AB Today – Daily Report February 5, 2019

Quotation of the day

“It was very difficult for me to survive in Canada under the above circumstances and I requested the assistance of the government to intervene but to no avail.”

Amandeep Singh Panesar, a former employee of UCP candidate Devinder Toor, alleges in a statutory declaration that Toor violated his rights as a temporary foreign worker when he came to Canada in 2008.

Today in AB

On the schedule

The legislature will reconvene on March 18 for the government’s final throne speech before the spring election.

NDP calls for investigation into UCP Calgary candidate amid allegations of “human trafficking-type activities”

A former liquor store worker is accusing the UCP’s Calgary—Falconridge candidate Devinder Toor of labour and immigration system abuses — but the UCP says it has found no wrongdoing.

In a sworn statutory declaration dated January 22, 2019, Amandeep Singh Panesar says he paid Toor a $30,000 fee in 2008 in order to move to Canada from India on a foreign temporary worker permit. He was promised an assistant manager job in one of Toor’s family-run liquor stores.

But once Panesar arrived, he alleges Toor threatened to withhold wages, told him to turn over his passport and, rather than provide him with a $16 per hour management job, made him work seven days per week for a lower wage. He was also not reimbursed for his travel costs as promised.

Panesar alleges Toor had recruitment agents working in India to help him solicit the fake $30,000 visa fee. Panesar said he was told the fee was to cover a Labour Market Opinion or LMO — which employers must obtain to prove they have tried but were unable to find a Canadian or permanent resident to fill a job.

“I also learned that there was no Canada Government Fee for LMO, that’s how Mr. Toor made money for himself,” Panesar wrote in the legal letter. “I believe that Mr. Toor had successfully brought in many foreign workers and made a lot of money exploiting the Canadian Immigration laws, without providing any long-term employment to any of the foreign workers he sponsored.”

The statutory declaration came to light when former PC deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk posted the document to his Twitter account Sunday night.

The NDP is likening Toor’s alleged misdeeds to human trafficking and called on UCP Leader Jason Kenney to investigate and to fire Toor from his candidate pool if they are proven true.

UCP spokesperson Matt Solberg issued a statement Monday acknowledging the UCP was made aware of Panesar’s allegations during the candidate vetting process last fall — but that the party could not “independently verify” any wrongdoing.

“The party duly investigated this matter and could find nothing to independently verify the allegations,” Solberg said. “We also note that Mr. Toor has not been sanctioned in any way nor has he even been contacted by either the provincial or federal governments regarding the temporary foreign worker program.”

Solberg said the UCP contacted both Service Canada and Employment and Social Development Canada about Toor last fall and were told by both agencies there were no ongoing investigations against him.

Lukaszuk also tweeted a copy of a letter Panesar sent to UCP leadership ahead of the party’s Calgary—Falconridge nomination meeting, which contains similar information to the declaration.

Toor, who ran for the Wildrose Party in the 2015 provincial election and in a 2016 byelection, won the Calgary—Falconridge UCP nomination against three other contenders on December 5 last year.

Statutory declarations contain statements that have not been proven in court.

Official portrait of late former premier Jim Prentice unveiled

Politicians put partisan barbs on hold when the official portrait of the late former premier Jim Prentice was unveiled in the legislature Monday afternoon.

The ceremony was hosted by Speaker Bob Wanner, Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation Chief Tony Alexis and Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell.

Premier Rachel Notley delivered remarks, as did UCP Leader and Prentice’s former federal cabinet colleague Jason Kenney; former cabinet minister in Prentice’s provincial government and current Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel; and Prentice’s widow Karen Prentice.

Several MLAs, past and present, attended the ceremony, including former premier Dave Hancock.

Prentice died in a plane crash in B.C. in October 2016.

After being chosen to lead the Alberta PC party in May 2014, Prentice won his Calgary—Foothills seat in an October 2014 byelection. He gave up his seat on election night in May 2015 when his party was battered in the polls.

During his time as premier, several MLAs from the opposition Wildrose party crossed the floor to join the governing Progressive Conservatives, including then-Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith.

Prentice served as a Conservative MP from 2004 to 2010. As a member of former prime minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet, Prentice spent time heading up the environment, industry and Indigenous affairs portfolios.

His legacy was honoured on October 26, 2018, with the naming of the Jim Prentice Wildlife Corridor in the Crowsnest Pass.

The wildlife corridor in southwest Alberta was a joint conservancy project between the Government of Alberta and the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

Today’s events

February 5 at 6 p.m. – Edmonton CBC’s The National will host a question and answer event on “The Future of Alberta — Economy, Energy and Pipelines” with Premier Rachel Notley at NAIT. The event will be livestreamed on Facebook.

