an unabashed energy insider generating policies to address the Mature Asset Crisis, which is the result of decades of energy industry influence on government,” said Bill Heidecker, a farmer outside of Coronation, Alberta, and president of the Alberta Surface Rights Foundation in a press release.
8. Who likes coal? Only people upstream from mines
Three quarters of Alberta’s population is against coal mining. Conveniently, some of the one quarter that support it live in the Crowsnest Pass, upstream from the proposed Grassy Mountain coal mine site. The UCP conducted a plebiscite in Crowsnest Pass, asking “Do you support the development and operations of the metallurgical coal mine at Grassy Mountain?”
That over 70 per cent of this single community voted yes to the plebiscite was enough for the UCP. Decision makers are using this vote, which represents the opinions of under 6,000 Albertans, as justification to push the Grassy Mountain project forward.
