Alberta Minute: Liability Rules, CRA Fails, and the last Fair Deal Meetings

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

This Week In Alberta:

• The Legislature is not sitting this week and is currently not expected back until early February - though we will receive more details on Wednesday about when exactly it will be returning. There are also no Committee meetings this week, though they are expected to resume next week.
  
  
• The Fair Deal Panel is holding its final three public meetings this week - one in Lloydminster this evening, one in Airdrie on Thursday evening, and one in Medicine Hat on Friday evening. To register to attend the event, you can visit the Panel's website here. To get involved in Project Confederation's campaign for a better deal, you can visit their website here.
  
  
• The Province is seeking submissions from Albertans on how to better sustain fisheries. There are four open houses scheduled for this week in Grande Prairie, Drumheller, Red Deer, and Edson, as well as several more over the next few weeks. The full list of times and locations is available here.

Last Week In Alberta:

• The Alberta government announced its intention to overhaul oilpatch liability rules. While full details won't be available until March, we know that this overhaul will touch on everything from a site's beginning to licensing, operations, the transfers of licences, abandonment and reclamations, orphan wells, and post-closure and legacy sites. There's nothing investors love more than months of regulatory uncertainty!
  
  
• In a surprise to literally no one that's ever done their own personal or business taxes, the federal government's tax information call centres have received a D grade in the Canadian Federation of Independent Business' newest report. The report found that 49% of the 200 test calls made couldn't even be completed due to excessive wait times, blocked calls or disconnects. Even worse, of those that were completed, CRA agents provided incomplete or incorrect information 41% of the time! If anything, we think this is more of an F than a D.
  
  
• The Fraser Institute called on the Kenney government to remain committed to fiscal restraint, or else finances could further deteriorate in the 2020s. It's important to remember that the province entered the 2010s in an enviable position, with $27.3 billion in net financial assets. Yet, despite an energy boom during the first half of the decade, the provincial government only once balanced the budget.

-----

Donate:

The Alberta Institute doesn't accept any government funding and never will. We think you should be free to choose, for yourself, which organizations to support. If you're in a position to contribute financially, you can make a donation here.

-----

Share:

If you're not in a position to donate, we understand, but if you appreciate our work, you can help by spreading our message. Please forward this email to your friends, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and help make sure every Albertan knows what's going on in our province.