Pride, according to the Solomonic wisdom, goeth before destruction. Here in Wild Rose Country, though, it goeth before a big storage fee!
So far, for example, it’s cost something like five and a half million Loonies in storage charges for unusable medicine and questionable COVID masks destined for the landfill!
So it turns out that the First Deadly Sin can be quite expensive when it’s practiced on a government scale. That’s what Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government decided to do as the fallout continued from the embarrassing $70-million supply of Turkish “Tylenot” it unwisely ordered in 2022 to embarrass not-quite-former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a short-lived national shortage of children’s pain medication.
Alas for the UCP, sooner or later those millions of bottles of off-brand, overly viscous, and nearly unusable children’s pain meds now nearing their expiration date – which Health Minister Adriana LaGrange gamely called “good quality drugs” at a news conference the day before yesterday – are going to have to be dumped.
Ms. LaGrange was defending a harebrained scheme by Premier Danielle Smith to dump the embarrassing bottles on Ukraine and pass them off as a contribution to that country’s war effort. Look for this brainstorm to quietly fizzle for lack of interest.
To make matters worse for the government, the Opposition NDP revealed yesterday that the UCP has spent more than $5 million storing pallet-loads of the Turkish Tylenot plus unused COVID masks supplied by MHCare Medical, an Alberta company named in allegations about dodgy contracts pushed by government insiders on unwilling Alberta Health Services executives.
“The UCP is wasting millions of taxpayer dollars keeping unused PPE and Turkish Tylenol in storage because they couldn’t figure out how to get rid of it after they bought it from their close friends and insiders,” said NDP House Leader Christina Gray, who is officially Leader of the Opposition until party Leader Naheed Nenshi is able to run in the Edmonton-Strathcona riding, where he is expected to win with ease.
Premier Smith, who gets to set the date for a by-election to replace former Edmonton-Strathcona MLA and premier Rachel Notley, is taking as long as she can to make it possible for Mr. Nenshi to win a seat in the House.
“The CorruptCare scandal” – as the NDP has dubbed the dodgy contracts affair that came to light when the government fired its handpicked CEO of AHS and she filed a $1.7-million wrongful dismissal suit full of bombshell allegations – “has cost Albertans even more than they realized,” Ms. Gray said.
Someone leaked photos, video and briefing materials to the NDP that show hundreds of pallets of supplies, including boxes of unused masks and medicine bottles sitting in an Edmonton warehouse. “Despite the UCP government signing a contract to pay $450,000 in 2023 to dispose of expired PPE, many pallets remain,” the Opposition said in a news release yesterday.
“At a time when Albertans have so many other priorities like public health care and quality education, spending millions on storing useless goods is not one of them,” said Ms. Gray, who called again for a judicial inquiry into the whole sketchy sounding affair.
The UCP has opted instead for a much more limited investigation led by a former Manitoba judge, Raymond E. Wyant, who will not have the power to compel testimony. While Mr. Wyant has a good reputation in legal circles, it is hard to see how he can conduct a meaningful investigation.
Meanwhile, the NDP said, 5,165 palettes of unusable PPE and “endless boxes of Turkish Tylenol they bought that were never used” sit in a private warehouse in Edmonton, still running up charges of charges of $22.14 per pallet per month.
Obviously, the UCP strategic brain trust decided that was less embarrassing than just shipping the stuff off to the dump and admitting it in a short press release on the Friday before a holiday weekend.
Say what? Taxpayers Federation supports premier’s planned tax-funded visit to Florida hatemongers!
Meanwhile, plans are afoot for Premier Smith to travel to Florida in a couple of weeks on our dime to appear on stage at a fundraiser for a fake university that pushes misinformation and hate with a far-right American “influencer” known for his homophobic and occasionally anti-Canadian commentary.
Although Mr. Nenshi undoubtedly spoke the truth when he called the premier’s plans to share a stage with Ben Shapiro at the PragerU event on March 27 “despicable,” there’s nothing particularly surprising about Ms. Smith’s behaviour, which her office defends as a chance to speak up for Canada in the face of her hero Donald Trump’s attacks.
