The United Conservative Party Government’s demand that all of Alberta municipalities report any agreements they have in place with the federal government by the end of the month will be expensive and time consuming, especially for Alberta’s largest cities.
Municipal taxpayers, of course, will end up paying the freight for this needless exercise.
Notwithstanding the UCP’s frequent claims to the contrary, if there’s one thing the government of Premier Danielle Smith loves, it’s creating red tape – with the proviso that the red tape in question messes up their enemies and, if at all possible, picks a needless fight with the Trudeau Government in Ottawa as well.
Government regulations that protect consumers, working people, or human rights are another matter entirely in the UCP’s worldview – suitable for the pejorative term “red tape” and to be eliminated as quickly as possible. Hence cabinet’s so-called red-tape-reduction portfolio.
The creation of what can legitimately be vilified as red tape, by contrast, is the principal role of traditional ministries that have real responsibilities in any government, such as Labour, Health, and now Municipal Affairs.
Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver’s letter to municipalities in December, first reported yesterday by the CBC, didn’t rate a news release on the government’s website, and the CBC was unable to persuade Mr. McIver to comment on his own department’s red-tape-creation policy.
Instead, they got an email from a political aide claiming, “we are looking to get an understanding of the agreements between Alberta’s municipalities and the federal government.”
Of course, if the province didn’t have anti-Canadian mischief in mind and a desire to mess up municipal governments led by progressive politicians they don’t like, that goal could have been achieved in a couple of phone calls by a clerk.
“Alberta’s government will continue to stand up for our constitutional jurisdiction while ensuring we are working with municipalities to receive equitable funding from the federal government,” Scott Johnston also told the CBC, although it seems more likely the province would be just as happy if the big municipalities got nothing at all from Ottawa if the UCP can’t have its fingerprints all over it.
In fairness, while there was no release, there was Mr. McIver’s performative statement on municipal agreements with Ottawa the month before the letter was sent in which he complained that federal aid for municipal low-income housing programs amounted to an attempt by the feds “to bypass Alberta … and overstep their authority.”
Soon after the CBC story broke yesterday, former Alberta deputy premier Thomas Lukazuk tweeted, “Today’s Alberta Government demand that all municipalities report annually to Alberta government how much funding/grants municipalities receive from Ottawa underscores the need for municipalities to develop stronger direct policy/funding ties with Ottawa.”
Mr. Lukaszuk, who also served as education and labour minister in the Progressive Conservative cabinet of Alison Redford, explained his logic in response to a query last night: “With the UCP’s insistence on playing wedge politics and inserting themselves between municipalities and the federal government, Alberta municipalities are at risk of being disenfranchised from federal programs and from having meaningful input on national policy development,” he said.
He noted that the policy will be particularly expensive for large cities where many individual departments, such as fire and police, receive federal funding through various programs. “Now, all these grants will have to be coalesced on a single accounting ledger. Talk about creating red tape!”
Ottawa will likely never completely stop funding local programs of national importance in Alberta, Mr. Lukaszuk added, “but it will become increasingly difficult to contribute to any municipal program in Alberta if the provincial government will try to politicize it.”
The only reason the UCP wants that list, of course, is that the party is looking for excuses to attack Ottawa. Never mind provincial jurisdiction, any old excuse will do. Who knows, Maybe Didsbury or Manyberries got less federal support than Calgary or Edmonton!
“Municipalities could work directly with Ottawa on many files, totally bypassing the provincial government,” Mr. Lukaszuk argued.
Hi, Dave. CBC Calgary reporter Scott Dippel did not break this story.
Johnnie Bachusky (Innisfail Province) was the first to write about this. Here’s the link to his story, dated Jan. 1, 2024… https://www.mountainviewtoday.ca/innisfail-news/innisfail-council-denies-provincial-request-for-federal-agreement-info-8011518
Honourable mention goes to Brett McKay (St. Albert Gazette) for his article, dated Jan. 12… https://www.stalbertgazette.com/local-news/this-is-about-fighting-ottawa-province-wants-inventory-of-federal-municipal-agreements-8090803
Scott. I too, first read Brett McKay’s excellent article in the Western Wheel (Okotoks & Area) on Jan 12, 2024. Both the Wheel and St Albert Gazette are part of Great West Media. I often read well written articles covering Alberta politics on the Western Wheel website before the bigger sites report it.
What the hell this isn’t me?
Little Bird: Duly noted. I confess I didn’t notice the email address provided. Little Bird 2.0’s comment is not offensive or off topic, so I will let it stand, but I will try to police this in future. DJC
Mr. Lukaszuk says cities “could work directly with Ottawa.” Yep, and that’s exactly what Smith, Cooper et al fear. Being shown up as incompetent, petulant, spiteful and vindictive is NOT a good look for a provincial government—especially when they are.
