Government news release fails to mention the omission actually breaks the law, but there’s no penalty, so why worry?
Happy Canada Day!
The summer solstice has already come and gone. So has the deadline for Alberta’s fiscal-year-end update!
The next summer solstice won’t be back till June 21, 2027, of course, but we can be reasonably certain it will appear on schedule.
Alberta’s fiscal year-end update is absent without leave, and we can’t be sure when it will show up. It’ll be a surprise, the United Conservative Government’s new finance minister, Jason Nixon, said in a news release Monday. Hey, maybe some time in the fall!
Mr. Nixon’s statement included two dumb excuses and one big fib.
Excuse No. 1, which actually was placed second in the news release but was supposed to be the substantial one that would persuade us all that a later report is OK, reads as follows: “Through the 2025-26 fiscal year, Alberta’s government undertook significant, necessary restructuring of the health care system to improve quality of care for Albertans. As a result of the associated complexities, more time is needed for the health entities to finalize their numbers before the 2025-26 Annual Report can be released.”
It is certainly true that that the UCP has undertaken a significant reorganization of the health care system. Indeed, it’s so significant that we don’t really have a health care system any more in Alberta.
“There is NO system left. All broken and disintegrated with many many fragmented ‘leads,’” former Alberta Medical Association president Dr. Paul Parks said bitterly on social media on Monday. “But there is NO ONE coordinating or leading the ‘system’… can’t call it a system if they can’t show you the organizational operational control structure (Hint: there isn’t 1).”
But was the massive and expensive demolition of the health care system necessary? Obviously not. So that’s the big fib.
The restructuring of health care, as Mr. Nixon called it – “refocusing” was the original talking point; “dismantling” would be more accurate – is the opposite of necessary, notwithstanding the imperfections of Alberta Health Services. Still, the lack of meaningful figures about the restructuring strongly suggests the reorganization is in a state of utter chaos.
Even so, using this year-long act of institutional vandalism – prompted largely to placate the UCP’s MAGA base and the premier’s anti-vaxx sentiments because AHS was the agency responsible for public health measures during the pandemic – as an excuse is just lame.
Public corporations don’t get to put off their annual reports at the end of their fiscal year because they’re in the middle of a reorganization, and governments don’t either – except when they do, in Alberta.
Remember, as researcher Tony Clark explained on social media yesterday, the UCP is straight up breaking the law by not publishing the province’s fiscal year-end report. Section 8.(1) of the Sustainable Fiscal Planning and Reporting Act states: “The responsible Minister must prepare and make public on or before June 30 of each year an annual report for the fiscal year ending on March 31.”
As Mr. Clark observed, accurately it would seem, when it comes to the enforcement of Alberta laws that are inconvenient to the UCP, “There are no penalties, so … shrug.”
Which brings us to Excuse No. 2: “With the earliest timeline in the country, Alberta releases its annual reports in early summer, while most other provinces release results in the fall.”
So what? Didn’t Mr. Nixon’s mama tell him that what all the other kids are doing is no excuse for him to do the same thing? If the previously noted excuse is lame, this one is pathetic! And you’ll note that, whether they report in the fall or not, Mr. Nixon doesn’t pretend that all the other finance ministers miss their deadlines. They just have different ones.
“We will publish a complete, quality annual report as soon as possible,” Mr. Nixon said in his new release’s canned quote. If I may be so bold, I would point out to him that the only kind of quality he needs to worry about is that the work is done according to generally accepted accounting principles. It doesn’t have to be printed on shiny paper or accompanied by pretty photographs to meet the standard.
We can speculate about the real reasons for this delay. Perhaps the government doesn’t want us to know about what kind of fiscal shape the province is in until after our sovereign lady the preem’s precious separation referendum on Oct. 19. Or maybe when Nate Horner quit or was fired as finance minister in late May he didn’t bother to remind Mr. Nixon about the looming deadline. Who can know?