After all, when it comes to right-wing celebrities, Ms. Smith is a hopeless and pathetic fangirl. She demonstrated this last year when she raced off to Calgary the day after a shooting at Edmonton City Hall to sit beside Tubby Black and Jordan Peterson at the feet of Tucker Carlson. There, the three stooges of the Canadian right paid obeisance to the most famous far-right bloviator of them all.
And who knows? She may also be thinking of her future career prospects in the Benighted States if this Canadian political gig doesn’t last.
Regardless, it seems likely there is simply no way anyone could stop Ms. Smith from making a beeline for Florida, no matter how much her efforts there harm Canada and Alberta.
No, what’s shocking is that the so-called Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the self-described “tax watchdog” that purports to be non-partisan, leapt to Ms. Smith’s defence for using our tax dollars to help her raise money for hatemongers in Florida.
“If she can get the Alberta oil and the Alberta message out in front of that crowd, that’s smart,” CTF Alberta director Kris Sims was quoted saying by CTV News. Ms. Sims called the planned Florida junket “good value for money.”
If the CTF wants to continue to pass itself off as a legitimate organization, not just a mysteriously funded AstroTurf group with ties to the U.S. far right that acts as a farm team for conservative political parties like the UCP, it might want to suggest to its Alberta operative that she curb her enthusiasm.
Hello DJC and fellow commenters,
Five and a half million dollars! That’s a lot of money that could have been used more productively. It’s great that this information has become public.
I don’t think that they could put the unusable medication in the dump, exactly. Surely the Alberta government should be able to find a suitable way of doing it.
I wonder who owns the storage facility? Hopefully not anyone connected with MHCare, pardon the pun but that would be too painful from a taxpayers perspective. Speaking of which, I also wonder if the CTF has any concerns about continuing to pay to store this unwanted and nearly expired medicine? Or maybe the watch dog has turned into a lap dog, which seems to be common occurrence in Alberta when it comes to conservative governments.
Smith has apparently found her people, so yet another excursion to Florida. Nothing to show for all the trips so far, but perhaps the CTF still has some sort of faint home that many Alberta taxpayers do not.
Those US right wing politicians sure like to set up fake Universities. Perhaps yet another way to fleece the gullible. After all didn’t their leader say he loves the uneducated? Let’s at least hope Smith doesn’t come back with a new degree and an expense claim for tuition.
She’ll come back with a fist full of contacts. Her career has been mostly in talk radio which remains her comfort zone. Your Province Your Premier anyone?
We’ve become too familiar with the style, no substance, no depth, incapable of displaying critical analysis or genuine concern for the people of Alberta. We hear only a constant stream of repetitive propaganda. When questioned she takes an almost passive aggressive stance and after the almost customary ‘well look’ launches into a stream of seemingly rehearsed and often aggrandizing one liners intended to obfuscate and gaslight.
Miss MAGA north, Alberta’s very own Karoline Leavitt.
Ms. Sims called it “good value for money “. Interesting take, imo. One could read that as “since the taxpayers are paying for the junket , Americans get a freebie on having a mid-level government official of another country coming in to speak about “American values “:
>>yup makes total sense to me son, quit bean so contrary. <<
What I'm more concerned about, is Marlaina is stomping for a first ministers meeting asap….given where she is and the news today about the increased number of measles cases in Texas, if i was the other ministers, I would be asking for a virtual meeting. I mean it's not like Texas has a stellar record on vaccine efficacy.
Just pure coincidence that no one else has picked up on, that whenever Stormy Danielle shows up in Texas, it storms. Latest is massive hail storm. But as I said, strictly coincidence. Right?
I would also say kudos to the the person that got the photos, videos etc. That's alot of material that shouldn't suddenly disappear, given the RCMP investigation and all.
Something about falling off the lorry, if I remember the story right. It's been a 'few' years since I read the book. Catharine Cookson? Hmmm?
Perhaps Smith is going to Florida to submit her application for Govenor when Trump makes Canada the 51st state or perhaps she going to ask Trump/Putin to interfer on the behalf of PP in the upcoming election but I don’t think she is skilled enough to arrange that.
