AB Today – Daily Report April 28, 2020
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AB Today – Daily Report April 28, 2020 Quotation of the day “Are we there yet?” Canada’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Theresa Tam compares Canadians who want the economy reopened to kids in the backseat on a road trip — but she said we are not out of the COVID-19 woods yet. Today in AB On the schedule The house could reconvene at any time at the government’s discretion. The UCP caucus will meet this morning in the Federal Building’s Windsor Room, while the Emergency Management Cabinet Committee will meet in the evening in the same location. The government had been holding meetings virtually, but more MLAs appear to be gathering in-person this week. Premier watch Premier Jason Kenney headed to Fort McMurray Monday to respond to the flood crisis. Kenney was joined by Environment and Parks Minister Jason Nixon and Paul Wynnyk, the deputy minister for Municipal Affairs. They planned to meet with Wood Buffalo Mayor Don Scott and local UCP MLAs Tany Yao and Laila Goodridge. Hundreds of residents of the region have been evacuated. Fort McMurray Mayor Don Scott said the municipality put in a request for help with the Canadian Armed Forces Sunday. So far, municipalities are taking the lead on flood response, while the Alberta Provincial Operations Centre pitches in on the secondary emergency response. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters at a daily update that she is aware of the flooding and is formulating a response. Municipal Affairs Minister Kaycee Madu said neither the province or Ottawa have received a formal request for assistance. Ethics commissioner asks UCP MLA Peter Singh to apologize for Bill 22, clears rest of caucus Premier Jason Kenney didn’t violate the Conflict of Interest Act by pushing through a bill that fired elections commissioner Lorne Gibson. However, UCP MLA Peter Singh should have formally recused himself from deliberations and votes on the bill because he was under an active investigation by Gibson’s office. That’s the upshot from a new report from ethics commissioner Marguerite Trussler, who was asked by the NDP to investigate the UCP’s move to fire Gibson midway through his term. Gibson was leading a series of investigations at the time, most notably one into the UCP’s 2017 leadership race. NDP Leader Rachel Notley said firing Gibson directly benefited Premier Kenney because the commissioner was deep into a probe into his leadership campaign’s alleged coordination with so-called kamikaze candidate Jeff Callaway. Gibson’s investigation and the $200,000 in fines he laid in relation to Callaway’s campaign was a dark cloud over Kenney and his party. An RCMP investigation is still ongoing. Notley argued the premier and UCP MLAs linked to the investigation directly benefited from Gibson’s termination, but Trussler clarified that it is only a contravention of the Conflicts of Interest Act if a member benefits privately — any political benefits are not taken into account under the law. NDP Democracy and Ethics critic Heather Sweet said the Conflicts of Interest Act should be amended to “prevent the kind of unprecedented, self-interested attack that Albertans were subjected to when Jason Kenney fired the very individual investigating him.” Singh, who represents Calgary—East, was being investigated for unrelated bribery and fraud allegations, including handing out gifts and money to prospective voters, during his own nomination race in 2018. Singh was not present for votes on Bill 22, Reform of Agencies, Boards and Commissions and Government Enterprises Act, which shuttered the Office of the Election Commissioner, but since he still stood to gain from its passage, the ethics watchdog said he should have made a formal recusal from the proceedings. Trussler didn’t dole out a penalty under the Conflicts of Interest Act, but she said Singh should apologize to the legislature. The investigation into his bribery scandal continues under the chief electoral officer. Trussler said she received an unprecedented 85 emailed complaints related to Bill 22. All UCP MLAs were interviewed as part of her probe. On Twitter, Notley said she strongly disagreed with the ruling. “When UCP MLAs voted to fire the very individual investigating their leader, they were in a clear conflict,” Notley tweeted. “The law is broken, and must be fixed to prevent this abuse of power.” Upcoming events May 8 at 12:30 p.m. – Webinar Economic Development, Trade and Tourism Minister Tanya Fir will speak at a webinar hosted by the C.D. Howe Institute. Topics of conversation ● The province reported two more COVID-19-related deaths in the 24 hours since Sunday’s update, bringing the total to 75. ○ The number of positive cases has grown to 4,696, an increase of 216. As of Monday 1,664 people have recovered. ○ The number of homeless Calgarians who have tested positive has grown to four with an additional case at the Calgary Drop-in Centre and a case at the Salvation Army shelter. ○ There is an outbreak at the Bearspaw First Nation, where 14 positive cases have been detected. Indigenous Relations Minister Rick Wilson said the province is working on communications technology to help the nation. ● The Freedom Conservative Party and Wexit party are merging to form the Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta. ○ The new party’s founding principles include a resolution to “sever all ties of domination from the federal government.” ○ The Freedom Conservative Party was founded by ousted United Conservative Party MLA Derek Fildebrandt, who now publishes the Western Standard. The Wexit party is headed up by Peter Downing. Bill Jones currently leads the FCP. ○ The two parties will hold a virtual vote to make the merger official on June 29. All existing members of both parties will be grandfathered in. ● A deal between Alberta and Ottawa on methane emissions regulations is “extremely close,” Energy Minister Sonya Savage told the Globe and Mail. ○ Alberta has been working with Ottawa to get a methane emissions equivalency agreement similar to Saskatchewan’s, which was finalized earlier this month. ○ The federal government previously accepted the UCP’s Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction program as a valid equivalent to Ottawa’s carbon tax on large industrial emitters. ● The Standing Committee on Public Accounts held the province’s first virtual committee meeting Monday. Committee members have always been able to join meetings through telephone but made the jump to Skype amid the pandemic. ● NDP Health critic David Shepherd said there is no way the 141 towns left off Alberta Health Services’ weekend list designating which communities count as rural was a mistake as Health Minister Tyler Shandro claimed. ○ “The suggestion that this list of eligible communities was cut by almost a quarter using specific criteria, by mistake, and that this mistake went undetected by the policy staff, the assistant deputy minister, the deputy minister and the minister himself, and was then published to all of Alberta’s doctors, is preposterous,” Shepherd said. He once again called for Shandro’s resignation. ● One-third of Albertans told a recent Angus Reid survey they are suffering both financially and mentally because of the pandemic — the highest number of any province. .