Topics of conversation

● Alberta Senator Doug Black said the red chamber should hear from stakeholders on changes to federal Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Act. Black wants the Senate’s Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee to hold travelling public consultations “from coast to coast” on the legislation, which changes the environmental assessment process for pipelines and other large scale infrastructure projects. ○ According to Black, who has been vocal in his opposition to Bill C-69 because he says it could delay new energy projects, the Senate is deferring to environmental groups who support the bill, instead of pursuing more stakeholder input. ○ “It is rather hypocritical that a few environmental groups who are [usually] adamant about public consultation … now do not want the Senate to engage with Canadians,” Black said in a statement. ○ Premier Rachel Notley has said Bill C-69 cannot pass in its present form, while UCP Leader Jason Kenney has called for it to be scrapped completely. ○ Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi echoed Black’s call for travelling Senate committee hearings, saying he wants the senators studying the bill to come to Calgary.

● John Carpay, the Calgary lawyer who caused outrage after comparing the rainbow pride flag to a swastika, will be giving a presentation on “parental rights in the [Gay-Straight Alliance] era” at the Freedom Talk conference put on by the Economic Education Association of Alberta in Calgary this Saturday. ○ UCP Leader Jason Kenney refused to direct his party’s board to revoke Carpay’s membership after Carpay made the problematic comparison at a conference organized by Rebel Media last fall.

● Federal Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and former federal NDP leader Tom Mulcair told CTV they expect a green wave in this year’s federal election, predicting the pro-industry policies of the NDP governments in B.C. and Alberta will push voters towards the Green Party of Canada. ○ "When you have an NDP government like Alberta's … or B.C. with [Premier] John Horgan approving Site C, that turned a lot of NDP voters over to the Green Party," May told CTV’s Question Period. ○ The Green Party raised $3.1 million in 2018, the best it’s ever done in a non-election year. In comparison, the federal NDP raised only $5.2 million last year, according to CTV. ○ Mulcair, who has been vocally critical about his successor Jagmeet Singh’s performance, says “progressives are looking for a home on environmental issues.” ○ Singh will face his biggest electoral test yet when voters in Burnaby South head to the polls on February 25.

● Education Minister David Eggen met with the 2018-19 Minister’s Youth Council for the second time this weekend. Eggen and the panel’s junior and senior high school representatives discussed curriculum, mental health, LGBTQ issues, Indigenous issues and racism within the education system. ○ Eggen and the council met last October and are scheduled to meet for a final time in May.

News briefs - Non-governmental

Alberta Party wants strategic management plan on oil curtailment As part of the Alberta Party’s previously proposed “holistic energy strategy,” Leader Stephen Mandel said he wants to see the ongoing government-mandated oil curtailment managed in a more strategic way.

“We achieved what we needed to, which was close the gap, but have likely overcorrected. We need to find the sweet spot,” Mandel said.

Mandel said the Energy Ministry should put in place a standing advisory group with industry stakeholders. The advisory group should meet on an “ongoing basis” to create targets and policy until the crisis is resolved.

“The government is facing a problem in that the economics of shipping a more expensive Alberta crude product by rail doesn’t make sense,” he said in a press release Monday.

Last week, the province announced it would allow 75,000 more barrels of oil per day under the mandatory oil curtailment. UCP MLAs are warning of more oil sector job losses if the cap stays in place.

Funding announcements

Latest “Made-in-Alberta” project moving ahead ● Alberta’s Ministry of Energy announced Canada Kuwait Petrochemical Corporation (CKPC) will begin construction on its $4.5 billion petrochemical upgrading facility in Sturgeon County later this year. ○ In 2016, the province approved up to $300 million in royalty credits for CKPC under the first round of the Made-in-Alberta energy diversification program. ○ Once completed in 2023, the facility will be capable of upgrading 23,000 barrels of propane into polypropylene plastic per day, creating 180 full-time jobs. ○ Inter Pipeline’s Heartland Industrial Complex was the second project approved under the first round of the Made-in-Alberta program, which launched in 2016. ○ Inter Pipeline’s plastics upgrader is currently under construction.

Carbon tax funds electric vehicle charging stations ● The Peaks to Prairies Southern Alberta Electric Vehicle Network project received $1.2 million in funding from the province’s Climate Leadership Plan Monday. The cash will be used to build charging stations for electric vehicles along 1,700 kilometres of highway in southern Alberta. The government says the electricity to power the vehicles will come from 100 per cent renewable sources. ○ The province hopes the placement of the EV chargers will also provide a boost to local tourism. Charging stations will be located in the parking lots of some recreational areas and in retail areas of small communities. ○ The network is scheduled to be completed by December 2019.

Nominations

NDP ● Kelly Mandryk was acclaimed as the NDP candidate for Calgary—North.

AB Today is written by Catherine Griwkowsky, reporting from Alberta's legislative press gallery.

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