When word leaked out in the spring of 2014 about a plan by the Progressive Conservatives to build a penthouse suite for premier Alison Redford atop a government office building in downtown Edmonton, Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith excoriated the scheme dubbed the Sky Palace by its critics.
Five days after Ms. Redford resigned on March 23, pushed out by her own caucus, a CBC story revealed details of the project to remodel the 11th floor of the Queen Elizabeth II Building, then confusingly known as the Federal Building, as a secure Edmonton premiers’ residence.
Ms. Smith was quoted in the story calling the idea “an absolute disgrace.”
In early May, as leader of the Opposition in the Legislature, she was still assailing the project.
“The Sky Palace has become the ultimate symbol of this current PC era,” she fumed in the House, calling the plan “duplicitous, entitled, secretive, wasteful, and completely out of touch with the priorities of everyday Albertans.”
But that was then.
This is now.
When some of the many rumours about free skybox seats at Oilers playoff games in Edmonton and Vancouver provided by well-connected friends of the government that have been dogging the United Conservative Party on social media were confirmed By The Globe and Mail on Thursday, Ms. Smith, now Alberta’s premier, had a quite different response.
“As I understand it, all of the rules have been followed,” she told reporters at a news conference on Friday.
The cases are not identical – one was a significant public project with a legitimate purpose and arguably a public benefit; the other involves gifts and favours from people who can be fairly described as having an interest in keeping the government sweet.
Still, many of the same criticisms can be levelled fairly at the Skybox affair as were used in the spring of 2014 to attack the PCs, who the same day Ms. Redford resigned as premier had replaced her with the stalwart cabinet veteran Dave Hancock until a new permanent leader could be found.
That new leader, Jim Prentice, eventually persuaded Ms. Smith and eight of her Wildrose MLAs to cross the floor and join his PC caucus. They did in December 2014. Partly as a result, on May 5, 2015, the PCs lost dramatically to the NDP, ending nearly 44 years of unbroken PC rule and appearing to crater Ms. Smith’s political career.
While it remains far from clear that no rules have been broken in this year’s Skybox fiasco, despite the UCP having changed the rules to make it easier for elected officials to receive expensive gifts including sports tickets, all the legal niceties were in fact observed in the Sky Palace Affair.
The problem in 2014 was that some unwritten political rules were not.
The most serious political rule broken by the PCs while the $2-million-plus premier’s residence was being planned was the unwritten one that a government long in the tooth ought not to do things that seriously irritate voters who are already tired of it. That of course includes withholding information about expensive projects that are bound to be controversial when they leak, as they soon did in the case of the Sky Palace.
Arguably, though, the Sky Palace was in fact a good idea that could have been sold to the public. After all, it would have saved money on expenses and security.
It would have provided a temporary residence for all premiers whose homes were not in Edmonton. (Since 1905, only five of Alberta’s 19 premiers represented Edmonton ridings.) So, instead of paying for a hotel, rental, or mortgage as well as high security costs as we do now, there would have been a secure suite within a government building adjacent to the Legislature for any premier’s use.
As for keeping the Sky Palace a secret – that appears to have been a dumb idea cooked up by Wayne Drysdale, the infrastructure minister when the plan was launched, and foolishly continued by Ric McIver, who served briefly in the portfolio in the same time period. PC caucus members and even cabinet ministers have complained they were never told about the project.
One thing Ms. Smith did get right back in 2014 is that Sky Palace in fact became an enduring symbol of the entitled and out-of-touch final years of the Progressive Conservative Era.
It remains to be seen if the web of apparent sleaze reported by the Globe on Thursday will come to be how the public remembers the UCP’s time in office.
Certainly the optics of cabinet members going to expensive playoff games as guests of a guy whose company was involved in the their party’s $100-million-adjacent scheme to own the Libs by importing hard-to-use bottles of bad-tasting Turkish-made children’s “Tylenot” are horrible.
