Apparently no one in the United Conservative Party cabinet has to shop for their own groceries these days! How else do you explain the lamest stunt in Alberta political history?
Premier Danielle Smith and Finance Minister Jason Nixon got up on their hind legs yesterday at a press conference in front of a row of antique gasoline pumps at Calgary’s Heritage Park and announced that 3.4 million Albertans would qualify for a one-time $100 energy rebate!
Let me say that again: One hundred dollars!
Holy cow! That’s enough to buy … well, a carton of budget smokes or a couple of cases of watery Canadian beer if you’re a buck-a-beer kinda voter. Or, if you have no taxable vices and you want to get the kids to soccer practice this week, maybe half a tank of gas for your minivan. More like a quarter tank if you drive one of those giant pickup trucks Alberta seppies like.
At the microphone, apparently placed so reporters who showed up couldn’t see the politicians they were interrogating and vice versa, even Ms. Smith and Mr. Nixon didn’t sound as if they really believed their own schtick as they tried to put gaslighting back into the gas tank.
“The energy rebate gives Albertans real returns now on the higher oil prices we have seen in the previous months,” the premier read from her notes in her chirpy good-news voice.
“When oil prices are high, everyone feels it,” her newly appointed finance minister boomed his agreement. “Not just in the pumps, but in the price of groceries, utilities, and everyday goods!
“Albertans deserve relief and the freedom to use the relief where and when it matters most for families,” Mr. Nixon blundered on. “That’s why, starting July 1, Alberta’s government is putting direct immediate support into the hands of nearly 3.4 million eligible Albertans through the Alberta energy rebate!”
So, wait for it, folks. “Every eligible Albertan will receive a guaranteed $100 payment …”
Pfffffft. If there was any air left in the metaphorical balloon, that would’ve been the moment it made a farting sound and flopped around for a couple of seconds before going flat. If Ms. Smith and Mr. Nixon were expecting cheers and confetti, they were disappointed.
“We trust Albertans to know what their families need most, whether the pressure is on groceries, rent, bills or fuel,” Mr. Nixon soldiered on. (Affordability and Utilities Minister RJ Sigurdson was standing six in the background, his eyeballs darting back and forth. There was also some guy from a charity you probably haven’t heard of who agreed to say supportive stuff.) And, by gosh, you can spend that $100 bucks any way you want!
When a reporter asked Mr. Nixon if giving away 3.4 million rebates even when they’re this small adds up to responsible fiscal management, the minister defended it by arguing “the law is the law” – that is, the legislated fuel tax relief program that was supposed to suspend taxes at the pump when oil prices got too high.
That was also a bad policy, one could argue, but less likely to disappoint potential voters when they did the arithmetic. But to be fair, the UCP is right when they admit that if they’d just made it a tax break, oil retailers would have trousered the difference before you could say “axe the tax.”
In hindsight, though, it was probably also a mistake for the UCP communications brain trust to tip off their favourite Postmedia columnist a day in advance without telling him how much money folks were actually going to get.
Rick Bell dubbed the plan “Dani Dollars” and compared it to the means-test-free giveaway Ralph Klein’s Government handed out in 2006 – the equivalent of just a little less than $700 nowadays. Mr. Bell wrote stuff like “if you are 18 or older and have filed a 2025 tax return, you score cash. Money. Right to you. … the money goes to you directly. No muss, no fuss. …”
This started a little buzz out there that the “rebate” might even be $1,000. No such luck, though. Too bad, so sad.
But don’t worry, you might get another chance at $100 in the next quarter – if you can be bothered to go through the process of applying again and the Strait of Hormuz doesn’t settle down.
You couldn’t make this stuff up, could you? One pities the poor PR flacks who were ordered to write up this drivel. They have to know they’re going to get blamed for the fallout.
This deficit-obsessed government, too cheap not to claw back a $200 bonus Ottawa gave disabled Albertans on income support, is now going to blow $340 million giving away sums too small to fill the tank of a normal car? And they want us to cheer.
But, hey! It’s not taxable. And everybody in the household over 18 qualifies. And, anyway, it would cost four times as much to build another hospital in Edmonton where the Conservatives just got finished building the last one in 1988.
And it won’t cost as much as Mr. Klein’s $1.4-billion blowout 20 years ago either, so there’s that.
Well if it is any consolation, Ralph’s party turfed him shortly after his big cash giveaway. Of course, that was when Conservatives took fiscal responsibility more seriously and Smith is certainly not being as generous this time. I also suspect many Albertans, especially those who remember Ralph’s bucks, will be underwhelmed by Smith’s pale imitation.
