Since being elected in June 2023, Premier Danielle Smith has positioned herself as ready to challenge the Feds on ‘keeping out of Alberta’s business.”
First, she created the Alberta Sovereignty Act, to defend Alberta’s interests against overreaching federal laws or policies
Constitutional law experts point out big legal problems with the Act, but that does not matter; it’s Smith baring her teeth behind the fence of Alberta’s provincial boundaries.
Other examples include the province’s threat to create a made-in-Alberta pension plan, a provincial police force, and a rejection of the federal plans for a net-zero electrical grid, as well as the Liberals’ proposed regulations to cap emissions from oil and gas companies whose heat-trapping pollution continues to expand while every other sector has dropped
Anytime Smith sees a way to push back at the Feds, she takes it, and many of her fans applaud her for being tough on Ottawa.
Her latest nose-thumbing at Ottawa is Bill 18.
What is Bill 18?
In April, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith introduced Bill 18, known as the Provincial Priorities Act. Smith called it the “stay out of my backyard bill.”
This legislation would require provincial entities, such as municipalities, post-secondary institutions, and health authorities, to get approval from the province before making deals or receiving funds from the federal government.
In March, the feds gave Airdrie almost $25 million to build more affordable homes in the fast-growing city.
The money comes from Ottawa’s Housing Acceleration Fund (HAF), a $4 billion initiative to increase housing availability nationwide.
Banff, Westlock, and Bow Island were other Alberta communities benefitting from the federal program, but instead of celebrating funding for much-needed affordable housing funding, Premier Smith was pissed off!
She felt the feds giving money directly to municipalities was another example of the federal government’s overreach.
Hence, the origin of Bill 18.
The Bill will make it illegal for municipalities and other entities to accept federal funds without her consent.
Take that, Ottawa!
It does not matter that Albertans need affordable housing and that the federal government is willing to spend that money in Alberta. Before the feds gave away money for housing, the province had no plans to spend provincial money on affordable housing.
But six days after Bill 18 was announced, the province suddenly announced it is giving $21 million to 48 housing providers that operate community housing
Smith claims she had to intervene with Bill 18 because the federal government is manipulating municipalities into rewriting their by-laws in exchange for federal funds.
In other words, Smith believes that elected municipal officials cannot be trusted to do their jobs properly, so she wants to step in and do them for them.
And to make sure those elected municipal officials do their duties in alignment with ‘provincial priorities’ she crafted another handy new bill just to make sure.
The proposed Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, Bill 20, would allow Smith’s cabinet to fire mayors and councillors and overturn any by-laws they don’t like. If that’s not heavy-handed enough, it will also introduce party politics to municipal elections and give Smith’s cabinet the power to postpone elections if they decide to.
Smith wants the feds to stay out of her backyard, but she also wants complete control of every backyard in the province!
Can you say, “double standards?”
Beyond Municipal Control
The federal government awards research grants to Universities nationwide, and Smith’s Bill 18 would technically allow her to say nay or yay to this funding.
With regard to University funding, Smith told CBC that her aim is to ensure “all people from all political perspectives are able to engage in a robust debate and have a robust research agenda.”
“If we did truly have balance in universities, then we would see that we would have just as many conservative commentators as we do liberal commentators.”
Smith claims that federal funding to Alberta Universities disproportionately funds left-wing thinking.
That is a nice theory, but the facts say otherwise.
According to Lindsay McLaren, a Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary professor, “Bill 18 betrays unacceptable ignorance about the federal research funding process. Federal research grants are awarded through a highly competitive and rigorous review process by peers. This means that other university-based researchers who are experts in the subject area form a committee that spends many hours reviewing and discussing the scientific and scholarly merit of an application, including the benefits to society”
According to Rajan Sawhney, Alberta’s Minister of Advanced Education, “Every year, the federal government sends millions of dollars in grants to Alberta’s post-secondary institution. Albertans have a right to know exactly what these grants are and what they are funding. If passed, the Provincial Priorities Act will enable us to collect that information.”
But if that’s the province’s purpose, no new legislation is needed. Information is already available to anyone, anytime. There is complete transparency about what and who the feds fund.
According to Lisa Young, Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary, “This is all in the public domain. Want to know who got a… grant in 2023? It’s right here on the Internet. Better yet, it’s organized by province, so the federal dollars headed to Alberta are right there at the top of the list… you certainly don’t need to pass legislation requiring the post-secondaries to get approval on every agreement with the federal government.”
And what about Smith’s worry that University grant funding is not balanced and is skewed to the left?
The Tyee collected information on 35,828 research projects funded between the fiscal years of 2013-14 and 2022-23. “Our findings suggest the opposite of what Smith has alleged. There is simply no factual basis to suggest that federal agencies favour liberal or leftist research. If anything, social science disciplines often considered leftist by the right-wing are actually underfunded”
And so, the question becomes, do Bill 18 and Bill 20 move forward in the best interests of Albertans?
Or are the two bills simply a power grab to build a fortress of power for Danielle Smith and her party?