The same can be said of the spectacle of a director of an Alberta Crown corporation, owned by the province, buying tickets for the premier and her staff to go to a playoff game in Vancouver.
As Charles Rusnell, the former CBC investigative reporter who broke the story about expensive changes to the Sky Palace plan in 2014, said of the Skybox affair on social media Friday: “Usually, it takes a couple terms before politicians and govts become so blinded by power that they take freebies from rich supporters. @abdaniellesmith’s government bellied up to the trough after 13 months.”
In a statement on various social media platforms, newly chosen NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said “the revelations about multiple ministers, staff members, and the Premier herself attending playoff hockey games on lobbyists’ dimes should come as no surprise to Albertans given the level of cronyism shown by this government.”
“Last year, the Premier complained publicly that she wasn’t allowed to go to hockey games with lobbyists and proceeded to change the rules so that she could,” he continued. “So, it’s no surprise that her staff went to a game paid for by the company she awarded the nearly $100 million failed Turkish Tylenol scheme.”
Sounding not unlike the Danielle Smith of a decade ago, Mr. Nenshi observed: “Having ministers and staff sit in lobbyists’ luxury boxes while we are facing an affordability crisis in this province not only looks bad, it shows they’re living in a different world than the average Albertan.”
But – who knows? – maybe average Albertans will buy Ms. Smith’s explanation that “people wanted to see us support our team” instead of, say, seeing her visit Fort McMurray where residents were facing the need to evacuate their homes in the face of wildfires.
After all, as they say, the past is a foreign country.
Yes, the Sky Palace could have been better defended but the government tried to hide it. It is not uncommon to have a small suite available for select officials in a government building. Unfortunately the cost of that got conflated with the much larger project, which remains a functioning office building with many MLAs and government employees.
The subsequent merger of the chastened PCs and the frustrated Wildrose could have gone two ways. We could have got the moderation of the PCs with the less corruptable Wildrose. Instead we now seem to have got an more extreme party that seems to feel entitled to whatever perks it can scrounge up.
It may not be Sky Palace, but all we seem to have really got for the millions wasted on questionable medicine here was a few hockey tickets for the Premier and a few cabinet ministers.
Of course, “no rules were broken”, because as the Premier is well aware they changed the rules to allow them to get away with what they couldn’t previously.
I’ve seen how corrupt, dishonest and sleazy things were with the Alberta PCs for a very long time. It was especially bad with Ralph Klein, who was a Liberal, and turned into a Reformer. He would do the stupidest things, influenced by alcohol, waste so much money on so many boondoogles, rob us of a substantial amount of more money from cheating us out of the oil and tax wealth that Peter Lougheed intended us to have, made a big mess with extreme cuts to the public education system, and the public healthcare system, left us with a very large infrastructure repair bill, and left us with a humongous orphan well cleanup cost that is at least a quarter of a trillion dollars. It didn’t stop with Ralph Klein, because the other Alberta PC premiers and governments were still doing things that were quite costly, and very unethical too. Alison Redford was no different. She didn’t listen to the good advice that Peter Lougheed gave her, and wound up in the predicament that she did. Alas, most Albertans didn’t care, and re-elected the Alberta PCs.
Danielle Smith was the leader of the Wildrose party at that time, and was upset at what the Alberta PCs were doing. She didn’t have any good words to say about the Alberta PCs, or their leaders, such as Ed Stelmach, Alison Redford, or even Jim Prentice. The wasted money, lack of ethics, or integrity, conflicts of interest, and a large cabinet were things that Danielle Smith rallied against. Crossing the floor was also something that Danielle Smith detested. The next thing you know, Danielle Smith and a large part of her Wildrose caucus made the decision to cross the floor to the Alberta PCs, undeniably being goaded by Preston Manning. After this, Danielle Smith had no condemnation for Jim Prentice, or the Alberta PCs. It was all hunky dory, until voters dumped Danielle Smith in 2015.
