AB Today – Daily Report July 16, 2020

Quotation of the day

“We’re talking about T-rex arm’s length.”

NDP Environment critic Marlin Schmidt expresses skepticism the premier did not know his former campaign manager was appointed to the Alberta Energy Regulator, an “arm’s length” agency from the government.

Today in AB

On the schedule The house convenes at 1:30 p.m. today.

There are nine government bills on the order paper; the UCP’s aim is to pass them all by July 30.

Wednesday’s debates and proceedings Three government bills cleared third reading Wednesday: ● Bill 22, Red Tape Reduction Implementation Act; ● Bill 26, Constitutional Referendum Amendment Act; and ● Bill 27, Alberta Senate Election Amendment Act.

Bill 21, Provincial Administrative Penalties Act, passed committee stage. Bill 30 and Bill 32 were both debated at second reading, but did not pass.

In the legislature

United Nurses of Alberta president Heather Smith and former NDP minister Danielle Larivee were in the gallery for the second day in a row.

Premier watch The Buffalo Project, a group started by Conservative MPs looking for more from the federal government for Alberta and Saskatchewan, sent a letter to Premier Jason Kenney and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe arguing residents of those provinces want greater autonomy within Canada.

Asked about the letter by reporters Wednesday, Kenney held up a beaded bison necklace and quipped, “I’ve got my buffalo right here.”

AER appoints premier’s campaign manager as VP The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) quietly hired John Weissenberger as its new vice-president of science and innovation, as first reported by CBC.

Weissenberger was Premier Jason Kenney’s campaign manager during his UCP leadership bid and a climate change skeptic.

Kenney told reporters on Wednesday that he didn’t know the AER hired his former campaign manager because the regulator is at arm’s length from the government, but said it was a good move given Weissenberger’s qualifications.

NDP Environment and Parks critic Marlin Schmidt shot back that the AER appeared to be at “T-rex arm’s” length from the UCP.

Schmidt described Weissenberger as a “loud climate change denier” and argued that should disqualify him from overseeing environmental compliance of industry.

In an emailed statement to CBC, the AER stated Weissenberger has 30 years of experience in the oil and gas sector and academia. Weissenberger is a geologist and listed as an adjunct professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at the University of Alberta.

But he also has a history of downplaying human impacts on climate change.

Weissenberg co-authored a 2006 National Post column with George Koch that blamed the media for driving the debate on climate change. In 2009, ex-prime minister Stephen Harper also faced criticism for appointing Weissenberger, who is his long-time friend, to the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Last week, Kenney was under fire after Dave Rodney, a former UCP MLA who gave up his seat in Calgary—Lougheed so Kenney could run after securing the UCP leadership, was appointed by the government as a trade liaison in Houston. The premier denied any quid pro quo.

Indigenous-owned corporations get cash for well cleanup Premier Jason Kenney, Indigenous Relations Minister Rick Wilson, Energy Minister Sonya Savage and Treaty 6 Grand Chief Billy Morin announced that two Indigenous-owned corporations were among the recipients of federal funding to clean up orphaned wells.

Speaking on the Enoch Cree First Nation territory west of Edmonton, the government announced Backwoods Energy would receive funding to clean up 55 sites on Enoch Cree Nation land in the first round of the $1-billion Site Rehabilitation Program (SRP).

“We’ve done right by Mother Earth to clean it up,” Morin told reporters.

Western Petroleum Management also received funding to work on 257 sites across Alberta.

The SRP is a federally funded, provincially administered program aimed at cleaning up orphaned oil and gas wells.

So far, the province has approved $69 million in funding for 140 companies, which is expected to create 300 jobs.

Savage said in the third phase of the program, oilfield service companies will be able to get grants of $139,000. Overall, the program will create 50,000 jobs and help jump start economic recovery, per the province.

Today’s events

July 16 at 9 a.m. – Edmonton The UCP caucus will meet in the Windsor Room of the Federal Building.

Topics of conversation

● There were 82 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed Wednesday afternoon, bringing the total number of active cases up by three to 704. Sixty-four patients are in hospital (up nine) and seven are in the ICU (down by six). No new deaths were reported. ○ An inmate at the Edmonton Remand Centre has tested positive for COVID-19.

