White House plots breakup of coronavirus task force
By Gabby Orr and Nancy Cook

The Trump White House is planning to wind down its coronavirus task force in the coming weeks and instead ask agencies to take control of the response efforts.

“We’re having a conversation about that and about what the proper time is for the task force to complete its work,” Vice President Mike Pence said at a briefing for reporters on Tuesday. At that point, he added, the work would be moved to agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We’ve already begun to talk about a transition plan with FEMA,” Pence said.

The undoing of the coronavirus task force comes as the president has turned his attention almost entirely toward reopening the economy as more than a dozen states allow people to slowly return to businesses like hair salons and restaurants. By the end of the week, Trump’s top economic officials are expected to unveil new ideas for tax policy and regulatory changes to bolster the U.S. economy in the third and fourth quarters of the year — even as the death toll from the coronavirus continues to rise and the virus spreads to new areas of the country.

“I believe we can be in a very different place in late May or early June,” Pence said. “We’re going to start to look at the Memorial Day window to transition back to having our agencies manage our response in a more traditional manner.”

Top officials on Tuesday said they are seeing a decrease in hospitalizations and have already received reopening plans from 41 states so far, which they consider encouraging. All these developments are being taken into account, officials said, as they determine the necessity of the task force moving forward. The future of the task force will be based on the health conditions, aides said. Pence characterized the discussion of dissolving the task force as “preliminary.”

Inside the White House, there has also been discussion of creating a new and smaller group to supplant the task force — focused on developing a vaccine and therapeutics. Pence said this project, dubbed "Operation Warp Speed," is “almost like a Manhattan Project-style effort to develop a vaccine.”

Health officials and other aides inside the White House are not happy about the upcoming dissolution of the task force, given the ongoing spread of the virus, said one source familiar with the discussions.

The unwinding of the task force was first reported by The New York Times.

$252M emergency aid package coming for farmers, food plants hit by COVID-19

CBC 5/5/2020

The Liberal government unveiled a multimillion-dollar, multipart package this morning aimed at helping farmers and food processors safely navigate the coronavirus pandemic — aid that comes amid concerns both about food security in Canada and the health of vulnerable workers.

But the funding envelope, an "initial announcement" according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, falls far short of the $2.6 billion emergency fund requested by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

Trudeau announced a new $77 million fund for food processors of varying size, including meat packers, to help businesses retrofit their factories and increase capacity to deal with the backlog of livestock that's been building up in parts of the county.

The money can be used to buy personal protective equipment for workers, adapt to health protocols, and support other social distancing measures, said the prime minister during his daily briefing outside of Rideau Cottage on Tuesday.

The money can be used to make conditions safer for workers on the line, but an official in Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau's office stressed that occupational health and safety is a provincial issue. xx The government is also expected to add an additional $125 million to the AgriRecovery fund, a federal-provincial-territorial program aimed at helping farmers during disasters.

"For many farmers, this crisis means that they have to keep animals for longer periods of time – and that can be expensive. So, with this funding, we're giving extra help to beef and pork producers so they can adapt to the crisis," said Trudeau.

"This is an initial investment and if we need to add more, we will."

The cattle industry has been pushing for this type of funding to help cover the cost of extended stays in feedlots, similar to how a set-aside program worked during the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (also known as mad cow disease) outbreak.

The government also wants to expand the Canadian Dairy Commission Act to allow it to buy and store more surplus dairy products — like cheese and butter — to avoid the type of milk dumping already seen this spring.

$50M surplus purchase program

For other commodities, Trudeau is pledging at least $50 million purchase program for surplus foods, similar to what's available to some farmers in the U.S. This kind of program could help the french-fried potato industry, which has seen plummeting sales as restaurants from coast to coast have been closed since the beginning of the pandemic.

"The government will buy large quantities of certain products at risk of going to waste — say, potatoes or poultry — and redistribute them to organizations addressing food insecurity," said Trudeau.

"This will help ensure that our farmers are being compensated for their hard work and that our most vulnerable have access to fresh food during this crisis."

The announcement comes as some farmers begin the spring planting season and amid concerns from others about potentially culling their animals because of the reduced capacity at some of the country's largest meat processing plants, a sector that's been particularly hard hit by illness.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture has been warning that a financial boost is urgently needed to protect against food shortages in Canada and called for a $2.6 billion emergency fund last Thursday.

"We understand that the entire country is under duress. Agriculture is a unique player in our economy. Not only does agriculture create value for our economy, act as stewards of our environment and employ over two million Canadians, agriculture also provides us the unique benefit of food — not only for Canada but for the world at large," said federation President Mary Robinson said in a statement issued on April 30.