Smith most likely has lived a some what “limited” life. Now she is Premier of Alberta and sees an opportunity to expand her horizons and meet her “idols”. She probably thinks she is important now. Perhaps she can take our former premier, Christy Clark with her.
As to the storage fees of over $5million she is so dumb. They ought to have sent it to the dump asap and then made up a good story. what a waste of taxpayer money. Of course we in B.C. can top that stupidity. The Metro Vancouver council of Mayors managed to start building a sewage plant in North Vancouver, its not finished, stopped the work and now it sits there, cost $3billion so far.
Would someone please explain to me why a respected judge would accept an assignment without the power to compel testimony? Does he not realize that the entire exercise is nothing more than window dressing? Does the gig pay that well? Is he thinking of moving to Alberta to run as an MP or MLA as a reward?
JE: I’ve asked the same question. He’s retired. Maybe he’s bored. DJC
Marlaina loves nothing better than taxpayer funded trips to warm locales. Being able to listen to herself ramble on incoherently in front of others while on another vacation on our dime allows her to pretend she is doing something useful. It also allows her to escape the questions around the health care corruption scandal.
Lagrange could not possible be more incompetent, but I guess it is in service to the MAGA mentality whereby the most inappropriate and misinformed person is put in charge to hasten the destruction of public institutions.
Yes, I watched this “episode” in the Leg yesterday, where LaGrange was defiantly claiming these were “good drugs” that were intended for a good purpose. Like the bitter stuff it is, and like the poor tykes who gagged on it, nobody in the chamber was swallowing it. Even she looked like she was getting reflux. When she couldn’t take the questioning anymore she pulled out the familiar “bogeyman”, “It was AHS did it!” The Speaker what’s-his-name
was calling, ”Order, order!” at the gasps and groaning going on in the chamber. It’s a good thing he couldn’t hear the commotion and curse words going up around the province of the people with the fortitude to view the proceedings. Seriously? The same “AHS” whose boards and CEOs were appointed by her? Who when they didn’t do her bidding got fired? And then the old, “blame the victim” defense saying Mentzelopolous made up her whole corruption story because she wants money. It reminded me of that old Abbott and Costello skit, “Who’s on First?”. But, not as slick. And, definitely NOT funny. Quite nauseating, really.
There’s nothing quite like photographic evidence to show the enormity of waste engineered by Danielle Smith and the UCP. Pawning this off on Ukraine is far worse than trying to donate boxes of well-thumbed Harlequin Romance novels to the library. It’s more akin to the US sending military gear that was destined for the scrap heap to Ukraine, then boasting about all they’ve done for the war effort and wanting compensation in return. If Ukraine had accepted these pallets, surely Danielle Smith would have had bragging rights over her heroic war efforts. Slava Ukraini!
Stockwell Day once thought the earth is 6000 years old and man walked with dinosaurs. Now there’s PragerU! I’ve tried watching their videos, including one about the Book of Job and another quick hit on singing dinosaurs (shock, horror, that scientists would study dinosaur vocalizations). Danielle Smith might be going down there to claim that dinosaurs walk the earth right now, or to dispel the myth that Albertans actually worship dinosaurs and honor them at mass gatherings. Hard to say. Either way, there’s evidence.
https://youtu.be/USg8flpwCT0?si=Nu2-_qDhjHDYNHtW
The UCP and other conservatives (read donkey donny) operate on a premise of absolutely certain infallibility because if they ever once admitted wrongdoing or a blemish in the pristine perfection of their thoughts and actions their whole psychology would unravel.
Yes, even more about Alberta’s premier and the “experts” she will be consulting:
https://bsky.app/profile/kevinmkruse.bsky.social/post/3lk6ziqrh5c2g
Who owns the warehouse?
Bird: I have asked the question. I’ll let y’all know if I get an answer. DJC
Bird: The warehouse is owned by MTE Logistix. MTE was acquired by Hillcore Group of Toronto in 2022. DJC
Maybe if we stir up enough trouble here, e.g. protests, emails, etc., Danielle will decide to stay in Florida. She could apply for a job at Mar-a-Lago washing dishes. After all, she has relevant experience.
Danielle Smith is still trying to convince the Trump regime that Alberta is the goose that lays the golden eggs. (I tried to come up with a comparison to bitumen, but I just can’t make it work.)