Anyway, waiting till almost the last minute to make the announcement, right on the eve of Canada Day when even Alberta separatists take the day off, means the premier will be able to distract from her finance minister’s law-breaking when we all start paying attention again tomorrow.
After all, that’s when she makes her big announcement about Alberta’s submission to the federal government’s Major Projects Office “for a new one-million-barrel-per-day oil pipeline to Canada’s West Coast.”
Since the pipeline is thought to still lack a private-sector proponent, presumably we’re learn tomorrow that we Alberta taxpayers will have the honour of financing this project all on our own.
And since the northern route to Prince Rupert is the one least likely to be received well by anyone west of the Rocky Mountains, what do you want to bet that’s the one Ms. Smith continues to push, all the better to keep her chief of staff’s Free Alberta Strategy on life support, along with her approval by the UCP’s separatist base?
Proposed class action filed in purloined List of Electors case
An Alberta law firm has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit with the Alberta Court of King’s Bench, “arising from the alleged unauthorized access, disclosure and use of personal information contained in Alberta’s List of Electors,” Cooper Regel LLP said in a news release yesterday.
Since the names and personal information of 2.9 million Albertans are thought to be on the purloined list, this may generate a considerable amount of interest. If nothing else, it keeps an issue that the Smith Government would really prefer we forgot about bubbling on the front burner.
The firm’s statement of claim names as defendants the Government of Alberta, the chief electoral officer, Centurion Project Ltd., Centurion’s David Parker, the Republican Party of Alberta, as well as parties in illegal possession of the list, identified as John Doe. The statement of claim, if accepted by the court, would seek “general, aggregate, and punitive damages” from the defendants.
It just keeps getting worse for smith as the days go by.
Once the cat is out of the bag how expensive all this tinkering with health care has cost and going totally backwards, perhaps more people will wake up to what she is doing, that being privatizing health care to US (pay for everything style).
I anticipated many times over the last while that Smith wants to use the CPP (turned into a APP) to fund the pipeline. Her gaslighting continues and it will be interesting what Carney’s response to all of this will be, given: there is no private sector money involved, no agreement or consultation with First Nations, no agreed upon route and no buy in by B.C. Sounds to me that Smith just expects everyone to just fall in line and she doesn’t have to do any work to get there.
Happy Canada Day readers and to you too David! It is no surprise that the fiscal update was not completed in time and that the same government responsible for the report should shirk their responsibilities. The UCP are experts at gaslighting, undertaking questionable shenanigans to further feather their personal nest eggs; not so much credibility on the accountability front, honesty, nor competence. Smith opens her putrid mouth and spews out her vitriol, lies, deceit, and unbridled greed, and Post Media laps it up like a kitten to milk. Are all UCP people like kittens? Nay, kittens are at least cute and, if one likes cats, wants to ensure their survival. However, UCP people are kitten like as far as following their mother around, they are unlike kittens because they eat their own and wreck everything they think of doing for the purposes of causing despair chaos, and death. At least one person has unnecessarily died directly due to UCP policy – ADAP for example. The UCP has fumbled the budget, broken the law regarding petrol price rebates, dismally offered Albertans 100 bucks to soothe their financial pain which is really a slap in the face an a call to spend even more money that we do not have and worse. The UCP need to be voted out in order to return to a rational, for the people, government. I do think that the class action suit will at least draw attention to the illegal behaviour of this cabal of miscreants. A class action suit is a good start. Next Albertans must wake up and refute smith’s illegal referendum, vote the UCP out of power and the next government must begin legal proceedings against Smith in particular for her illegal manipulation of Canadian law to suit her separatist needs as opposed to meeting the needs of the public that which she was sworn into office to do – she has done the opposite of govern. Well, maybe you can destroy the province and take the country down with you and perhaps get away with it because there are no laws to protect the general public against an internal enemy if the enemy is your own government for crying out loud. Happy Canada Day!
“At least one person has unnecessarily died directly due to UCP policy – ADAP for example.?” He had a name!
