Panel to pursue alberta ‘ fair deal’
‘ very bold’
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has outlined the mandate for a new panel that will study what the province should demand as a “fair deal for
Alberta” in Confederation, including looking at ways that will take back provincial powers that have been ceded to Ottawa.
At a speech in Red Deer on the weekend, Kenney said the panel would answer questions including whether or not Alberta should pull out of the Canada Pension Plan and form its own plan instead; whether it should create a provincial police force instead of relying on the RCMP for rural policing; and whether it should opt out of some cost- sharing programs with the federal government.
As well, Kenney said the province will seek to retroactively lift the cap on fiscal stabilization back to 201415 to receive a $ 1.75- billion equalization rebate. Alberta has continued to be a net contributor to equalization despite enduring tougher economic times than other provinces over the past five years.
“We’ve had it with Ottawa’s indifference to this adversity. Albertans have been working for Ottawa for too long, it’s time for Ottawa to start working for us,” Kenney declared in his speech on Saturday to the Alberta
Manning Networking Conference. “We Albertans will not lose our heads, we are practical people, we are not unreasonable people. Nothing we are asking for is unreasonable.”
The speech drew heavily on long- standing conservative ideas for strengthening Alberta’s position within Confederation.
Some of them were detailed years ago in the Alberta Agenda, informally known as the “firewall letter,” published in the National Post in 2001 and written by Stephen Harper ( before he went on to become a federal party leader), then academic and future Alberta cabinet minister Ted Morton, and other Alberta conservative luminaries.
Kenney was giving the keynote address at the Saturday conference, which was themed “What Next?” and was put on by the Manning Centre for Building Democracy. Right- wing politicians, activists and thinkers had gathered at the conference to map out whether a road to victory for conservatism exists in Canada, after the recent federal election, or whether an increasingly alienated West needs to consider other options.
Central to Kenney’s pitch as leader of the United Conservative Party and as premier of Alberta has been drawing from Quebec’s playbook to get more power provincially, wresting it away from Ottawa.
In his speech, Kenney went through the troubled times in Alberta, arguing the major economic crisis in the province right now can’t simply be blamed on lower oil prices, or shale booms in North Dakota or other global factors. Rather, he lambasted the Liberal government’s “record of assaults” on Alberta, such as over- regulation and its ambivalence about the province’s oil and gas economy, which have driven investment out of the province, seeking more hospitable jurisdictions such as the U.S.
“It’s not about prices, it’s about policy,” Kenney declared.
He pointed to the effect of the downturn on the people of the province: the exploding opioid crisis, rising crime and violence, rampant bankruptcies, and the increase in the rate of suicide as hopelessness spreads.
“The human cost of all of this is very real,” Kenney said. “This literally is for many people a life and death question.”
Kenney said he would not accept the prospect of separation.
“As premier it is my democratic duty to stand up for Alberta and as a proud Canadian it is my patriotic duty to stand up for national unity. All we’ve ever asked for is a fair deal, to enjoy the same autonomy, rights and respect as all other provinces.”
The premier vowed to open offices in Ottawa, Quebec and British Columbia to “defend the province’s interests.”
“We are going to be very bold in imagining every way that we can assert ourselves,” Kenney said.
The panel, which has a budget of $650,000, will also be looking at creating a provincial firearms office, studying the possibility of opting out of federal- provincial cost- sharing programs and creating a provincial constitution.
The panel will begin public consultations on Nov. 16 and conclude Jan. 20, 2020, with the panel’s recommendations going to the government by the end of March.