Less than 24 hours after the Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government pulled the plug on low-income transit programs in Edmonton and Calgary, Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon executed a screeching bootlegger turn this morning and completely reversed course.
It must have been a hell of a reaction UCP MLAs got yesterday – especially from voters in the crucial electoral battleground of the City of Calgary.
I can’t recall Alberta Conservatives backing off a terrible policy this quickly since premier Ralph Klein’s government hastily pulled a bill that would have stripped hundreds of victims of forced sterilization of their Charter rights by employing the Notwithstanding Clause to put a cap on the compensation they could receive.
That was in 1998, and Albertans’ sense of fairness was instantly aroused. I’ve been told by someone who was at work in the Premier’s Office that day that the many callers were so angry the telephone lines almost melted.
Well, there’s no danger of that happening any more – we all have wifi.
But it would appear the reaction was similar this time, which says something good about Alberta and Albertans, if not about Premier Danielle Smith and her party.
“Alberta’s government understands the need to support low-income Albertans,” Mr. Nixon said contritely in this morning’s statement on the government’s website, which at 100 words was about as short as the minister’s communications staff could make it. Still, any published statement was a change from yesterday, when the government gave notice to Alberta’s two largest cities but didn’t even bother to publish a news release on the topic.
“That’s why we provide direct transit subsidies to Albertans on income support and AISH in communities across the province, including Calgary and Edmonton,” Mr. Nixon’s statement continued.
Well, then, one is tempted to ask, Why did you try to cut them off? But I’m sure the government would prefer that we just conclude no harm, no foul, and let it go.
“Calgary and Edmonton also run their own transit program, which the province subsidizes,” Mr. Nixon’s statement continued. This was similar to what Mr. Nixon’s press secretary conveyed yesterday to media, implying public transit was strictly a municipal responsibility.
That’s a pretty bold assertion for a government that just days before was insisting municipalities can’t take funds from Ottawa for infrastructure projects without provincial permission because they have no constitutional independence from the provinces in which they are located.
But I guess the UCP brain trust must have reckoned they’d better be consistent about something.
“Following conversations with the two largest cities, it is clear that the cities are not able to pay for their full programs at this time,” Mr. Nixon’s statement said.
“As a result, Alberta’s government will continue to extend this funding to the cities and work with them to ensure their low-income transit program continues to be funded in the future,” he concluded – somewhat ominously, since the phrasing suggests the province will help the cities find some other programs unpopular with conservative voters to cut. Like bike lanes, perhaps.
As they say, the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away — and, in the case of Alberta, sometimes flip-flops if things get hot enough.
“I appreciate that Minister Nixon recognizes the negative impact that defunding this program will have and is reinstating funding at last year’s level,” Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said on social media early this afternoon. “The City of Edmonton is proud to support this program, even though it is an example of Alberta’s big cities stepping in to fund support programs for low income Albertans that fall under provincial jurisdiction.” (Emphasis added.)
The reaction yesterday to the cuts from elected municipal officials, Opposition politicians and the commentariat was extremely harsh. But that is unlikely to have persuaded this stubborn and ideologically dogmatic government to change course.
The course change had to be the result of thousands of Albertans picking up their phones and telling their MLAs what they thought of the idea, probably pretty bluntly.
Yesterday, Mr. Sohi said more than 250,000 passes were sold last year, and Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek put the number in her city so far this year at nearly 120,000.
That’s a lot more potential supporters than the 700 surviving victims of the former United Farmers and Social Credit governments’ 44-year eugenics spree had when Mr. Klein had his bright idea to keep costs down in 1998. Soon after Peter Lougheed’s Progressive Conservative Government came to power in 1971, the Alberta Eugenics Board was disbanded and the Sexual Sterilization Act repealed.
The seniors, students and families living below the poverty line who benefitted from the transit pass subsidy might not be anyone the UCP pays much attention to, and the government may have been tempted to pass off their loss as insignificant. But they would have had friends, parents, children, neighbours and other advocates willing to pick up the phone on their behalf as well.
It’s certainly to absurd to suggest, as a few folks did on social media yesterday, that the pressure for this giant flip-flop came from a pro-UCP Postmedia columnist or was the result of some kind of complicated stunt by the UCP to look good by revealing and then revoking a policy that was bound to be unpopular.
The Smith Government now looks both vindictive and foolish, as if they were so focused on punishing big cities for their voters’ electoral choices that they couldn’t foresee the obvious reaction to pulling a worthy program they bragged about in their 2023 election platform.
We may never be told the full details, but it is a certainty that this was the result of a spontaneous reaction from the public.
Naturally, Premier Smith tried to blame the imbroglio on poor communications – i.e., somebody else’s. “It’s unfortunate that it was communicated the way it was,” she told the CBC’s Power & Politics. “We’ll be a lot more careful about how we have some of these program changes communicated in the future.”
So, talking points first, program cuts after.
“Great, the UCP did the right thing and reversed their decision to cut funding for the low-income transit pass,” said Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood MLA Janis Irwin, the NDP critic for housing policy, on social media yesterday morning.