Now, Danielle Smith has welcomed former Alberta PC politicians, and premiers into the UCP fold, for various kinds of positions, including Lyle Oberg, who fired Danielle Smith, when she was a public school trustee, for her abrasive behavior, and farfetched ideas, Ed Stelmach, and Alison Redford, who Danielle Smith erroneously claimed couldn’t get a job in Alberta, after she left politics.
In addition to that, Danielle Smith and the UCP have a super sized staff count for their MLAs, have an extremely large sized cabinet, are doing so many boondoogles that are costing us even billions of dollars, further deplete the Heritage Savings Trust Fund, do things that breach conflict of interest and ethics laws, undermine democracy in numerous ways, cause hardship for many, desecrate the environment, damage the public education and the public healthcare systems, make costs of things go up, such as insurance, and utilities, and make other problems.
It’s quite strange that there are Albertans who see nothing wrong with this. Comment sections in newspapers are usually filled with people who hurl nasty insults at anyone who disagrees with Danielle Smith and the UCP.
If this was another politician, or premier that did what Danielle Smith has been doing as the premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith would want them to resign. For Danielle Smith, and the UCP, the rules don’t apply to them. It’s disgraceful and disgusting.
This isn’t about supporting a hockey team. (Even with the Calgary hockey arena, previously, Danielle Smith didn’t believe that governmens should be funding arenas. When she sat in the opposition, as the Wildrose leader, she stated as much.) It’s more about Danielle Smith and the UCP supporting their rich friends, while many Albertans struggle to get by. Danielle Smith did observe that there are places that are off limits for a premier to go to, but she didn’t like that rule, and wanted to change it. Luxury boxes inside of sports facilities, where CEOs frequent are prohibited for a premier, her cabinet, or any backbencher MLAs, to be inside, because this can lead to nefarious activities.
It cost nearly $100 million for Danielle Smith to stand up to the Liberals in Ottawa, with medication that is useless, and she was rewarded by the provider of this medication with these expensive hockey tickets, in a luxury box.
Danielle Smith and the UCP has squandered far more than $100 million on other boondoogles. With all this money the UCP wastes, that money could help improve important services, and help seniors and low income people.
Danielle Smith and Adriana LaGrange were recently bad mouthing the dental plan that the Liberals in Ottawa were implementing, when seniors, and others have welcomed it, because it helps them. You can’t get anymore foolish than this.
What a difference a decade makes.
Now that it has become de riguer for politicians to accept gifts, tokens, gratuities from lobbyists, industry hacks, and everyone looking for some leverage with the government, it’s pretty clear that the graft is now out in the open. Transparency is a good thing; at least we can see them steal out in the open.
It was Queen Danielle who believed that certain groups were the most persecuted of all time — certain groups that she wanted their votes from, of course. What’s wrong with receiving skybox tickets from a lobbyist? After all, Smith was also a lobbyist — lobbyists are a persecuted group now, I guess. Nobody should get into public service to get rich, but scoring a ton of gifts for who knows what purpose is ookie-dokkie. Such are things in Smith’s weird podcast world.
Ah, Wayne Drysdale, my former MLA. Never the sharpest knife in the drawer, but also never the kind of foaming at the mouth hard-right Wildroser. A classic rural — or, perhaps, “rurban” — Alberta Progressive Conservative in the same vein as former Premiers Ed Stelmach and Dave Hancock.
It is good business inviting certain individuals to hockey games in Canada as you never know when you may someone to put their thumbs on the scales of justice. Former NHLPA President and player agent Alan Eagleson used to do it and when Eagleson’s illegal antics caught up with him it appears to have worked out to his advantage. According to Wiki, “in 1994 Eagleson was charged by the FBI with 34 counts of racketeering, obstruction of justice, embezzlement and fraud in Boston. However, he still had enough political clout from his days as an MPP and a power broker with the Progressive Conservatives to stave off extradition to the United States”. Canada, obviously embarrassed by the U.S. charges, Eagleson was arrested and put on trial. He was convicted and did six months in Mimico Correctional, a minimum security facility. Had he been extradited to the U.S. and convicted he could have done twenty years to life.
