Fair Deal falls short on independence, UCP MLA argues in dissenting letter
In a letter to Premier Jason Kenney, a United Conservative Party MLA argues recommendations from the province’s Fair Deal panel released Wednesday don’t go far enough in addressing the province’s place in Confederation.
In the letter posted to Twitter on Wednesday, Drew Barnes, the MLA for Cypress-medicine Hat who was also a member of the Fair Deal panel, said he is dissatisfied with the report and repeatedly raised the prospect of Alberta separating from Canada.
“The Fair Deal Report … recommendations in and of themselves cannot and will not adequately address Alberta’s place in Confederation,” the letter reads.
“(If implementing more dramatic measures) is not possible, the majority of my constituents in Cypress-medicine Hat and from across our land have made clear that we must seek another relationship, as a sovereign people.”
Barnes said that among other things, Alberta should collect its citizens’ personal taxes and give the federal government a five-year notice that the province will begin to collect the federal share of taxes as well.
He asks that all his proposals be put to a referendum and gives a nine-month deadline for this to happen. Otherwise, he said, Albertans should be “given the opportunity to vote on their independence.”
The Fair Deal panel did recommend a referendum on equalization payments, which Premier Jason Kenney said will go forward next year, potentially attached to municipal elections.
In an interview with Postmedia, Barnes said he put forward his dissenting letter separate from the Fair Deal report because he disagreed with some conclusions reached by the panel.
“Like any group, like with all Albertans, there was a lot of difference in opinions,” he said. “I, for one, thought the tone for how serious Albertans are in striving for a new deal should be stronger.”
The NDP slammed the letter from Barnes on Thursday, calling on Kenney to condemn its references to Alberta independence and asking the premier to suspend Barnes from the UCP caucus.
“I think the vast majority of Albertans don’t support Mr. Barnes’ views and we need Mr. Kenney to make it clear to all Albertans that he doesn’t either,” said Opposition finance critic Shannon Phillips.
“(Alberta) needs to move on from some of these dangerous, divisive and pretty extremist views.”
Phillips called Barnes’s call for a potential independence referendum “expensive,” “time-consuming” and “very likely unconstitutional” with regards to treaty agreements with Indigenous Albertans. She said an independence vote would do more harm than good for Alberta’s economy.
When asked, Barnes doubled down on the separatist sentiment, saying a referendum vote for Alberta’s independence is something that should be on the table if his demands and those of the Fair Deal panel aren’t met.
“For years and years Albertans have been trying to get a better deal,” he said. “It’s time to talk about some consequences if a fairer deal cannot be achieved.”
Kenney’s office declined to comment, instead referring Postmedia to an interview by Kenney on News Talk 770 on Thursday morning where he dismissed a separation vote as an “empty threat.”
“(Barnes) had a chance to make those arguments and the panel concluded that was not a useful point of supposed leverage,” Kenney said during the radio interview.
“All of the polling I’ve seen indicates that, you know, maximum of about 25 per cent of Albertans support separation. Often in the polling, when you push that, it turns out about half of those people wouldn’t really vote that way, but they’re saying it because they think it will maximize leverage. So I don’t understand where there’s any leverage gained in making an empty threat.”
During an exchange during question period in the Alberta legislature the same day, Kenney rejected NDP calls to discipline Barnes, saying caucus members have a right to speak their minds.