Even worse for Smith and her fellow separatists, direct cooperation between city councils and the Feds really does undercut something—the perception of provincial authority. (That should be ironic, because municipal governments in Alberta really are creations of the provincial government. Smith might not, repeat MIGHT not, be able to fire Mayor Sohi and his council. But I bet she’ll try if he defies her openly.) Having the adults in Ottawa step in to clean up the local yokels’ messes does not look good.
Or, maybe I’m overthinking this. Maybe Smith just wants to get her claws into all that lovely federal money that’s bypassing the Oilberduh treasury. But she might need to clear it with Chief McFee if she wants to intercept the money that’s earmarked for the Edmonton cops….
Smith is unbelievable! Are there any windmills out there that Smith will not tilt toward? When is this province going to tire of Smith stomping those gunboats of hers at every imagined slight? We have officially left tragedy and entered into the realm of farce. Who can blame the rest of Canada for considering Albertans nothing more than banjo picking porch sitters with their electoral choices. Sigh! If only the NDP could run a decent election campaign.
In fairness, J.E., I don’t know that the voters of sophisticated Ontario are doing that much better these days! DJC
Not a fair comment against NDP campaign. Might I remind you that Danielle Smith won by a very slight majority.
Linda Swityk: What the UCP won was not an overwhelming majority government, but a slim majority government. The UCP are akin to a full blown dictatorship, and for them it’s all about power and control, and there are many things that prove that it is just that. This is also a classic case of hypocrisy with the UCP, because there is never any accountability with them. There have been instances where the federal government gave the UCP money, for various specific purposes, and there is no knowing what the UCP did with the money. Believing that this is acceptable, is wrong, no matter how you try to spin it. Danielle Smith was lousy as a public school trustee, and was sacked for that. When she was the Wildrose party leader, she also was turfed, because hardly anybody wanted the garbage she was trying to sell. Ric McIver was also a disaster in politics before. The sensible thing to do, would be to not enable these people, because they just aren’t there for the good of the people, and whatever the UCP does, hasn’t helped Alberta.
Looks to me like the UCP is trying to hatch a cockamamie plan to hijack federal funds, distribute them to municipalities as THEY see fit and pocket the rest. Outright theft, in other words.
I do find it ironic that when Lukazuk was in office I couldn’t stand him and his PC ilk. Now he seems downright reasonable and a perfect fit for a centre-right party like the NDP. Go figure!
lol the NDP are not center right. Left of center.
Linda: By any reasonable measure, as opposed to misleading journalistic labels, the Alberta NDP under Rachel Notley was a centre-right party, about as far to the left as the old Progressive Conservatives that they replaced. Both the federal and provincial NDPs are committed to neoliberal economics, just like the CPC and the LPC. I think of the NDP, with apologies to Alexander Dubček, as neoliberals with a human face. By no measure other than comparison with the others can they be called a left-wing or centre-left party. DJC
I would agree with that. The AB NDP are basically like federal Liberals or the PCs of yore. They all operate unflinchingly under neoliberal premises. One could argue the pros and cons of having a strong alternative to the increasingly extreme right of the UCP in AB vs having basically a 2-party system in the province now.
Meanwhile the business community supports TBA-style organizing with no counter organizing that I can see. As a result, the drift to the right continues and Overton gets proven right again and again.
Troll or poorly informed? Linda S. I know social democrats, and the ANDP is bluish, but not pink.
Absolutely not. To make the NDP left of Center they would have had an economic imperative that supported workers at the detriment of the business class and they did (and continue to do) the opposite. Why ? Is a very good question but to just delude ourselves in thinking the NDP in albertans (Canada ?) represents a centre left party is to delude ourselves.
Identity politics are not class politics.
When I am god….. I will re-open the Constitution and allow any province that wishes to end its present arrangement in the Canadian framework to enter into a modified Schengen Agreement with other provinces and the Crown. I will also allow any municipality with a population greater than 1 million to become an independent city-state with control over taxation and spending. I will then disappear never to be seen again.
Alice: A Dictator for One Day, eh? Sounds like a plan voters would go for somewhere, maybe even here! DJC
Not surprising that this dictatorship would want complete control of everything. While every conservative I know considers Trudeau as a hero to Albertans for pouring billions into this province while this fool Daniele Smith tries to train her ignorant supporters to believe that Trudeau is stealing all our money must be really hard for her to take. Feeding them the lie that he is trying to close down our oil industry after he purchased a pipeline to keep it running leaves her looking like a damn fool. Then add in Carbon Tax that these fools told their supporters that Trudeau and Notley created to steal all their money when it was conservatives who created it and people are finally realizing that it is actually putting money in their pockets like it was intended. In other words she is beginning to look like a damn fool to many of her own supporters.