This reminds me of the West Edmonton Mall fiasco that Ralph Klein was involved with, many years ago, which set Alberta taxpayers back of over $400 million. The revelation of that was conveniently timed around the Christmas holiday season, so Albertans would not pay attention to it. Patricia Nelson, an Alberta PC cabinet minister was all ho hum about it, and acted so cool about the ordeal.
It’s the summer holiday season, and it was also before a weekend that Danielle Smith brought this sky box affair up, after a good reporter from The Globe & Mail revealed what had happened. Danielle Smith is hoping that Albertans will be distracted from summer activities to even care about her latest boondoogle.
The UCP have made it so that they cannot be held liable for whatever they do wrong, and this is why they are in pursuit of a provincial police force, and they replaced the Ethics Commissioner with someone who has a shady history, and is a UCP stooge. Anyone that contests what the UCP does, will get punished. This is undemocratic, and very much like a police state. It’s what existed in 1930s Germany, under Adolf Hitler.
An apathetic mindset of the population of Germany was what helped Adolf Hitler attain power. The results were catastrophic. Here in Alberta, an apathetic attitude of the people helped put the UCP into power, and the results aren’t good.
“$19,144 paid to a consultant for a one-quarter share of Edmonton Oilers luxury box tickets for 10 games in 2011. There were no receipts to support an additional claim of more than $650 for food and beverages at the game, and no list of those who attended at AFSC expense was available.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/government-removes-board-of-agriculture-financial-service-corporation-suspends-three-top-executives-1.3633381
Less than decade ago, this kind of behavior ended in disgrace and firing. An NDP government was in place. Now our UCP government is on board the gravy train, behaving without regard for public funds, with complete disregard for propriety and with impunity. The scale of this scandal has extra zeroes tacked on the end. The UCP aren’t going to fire themselves, are they? After all, it’s only corruption when you’re not a politician with three years remaining in office and the power to change the rules at will.
Soon the heat dome will make Alberta suitable for growing bountiful crops of bananas. No more banana republic in name only. The UCP’s premier can have her own banana republic right here at home. It’s Tropico. She’s la jefa. No one can stop her.
Confronted with annoying rules and regulations and concerns over how images are perceived, their appearances, and the assumptions about how things ‘look’ to be, what should be done from the self- aggrandizement, PR/spin perspective of an industry lobbyist/politician? Obviously, simply do a little adjusting and tweaking here and there:
“I want to stay within the rules, but sometimes if the rules haven’t kept up with where we find ourselves today, we may have to adjust them,” Smith told the podcast. “I think there are some tweaks we may need (to the act).”
https://globalnews.ca/news/10085594/alberta-to-let-cabinet-choose-limits-rules-about-gifts-for-politicians/
Yet, all of the adjusting, tweaking, and ethical/intellectual squirming in this world cannot and will not change the reality of who controls what in the political and social realm, as policy decisions continue to be influenced by a very tiny percentage of the population, for example:
https://breachmedia.ca/in-saskatchewan-poilievre-allies-with-tycoons-who-treat-province-like-fiefdom/
https://breachmedia.ca/poilievre-fundraiser-lobbyist-conservatives/
It’s incredibly brazen for Smith to change legislation in order for her and Ministers and MLA’s to receive expensive “gifts” from lobbyists and other super-friendly UCP supporters. Obviously, there is a transactional aspect to this.
When Smith was chosen as the UCP leader, and squeaked into the Premier’s chair with not a lot of support, there was some speculation as to how she was going to keep her caucus onside. Voila! Now her huge pack of Ministers, and even now the backbenchers can take bigger bribes. And, all those rural MLA’s who have to dodge locals at church and the town grocery because of unpopular government policies can now be compensated rightly by the few who might benefit from them.