TENET: Sadly, others have passed away due to the UCP’s bad policies. Covid-19 deaths, flu deaths, which were at a record level, ER deaths, and more than one person has ended their lives, because of ADAP. All very sad, and very preventable.
They are just ‘cooking the books’
An INDEPENDENT audit is required. !!!
Okay so lemme get this straight.
One day late and social service agencies, Native agencies/nations, healthcare facilities, clinics, etc etc all lose their funding unless they have a legitimate reason for tardiness.
But the Alberta gov’t hacks can just shove it off into some vague future timeline and that’s perfectly okay in their books?
Colour me, confused.
___
Good on John Doe/s for suing over the unlawful spreading of the voting rolls. It’s long past time there was a price to pay for sleazy, blackmailing, political tactics.
I’ve been waiting for a class action lawsuit. What has surprised me, is, to my knowledge, the lack of scam activity linked to the list. I rather thought a lawsuit would be launched in late May, especially if some immediate harm caused by the list had occurred. I hope the proposal is approved, but worry that the current lack of harm will jeopardize it.
Should the class action proceed, I can see it being the end of David Parker’s political action career, the Centurion Project, and probably the Republican Party of Alberta. I don’t expect there will ever be any financial penalties paid by Parker, but a loss will pave the way for Elections Act penal time. As for the Centurion Project and Republican Party, a loss would equivalent to a vampire getting staked.
What a gong show!!
Marlaina and her minions couldn’t run a railcar greasy spoon sandwich bar if they had to!
Hub: As I recall, they tried and gave up. DJC
People forget!
Two major questions arise:
What are the available estimates of the cost of unnecessarily restructuring health serves?
Have there been any improvements in the metrics related to the delivery of health services?
A follow up question might be whether the original promises by the UCP have been met by the timelines originally promised.
Isn’t that bastion of personal responsibility, David Parker, currently on the run in Texas?
Cool Xenu 86 19: David Parker was in Texas, and he could still be there. He isn’t an American citizen, and he isn’t able to stay there indefinitely. Someone has to put him behind bars, and for a very, very, long time.
Cool– he is allegedly still on the lam or should I say bull. My question is his wife doing her podcasts from Alberta or Texas, and it’s sad to see that she is another one suffering from Justinfatuation . If she was terrified by the post of him with Katy, wait until she sees the warm welcome he got at the Canada Day ceremony in Ottawa. No wonder Skippy hightailed it back to his forgotten riding. Lol
The gist of this article seems to be that as we celebrate Canada Day, the country holds true to its imperialist, colonialist and capitalist identity. The kleptocratic kakistocracy reigns, as Marlainia blows up public health care in order to whore it out, while selling secession as her political mandate, and the Carny Banker bails out real estate speculators and puts his shoulder to the wheel of the engine building World War III. And Pee-pee says this country is broken! Hogwash! It’s running like a well-bitumened machine.
Really? If that’s what you got out of this article that’s entirely on you. Carney wasn’t even mentioned…
You know there isn’t an evil banker hiding under every bed, right? Might be time to go outside and get some fresh air
“We can speculate about the real reasons for this delay. Perhaps the government doesn’t want us to know about what kind of fiscal shape the province is in until after our sovereign lady the preem’s precious separation referendum on Oct. 19.”
She’s no lady. See Pinocchio Parade.
And yes, this is exactly what’s happening. Today we will learn, while celebrating Canada Day, that (penniless) Alberta will blow the wad on a pipeline. We’ll privatize health in the name of a pipeline. We’ll steal from the severely handicapped in the name of a pipeline. We’ll kick immigrant children out of schools in the name of a pipeline. We’ll bankrupt our province in the name of a pipeline because we elected a premier who thinks she can do whatever she wants, outside the legislature, entirely by order in council or with her big hammer, the Notwithstanding Clause.
