AB Today – Daily Report March 11, 2019 Quotation of the day “The NDP’s economic predictions are garbage.” Ex-Wildrose leader and former UCP MLA Brian Jean accuses both the NDP and the UCP of ​ ​ telling Albertans “fiscal fairy tales” in an op-ed in the Edmonton Journal. ​ ​ Today in AB On the schedule This is the last week off before MLAs head back to the legislature for Premier Rachel Notley’s ​ ​ throne speech — slated for next Monday, March 18. UCP shows no sign of slowing on policy platform releases The United Conservative Party continued its fast-paced release of policy announcements this weekend, laying out how a Jason Kenney-led Alberta would bolster sexual assault services, ​ ​ support for veterans and property rights. New funding for sexual assault centres To mark International Women’s Day Friday, deputy leader Leela Aheer announced a UCP ​ ​ government would increase provincial funding for sexual assault services by $5 million. This is on top of the NDP government’s recent bump in funding for women’s shelters, which the UCP promises to maintain. Of the $5 million, $3.5 million would be directed to existing sexual assault centres. The rest will go towards boosting sexual assault services in rural parts of the province where Aheer says sexual assault reporting is not handled consistently. This will be done via a 24/7 tele-health link where sexual assault specialists can provide real time guidance to nurses in rural areas. She also said the UCP would make sure future nurses and doctors are trained on evidence collection, sensitivities and myths about victims of sexual assault. Aheer said victims of sexual violence are often forced to make “hasty decisions” to either press charges or to drop them, and she proposed a “third option” for reporting that would allow police to collect and store evidence of an assault while the victim takes time to consider how they want to proceed. This would involve new legislation to define how long sexual assault kits are stored and to create cohesiveness in the sexual assault reporting process. The UCP would also request additional federal funding for RCMP training on the new procedures. Since taking power, the NDP has increased annual funding for shelters from $33 million to $51 million, starting with a $15 million boost in 2015. In March 2018, the government announced $8.1 million for sexual assault services. Kenney also gave a special International Women’s Day shout-out to the 27 women running ​ ​ under the UCP banner this spring. The Alberta Liberal Party also came out with some women-focused policy promises Friday, including a call for pay equity legislation. Alberta is the only province without a pay equity law. Liberal Leader David Khan also pledged to make abortion more easily accessible; make birth ​ ​ control free; fund one cycle of in-vitro fertilization; bring in $25-a-day universal childcare; and provide refundable tax credits for low-income stay-at-home moms. The party also called on the province to fund medical procedures for transgender Albertans, including fully funding hormone replacement treatments. UCP commits to new veterans’ scholarship and Heroes fund On Saturday, UCP MLA Tany Yao announced plans for a $100,000 “Heroes Fund” for the ​ ​ families of first responders killed on the job. That money would be on top of the $300,000 families are eligible to receive through the federal government’s Memorial Grant Program for First Responders. Yao also said the UCP would spend $1.5 million to expand access to mental health services for first responders diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. On the veterans’ affairs front, Yao announced $1 million for the Alex Decoteau Veteran’s ​ ​ Scholarship, a $5,000 scholarship program for Alberta members of the Canadian Armed Forces looking to transition back into the civilian job market. The UCP said the scholarship would also be available to family members of killed or disabled armed forces members. Decoteau was an Olympic athlete and Canada’s first Aboriginal police officer. He joined the Edmonton police in 1909 and was killed by a sniper in France on October 30, 1917. UCP wants Canada’s Constitution amended to protect property rights UCP House Leader Jason Nixon and UCP MLA Wes Taylor announced an eight-point plan to ​ ​ ​ ​ protect Albertans’ property rights from “the day-to-day whims of government.” Speaking at a Holiday Inn in Red Deer Sunday, Nixon and Taylor — who is the party’s spokesperson on the property rights file — said a UCP government would introduce an Alberta Property Rights Protection Act, which would amend Canada’s Constitution to enshrine property rights in national law. The amendment would be voted on through a provincial referendum during the next round of municipal elections, slated for fall 2021. “You should not be forced to fight government to be awarded fair compensation for government-imposed costs on private property. If