AB Today – Daily Report January 6, 2020

Quotation of the day

“ spent the last eight months screaming at clouds and ​ ​ making everything everybody else’s fault.”

In a year-end interview with AB Today, NDP Leader says the premier needs ​ ​ ​ ​ to take responsibility for the consequences of his decisions.

Today in AB

On the schedule The parliamentary calendar for sittings of the legislature in 2020 has not yet been released, but the house should be back in session by February, when Premier Jason Kenney ​ has said he plans to table his next budget.

Premier watch Over the 2019 holiday season, Premier Jason Kenney brought Hanukkah greetings and lit the ​ ​ menorah at City Hall. He visited the Mustard Seed Calgary shelter with Jason Nixon ​ and Jeremey Nixon and posted a Christmas greeting that gave a special shout-out to members ​ ​ of the armed forces.

In a New Year’s video, Kenney said — while Alberta has faced “a lot of challenges over the past ​ ​ four or five years” — he believes 2020 will be a year of change, opportunity and growth.

Meanwhile, he told Global News there is “no one switch” the government can pull to get the ​ ​ ​ ​ province’s economy back on track.

At the legislature Climate Justice organized a “coal for Kenney” protest ahead of the holidays, where environmental activists delivered “coal” to the premier and UCP MLA’s constituency offices.

Fort Saskatchewan—Vegreville UCP MLA Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk said the ​ ​ ​ ​ sergeant-at-arms ordered her constituency office to be closed due to the coal delivery protest.

The TUXIS of Alberta, a non-denominational Christian youth parliament, celebrated ​ ​ ​ its 100th anniversary on December 31. Founded in 1920 as the Alberta Older Boy's Parliament, it is the longest continuous running youth parliament in .

The Edmonton Coalition Against War and Racism held a protest march and candlelight vigil on Sunday, calling for the U.S. to avoid escalating conflicts in the Middle East. The group marched from the legislature to the High Level Bridge.

Notley sees darkness ahead for 2020, plans for 2023 dawn Alberta New Democratic Party Leader Rachel Notley struggled to think of the “best” moment of ​ ​ 2019, a year where voters booted her party out of government and the new United Conservative Party government repealed much of its flagship legislation.

But, in an interview with AB Today, Notley said the silver lining to being back in Opposition is ​ ​ she can share more face time with Albertans.

A sign on Notley’s desk in the federal building reads, “I’m not bossy — I’m the boss.” Speaking before the New Year, she said her eyes are set on getting back in the premier’s office in 2023, when the next provincial election is scheduled.

“This is the province that’s in my blood,” Notley said, explaining why she chose to stay on as leader after defeat in the April 2019 vote. “I know what it can look like when we’re at our best. I feel strongly that we have so much potential to be able to provide greater opportunity for all Albertans.”

She also said she is more confident in the Opposition leader’s chair this time around, now that ​ ​ she has experienced a term in government.

“When you have the same government for 44 years and you’re in Opposition, it is very easy to be intimidated by what you don’t know,” she said.

UCP ‘callously undoing’ NDP’s progressive policies During the spring 2019 election campaign, Notley could see the NDP’s messaging wasn’t swaying voters. The UCP’s messages of “jobs, the economy and pipelines” resonated with Albertans. Many didn’t feel economic recovery was happening fast enough under the NDP. And when they did get jobs, they were not at the same level of pay they were used to.

“People wanted to believe Jason Kenney when he said he had a plan to grow the economy ​ ​ and create jobs. Fair enough,” Notley said. “What we’ve seen instead is that 26,000 people have lost their jobs, the economy has flatlined and Jason Kenney will not take one iota of responsibility for it.”

Notley said her biggest accomplishment in government was cutting child poverty in half, but warns that progress is being jeopardized by the UCP’s corporate tax cut, which foregoes billions in provincial revenues.

“I see them callously undoing that work and knowingly pushing people back into poverty and just coldly saying ‘that’s what we’ve got to do’,” Notley said.

Looking ahead to 2020 The one “glimmer of hope” for Notley this year is the construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

“That wouldn’t be a live project had it not been for the relationship that we had with the federal government,” Notley said, adding Kenney is not winning friends in Ottawa with his approach to federal-provincial relations.

But, the Opposition leader sees little else to celebrate as Alberta moves into this decade.

Notley called the UCP’s forthcoming Choice in Education Act, which aims to increase access to private and charter schools, “idiocy.”

She added she has never seen attacks on teachers like she has from the UCP.

“The cuts and the reorganization is going to create huge chaos,” Notley said.

She also sees a big fight brewing over health-care cuts.

“They’re clearly on a path to try to privatize,” Notley said. “They’re clearly on a path to create two-tiered health care, and they’re clearly on a path to pull back services from many, many Alberta families.”

