NOTLEY, WALL TRADE FIRE
Alberta and Saskatchewan premiers continue ongoing spat over economic prosperity, carbon tax, protectionism
SASKATOON Outgoing Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall fired a parting shot at his counterpart in Alberta after she provided some tongue-in-cheek advice for his successor, including the suggestion they “look at the facts” before dealing with her province.
NDP Premier Notley made remarks in Calgary, as a brouhaha over license plates on construction sites — the latest in a long series of public spats between Alberta and Saskatchewan — enters its second month with little sign of resolution.
“The advice that I would give to the new premier is to look at the facts, look at the data, look at the reporting on economic activity and reconsider the approach they’ve taken up ’til now,” Notley told reporters Thursday.
“Because one province is making its way out of the recession, and one is not. One province is adding tens of thousands of new jobs; one province is losing jobs. I suggest they should look at the data and start drawing some different conclusions.”
“I also have some ‘pointed’ advice for the next Saskatchewan premier: Maybe don’t listen to an NDP premier who imposed a carbon tax on her oil-dependent economy and is presiding over an annual $10 billion deficit,” Wall shot back hours later.
After blasting Notley for failing to defend her province against a federally-imposed carbon tax and describing it as “Canada’s embarrassing cousin that nobody wants to talk about,” Wall said he is happy to help protect Alberta’s interests.
“By the way, she says look at the facts and the data. I did. One province saw a seven per cent drop in GDP two years after 2015, the other did not. One province still has a higher unemployment than the other,” Wall said in a statement Thursday evening.
In a second statement released Friday afternoon, Wall — who is set to leave office at the end of the month — said he did not have anything further to say about Notley, except that “she should really concern herself with running her own province.”
“I actually should be thanking her for helping all of our MLAs on the west side of the province get a huge increase in their margins of victory in the 2016 election,” Wall said.
While employment insurance claims are rising in Saskatchewan and falling in Alberta, Statistics Canada reported this month that Alberta’s unemployment rate fell to 6.9 per cent from 8.5 per cent over the last year, while Saskatchewan’s fell to 6.4 per cent from 6.6 per cent.
The latest controversy between the two provinces erupted in December after Saskatchewan’s transport minister decreed that any Alberta contractor working on a government highways project in the province needed a Saskatchewan licence plate.
Alberta officials responded by questioning the Saskatchewan government’s contention that a similar practice was common on the western side of the border. Evidence of contractors being barred from sites over licence plates has yet to surface.
The governments are set to thrash out their differences in a meeting later this month; the location has yet to be determined. That could be too late, however, as an independent panel is expected to rule before then, potentially leaving Saskatchewan with a $5 million fine over the licence plate decree.
Wall, meanwhile, is set to leave the job he held for a decade at the end of the month. The Saskatchewan Party will elect its next leader on Jan. 27 in Saskatoon. Tina Beaudry-Mellor, Ken Cheveldayoff, Alanna Koch, Scott Moe and Gord Wyant are vying for the job.