The other appalling aspect of the “hockey hosting” is who was making the arrangements. Don Braid, in the Calgary Herald pointed out,
“An Edmonton host for ministers and staffers was MHCare Medical and its CEO, Sam Mraiche.
“The company was tied to the purchase of children’s pain medication from Turkey, a Smith brainstorm that ended up costing the public $75 million with little health benefit.”
Braid is being pretty soft on Danielle Smith, saying the Turkish children’s meds had “little health benefit” when in fact the product was deemed dangerous and had to be pulled from use in pharmacies and hospitals. Smith, of course was screeching that the importation of this stuff should be expedited instead of Health Canada (read: Trudeau) performing its due diligence, making sure it was safe to use. Meanwhile Trudeau already had deliveries of approved and trusted childrens acetaminophen and ibuprofen on the way.
Smith though, forged ahead and was cavalier to any risks to Albertans’ babies, and her health Minister Adriana LaGrange too dense to understand them. Blue Cross was so worried about the Turkish meds it made pharmacists keep them behind the counter. But our public hospitals were under LaGrange’s purview, so she could download the junk onto them. The staff in the Neonatal Units were required to force-feed the tiniest, sickest newborns with these medications until the paediatric specialists spoke up and said it would put them at risk of severe illness. The stuff was too thick and would clog feeding tubes, requiring more dilution and ultimately pose risks to their undeveloped digestive systems, with possible dire results. But Dani didn’t care! It was all just part of her political power plays and all the risks, costs and collateral damage matter not.
The concern now is if there is another deal being cooked up now, with this same broker to the Turkish pharmaceutical company? Haven’t they got enough of our money already? Do we have to offer them our firstborns? Oh right, we already did that. Or rather, our Premier did.
What a joke of a government.
The PC’s and now UCP’s are all little pigs continue having a healthy feast at the trough. The difference is sometimes someone is watching and blows the whistle and other times it is hidden well enough that no one notices. The illusion that no rules were broken is laughable, as it’s not a matter of rules but more about ethics and perception of inappropriate behavior. Now with Smith it’s all fair game of wide open bribery.
Smith did everything by the rules, that the UCP changed a year ago, so that the UCP corruption could continue.
Of course if the Trudeau Liberals did exactly the same thing, Smith and the UCP would scream about Liberal corruption to the high heavens.
Hello DJC and fellow commenters,
Several aspects of the Sky Palace have always puzzled me. First, why would anyone want to live above a large government building which is empty at night except, I suppose, for a couple security guards. I certainly would not. It seems to me the opposite of secure. Second, why would someone want to eschew the benefits of a feeling of community along with social activity and potential friendships which accrue from living in a nice community.?Wouldn’t it feel isolating to live all alone with your daughter, isolated from everyone else? Third, socialization is important to youth growing up. Wouldn’t Ms Redford’s daughter feel isolated from her peers and everyone else of various ages whom she might meet in a community? Instead of living in a community, she would have lived in an isolated government building far away from other children her age and without the benefits of living alongside other people. From my point of view, I can’t think of many living situation that would be less desirable than the Sky Palace (barring living in a prison or other similar horrible situation).
So given the timing of the ‘Xweets’ of:
” Smith says-Updated alberta bill of rights, coming this fall.” &
breaking ground for the new Scotia Arena “….
Are we to assume she will put in legislation that says Premiers have the right to have “Sky boxes ” there because the fans want them to show support for the Flames as well?
IMHO, her ideas for an “updated bill of rights ” should send chills down the spine.
Alberta’s version of P-25 ?
I wonder which chapter that’s in, and if it’s the prelude to the so-called referendum on the CPP=APP hostile takeover, that she said she’d get back to in 2025.
