The Premier’s address, the fiscal update, a herd of ostriches running through the streets of Taber shouting “Freedom!” Just another week in Alberta politics.
The Fiscal Update
Yesterday’s fiscal update delivered the not-too-surprising news that (a) we’re rolling in royalties, and (b) we’re just going to dip into the piggy bank a bit to pay for the affordability package. God/Putin has given us another boom, and we’re going to …
(Source: Emma Graney on Twitter)
The big uptick in royalty revenue isn’t just because the price of oil is up, but also because more projects are reaching their ‘payout’ stage, which means royalty rates are higher. So there will be lots of money coming in for the next few years.
Alberta has one more chance (and perhaps one last chance) to make the most of this extraordinary windfall. This would be a great moment to appoint a citizen’s assembly to recommend a way forward. In the face of fractious politics and deep regional tensions, this could demonstrate the ability of Albertans to engage with one another thoughtfully and recommend a prudent way forward for managing this resource revenue.
The Premier’s Address
The Premier took to television on Tuesday evening to deliver her address, featuring measures to help Albertans cope with inflation. It still isn’t entirely clear who is getting money, or whether it will be taxable, or when/how it will arrive. It’s not exactly a smooth rollout for a package that has presumably been in the works for weeks. Makes you wonder what’s going on behind the scenes.
The line that jumped out at me on Tuesday night was this one: “The government in Ottawa is intentionally and systematically attempting to control and regulate all aspects of our province’s economy, resources and social programs.” All aspects. All. More on this another day.
The No-Mask-Mandate Mandate
Yesterday, the government formalized its prohibition on mask mandates in schools, essentially using regulations to do what it had already done last February by Ministerial letter. So there’s nothing really new, but the timing is a troubling reminder that school boards have no tools at their disposal as they cope with an unprecedented wave of respiratory illness.
The tone of the letter to parents got me to thinking about the narratives we use to talk about shared sacrifice. After the Calgary flood, Mayor Nenshi spent years telling the story of a wave of voluntarism unleashed on a city that had experienced disaster. I suspect that the story-telling added to our social capital as a city, our willingness to help our neighbors in moments of crisis.
The pandemic demanded different kinds of sacrifice. For weeks and even months, the best thing we could do was to stay home and watch Netflix, to help “flatten the curve.” It lacked the drama and sense of community we had after the flood. The way that UCP politicians have spoken about pandemic measures after the fact — Kenney’s ‘damaging restrictions’ or LaGrange’s ‘parents have been told with little to no notice’ — erases what was accomplished. Lives saved; pressure taken off the medical system - if we don’t remind ourselves of this, and celebrate what we accomplished, we aren’t replenishing our ability to come together to cope with adversity in the future.
About those Ostriches
Talk about missed opportunities: where was the statement from the Minister of Justice talking about how an Alberta provincial police force would be better equipped than the RCMP to round up ostriches running through the streets of Taber?
The Premier’s address, the fiscal update, a herd of ostriches running through the streets of Taber shouting “Freedom!” Just another week in Alberta politics. And that’s all for the Friday fragments. Brace for next week: the Speech from the Throne and perhaps a glimpse at the Alberta Sovereignty in a United but Oppressive Canada Act?
What happened in Taber is clearly a case of overreach by the federal government of Australia
There's something wrong with your chart of non renewable resource revenue. $25 million doesn't seem reasonable.