Oct. 26, 2011 - Issue #836: Winter Guide 2011
Political Interference
Missteps into the legislature
Premier Redford starts the fall session on a shaky foot
As Alberta's legislature reconvenes—sort of—this week for its fall session, Alison Redford faces the assembly for the first time as premier. It seems like an opportune moment to take a look at how she has done in her first few weeks on the job, and at what we can expect over the course of the next few months before an expected spring election.
Although it may seem unfair to judge the premier's performance less than three weeks into her tenure, much was made by all the candidates during the Conservative leadership race about how quickly they would move on their priorities, and how swiftly their promised platforms would be made a reality.
There can be no question that Redford has moved quickly on a couple of her key campaign promises. Her first order of business after naming a cabinet was to announce the reinstatement of the $107 million that was cut from education in last spring's budget. She has also maintained her commitment to order a public inquiry into the intimidation of doctors in the province, promised to hold public consultations on the future of provincial water allocation and cancelled two controversial power line projects.
All of these can be seen as moves which will successfully distance Redford from some of the more controversial issues which had plagued the tenure of her predecessor Ed Stelmach. Of course, none of these are long-term solutions, but many Albertans who had been frustrated by Stelmach's lack of movement will see this as a good start.
The question is whether her early success on these specific issues will be enough to counterbalance her very public flip-flop on whether or not to hold a fall sitting of the legislature, and her odd fumbling of the announcement on the transmission line projects.
Redford began by announcing that there would be no fall sitting of the legislature in order to give her team time to develop a legislative agenda and action plan. The very next day, after a significant outcry from the opposition parties and the media, she changed her mind and announced that there would be a fall sitting beginning October 24. Then she adjusted again stating the legislature would only reconvene for two days in October and recess until November 21.
The transmission line flip-flop was even more abrupt and confusing. On the morning of October 21, the Alberta Utilities Commission issued a press release stating that, at the government's request, it had suspended the review and hearing processes on three controversial transmission lines. The press release included, as an attachment, the letter written by Energy Minister Ted Morton requesting the suspension. These projects had met with significant resistance from rural landowners and environmentalists, and had helped bolster the Wildrose Alliance's support in those areas, so it made sense that Premier Redford's government would choose to step away from them. Within a couple of hours, however, the premier was telling the media that there had been a mistake, and that the biggest and most controversial of the three projects, the Heartland Transmission Line, was in fact still proceeding.
The premier blamed the problem on a miscommunication, but a number of commentators and pundits are suggesting that the decision was reversed because it angered the wrong powerful people. Either way the result was an announcement that should have been entirely positive and an easy win turning into a mess and a liability.
In addition to these blunders, there have been strong criticisms of the premier’s decision to include "Stelmach old boys" like Ron Liepert, Ted Morton and Tomas Lukaszuk in her cabinet, and her decision to appoint Gary Mar to the $264 576-a-year position as Alberta's representative to Asia without an open competition or hiring process. For those Albertans who were hopeful that an Alison Redford government would bring change, openness and an end to old-boy crony politics, these decisions raised a huge red flag.
Given all of the above, it is clear that as the legislature reconvenes Premier Redford already has more points against her than she has in her favour, and things are not likely to get any easier for her. The opposition parties, who have been in full-blown election mode since September, can smell blood and are ready to pounce on any misstep. The last month has seen a series of high-profile problems in Children's Services; emergency room doctors have just issued a statement that the crisis in the province's hospitals has not abated; and she faces the daunting task of having to fulfill her contradictory promises of providing stable funding for health care and education while reducing the deficit, not raising taxes, and removing up to 40 percent of energy revenues from the provincial budget.
Premier Redford has less than a year, and potentially less than six months, to prove herself to Albertans before the next provincial election. She has had a rocky start that it will be difficult to recover from, and the road ahead is littered with land mines. If nothing else all of this will make for an interesting few months in Alberta politics, and will provide a tremendous opportunity for Albertans to re-engage with public policy in this province and bring about some real change in our legislature. Only time will tell if Alison Redford is up to the task and if Albertans are up to the challenge. V
Ricardo Acuña is the executive director of the Parkland Institute, a non-partisan, public policy research institute housed at the University of Alberta.
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