Alberta Minute: Provincial Police, Mandate Letters, and Danielle Smith Wins

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

This Week In Alberta:

• The legislature remains prorogued until November 29th, and there are no Committee meetings scheduled until December. However, some certainty regarding the Legislative agenda has now been provided - more details below!
  
  
• Premier Danielle Smith is moving ahead with plans for a provincial police force. Her mandate letter to Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis instructs him to work with Justice Minister Tyler Shandro to launch an Alberta Police Service. No timeline has yet been laid out.
  
  
• The Province is gathering public input on how it should spend a potential surplus. Albertans can rate their priorities from a list that includes affordability supports, health-care funding, and economic diversification. The online survey is open until January 15th.

Last Week In Alberta:

• Alberta Premier Danielle Smith won the byelection in Brooks-Medicine Hat and will take her seat in the Legislature when it resumes on November 29th. Smith won with 54.5% of the vote, besting NDP candidate Gwendoline Dirk who finished with 26.7%. “This is our declaration that Alberta is worth fighting for,” she said in her victory speech, which focused on affordability and Alberta’s tense relationship with Ottawa.
  
  
• Danielle Smith began issuing mandate letters to her Cabinet Ministers. Directives in the letters included continuing to support parental choice in the education system, strengthening Alberta’s network of food banks, reindexing AISH and the senior’s benefit, reviewing the cost of utilities, and addressing the affordability crisis.
  
  
• The Province and federal government announced $471 million in funding for a hydrogen plant in northeast Edmonton. The $1.6 billion facility from Air Products, an American-based corporation, will be the largest hydrogen plant in the world and should produce up to 100,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year when fully operational. Once the plant is operational in 2024, Alberta will provide $161 million from the Petrochemicals Initiative Program as well as $15 million from a carbon tax on industrial emitters.

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