"Planting season is happening right now. Mother Nature waits for no one. Farmers need to have the financial confidence that they will not be facing bankruptcy due to impacts of COVID-19."

When asked about the federation's multi-billion request, Trudeau said today's $252 million package is an initial announcement, and more will need to be done.

Alberta meat plant reopens amid controversy

The federation has been calling for the creation of an emergency preparedness fund specifically for farmers dealing with increased expenses and obstacles due to the pandemic. It also wants the federal government to ensure farmers and food processors have personal protective equipment for on the job.

Tuesday's announcement comes one day after the Cargill meat processing plant near High River, Alta., reopened after closing more than two weeks ago after an outbreak swept through the plant.

More than 900 of Cargill's 2,000 workers have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and one worker has died, making it the site of the largest single COVID-19 outbreak in Canada.

The union that represents the workers is asking a court to stop work at the plant and has also filed unfair labour practice complaints against Cargill and the province.

With files from the Canadian Press

Minister Says Review Needed For Social Assistance System After Pandemic

The middle class prosperity minister was asked to define “prosperity” earlier this year.

By Zi-Ann Lum

ADRIAN WYLD/CPMiddle Class Prosperity Minister Mona Fortier responds to a question in the House of Commons on Dec. 13, 2019 in Ottawa.

OTTAWA — The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed an opportunity to reconsider the structure of our social welfare systems, says Canada’s middle class and prosperity minister.

Senior care, health care, caregiver support, and how Canada builds and manages supply chains are potential topics on the table for a post-pandemic discussion, Mona Fortier said in a digital town hall Thursday.

“As we come out of this crisis, I believe we will need to lay the foundation for well-being and prosperity for all Canadians, in an inclusive, sustainable, and resilient way,” Fortier said.

How to sustain and grow Canadians prosperity during this time of crisis has been a hotly debated subject.

A day earlier, Fortier poured cold water on a push by anti-poverty advocates for the government to introduce and implement a crisis universal basic income.

Opposition MPs have regularly pressed the government to broaden access to emergency benefits, citing concerns people are still falling through the cracks due to changing eligibility criteria.

The NDP and Greens support the idea a universal basic income can strengthen the social safety net for Canadians.

IF ITS NOT THEIR IDEA THEN THE LIBERALS HAVE NO TIME FOR IT

“We are listening,” Fortier said in French during an in-person sitting of the House of Commons Friday. “These questions deserve to be properly considered and debated in due course, but now is not the time.”

Canada’s economy is at a standstill due to quarantine policies from all levels of government following public health officials’ advice to exercise physical distancing to curb the transmission of COVID-19, a highly contagious disease caused by a novel coronavirus.

Through emergency legislation, Parliament has so far approved $155 billion in financial aid for benefits aimed at workers and businesses impacted by the pandemic.

Legislation proposing an additional $9 billion to help students was passed by the House Wednesday. The Senate is expected to reconvene Friday to debate the bill. 

Defining ‘prosperity’

According to documents tabled in the House in March, the government defines prosperity as “the state of being successful in material terms and of thriving financially.”

Other documents stated “fostering the right conditions for Canadians’ material well-being” as one of the government’s primary objectives. But the definition can be broadened, the minister explained, citing “many of the factors that are important in the day-to-day lives of Canadians cannot be measured by income and wealth alone, including access to childcare, access to adequate housing and access to good, well-paying jobs, among other factors.”

A separate document, a written order paper question submitted by Conservative MP Pat Kelly earlier this year, asked the government what indicators bureaucrats will use to track and measure growth for the demographic.

The government’s response to Kelly noted work in this area is “ongoing and more information on the Government’s plan in this respect will be available in due course.”
NATHAN DENETTE/CPA women covers her face as she walks past a child care centre that's closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto on April 10, 2020.

                WAGES FOR HOUSEWORK

There are some numbers that give an indication of how the Liberals are doing in line to the three broader benchmarks identified by the minister’s office.

According to Statistics Canada data released last year, approximately 1.4 million children (60 per cent) had access to either formal or informal child care in early 2019. Sixty-four per cent of survey respondents said they had “no difficulty” finding early learning and child care.

In terms of access to adequate housing, StatCan defines “adequate” as “not requiring any major repairs.” Nearly 30 per cent of Canada’s 14.8 million households in 2018 required minor or major repairs.

There is no official definition, however, of what the government considers a “good paying job.”

Prior to the pandemic, the government touted its record in creating one million jobs in May as proof of growing prosperity. But whatever gains made on that front were obliterated by March due to mass layoffs in the economic fallout from COVID-19.
Identifying Canada’s ‘middle class’

Fortier was appointed minister of middle class prosperity after the Liberals won a minority government in October. According to the Wall Street Journal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the first leader of an industrialized economy to appoint a minister dedicated to the middle class.

