Alberta Minute: AUMA Convention, COVID Cases, and Rail To Alaska

Alberta Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Alberta politics.

This Week In Alberta:

• The Legislature's "summer" break continues. Despite the Assembly Calendar not yet having been updated, we did receive word last week that the Legislature will return on Tuesday, October 20th, rather than the originally planned October 26th.
  
  
• The Select Special Public Health Act Review Committee will be meeting three times this week - from 12:00pm to 6:00pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, and from 9:00am to 3:00pm on Thursday.
  
  
• There are still 16 public engagements open for the public to make submissions on, covering everything from Minerals to Victims Services.

Last Week In Alberta:

• The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) convention took place last week, with Finance Minister, Travis Toews, telling Councillors from across Alberta that "we have to do more with less", new Municipal Affairs Minister, Tracy Allard, emphasizing the need for change, and Premier Kenney discussing plans for an infrastructure stimulus. AUMA delegates (i.e. Councillors) also voted on a series of resolutions with a proposal for "new measures and tools for municipalities to generate revenue" (i.e. new taxes) passing, while a motion proposing a 1% Provincial Sales Tax dedicated to municipal funding was defeated by 68% to 32%.
  
  
• Data released by Alberta Health showed that, after three weeks back at school, the number of new COVID-19 cases recorded among children is actually down, despite much higher testing. So much for the panic from last month.
  
  
• U.S. President Donald Trump issued a permit for the A2A Cross-Border Rail project, the first step in the US permitting process for a proposed rail line between Alaska and Alberta that could transport oil, grain, and other goods. Don't get too excited though, the project would still need to go through a Canadian environmental impact assessment, so construction will probably start in about 2070!

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