The Wild West
The complexion of the Alberta Legislature underwent a small, yet monumental makeover two short weeks ago. As MLAs return to the Assembly this week, MLA Pat Rehn will be joined by two of his former UCP colleagues that have been officially ejected from Caucus for their roles in public displays of dissent with the party and Premier Jason Kenney. Both Drew Barnes and Todd Loewen were voted out of the party on May 13th following a nearly seven-hour caucus meeting. They will sit as independents.
As of this time, the current makeup of the Legislature is:
· UCP – 60 MLAs
· NDP – 24 MLAs
· IND – 3 MLAs
It is widely known now how we got to this point, but here is a brief summary. In the early morning hours of May 13, MLA Todd Loewen publicly released a letter addressed to Premier Kenney where he provided written notice that he would be stepping down from his position as caucus chair with the United Conservative Party. In the letter, Loewen also took some liberty in outlining the reasons for his departure; citing physician negotiation failures, Eastern Slopes policy decisions, and poor intergovernmental performance with the federal government specifically. At the conclusion of the letter, Loewen issued a call for the Premier to resign – a call that was echoed by caucus colleague MLA Dave Hanson.
MLA Barnes was removed as well for his history of vocal opposition to the provincial government’s handling of pandemic related public health restrictions. Both Barnes and Loewen were signatories to an open letter calling on the provincial government to cancel restrictions and begin moving towards pre-COVID era life. Additionally, both MLAs have reaffirmed their commitment to their respective constituents that they will not resign their seats, continuing to serve as independent members.
During this event, Albertans were the recipients of unprecedented caucus meeting coverage that has ranged from blow-by-blow reporting to full on meeting minute notes - something that may very well be unprecedented in the province (a term I use in the rarest of circumstances). An Alberta based online news outlet was the beneficiary of unknown in-caucus Deep Throats who were digitally transmitting information to their writers throughout. Confoundingly enough, the now infamous caucus meeting is no longer an isolated incident as the same outlet receive minutes of last week’s meeting which delved into sensitive party matters.
It is still unknown who the leak source(s) may be. For now, it seems like the turbulent nature of this event has subsided. Despite this, knowledge that inside trusted sources are releasing incredibly confidential and sensitive meeting information should be a cause for concern regardless of political stripe. Now, whether this is an end to the enmity of caucus or merely the eye of the storm remains to be seen. The UCP Caucus has become more willing to publicly display dissent or disagreement since the fallout of the holiday travel scandal. It will be interested to see whether or not caucus meeting leaks continue in the coming weeks.
With that said, there were also events that impacted the province outside of partisan disputes over the last two weeks. As every jurisdiction has been saddled with the responsibility of navigating both the health and economic responsibilities of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alberta received its latest credit rating adjustment. S&P Global Ratings, a credit agency based in the United States, has issued a downgrade to the province’s credit rating from a ‘A+’ to an ‘A’. With that in mind, S&P stated that it was not just the impact of COVID-19 that was to be blamed for the credit hit.
“The downgrade is the culmination of the two powerful economic shocks that Alberta has endured in the past six years,” those being the pandemic and the oil pricing crash in the mid-2010’s. In a statement to CBC, Finance Minister Travis Toews expressed his disappointment, but highlighted that “however, we don't believe this downgrade will affect our ability to borrow in the capital markets. Alberta has an excellent reputation and track record in the capital markets and we expect that to continue.”
According to S&P’s rating system, the ‘A’ grade means that the province has “strong capacity to meet financial commitments, but somewhat susceptible to economic conditions and changes in circumstances.”
While the financial outlook may not be overly positive today, the province did announce a new program designed to get Albertans back into the workforce. Last week, the Alberta Jobs Now program was launched to provide some payroll support that it expects to give more than 22,000 people back to work by providing funding to job creators. Labour and Immigration Minister Jason Copping said in a statement that “with support from the Alberta Jobs Now program, businesses can afford to train workers for the skills the business needs to be successful, and Albertans have an opportunity to gain new skills and find good-paying jobs.”
Total funding for the grant program will be capped at $370 million which is comprised of $185 million from the federal Workforce Development agreement. The remaining $185 million will be coming out of provincial coffers. Employers will be able to apply for 52-weeks of funding that will provide up to $25,000 per employee over that period. Up to 20 positions per company can be applied to the grant and employers are also eligible to receive one-and-a-half times the normal funding if they hire people with a disability (up to $37,500). The intent behind the program is to get unemployed Albertans back to work and is being advertised as the “largest jobs training program in Alberta’s history” according to the Premier.
Tensions are expected to be incredibly high in the Legislative Assembly as MLAs return from nearly a month of no debate. And just like three of the games during the Edmonton Oilers’ series, the current session is going into overtime. Hopefully, this session will resolve itself with better outcomes than this year’s playoff run.
MLAs have not been inside the chamber since they last engaged in debate on April 22. The first week of the break was a designated constituency week, but the Assembly has been adjourned for three weeks as COVID-19 case numbers continued to spike at the time. Fortunately, it seems that cases and hospitalizations have been on the decline and we hope that it continues along that trajectory for a long time.
Readers of The NEWS should be aware that the adjournment has forced the sessional calendar to be updated. At this time, MLAs are expected to be in Edmonton for debate until June 10th. As always, readers should be mindful that the sitting schedule can change very quickly, so it is entirely possible this could be extended further if there are outstanding bills remaining to be passed. It is expected that session will start afresh in October with a Speech from the Throne, so any bills remaining unresolved would need to be reintroduced in the fall.
On that note, two new government bills remain on the Order Paper to be tabled for first reading: Bill 49 - Labour Mobility Act (which has been on the Order Paper since 2020) and Bill 72 - Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act. We also know that the opposition New Democrats have at least one bill ready to go that may or may not see the light of day. With that said, we know that it pertains to paid sick leave which has been a constant talking point by the opposition in recent weeks. At the time of writing, we do not have details about Bill 72 in advance of it being tabled by Energy Minister Sonya Savage, but there is a very good chance it could be related to the now expired ‘turn off the taps’ legislation that was tabled under the same name under the previous NDP government (tabled as Bill 12 in May 2018) but given royal assent by the UCP after taking office in 2019.
Alberta has not announced the roll out of second doses of the approved COVID-19 vaccines at this time, but hope appears to be on the horizon. The province is scheduled to receive 2,714,400 more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech between now and August 1 which will surely open up more opportunity for second doses in the near future. However, the federal government’s distribution schedule does not currently disclose the expected numbers for Moderna nor AstraZeneca shipments to the provinces beyond last week, so that will be an important development to observe.
While sessions appears to slowly be wrapping up, there will be plenty of stories to pay attention to over the coming weeks and months as it related to pandemic management, economic recovery, and standard government business. Stay tuned to The NEWS as we will continue to provide coverage of the Legislature and keep you up to date.