I thought Bell knew better than this, but he sure over sold Smith’s modest gesture too. So also add to the list of the underwhelmed anyone who read what he wrote and took it seriously. The UCP communications people may need to have a talk with Bell about better managing expectations in the future.
Unlike the late Ralph era of steadily ncreasing energy prices, with oil prices now quickly coming down as the Middle East problems seem to be settling down some, Smith’s temporary windfall may quickly disappear. So in a few months or so she may be wishing she didn’t blow it all so soon. I suppose she can always get back to cutting health care and education spending, which she sort of seems to enjoy doing even if most Albertans don’t.
A one-time $100 payment. Wow, that’s a hell of a way to start the new Republic of FreeDUMB.
This reminds me a lot of the Mulroney government of tymes of yore. That was also a government that dropped on everyone a national referendum that no one wanted, to distract from a government that was filled with raging cronyism and backstabbing. Not to mention the reality that the prime minister was raging between unhinged tantrums and slurring pronouncements that no one cared about.
It’s been said that it’s bad when people hate the government; but it’s even worse when people are laughing at it.
Maybe Queen Danielle should make another trip to Mara Largo for a recharge?
Hello DJC and fellow commenters,
In my view, if the UCP got rid of their privatization in health care, which puts money directly into the profits of corporations and their shareholders, and spent the same amount of money plus the 340 million rebate, they could have provided a lot o health care. Or, they could have left the $200 per AISH recipient in place and improved lives considerably. Or even, spent the money on roads. I had to travel the Deerfoot in Calgary last night in the rain, and the state of the road is still appalling, even though they are doing a fair amount of maintenance.
The Trellis society helps homeless youth, I think. It is in Calgary and may operate in other places, I’m not sure. It’s true that it’s not that well-known, but in Calgary Home Depot accepts a small 0ptional donation to the Trellis Society at the till when you pay for your home improvement items etc. When I asked a cashier at H D one day about whether or not it is a helpful organization, she said that she had benefitted from the Society’s program, so I’ll take that as a yes.
Two points, FYI.
The corporation mentioned endorses Project 2025.
Any money given to a corporation, ostensibly for a third party, counts as a charitable donation by that second party.
“it was a probably also a mistake” .. Suggest the extra “a” before probably be removed.
It’s a matter of take from the poor and give to everyone else. At least those on AISH or ADAP can at least get $100 back on a one time basis, in spite of losing $400 per month with the claw back of Disability Benefit and being moved off AISH. Funny how Dingy has totally resisted helping anyone in Alberta, other than oil execs and wealthy business owners, until her approval dropped to it’s lowest. Now we need Dingy Dollars to try and gaslight people into supporting her.
Funny how she is working so hard for the separatists, but will not put Cord Lund’s petition on the ballet, because she supports coal and killing people rather than the environment.
Thanks, Albertan. It’s been fixed. DJC
Trying to buy votes for a measly $100, insulting. That $200 the UCP clawed back from AISH clients amounts to $2400 a year. That’s a significant loss for folks striving to exist on Alberta’s meagre monthly disability support.
UCP voters think they are getting that money from everyone else….
Agreed, as you and David have pointed out. An insult.
My mental calculation says that might be a once a week Mars bar for a year, if bought at Dollarama or such.
Or maybe one-half a year’s porridge supply for one adult person. Please ma’am is there anymore. Said, as Al and Berta raise empty bowls. Ditzy glitzy dollars, yes.
How out of touch can you be? At least Carney’s ridiculous food plan, in my case, was enough for two week’s groceries and more than twice as much as Dani is offering.
What do they think $100 will buy in this day and age? That’s the allowance of a 12-year old for a month.
A roast and all the trimmings. I’m thrilled I tell ya! Thrilled! {{{genuflects towards the Alberta parliament}}}
Dog forbid they actually hack into Big Oil’s record profit margins and build a hospital or something.
I’ll tell you what, Merry Antoinette: axe the extra education property tax you slapped on us recently. Hundreds of extra dollars per home, and you didn’t bat an eye. All to give more money to rich people to send their kids to Strathcona Tweedsmuir. All of us pay for that. Now you rub our faces in affordability and expect us to get all hepped up about $100? That won’t even buy a monthly adult transit pass.
It’s peak smugness to stand in front of some antique gas pumps and talk about affordability. You added $200 per year to the registration fees for EVs that don’t guzzle gas from those museum pieces.
