AB Today – Daily Report May 25, 2020
Quotation of the day
“This is a gift that Kenney and the UCP government is giving to their friends in the coal lobby.”
NDP Environment critic Marlin Schmidt slams the UCP’s repeal of coal regulations, a move that followed lobbying by former PC finance and environment minister and current Coal Association of Canada president Robin Campbell.
Today in AB
On the schedule The house will return for a summer session next Wednesday, June 3.
Premier watch The war of the words between U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and Premier Jason Kenney continued on Friday.
Biden repeated in an interview with CNBC that he would transition to a clean economy.
“I’ve been against Keystone from the beginning,” Biden said. “It is tarsands that we don't need — that in fact is a very, very high pollutant.”
In Calgary later that day, Kenney retorted that Biden was not “accurately briefed.”
During a separate event on Saturday, Kenney and Economic Development, Trade and Tourism Minister Tanya Fir spoke at a virtual town hall hosted by WestJet.
Committees this week Committees are back. The Standing Committee on Public Accounts will meet Tuesday morning to discuss outstanding recommendations by the Office of the Auditor General on Keyano College and the University of Calgary.
On Thursday afternoon, the Standing Committee on Private Bills and Private Members' Public Bills will meet to discuss NDP MLA Kathleen Ganley’s Bill 202, Conflicts of Interest (Protecting the Rule of Law) Amendment Act. Ganley’s bill would have prevented the firing of elections commissioner Lorne Gibson and is aimed at preventing elected officials from interfering with investigations into themselves or their party. It also would grant the ethics commissioner greater powers when investigating conflicts of interest. (A probe by the ethics watchdog ruled that the UCP didn’t break the law by firing Gibson.)
Coal mining to be permitted in previously protected areas All but the most environmentally sensitive areas in the Rocky Mountains and foothills are now available for open-pit mining, following the government’s recent repeal of a series of coal regulations covering the Eastern Slopes.
The area includes 4.7 million hectares of land home to at-risk species as well as the headwaters that are the source of drinking water for much of Alberta.
The province framed the repeal of the regulations associated with the 1976 Coal Act as a modernization of “outdated land use restrictions.” A government news release states the changes will create favourable conditions for ramping up the province’s coal exports.
“As we strengthen our focus on economic recovery and revitalization, we will continue to make common-sense decisions to create certainty and flexibility for industry while ensuring sensitive lands are protected for Albertans to continue to enjoy,” Energy Minister Sonya Savage said on May 15.
Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) conservation specialist Nissa Petterson said areas no longer protected under the new regulations include habitat for woodland caribou, grizzly bears, bighorn sheep, bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout.
Petterson said she is shocked the government changes were made without consultation.
“We need a healthy environment in order to thrive, whether that be economically, socially or even just on a basic human health perspective,” she told AB Today in an interview.
“It is discouraging that this wasn’t something that was transparent and inclusive to the public,” said Petterson, who learned of the change via a news release dropped on the Friday before the May long weekend.
Mining still banned in the most sensitive areas Mining on Category 1 land, which is deemed by law to have highest environmental sensitivity, will still be banned. But Petterson said that most of that land is already protected because it’s located in national parks.
The other protected zones were eliminated and are now treated the same as any other area of the province.
The previous framework allowed for an evaluation of projects based on how close they were to high-sensitivity areas, Petterson explained.
“It essentially took a holistic approach to the Eastern Slopes and how it could be impacted by future coal mining operations,” she said, noting the province has no system in place to manage the cumulative effects of industrial endeavors.
Former environment minister turned coal lobbyist pushed for the changes The regulatory changes follow lobbying from former environment minister and current Coal Association of Canada (CAC) president Robin Campbell.
Alberta’s lobbyist registry shows Campbell requested meetings with the minister and deputy minister of energy as well as the premier to discuss the province’s coal policy.
On September 17, 2019, the organization met with Environment and Parks Minister Jason Nixon to ensure the work being carried out by the province’s caribou task force “does not strand Alberta's coal assets, both existing projects and potential projects in the Eastern Slopes,” according to a filing on the lobbyist registry.