● The Alberta Medical Association took out a full page ad in the Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald laying out its proposals for a new agreement with the province.

○ The ad, part of the doctors’ “Take Yes For An Answer” campaign, disputes claims by Health Minister Tyler Shandro that the AMA did not bring any credible proposals to the table during talks on physician funding changes. ○ According to the AMA’s latest proposal, which urges the province back to the negotiating table, physicians have offered a budget freeze for three years. ○ And, in exchange for reassurance from the UCP that new doctors will be funded to accommodate population growth, the AMA is offering to drop its lawsuit. ○ Shandro responded by accusing the AMA of issuing “hollow promises” and not being honest about how much the province spends on physicians. ○ Meanwhile, a new page on the government of Alberta’s website lists “myths and facts about doctor’s pay” starting with “Myth: Government does not respect Alberta’s doctors.”

● CBC reports Health Minister Tyler Shandro wrote a letter to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta asking for help preventing a mass exodus of doctors. ○ Shandro reportedly asked the college to change standards of practice to prohibit a group of physicians from pulling out of the province at once and asked for three months’ notice before a physician could leave. ○ “Patients in these communities should not have to face an entire group of physicians withdrawing services,” Shandro said in the letter according to CBC.

● The Alberta Wildlife Association (AWA) praised the Alberta Energy Regulator’s decision to reject a bid by Horn Ridge Resources Ltd. to explore for coal west of Grande Cache in the Kakwa wilderness area. ○ But the AWA issued a “statement of concern” about a possible appeal from the company as well as the potential of future projects popping the region.

● Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan has apologized for comparing a piece of UCP government legislation to Nazi Germany, conceding the latter is a “much greater evil” than the provincial government. ○ On Twitter, McGowan accused the UCP “of adopting tactics pioneered by the Nazis and being implemented by right-wing authoritarians today.” ○ McGowan said in a statement that he met with the Jewish Federations of Calgary and Edmonton and realized the harm his words caused. ○ “I will continue to push back against the UCP’s agenda of cuts, privatization and polarization, including their controversial Bill 32, which, in my estimation, will strip working Albertans of many of the rights and protections enjoyed by other Canadians,” McGowan said. “But I will do so without reference to the much greater evil that was Nazism and the Holocaust.”

● Crown corporation ATB Financial rebranded its subsidiary AltaCorp Capital as ATB Capital Markets.

● Alberta crude’s maiden voyage to Saint John’s Irving Oil refinery via the Panama Canal is complete. ○ Both Energy Minister Sonya Savage and Premier Jason Kenney have said the ocean route that circumvents the continent shows the absurdity of not building a pipeline along a similar route as the since-abandoned plans for an Energy East pipeline.

News briefs

NDP asks auditor general to investigate war room ads ● NDP Energy critic Irfan Sabir is asking the auditor general to probe energy war room spending on ads linked to “Strong and Proud,” a conservative third-party advertiser. ○ The PAC spent money on Conservative Party of Canada Leader Andrew Scheer’s campaign and is affiliated with Alberta Proud, a provincial PAC that spent money on pro-UCP ads.

Funding Announcements

Associate Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions ● Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Jason Luan announced funding for 400 treatment beds, a 30 per cent increase, to be allocated to five “recovery communities.”

Question period The UCP and NDP traded pointed partisan barbs in question period yesterday.

Government ministers continued to go after NDP MLA Joe Ceci for saying all UCP bills are bad, NDP MLA Marlin Schmidt for being happy about the death of Margaret Thatcher, and numerous previous comments made by Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan.

The NDP attacked the government over the appointment of John Weissenberger to the Alberta Energy Regulator and remarks made by the premier’s speechwriter Paul Bunner.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley started off by asking about the breakdown in relations with the Alberta Medical Association, to which government house leader Jason Nixon responded that the NDP should denounce comments by McGowan.

Notley replied, “Gil McGowan apologized for one tweet. Paul Bunner has not apologized for two decades of racist writing.”