government imposes regulatory costs, or takes action that devalues your property, you deserve compensation and we will ensure you get it,” Nixon said. The UCP would also amend the Land Titles Act to take away squatters’ rights; task a legislative ​ ​ committee with reviewing legislation and policies that affect property rights; require government departments and agencies to account for any potential loss of value to private property in all new regulatory proposals; and create a Property and Farmer’s Rights Advocate Office. Property rights were a pillar of the former Wildrose party platform; while in opposition, Wildrose MLAs introduced private members’ bills around property rights into the legislature. Anger around property rights stems from four pieces of 2009 legislation around land acquisition introduced by the former Progressive Conservative government. In 2014, the PC’s Bill 1, the Land Assembly Project Area Act, was an attempt to roll back some ​ ​ of the more contentious moves. At the time, Wildrose leader Danielle Smith called the legislation “flimsy” and said it didn’t fully ​ ​ address the need for compensation and respect for property rights. Today’s events March 11 at 10:30 a.m. – Calgary ​ Culture and Tourism Minister Ricardo Miranda will deliver a funding announcement about field ​ ​ upgrades to Genesis Centre. Topics of conversation ● The latest Statistics Canada employment numbers show job growth is stagnant in ​ ​ Alberta. The province only gained 3,800 new jobs in February, while the unemployment rate climbed to 7.3 per cent. ○ Calgary’s unemployment rate of 7.6 per cent is the highest in Canada, and Edmonton’s is the third highest at seven per cent. ○ The UCP responded to the job numbers by blaming the NDP for the loss of 7,000 private sector jobs from January to February and said there are 43,000 fewer Albertans employed today than when the NDP took office. ○ “High-tax, high-debt, anti-growth NDP policies are failing Albertans by hurting job creation,” said UCP MLA Ric McIver in a news release. ​ ​ ● UCP Leader Jason Kenney says comments he made about men being better at ​ ​ “tactical politics” — which spurred its own hashtag — were taken out of context. ​ ​ ○ On the eve of International Women’s Day, Kenney was asked by reporters about his plan to recruit more female candidates. Thirty-eight per cent of the UCP’s new nominated candidates are women — a sharp contrast to the party’s current caucus, which has just three sitting female MLAs. ○ “Very typically, women candidates for nominations are running for the first time and often running against guys who have been in politics for years or decades and have a network and understand tactical politics a bit better than women who have usually been doing more useful things like professions and running businesses and helping with family,” Kenney said. ​ ​ ○ Premier Rachel Notley and others took to social media to respond. ​ ​ ○ “Jason, Alberta’s largest-ever female caucus and our 10 female cabinet ministers are available to provide you tactical political training anytime you need it,” Notley tweeted. “You won’t even need to secretly film it. P.S. Happy ​ #InternationalWomensDay.” ● Ex-Wildrose leader and former UCP MLA Brian Jean penned an op-ed in the Edmonton ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Journal slamming his former party’s “fiscal fairy tale” and the NDP’s unrealistic ​ projections for the economy. ○ “In their “Path to Balance” document [the NDP predicts] that in the next five years Alberta’s GDP will grow by over $100 billion or 22.3 per cent. That would be the best five-year period since 1980. There is no reason to believe we will have another super-boom,” Jean wrote. “The NDP’s economic predictions are garbage.” ○ Jean contends UCP Leader Jason Kenney is promising too much when he says ​ ​ he can balance the budget without cutting pay for public sector workers or reducing health spending, which combined account for 70 per cent of the province’s costs. ○ “There are only two ways out of a fiscal mess: more money in or less money out,” Jean wrote. ● Ex-UCP nomination candidate for Edmonton—Meadows Arundeep Singh Sandhu held ​ ​ a rally to protest the parachute appointment of ex-Edmonton Eskimos president Len ​ Rhodes into his riding, the Edmonton Journal reports. ​ ​ ​ ○ UCP Leader Jason Kenney appointed Rhodes as the candidate for ​ ​ Edmonton—Meadows on February 21, something the UCP constitution allows the leader to do four times in one race. ○ However, Sandhu has said Kenney assured him and his family the nomination would be an open contest before Sandhu entered the race in 2018. ○ Sandhu was born and raised in the south Edmonton riding. Rhodes lives in St. Albert, a suburb north of Edmonton. ● The fact that six board members of the UCP’s Livingstone—Macleod constituency association quit is a non-issue, UCP House Leader Jason Nixon told reporters on ​ ​ ​ ​ Saturday.