Provincial governments do love to micro manage municipalities, often too much in my opinion. But as is often the case these days, those who can’t manage their own affairs well frequently veer off into trying to manage other things they shouldn’t. Perhaps this is somewhat intention to distract from other problems or issues, or to punish municipal governments they feel are not sufficiently ideologically aligned with them.
So, I suppose it is quite possible Federal funding for various municipal initiatives may become a casualty of the Smith/UCP war against the Feds. The Smith government seems determined to stir things up with Ottawa every time it senses its popularity may wane, or Albertans are beginning to focus too much on the provincial government’s screw ups. In my opinion this would be a mistake, kind of like cutting off your nose to spite your face. For instance the Feds have recently been generous with funding low income housing and transit for cities. This allows the province to get away with spending far less on these things, even though it should spend more. Without Federal funding the related problems would be even worse, so there would be more pressure on the province to spend more on these things.
Of course, Smith and the UCP has often been accused of being petty, mean spirited and shortsighted, but not as often of being smart, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they really haven’t thought this through well.
Dave, I see more behind this than just trying to “micro manage municipalities”. Remember then MP Kerry Diotte’s comment on funding reform candidates for municipal and school boards at the Manning Centre meeting in Red Deer in 2019:
“We should get in front of this, City councils and school boards are a breeding ground for socialists who will later cause us a lot of trouble as members of Parliament and the legislature.”
Chilling words, that should be paid attention to.
Shorter Kerry Diotte; everyone who disagrees w me is a communist. Also I’m a notorious asshole, let’s kill cyclists.
What happens if the municipalities just ignore the UCP “request”? Are there any repercussions?
This is another hare-brained idea from the UCP that will cost taxpayers money. Besides, municipalities have many more important things to deal with than the Smith government’s obsession with Ottawa (the UCP should also be more concerned about real issues affecting Albertans, but it’s much easier for them to distract the rubes with phony issues).
At least one town council, Innisfail, has already voted to ignore the “request.” No word as yet on how Smith or McIver reacted.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/danielle-smith-alberta-municipal-deals-analysis-1.7092707
This is all about changing the channel. Moving voters eyes away from issues.
This is a Government that has significant challenges.
Health care, AHS services, are going the wrong way. The UCP knows it. The public knows it. Recruitment of health care professionals is non existent. What health professionals would come to Alberta given the current environment??? Would you?
The Government’s pension plan initiative is going the way of the dinosaur from a public opinion perspective. As well it should. Most voters see it for what it is.
The Government’s fiscal estimates are at risk given the fluctuations in the price of crude.
So what to do to change the channel? Bring on something else, anything. No doubt there will be more of the same nonsense in the months to come.
The timing is just prior to her Fed bashing love-in with Carlson.
As an aside it seems TBA has been offering free admission tickets to it conditional on the recipient being placed on its mailing list. Compiling lists of followers and non followers, classified simply as those who are ‘with us or against us’ is easily accomplished. Factoring in the expected droughts, an unpredictable oil market reliant provincial economy, and persistent tendencies to stir up discontent and rage then lay blame both exogenously and falsely provides an ideal base to foment insurrection. The UCP and CPC supported Coutts and Ottawa blockades may represent its early salvos. Of course the provincial government wants to manage municipalities and silence any reasonable thoughts and voices they express, represent and promote.
I don’t have any ears on the ground in Edmonton but I’m wondering what the view is of Emontonians regarding UCP antics such as this and others that impinge on its sovereignty (for lack of a better word) as a city. Are Edmontonians up in arms…is it just the politically engaged like us…is it a big nothing burger?
Edmontonians outside of conservative cranks and those not paying attention are OUTRAGED, I’m guessing permanently. Turns out folks get mad when you ignore their Democratic right to elect their own representation.
Also Edmonton is far too sophisticated to buy Dani’s song and dance, it might play well in the sticks, so does a lot of trash.
Suspect the UPC wants to know because then they can use it in attack ads in this coming up federal election, i.e.- the Liberals only send money to ridings which voted Liberal/NDP.
The Liberals/NDP only send money to RCMP detachments and are ignoring the needs of other cities.
The Liberals/NDP are interferring in how we structure and fund health care.
Of course causing more work for civic governments is just as important to the UPC but they’re looking for anything which can be used against the Liberals in the up coming election and heaven forbid a federal NDP riding city received a nickel more than a Conservative riding. Can just see the ad now about how Trudeau bought Singhs votes by putting money into NDP ridings.
This is going to be a lot worse before it gets better, i.e. getting rid of smith and company. They’ll next want to know if any MLAs were on a federal jet, well opposition MLAs. UPC MLAs were just doing business and saving money.
At some point I’d expect Alberta to advise the feds they are not to send any money to a civic government directly. They’re to send all of it to smith first. she can then spend it how she sees fit, you know tax breaks for oil/gas companies, privitizing health care, investigating teachers.