Alberta Minute: Leadership Ballots, Federal Budget, and an Approved Oil Project

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

This Week In Alberta:

• As we are coming up on the Easter weekend, the Legislature continues its break until April 19th. When the Assembly returns, it will consider Bill 2, the Financial Statutes Amendment Act, 2022, and Bill 10, the Health Professions (Protecting Women and Girls) Amendment Act, 2022.
  
  
• Tomorrow, the Select Special Committee on Real Property Rights will hold two meetings, the first from 9:00 am to 11:00 am in Medicine Hat and the second from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm in Fort Macleod. Meetings will continue on Wednesday in Hanna from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm and on Thursday in Eckville from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm.
  
  
• Mail-in ballots will be sent to eligible United Conservative Party members to vote on Jason Kenney’s leadership this week. Eligible UCP members will have until 5:00 pm on May 11th to return their ballot. Premier Kenney’s leadership has been questioned on a near-constant basis, even within his own party. The original leadership race was to be held in person in Red Deer last weekend.

Last Week In Alberta:

• Alberta Health Services announced the departure of President and CEO Dr. Verna Yiu after six years at the helm. The AHS board is now in the process of searching for her replacement. Dr. Yiu will receive one year’s severance, which is valued at over $573,000. Mauro Chies, Vice-President of Cancer Care Alberta and Clinical Support Services, has been asked to serve as the provincial health authority’s interim CEO.
  
  
• The federal budget was delivered. It included more taxes, more spending, and even higher debt levels - who could have guessed? The Canada Growth Fund has us particularly concerned as it is basically a slush fund for friends of the government. Big banks and insurance companies will also be slapped with a surtax of 15% on income over $1 billion. While we’d love to think that banks and insurance companies won't just raise their prices over this tax, that's not how the real world works. So, guess who’s really paying this tax? It’s us. No surprise.

• The federal government did something we thought they were previously incapable of doing - they approved an oil project. The offshore Bay du Nord oil project in Newfoundland got the green light. However, when it comes to Alberta projects, the Teck Resources’ Frontier oil sands mine was denied, the Grassy Mountain Coal Project was denied, and the Northern Gateway Pipeline was denied. Seems fair…

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