Everywhere we turn, another UCP $400 charge here, another $200 there. Will this be a cheque, or do you expect us to provide direct deposit information? How can trust you? When nefarious actors posted our personal data from the voters’ list on the internet, you did nothing. Now you want our banking information, too? Might as well expose us to bank fraud, I guess. New UCP slogan: “Rob the Rubes”?
That slogan is not new…..
This is without a doubt, the most pathetic, useless government ever. And I suppose the application process will be setup so the hoops you’ll have to jump through, will make it near impossible to get your Dani bucks. The Chiefs are right, she is treasonous.
In my mind the most relevant detail in this program is $225,000 – the maximum household income to qualify for the rebate. Two hundred and twenty five thousand is $18,750 per month. People at that stratospheric income level are hardly suffering from the elevated prices we are currently seeing. If this really was about easing the financial pressure people are experiencing, they would use a cutoff of say $80,000 or $100,000, and make a larger payment to people who are actually being forced to forego nutritious food for their children.
The payment procedure will be interesting as well. In my mind they have two choices: put a cheque in the mail or use a direct deposit. Justin Trudeau used direct deposit for our carbon tax rebates, and a lot of people did not even notice them; a survey at the time suggested a lot of people did not even think they received them. On my own bank statements the rebates were just a line like GOC CLI INIT. I assume $100 from the Alberta Government will be similarly nondescript, and earn Danielle Smith very little political points.
Alternately, Ms. Smith can put the cheques in the mail. That will give people an actual physical object in their hands, and people will have a good feeling as they go through the procedure of depositing it. The UCP could also include a covering letter telling the recipients how wonderful the government is and how concerned about affordability they are. It is my opinion that Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax would have been more acceptable if they had mailed out cheques, along with a letter explaining how they will still get the same amount of money if they reduce their emissions.
The downside to mailing cheques, of course, is the increased cost, but our ‘conservative’ government doesn’t really seem to be very worried about how much money they spend these days.
I think we’re mostly missing the excellent strategy at play here. This is just more of this “direct democracy”. Most of the good folks who called in to Alberta at Noon today had at first hesitated to apply- they didn’t need the money, didn’t like the tactic- then decided they would but would donate the money to someone else who was more in need.
Meaning, our elected representatives can skip out on the hard stuff, like actually making the decisions about where the funds are best allocated. Plus we all feel good and cozy and smug about what we did with the money. Gave it to a single mom! To the gentle suffering disabled auntie we know and love. The animal shelter. The children’s hospital. Awww. Community! Citizen initiative!
See, that way, if you really, really want those icky, politically sensitive woke things like care for trans kids, supervised consumption, clean water, health inspectors, women’s shelters, reproductive health care, affordable housing, amputee care for addicts etc. you can darn well pay for it yourself- just pool your hundred bucks with a few million other people and- voilà!
Kind of like the Water Not Coal petition. We’re still basking in that feel good- did our righteous citizen duty aura (except Corb maybe who has the flu). Such good little children we are, mostly obedient, just had to let off a little steam. Phew, now Danni or whoever is making up these schemes can set that one aside too.
Something tells me that Smith and the UCP are thinking about the next general election in Alberta, hence the paltry payout. We have taught Smith to treat us like imbeciles.
Note the $65 fuel tax relief savings mentioned in the press release. The $100 rebate is exactly $65 in the 2026 spending value of $100 in 2006. Except Ralph Bucks were $400 per person, including children. The extra added bonus was that he quit as premier later that year. Now that would be worth it. Pinky finger promise, Dani. Your desperation is showing.
But hey, it’s flexible and you can spend however you want. Maybe donate it to the NDP an get a political donation tax credit.
If you donate this money to the ANDP, it’s important that you contact Danielle Smith’s office to thank her personally for this opportunity to contribute to a political party that actually proposes to govern for the average Albertan. And isn’t treasonous.
And if you can forego the political donation tax credit, Corb Lund’s Water Not Coal initiative would be a worthy recipient of this UCP largesse, especially as it looks like this issue won’t make October’s mix-n-match ballot.
What will be the cost of administering this?
We’ll find out…. in due course.
Interesting take playing out on the right wing social media pages. More than one person claiming they won’t apply for the $100 bribe because it has to be done online. Digital footprint and all that. Odd because they don’t seem all that upset about millions of Albertans – including them – getting doxxed by the separatists. But filling out an online application form – not a chance! Too dangerous.