Notley’s bookshelf holds a copy of Mouseland by Tommy Douglas, the father of Canadian ​ ​ ​ ​ medicare. She claims Kenney “loses his mind” every time she reads it to an elementary school class, which she has done several times as part of read-in weeks.

In the premier’s office, now occupied by Kenney, a different mouse-themed children’s book sits on the shelf.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff warns of the slippery slope of entitlement. ​ ​ ​

Time will tell which mouse is in the house in 2023.

Upcoming events

January 18 – Calgary ​ ​ ​ Alberta Proud will host a “Value of Alberta” conference with keynote speakers Ted Morton, a ​ ​ ​ ​ former MLA, and Conrad Black. ​ ​

Topics of conversation

● The federal carbon pricing backstop on consumers officially took effect on January 1, with a 50 per cent increase planned for April 1. ○ “In 2019, Albertans overwhelmingly rejected carbon taxes at the ballot box — twice,” Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer said in a news release. “And while ​ ​ some pundits and politicians at home would prefer that [the UCP] simply roll over and accept Ottawa’s unconstitutional imposition of carbon taxes on Albertans, we are steadfast in our commitment to stand up for our province — including with our current challenge at the Alberta Court of Appeal and supporting Saskatchewan and Ontario in their legal efforts as well.” ○ NDP Environment and Climate critic Marlin Schmidt said by pitting the economy ​ ​ and the environment against each other, the UCP government is failing both. ○ “In his remarks [on December 31], Minister Schweitzer neglected to acknowledge that his government's lack of action to combat climate change was a key element in Alberta’s recent credit downgrade,” Schmidt said. ○ The UCP’s Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction system also came into effect on January 1, taxing large industrial emitters.

● When the ball dropped at midnight on New Year's day, so did Alberta’s corporate tax rate. ○ The tax rate fell another percentage point from 11 per cent to 10 per cent. By January 1, 2022, the tax rate will be eight per cent.

● A drop in home prices and an increase in insurance rates following the 2016 wildfire have led to an eight-fold increase in foreclosures in Fort McMurray from 2016 to 2019. ​ ​

● Trans Mountain is asking the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) to expedite hearings from ​ ​ two First Nation groups challenging TMX. ○ Coldwater Indian Band and the S’ólhTéméxw Stewardship Alliance (STSA), which represents 15 First Nations, are challenging the pipeline’s proposed route, saying it threatens burial grounds and drinking water. ○ The federally owned pipeline corporation wants the STSA hearing conducted by mid-March to minimize delays on construction of that segment, which is currently scheduled for April. Trans Mountain also wants the 73-kilometre stretch of proposed pipeline affected by the Coldwater Band’s concerns split in two to allow the CER to consider the Coquihalla portion first while a required hydrogeological study is conducted in relation to the Coldwater Valley segment.

● Alberta sent out a fourth wave of firefighters to help battle the Australian wildfires. ○ The seven firefighters will be in Australia for 38 days, bringing the total number of Alberta firefighters deployed since early December to 34.

● Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw reported the province’s first ​ ​ case of a serious vaping-related lung illness. ○ In the fall, the province launched a legislated review of the Tobacco and Smoking ​ Reduction Act. The review is expected to be finished in the next few weeks. The ​ government will also begin taxing vaping products sometime this year.

● The Canadian Energy Centre had to change its logo after it was revealed Calgary-based ​ ​ marketing agency Lead & Anchor provided the energy war room with a logo identical to U.S.-based software company Progress. ​ ​ ○ However, the CEC’s new logo bears a resemblance to that of California-based software company ATK Technology, which said it is considering taking legal ​ ​ action against the CEC.

● Hartford Financial Services is the latest insurer that will not do new business with Canadian oilsands companies, due to the growing cost of climate change. ​ ​

● Alberta’s population grew 1.7 per cent year over year in the fourth quarter of 2019, reaching 4.39 million. ○ In Q3, net migration was 16,522 compared to 13,083 in Q3 2018, a 26.3 per cent increase.

● Average weekly earnings in October 2019 hit an all-time high for Albertans at $1,184. That number is the highest in the country, and a 2.8 per cent increase from October 2018.

Funding announcements

Environment and Parks ● The government announced a $3.7-million research grant for the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute.

Appointments and Employments

Treaty 6 Nations ● Enoch Cree Nation Maskekosihk Chief Billy Morin was appointed for a one-year term ​ ​ as grand chief of Treaty Six.

Canadian Media Guild ● Kim Trynacity, who has covered the for the CBC since 2000, was ​ ​ ​ elected Canadian Media Guild branch president for the CBC/Radio-Canada.