“But they deserve no kudos. They thought they could get away with an attack on some of our most vulnerable neighbours. Don’t forget, Alberta. And stay loud.”
Good advice.
Yes, the UCP did the right thing, but only after they did the wrong thing. So this one step back one step forward approach should not be mistaken for progress. We are exactly where we were a few days ago. And no, this is not a “communications” problem as Smith tries to glibly dismiss this. This was a big misstep by the UCP trying to punish municipal leaders, but which instead ended up punishing poor and vulnerable people, who the UCP probably hadn’t really thought or cared about until they got a lot of negative feedback here.
I suppose there at least some hope now that public pressure may act as a restraint on UCP over reach and some of their dumber ideas. Perhaps they might even pause their war on municipal leaders, but I feel it is probably to much to hope for them to permanently drop it.
Because this UCP gang seems to be the type that occasionally relents, but really learns nothing and forgets nothing.
An interesting turnabout. And it should be noted that the antics of Skippy Pollivere and the CPC were considerably toned down from yesterday’s boisterousness and stupidity. Even Le Bloc’s leader, Yves-François Blanchet, drew kudos for his public praise for Speaker Greg Fergus’ efforts to restore decorum, maturity, and “common sense” in the H of C. Considering Pollivere’s recent declarations that he will “rule” Canada when he becomes PM may have caused something of a backlash, making the CPC and their fellow travellers ratchet down the crazy. Surprise, surprise. Maybe not everyone is hot for a Canadian Mussolini?
Events in the US are getting plenty crazy and will make for a very turbulent political season there. If it was Pollivere’s intention to import all that nonsense, he may have miscalculated when he believed that what sells in Alberta sells in Ontario. And there’s also the matter of the SK Party being well past their shelf life with Moe at the helm. Maybe CONs are becoming aware that they are trending on thin ice after all.
Just Me— My favorite clip was reporters asking Marc Miller about Skippy ‘being silenced ‘and him saying : who’s being silenced? Pierre? that guy has never shut his mouth in his life…. it would be good if he would shut his yap once in awhile ” LMAO….
But then, imho, MSM hasn’t figured out that the whole thing was a staged performance by Skippy and the clown show, because “boy-wonder” got caught with his unsavory friends @ the NS/NB border. Especially since he had the RCMP looking into the threats from the other Diagolon member.
The fact that he wasn’t at all interested in what the group was there for, isn’t as surprising as the character in the clip who asks his buddy
“who is that guy ? and the reply is oh that’s Pierre Polievre “……
So paid protesters??? who don’t know who is the figure head of their ” Axe the tax ” roadside camp-out ? curious!
Anyway, Skippy and the Cons had the wknd to cook up this performance and then pulled a ‘ he’s not pulling a d’rump ‘ by spilling into the hallway and everyone on their phones asking for donations, while repeating the wacko term over and over. I’m giving by Monday for Anaida to come up with a new design for PP’s merch collection.
The UCP are making it look like they have a conscience, a heart and a soul. They possess none of those things, and only retract their despicable and short sighted policies, after they get caught, and righteous outcries happen. Weak and meaningless apologies happen after. I remember when Ralph Klein got drunk and berated the homeless at a homeless shelter, and offered an insincere apology after. It’s doubtful that he stopped drinking, because people who know him, said that he didn’t. They said that Ralph Klein was still drunk afterwards, when they met him. The UCP are cut from the same cloth as Ralph Klein. Neoliberal policies that they support, never help those who need it the most. After they do very pricey boondoogles, that cost us billions of dollars, the less fortunate, teachers, doctors, nurses, and seniors is who they take it out on. We are no better off.
I really and honestly do not like the fact that I have to say this.. the UCP are playing American style gutter politics. We need to unpack cabinet ministers! I’ll give you three as options. Devin Dreeshen, Jason Nixon and Adriana LaGrange. Kristi Noem would make the hard decision, and take them to the gravel pit to abide with Cricket! Oh, and her nameless, un-castrated goat!
This is likely a TBA government distraction. What else has Parker’s cult been up to lately?
Cool Xenu— what is Parker up to ? ,well with a little help from his friends, to wit, one Benita Pederson, they are working on….
“Conservatizing Municipal Councils and School Boards ”
April 27th ( latest one) ,
Strategies for influencing policy makers….and replacing them.
Featured- Perry Kinkaide, Careyleigh Thiessen and Rob Anders.
The ‘meeting’ in Nov featured David Parker….quelle surprese`.
Ms(?) Pedersen, proudly supporting the Coutts 4, and her “highlight of the stop SOCHI rally in Edmonton in Oct was chatting with –Chris Sky ” , tells me all I want/need to know .
How low can the UCP go? I don’t think we’ve seen the bottom yet. Definitely this will be counted as the new transit funding promised for Calgary and Edmonton in the election platform. Money taken away April 30 and reinstated May 1 is the new funding. This funding is only for one year, so watch for a repeat performance in 2025.