Alessia Cara sang “Stay” at the Canada Day celebrations today in Ottawa. I’ll pass on Dani’s bucket of Dubble Bubble. I’ll stay.
https://youtu.be/ayHE2-_jsjc?si=umnKcEjPohwH3AbR
The class action lawsuit may, or may not, result in damages being paid out to those of us doxxed by the idiots. But, it’s going to make for some interesting legal action. The lawyers involved will be going into discovery – and they’ll be able to demand documents from the government, which is named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Cabinet notes, caucus notes. Emails. Text messages. Phone logs. For example, were there any emails between the premier’s office and David Parker et al about using the voters’ list as the basis for the Centurion Project? Did any MLA’s exchange text messages with the folks at the Centurion Project? Or the Republican Party? What about emails or text messages between Parker and Cam Davies of the Republican Party? Davies said he provided his copy of the voter’s list to a third party. Who is that third party? What documentation might be lurking about the relationship between the Centurion Project and Stayfree Alberta/Alberta Prosperity Project? Rath posted on social media that independence supporters should sign up for the Centurion Project. How much did he know? Now, discovery is not public. However, once information is released to involved parties, it might find its way into a brown paper envelope slipped under a reporter’s door. Or leaked to the Opposition. These things happen. Happy Canada Day, Danielle! (No wonder there are so many of the premier’s staff searching for new jobs. LOL)
Oh oh! No one ever misses or delays putting out a report containing good news, especially a communications focused group like Smith’s UCP. So whatever they are not telling us is not good and they are probably busy trying to figure out how to fix it, change it or spin it.
Perhaps Horner did not note the detail of this deadline to his successor. I have no idea how amicable or cooperative their transition was, but surely someone on staff was aware of it and planning for it. The institutional memory of government generally does not rest solely in higher officials.
However, it is possible the transition in Finance has been chaotic and that is also part of the reason for the delay. Although, I doubt the ongoing reorganization of health care is. The UCP and Smith seem to constantly been reorganizing health care for quite a long time already with little to show Albertans for it. Maybe that is part of the bad news
So boiled down to its essence this delay is a sign of bad news with perhaps a helping side of chaos in Finance.
“Even so, using this year-long act of institutional vandalism – prompted largely to placate the UCP’s MAGA base and the premier’s anti-vaxx sentiments because AHS was the agency responsible for public health measures during the pandemic – as an excuse is just lame.” I think it’s worse than that. Dismantling the health care system is about abandoning the Canada Health Act and privatizing health care. Smith works for, among others, American health insurance corporations. Her actions are entirely consistent with question number 8 of the October 19 referendum.
Don’t forget to apply for your Alberta energy bribe today. Or maybe wait until tomorrow, unless you enjoy spinning wheels and blank screens.
https://energyrebate.alberta.ca/eligibility
wonder where they’ll go when they need to go
From Bryan Adams on Canada Day eve:
https://youtu.be/LyyFIbaU45w?si=uYKQ3tN6OWceVgFY
From Brett “I’m not a separatist” Kissel, playing a $25 concert on Canada Day at Spruce Meadows:
https://youtu.be/PLcC-geOuUs?si=JuiArPU2bvMOz9lv
I know who didn’t put a split Canada/US flag in their video. I know who doesn’t have a song/anthem favored by Con-voyeurs. I know who didn’t endorse/call Pierre Poilievre his friend at a political rally. You do you.
I know someone who won’t be going to Spruce Meadows again and it isn’t ATCO’s Nancy Southern.
What are the UCP hiding? Probably lots of information that could sink them. Happy Canada Day everyone!
Nice moves Lurch.
My goodness Jason Nixon has never exuded a positive image but now he looks like a Nazi officer.
..and now to qualify for Dani-bucks, one must entrust the UCP government with Canada Social Insurance Numbers and income tax return information. Can only imagine who they might share this information with and why and therefore will decline to apply.
Parliamentary or legislative supremacy over the public purse is a fundamental tenet of our Westminster parliamentary system of government, and if memory serves was a principle reason why 17th century King Charles I lost both his throne and his head. So failure of the Government of the day to be accountable to the legislature and the public over our public finances is a far more serious matter than how it is being treated.
Where’s a headsman when you need one …