Alberta Minute: Staff Salaries, Keystone Threats, and Fair Deal Delays

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

This Week In Alberta:

• After weeks of calling out the Alberta government for their lack of transparency, we finally have an updated Order Paper and a semi-updated Legislative Calendar. This allows groups like ours to prepare for the week ahead and more effectively hold the government to account.
  
  
• The Legislature will convene on Wednesday. Currently, Bill 1 (the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act), Bill 2 (the Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Amendment Act), and Bill 4 (the Fiscal Planning and Transparency (Fixed Budget Period) Amendment Act) are all parked at Second reading.
  
  
• Minister Savage will be introducing Bill 7 (the Responsible Energy Development Amendment Act), which obviously amends the Responsible Energy Development Act, though no information about the actual contents of the bill has been announced so far.

Last Week In Alberta:

• Our President, Peter McCaffrey, was on Danielle Smith's show to talk about the need for a Fair Deal for Alberta and about the delayed release of the Fair Deal Panel's Report. While it is understandable that the government's response to the report may take a little longer to prepare, there is no reason at all to delay the release of the panel's report.
  
  
• US Presidential Contender Joe Biden announced his opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, promising to cancel the project if elected. Luckily for the pipeline's owner, TC Energy, Alberta already shifted much of the risk of this project from investors to taxpayers via $7.5-billion of cash investments and loan guarantees. Maybe Biden will forget this promise?
  
  
• Despite promising to do things better, the provincial government seems to have settled for doing things the same - at least when it comes to staff salaries. The Premier's office is currently costing taxpayers more than $2.9 million a year and that's just the contracts they're required to publicly disclose. Multiple staff are making more than the Premier himself! While the government and opposition argue over the exact figures, the rest of us just want lower taxes.

-----

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.