This echoes the UCP’s AISH tactic. Surely people with few resources can pull money out of thin air on the day the rent is due, can’t they? If not, it’s their own fault for not learning how to budget properly. I mean, who doesn’t have hundreds of dollars kicking around for transit passes for the whole family with less than 24 hours’ notice?
When the government of the day pulls the plug on low-income seniors getting to their medical appointments, students getting to their public schools and parents getting to the out-of the-way food bank in order to feed their children, we have a problem.
The last one in particular was egregious, coming days after Rebecca Schultz posted a video from the Calgary Food Bank, explaining how people have to take two or three buses to get to there. It’s almost as if they said, “Let’s see what we can do to punish families and children for needing the food bank at all.” That the working poor have to rely on charity in order to eat shows us that we have a bigger structural problem in Alberta’s big cities than transit passes: wages that do not meet the cost of living at the best of times, inflation that far exceeds wage growth and erodes buying power, lack of rent controls. Thanks for highlighting your own utter failures as a government, UCP.
I’m not a psychologist or a psychiatrist, but I wonder what this says about our premier, who grew up in subsidized housing herself. Far be it from me to suggest that there is some sort of deep-seated resentment that has been displaced onto those needing government support today. Perhaps less money spent on fancy hotels in Dubai and jet-setting with Republicans could cover transit pass subsidies. Ayn Rand was just plain selfish and self-absorbed in the end. Bitter, not bittersweet.
What Abs said.
You can count on Smith and the UCP to do the right thing, after they have tried everything else.
Good on ya, Albertans who picked up the phone and gave some direct invective to those who deserved it! I do hope that the $5 millions that are directed to “rural bus service” won’t be pulled though – it is needed, has been needed for a veeerrrryyy long time.
No worries, Bruce. That, after all, is for rural folks–the TBA base.
It’s possible, too, there might have been a phone call from the Mustard Seed organization? The one the Nixon family has been heavily involved with, which Jason’s father started and he and his brothers have been employed by? The Mustard Seed, as you may know, is involved with men’s shelters and addiction recovery, and it might have raised eyebrows that Jason was wanting to cut meagre supports to people trying to get back their feet. The Mustard Seed gets provincial funding, I believe, or did from Jason Kenney anyway.
Just the story of how the Mustard Seed came to be is interesting, with the Nixon patriarch’s founding, the drama that followed when son Jason was getting in trouble (the chapter involving the Mountain Aire Lodge recovery centre that he managed), Jason’s political career riding high with Kenney, and now having to suffer the indignities of the non-prestigious portfolio Ministry of Seniors, Community and Social Services. Quite a come-down for an hombre like Nixon, who was once accused of poaching, threatening ranchers and conservation officers, shooting the beloved the wild horses of Sundre and other unsavoury behaviour.
No doubt you are right though, and there would be a lot of shock and awe in Calgary from people who need their subsidized transit passes, or whose kids do, or elderly parents and they would likely raise a fuss. Hopefully Edmontonians too, who are feeling particularly abused these days as the UCP treats them like an unpopular step-child.
We are all waiting with bated breath for the next abhorrent, small-minded, and punitive policy to come from this UCP government. It won’t be far behind.
Found on X. It is supposed to be from the G&M. “Alberta minister responsible for social services says he was unaware his dept cut funding for low-income transit passes in Calgary and Edmonton, despite his office justifying the decision one day earlier”. Dani doing her Dictator thing? Shafting her own Minister?
Roger: It certainly wouldn’t be a surprise. Sometimes Mr. McIver reminds me of the crew members of the USS Pueblo, trying to signal their true plight with blinks and hand signs unknown to their North Korean captors that all is not well in the Hermit Kingdom. DJC
Like the fake soldier prisoner in “Wag the Dog” with a bunch of pulls on his sweater that spell out “Courage, Mom”.
The Unilateral Cruelty Party, did not have a “come to Jesus” moment to reverse this dystopian policy. And don’t think for one moment they actually care about what Albertans think – the Alberta Pension Plan is still simmering. Suspect it was that someone pointed out that the one thing these Maple MAGAs cling to as being “successful”, the Homeless Hub, would suffer if the population it serves were unable to get to it. Also this would not reflect well on UCP candidates who run in the next municipal election. It is noticeable in both US and Canadian political commentary that more and more the word “cruel” is being used to describe the actions and policies of people who call themselves conservative.
Next up: Bill 20
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/alberta-ucp-amend-bill-20-backlash
Bob: Yes, but … I’m skeptical that this will amount to much. That said they backed off their original Sovereignty Act more than I expected them to and Bill 20 included elements that were dropped from that first try, so I reckoned they were trying to bring it back through the side door. Their own rural political farm teams were unhappy, so they were getting push-back from their own side. We may find the worst stuff no longer applies to rural councillors, just the big city ones they hate. DJC
That is about the fastest reversal I can remember in Alberta or B.C.
Guess the UPC didn’t expect voters to care about those who need those passes. Looks like Albertans aren’t that keen on kicking people with little to no money. Good for them.
Wonder what Smith will try next.