Ahhhh..The puritanical right and the socialist left, worrying about a few hockey tickets for a game. This done every day with vendors in any industry in this province, and if you actually believe because your getting a few tickets means that you’re buying their products. I haven’t seen it yet..He’s a better idea..Pay the premier of the province what she’s worth!! Her wages are about the same as a welding supervisor up in Fort Mac, not a manager looking over a province with a GDP of $330 billion and budget of 70 billion. She’d get 5x this in the private industry..But we all know ,it’s a privilege to slave to the public, listening to a bunch of whinny bastards.
Jack: The problem is always the coverup, rarely the crime. As a wise old union labour relations officer once explained it to me, “I can save anyone’s job, no matter what they did, as long as they’ll admit they did it and promise never to do it again.” That is the case in politics, as well. It’s the coverup that’s killing the UCP, not the original sin, as it were. As for senior elected officials needing to be paid the same as corporate executives, this is of course pish-posh. As counter-intutive as this may seem to people who are corrupt in their own hearts, high salaries for elected jobs in fact accelerate the race toward corruption, rather than preventing it. If you’re suggesting that welding supervisors in Fort Mac are only being paid one fifth of a corprate exec, they’re being underpaid. DJC
This country was build with hammers and nails and these day’s it’s going to be destroyed with a pen by certain people. Everything done higher up is “legal” or will find an excuse! Everything ( or nearly everything) in our lower tax generating community is going to be prohibited or not accepted! Just take away our way of live and control us.We are just working to pay our leaders so they have fun and can afford to be where ever they want to be .I think you’ll not find any politician who’s not taking advantage of his position because it’s normal these days and if they get caught red handed so what? They have to resign ( maybe) and don’t care anyway because they have made enough money on the taxpayers or they have contacts to find a new position with a “friend” who owes a favor.
Down here at the working frontline we’re always the loosers and nothing will change this.
Just go ahead and destroy this beautiful country and plunder your citizens. It’s a disgrace.
Quid pro quo, Clarice. New episodes of the long-running Calgary grift-o-rama are released daily, blending newcomers with the old cast of characters. Charles Rusnell ended up on the wrong end of the Great Calgarians™ in this imbroglio in 2017:
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/non-profit-suing-cbc-for-defamation-over-series-of-articles
Danielle Smith and Mayor Super-Prog were both toiling away this week breaking ground for the new arena so desperately required by those very Great Calgarians™.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in Calgary is over 8%, in a low-wage economy being pumped full of non-permanent residents.
Whatever happened to this story?
https://www.projectcalgary.org/secret_arena_land_deal
Meanwhile, back at the ranch.
“‘Tipping point’: Nearly half of Albertans $200 or less away from insolvency, MNP survey says
“I think people have lost the elasticity in their budget — that ability to absorb any further shock””
https://calgaryherald.com/news/almost-half-albertans-near-insolvency-mnp
Can’t imagine too many of those folks revelling in the vibrant, “city-shaping project”, as Mayor Gondek describes the billionaire welfare program.
“The traditional ruling class, which has numerous trained cadres, changes men and programmes and, with greater speed than is achieved by the subordinate classes, reabsorbs the control that was slipping from its grasp.”
Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks
Back when the Alberta PCs were engaging in their cringy excesses, there were more than a few moments when one would give their heads a shake, how could anyone put up with this excess? A long time PC MLA and cabinet minister was frequently caught using his office to enrich others with favours. There was no doubt that a constituent could get the road in the front of their home or business paved with the nice donation to his campaign. Rural Alberta was filled with tales of grift that were the hallmark of how the PCs did their business. Of course, the Alison Redford years and the excesses tied to that period lead to the destruction of the PCs. But in creating the UCP, Jason Kenney realized that the old culture of grift was going to return, because the CON culture in Alberta is all about payoffs and buying influence. The UCP’s recent changes that allow open bribes, without so much as a pause as to their propriety, in the CON theft culture back with a vengeance.
The good news for Albertans is: time flies when you’re having fun!