That same day, it also recorded a meeting with Indigenous Relations Minister Rick Wilson to discuss consultation with Indigenous people on coal projects.
Decision was shocking’: NDP critic Under the new regime, coal development will now be treated in the same way as other industrial development, including approval subject to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER).
That’s cold comfort for NDP Environment and Parks critic Marlin Schmidt.
“Well, big deal,” Schmidt said in an interview with AB Today. “Which industry is really afraid of dealing with the AER? There’s no history of the AER saying no to any industrial development of any kind.”
Schmidt said open-pit mining has a significant impact on the landscape and that the economic gain is not worth the environment and health impacts in the area.
“It was quite shocking to me that they made the decision to repeal a long-standing policy that really struck a good balance between economic development and conservation,” Schmidt said.
But Environment and Parks Minister Jason Nixon said the changes do strike that balance.
“Our government is continuing to protect our natural resources, including critical watersheds and biodiversity along the eastern slopes of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains,” Nixon said in a news release.
Schmidt argues the lack of consultation is a pattern since Nixon took over, pointing to changes the UCP made to the parks system and the suspension of environmental monitoring requirements.
“These kinds of moves are going to pit Albertans against each other and will not be productive in any way in getting Alberta’s economy back on its feet and getting people through the pandemic,” Schmidt said.
Alberta currently has nine active coal mines — two metallurgical mines and seven thermal mines.
AB Today requested further clarification on the change from the Government of Alberta, including the estimated economic benefit, as well as information on who was consulted before the move.
AB Today also reached out to the CAC for comment, but a spokesperson was not available prior to publication time.
Today’s events
May 25 at 11 a.m. – E dmonton The UCP cabinet will meet in Government House.
Topics of conversation
● There were 42 new positive COVID-19 cases reported Sunday, bringing the total number of active cases in the province to 801. There are now 5,924 recovered cases. A total of 135 residents have died from the virus.
○ There have been 624 cases linked to “unknown exposure,” the term Alberta Health Services uses when an infection can’t be tracked to a known outbreak or another case. ○ There are currently 46 people in hospital, six of whom are in the ICU. ○ Calgary and Brooks can now join in Phase 1 of the relaunch following a significant decline in cases. The Calgary zone now has 629 active cases.
● The government has expanded voluntary COVID-19 testing and is upping access to surgeries starting today. ○ The types of surgeries available will expand to non-urgent surgeries requiring a hospital stay. ○ South Calgary Campus and High River hospitals will reopen maternity services starting on June 3. ○ Long-term care and designated supportive living residents and staff will be able to book voluntarily testing, as can anyone in Calgary.
● The United Conservative Party, which has a staff of eight. will be making use of the federal government’s emergency wage subsidy program, Global News reports. ○ UCP director of communications Evan Menzies told Global fundraising efforts have been pulled back due to the pandemic. ○ The NDP, which also has a staff of eight, said it has met its fundraising goals and has not had to apply for the wage subsidy. ○ Federally, the Liberals, NDP, Conservatives and Greens have all applied for the program — the Bloc Québécois slammed the move and plans to hold out. ○ The wage subsidy offers 75 per cent of wages to a maximum of $847 per week for 24 weeks to businesses and non-profits (including political parties) that experience a 30 per cent loss in revenues during the pandemic.
● Albertans are the most likely to believe closing the U.S.—Canada border until June 21 is long enough, according to an Angus Reid Institute survey. ○ Of those surveyed, 37 per cent of Albertans said June 21 is long enough to close the border compared to 19 per cent of countrywide respondents. An equal amount of Albertans would like to see the border remain closed until September, and 19 per cent would like it to last until the end of 2020.
Appointments and Employments
United Conservative Party
● Dustin van Vugt is now the executive director of the United Conservative Party. ○ Van Vugt is the former executive director of the Conservative Party of Canada. He left the party after members of the Conservative Fund said they were
unaware of a deal where the party paid for outgoing leader Andrew Scheer’s children’s private schooling. ○ The UCP’s previous executive director, Brad Tennant, is now a lobbyist with Wellington Advocacy, run by Nick Koolsbergen, the chief of staff for Premier Jason Kenney’s 2019 election campaign.