Smith really seems to think she’s making an important point. But there’s a problem nobody’s mentioned, to my knowledge. What if Trump decides Smith is right? He’s totally capable of contradicting himself six times before breakfast, and—like Danielle Smith—never lets go of a bad idea.
So…what if someone convinces Trump that Canadian oil is “essential to American national security”? What if he’s already decided that? Smith is likely to become the wedge that hammers itself into Canada’s sovereign nationhood. Her blather will, I fear, convince Trump (or somebody) that Alberta should become the 51st state and to Hell with the rest of Canada. Smith will wedge open the crack that breaks Confederation.
Danielle Smith sucks up to power. Right now, she’s the self-appointed guardian of all thing oil in Oilberduh. She’s gonna “speak up for Canada”? Yeah, right. We can all hope that Trump’s already written her off. Not a billionaire, not an oil executive. Just a two-bit politician from a Podunk province. No votes, no followers, no money—and she isn’t Trump’s type anyway.
If we Albertans are lucky, Trump’s moved on and forgotten Danielle Smith ever bothered him.
This is a possibility that I’ve been worrying about. Support among Canadians for annexation by the US is highest among Albertans (15%, but still far too high – and you can bet that they’re all UCP supporters), and given the resources that the US could invest in astroturf movements, covert support for Wexiters, and the hostility towards the federal government constantly promoted by Smith and her government, the possibility of a movement to take Alberta out of Confederation and submit to American control is far too plausible.
In response to…
““If she can get the Alberta oil and the Alberta message out in front of that crowd, that’s smart,” CTF Alberta director Kris Sims was quoted saying by CTV News. Ms. Sims called the planned Florida junket “good value for money.””
check out…
““The best way, the president has said it, the best way to actually merge the economies of Canada and the United States is for Canada to become our 51st state. If they want to merge it, that’s how you make it the 51st state,” Lutnick said on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.”” from https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5191732-commerce-secretary-canada-51st-state/
Lessons?
1 Stop listening to CTF and write your government to pass laws to tax such entities into oblivion
2 Use Canadian fear and anger with UCP supporters to finally convince them to stop supporting Smith.
3 Stop hoping Trump doesn’t mean it. He does. Stop treating his BS as stupidity.
4 Publically shame everyone who wants us to become American as traitors.
5 Also shame pandering and disingenuous politicians because, as they claim, “Well, I just open to listening to all different points of view.”
The Tylenot saga gets uglier and uglier. Our conventional media will not adequately address the CorruptCare blunder, and $614 million in dodgy contracts from the UCP. The columnists at Postmedia are too preoccupied with Mark Carney, whom Danielle Smith is villifying, now that Justin Trudeau is no longer the Prime Minister. What they want is for Mark Carney and the Liberals to lose, Pierre Poilievre to become Prime Minister, and Danielle Smith to be cleared of the CorruptCare mess. Danielle Smith wants to detract from what she has done. There is no viable reason for Danielle Smith to meet with Ben Shapiro. Our virtually worthless sludge has no appeal to anyone. Meeting with Ben Shapiro will not change that. There happens to be a lot more involved with the CorruptCare incident, and it’s going to hard for Danielle Smith and the UCP to avoid the fallout.
It looks to me that the Tylenot scandal is one the UCP can’t seem to shake. I cannot understand why they wouldn’t get rid of the stuff as quickly as possible to it can disappear. Storing it for years at an outrageous cost only makes matters worse.
Given all these things, along with fun seekers tours to Florida at public expense are making this government look very bad. Also the we don’t want to play with team Canada against US tariffs is not good.
I note the UCP continue to heckle the NDP about where is Nenshi, even though it is up to the UCP to call a by-election in Ms. Notley’s riding. A fitting quote from the movie Forrest Gump, “Stupid is as stupid does”, is most appropriate for this gang.
“Premier Smith, who gets to set the date … is taking as long as it can to make it possible for Mr. Nenshi to win a seat in the House.”
Wrong pronoun, I think. But strangely appropriate.
Thanks, Lars. Appropriate or not, it’s been fixed. DJC