If the official announcement was underwhelming, one of the off topic answers from Smith was epic. She responded to a question about the Treaty 6, 7 & 8 chiefs asking the RCMP to investigate her for treason by demanding the chiefs show her the same respect that her government has shown them. Say what!!! You mean – no respect! I just about spit out my tea. My fear is that Dani is stoking up anger against the Indigenous people as another of her ‘release valves.’ She wants a scapegoat for the separatists to attack when they finally realize there is no chance of a Republic of Alberta. And she doesn’t want the target to be her or the UCP. It’s a craven move. Oh, and her righteous anger response yesterday. Don’t forget that many years ago, she wanted to be an actress. Moved to Vancouver to find work in the film and TV industry. No one was interested. But she still likes to pull out the acting skills when the opportunity presents itself.
I shouldn’t have read about this before I had my coffee this morning. It just about sent me into orbit. I have a virtual “koffee klatch” with a group of friends every morning where we pass around/discuss the latest news, or send off-colour jokes. Spill the Tea. This latest Smith fiasco was the topic of conversation this morning, and I’ll tell you old nurses don’t hold back. Of course, the conclusion was she’s buying popularity, social license, for all the damage she has done to the province. Like a cheap you-know-what that begins with “wh” and ends with “re”. And Jason Nixon, good grief. His first act as Finance Minister? It tracks. He was so bummed out when Jason Kenney got the boot, Smith came in as Premier, and he got demoted to the Seniors portfolio. What a pout he had on. However, his hanging in there paid off, as Danielle Smith’s “bench” got shorter and shorter. Woohoo! He’s back in the clique. He was beaming at the presser where he was announced as Finance Minister. As you mentioned, David, you don’t have to look around very far in our province to see what needs to be done, or to remember how much money has been squandered by this government. They are just getting worse; they couldn’t lead a two-man parade. This latest bonehead move is a case in point.
It would have been so much more effective, and intelligent (and brave. Let’s not forget brave) to impose a windfall tax in February of 2022. Remember February 2022? Putin’s invasion of Ukraine? Oil prices shooting up like a bombardment missile to US$120 per barrel. Instant profit surge of $40 per barrel for the oil companies. Even Alberta crud prices went up (not a typo; I’m referring to bitumen).
Of course, no Canadian politician has the brains and the guts to challenge the oilpatch. Especially Danielle Smith, indoctrinated by Calgary School profs at the U of C, then further reinforced during an internship at the Fraser Institute. (As far as I can see her stint at FI seems to be the closest she’s ever gotten to using her degree in economics.)
So now Danielle, who has proven herself completely incompetent, is bribing us with our own tax money. And she can’t even do that right. Oh, I won’t turn down the cash. I’ll take this refund of my tax payment. I cashed Ralph’s cheque, too.
But I can’t help thinking that $340 million would be better spent on public health care; or public schools; or public social services. Anyway, it’s better than wasting it on separatist bafflegab, stupid arguments with Ottawa, and the CorruptCare scandal.
Surely the Ukrainians and their CIA handlers could have managed an invasion by Putin? Unless perhaps there was an entire state apparatus and tens of millions of Russians who went along with the response to the subversion of the Ukrainian state by the CIA? You folks really might consider dialling back that gas-lighting after all these years, I mean given that the post-2014-coup Ukrainian state is entirely propped up by the people who blew up Vietnam and Cambodia and Lao and Panama and Afghanistan and Yugoslavia and Syria and Yemen and Iran and Somalia and El Salvador and Libya and have 750 bases in 80 foreign countries and have overtly called for the dismantling of the Russian state while funding, arming and supporting violent groups along the entire geographic periphery of the Russian state, after destroying the Russian economy beginning in 1991 and driving the Russian people into abject poverty. Just a thought.
And you can well imagine how these mindless Albertans, mostly seniors, will praise her for helping them out, just like they did Klein with his $400. while Alaskans have received $53,000. each in total annual oil dividend cheques since 1982, and Albertans have been screwed out of $1.4 trillion, by these Reformers helping the rich become richer, that’s how stupid this is. While we watch our provincial debt increase and our potholes become bigger, we get treated like morons and we accept it, that’s how stupid we are.
It isn’t surprising that the American oilmen I was involved with called us the dumbest people on the planet when we continue to prove it, is it?
Intelligent People are suggesting we form a posse and head to Taber to blow up the Separatist Sign with our shotguns, what do you think, now that Smith has no intention of adding Coal Mining to her Referendum.
Kicking sand in Corb Lund’s face for the hard work he put into this is a no-brainer isn’t it?
Don’t be corny, Mr. Spiller. 😉 There’s a better way to do this. Haven’t you heard about the great Taber Corn Boycott of 2026? Frankly, I prefer the superior Chilliwack peaches and cream corn anyways.
Where are little boys with sling shots when we really need them?
