Notley offers ‘complete support’ for Phillips amid calls to resign
EDMONTON Premier Rachel Notley is standing solidly behind her cabinet minister as calls grow for the resignation of Environment and Parks Minister Shannon Phillips over her management of the Bighorn Country file.
The United Conservative and Alberta parties both demanded Phillips’ resignation Thursday following days of an increasingly persnickety political back-andforth about RCMP involvement in reported harassment at Bighorn Country public consultation meetings.
Notley is having none of it. Speaking with media Thursday morning in Fort Saskatchewan, she turned the tables on conservatives — the Progressive Conservatives for dropping the ball on land protection during decades in power, and the UCP for peddling “misinformation” about the Bighorn plan and public consultations.
Notley said the Alberta government lagged behind on a host of complicated and sometimes controversial environmental files thanks to decades of inaction by previous administrations.
She said work on those files has only progressed “as a result of the determined, informed, intelligent leadership of the minister, who has my complete support.”
Asked if she will fire Phillips in response to opposition demands, Notley said, “I certainly will not.”
The cacophony of calls for Phillips’ political head stem from the minister’s cancellation of Bighorn plan public meetings in Edmonton, Red Deer, Drayton Valley and Sundre, citing harassment and intimidation.
Speaking with a Postmedia reporter Sunday, Phillips said after conversations with her senior officials and the RCMP, “it was determined that at this point we can’t necessarily guarantee the safety of the public given some of the content that has been shared with us.”
The situation snowballed from there.
On Tuesday, Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre UCP MLA Jason Nixon called Phillips’ assertions “unfounded,” and huffed that it was little more than a “smear of our communities.”
He then called on Phillips to reinstate the public meetings, accusing the minister of “a blatant lie” over her comments about consulting with the RCMP.
Three days after the public meetings were cancelled, Phillips told reporters during a Wednesday teleconference that there were two open RCMP files on the issue. There weren’t — complaints had been made, but there were no investigations — and the minister corrected the record about two hours later.
That had the UCP demanding her resignation, followed on Thursday by Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel, who said in a news release that Phillips, as a cabinet minister, must “be prepared to face and answer tough questions.”
“A process that has been more insult than consult, Minister Phillips came to the Bighorn area with a prescriptive option and tried to dress it up as public consultations,” Mandel said.
“While intimidation and harassment are not acceptable, misleading the public as to the level of threat and the involvement of the RCMP affects the credibility of Ms. Phillips as a cabinet minister ... and as such she must resign immediately.”
Postmedia obtained a list of the alleged harassment reported by government staff in November and December. The seven complaints mainly involved verbal harassment, and in one situation a staff member reported being pushed on the shoulder by an “agitated member of the public.”
Postmedia also learned of one email — addressed to Nixon in December — where a business owner in Nordegg alleged he was being bullied in his community.
In November, the province announced a $40-million proposal to create three new provincial park sites and four recreation areas within Bighorn Country, east of Jasper and Banff national parks. Public feedback has included concerns about how the project might affect industry and off-road vehicle use.
Notley said Thursday the RCMP is aware of safety concerns, but the most important issue is making sure Albertans are able to find out more information about the Bighorn plan and ask questions in a respectful and safe environment.
“It’s a challenging situation because there is a lot of passion on the matter but, at the same time, we need to maintain those forums,” she said.