Alberta Minute: Police Reforms, Lockdown Consequences, and a Real Recovery

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

This Week In Alberta:

• Despite not technically happening in Alberta, you can bet that the federal Cabinet retreat starting today in Ottawa will have a massive impact on our province. Cabinet will apparently discuss "the path to recovery and how we can build a more resilient Canada that is healthier and safer, cleaner and more competitive, and fairer and more inclusive for everyone." But media reports suggest that, rather than getting spending under control, the federal government instead seems intent on massively ramping up spending and social engineering, including more attacks on Alberta's energy sector.
  
  
• The Standing Committee on the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund will be meeting on Tuesday afternoon to receive a 1st Quarter Report and an update on Communications for their Annual Public Meeting.
  
  
• The Select Special Public Health Act Review Committee will be meeting on Friday afternoon, but no agenda is available for this meeting yet.

Last Week In Alberta:

• The Alberta Institute's "Real Recovery" campaign launched, which you can sign up to support and get involved with here. Meaningless phrases like "Build Back Better" (who's suggesting building back worse?) and "Green Recovery" seem to be all the rage at the moment, but in reality, they're just another re-hashed version of the same old big-government, tax and spend policies as before. How about we try lower taxes, less government spending, fewer regulations, more pro-energy policies, and more free trade and infrastructure like pipelines for once?
  
  
• Minister Madu seems to have immediately acclimatized to his new role as Justice Minister and has once again put municipalities in their place - this time over the defund the police movement. Madu made it clear that his approach will be to reform, not defund, police in Alberta. Amongst the changes he's considering are reforms to Carding practices, a policy spearheaded for several years by our Director of Research, Megan McCaffrey.
  
  
• Premier Kenney said there are no plans for Alberta to copy British Columbia in re-imposing COVID-related restrictions. He said his government will not micromanage businesses and noted that "we're only going to get through this if people exercise personal responsibility." He also highlighted the unacceptable downstream consequences of constantly shutting down businesses, including, depression, addiction, family challenges, and pushing people into poverty.

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