Alberta voters are a cheap drunk.
Bell should be humiliated for the tiny scoop he got, just like the rest of Albertans.
I work in a unionized public sector environment and I still hear, from time to time, Derpbertans venerating Barf the Wifebeater for his old-fashioned bootstrap capitalist government cash scramble. The people be plenty stupid. There are somewhere between 2.5 and 3 million workers in this province, out of a population of 5-odd million, and the economic relations continue to be determined by the lackeys of the minority oligarchic kakistocracy. And now they get to pay to watch the .01% who are employed to play hockey by the 0.0002%. At least you can still watch Dragon’s Den for a free and healthy dose of capital worship.
I am in rare agreement with the UCP. From an equity perspective, a cash benefit is better than suspending the fuel tax. Albertans on income support and those without gasoline powered vehicles will receive the cash benefit. So will Albertans who drive EVs. Suspending the fuel tax would at most reduce the per litre price of gas by 13 cents assuming retailers fully pass on the reduction. A $100 cash benefit is the equivalent to 769 litres of gas which is way more than half a tank.
Your math not mathing man.
Do your math again. Gas is at 1.55.9 a litre right now. Now divide that into $100. Funny thing that come to 64.14. Litres. Not a full tank in anyones imagination.
It appears that most of the MLAs are eligible for the windfall. Was that the reason that the upper limit was set so high?
This particular game is long in the tooth and has been for some time and the current Premier still doesn’t seem to know whether she should be scratching her watch or winding her ass. So . . .
Thanks for the c note Danny. I’ll donate mine to the NDP, in hopes of achieving some economic relief in 2027.
Think I’ll donate mine. $50 to Forever Canadian and $50 to ABNDP.
Really?! I am not one of the 245K crowd, butI will not be applying. Trying to use an online Alberta govt. system is made deliberately frustrating to discourage use and service delivery, e.g., currently registering for COVID shots. $100 is not worth the frustration. However, I am livid thinking about the beating disabled Albertans are taking from the Smith government. First they lose the federal disability increase of $200, then they are faced with AISH to ADAP decreases. That’s our Dani: kicking them while they’re down!
Loser Preem. At least Ralph came across with a proper 400, most of a rent payment back in the day.
340 million dollars wasted on the dumbest pissing contest in alberta History
It’s tricky to locate a shark-jump moment for a party whose everyday performance is gimmicky. However, the classic Happy Days attempt to regain tanking ratings with an impressive stunt is always set up by flagging popularity. The once-beloved sitcom had fallen from astronomical TV-ratings after several years of star-ratings and as actors pretending to be high school students got as old as its nostalgic scripts.
But Danielle Smith and her UCP never had ratings near so high and their consistent controversy rather sustained a plateau only slightly above the majority tipping point, so the shark-jump inspector has to look for signs of desperation not necessarily correlated closely to popularity polls. And there seems a discernible convergence of both for the UCP that would assign the secession referendum controversy as initiator of a crisis which inspired Smith to attempt a psephological stunt to relieve her alarm that the most recent polls suggest the Opposition NDP is pulling ahead of her party.
I think that crisis was the court decision which found the referendum advanced by separatists and aided and abetted by Smith to be unconstitutional because her government neglects consulting with a group of First Nations which sought judicial affirmation their treaty rights which are protected by S.35 of the Constitution, Aboriginal Rights.
That the turn of UCP poll-numbers happens to coincide with the separatists’ boiler-quenching disappointment at trial is probably not enough to qualify Smith’s subsequent reaction to the ruling as “jumping the shark” in the classic sense. However, resorting to yet another stunt —bribing voters with their own money —because her threat to challenge the Constitution in, of all places, the SCoC, was a total dud that serious people take as a complete joke is getting pretty darn conclusive.
Of course Smith was stung by separatist point-man Jeff Rath’s call for her ouster, and fear likely gripped her guts when recent polls at both provincial and federal levels show a general decline of conservative popularity. I’m gonna settle on her reaction to the court decision as the shark-jump moment—dramatized by Wab Kinew’s admonishment and her annoyed rejoinders during the recent First Ministers’ meeting— and nominate the paltry, one-time $100 bribe to voters as best supporting act.
The proof of course will eventually out, but by historical inference—including a similarly desperate move by Danielle’s hero, Ralph Klein, which presaged his own political demise—I would probably put money on Smith beginning to slide down the slippery slope. Indeed, I bet she already has.
Odds will start to flatten if and when she tries more stunts which, typical of classic post-shark-jump demise, follows in a series of gimmicks, each one backfiring and hastening the inevitable fall.