Despite the high-profile nature of the role, an official definition for “middle class” has proven to be an elusive pursuit.

In December, Trudeau raised eyebrows when asked whom he considers middle class during an interview on Breakfast Television in Toronto.

“Canadians know who’s in the middle class and know what their families are facing and we focus more on the actual issues,” he said at the time.

Ontario Midwives Delivering Babies During Pandemic Aren’t ‘Front Line’: Ministry Of Health
They’re working in hospitals and homes to support mothers who’ve tested positive for COVID-19.By Samantha Beattie

SUPPLIEDToronto midwife Christie Lockhart wears personal protective equipment during a 24-hour hospital shift where she attended six births during the COVID-19 crisis.

TORONTO — For midwife Christie Lockhart, there’s no option to stay home.

Pandemic or not, births will go on, and so will she.

Wearing a mask, gown and a pair of gloves, Lockhart cares for mothers giving birth at home or in the hospital. For those who’ve tested positive for COVID-19, Lockhart teaches them how to safely care for their newborn — stay six feet away as much as possible and wear a mask while breastfeeding.

She picks up extra 24-hour shifts to fill in for her colleagues cannot work, attending half a dozen births. Some of the newborns are tested for the novel coronavirus.

As she heads out the door each day her wife no longer says “have fun,” but rather “stay safe.”

“I can’t tell you how hard it’s been to work through COVID-19,” Lockhart told HuffPost Canada. “And then there’s the very real risk that we all feel when we work in the hospital and the community.”

Despite the heightened risk of contracting COVID-19, midwives are one of the few health-care workers in Ontario not eligible for the provincial government’s “pandemic pay” of $4 extra an hour and $250 a month until mid-August.

SUPPLIEDToronto midwife Christie Lockhart and a client's baby before the pandemic.

“Temporary pandemic pay is aimed at front-line staff who are experiencing severe challenges and are at heightened risk during the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Ministry of Health spokesperson Hayley Chazan in an email when asked why midwives were not included in the pay bump.

More than 30 different types of workers qualify, including nurses, personal support workers, social workers, custodians and correctional officers across long-term care homes, hospitals, shelters, and correctional facilities.

Paramedics, public health nurses, hospital mental health and addiction workers and respiratory therapists were added to the list, “to recognize and thank these front-line workers for putting their health and safety at risk to help our most vulnerable,” Chazan said.

Like midwives, dieticians, physiotherapists, radiation therapists, lab employees and occupational therapists who work in hospitals are also not eligible, despite assisting COVID-19 patients.

Lockhart sees dozens of clients at her Toronto clinic, including low-income women who are particularly vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 because they work multiple jobs, or live in shelters or with numerous people, and cannot truly self-isolate.

“We’re asking for recognition that we’re front-line essential workers,” said Lockhart.

Midwives are responsible for procuring their own personal protective equipment. Clinics like Lockhart’s now pay double the original price for hand sanitizer, and face a dwindling supply of surgical masks. They rely on donations of hand-sewn reusable gowns and 3D-printed face shields to protect them during births and visits.

I was part of the team who cared for the first #COVID__19 positive pregnant pt @MGHBirth but our minister of health @celliottability says #midwives aren't frontline #TellMeImNotEssential@fordnation needs to include midwives in #pandemicpay@ontariomidwivespic.twitter.com/4ZzzqL3i6F
— Jenna Bly (@jennarosaa) May 2, 2020
@celliottability@fordnation@ontariomidwives

In one 24 hour shift, I did surgical assist, I cared for a client who screened positive for covid and I completed two neonatal resuscitations. Oh ya, and I attended three births.#tellmeimnotessential#midwivesOnTheFrontlinepic.twitter.com/8jN3dYIm00
— Nabal Kanaan (@KanaanNabal) May 2, 2020

The Association of Ontario Midwives met with the province last week, and walked away unsuccessful and “deeply concerned,” it said in a statement sent to its 1,000 members.

“This decision is an indication that decision-makers fail to understand the work of midwives or the risks they take on without appropriate PPE,” the association said. The pandemic pay has been dolled out “unevenly, irrationally and inequitably” across the health-care sector.

In 2018, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal ruled that midwives have faced a long-standing pay gap rooted in gender discrimination. Earlier this year, the tribunal ordered the province to increase their pay by 20 per cent, retroactive to 2011, and award those eligible with $7,500 for injury to dignity.

The province, which is appealing the tribunal decision, was supposed to begin providing midwives with compensation this month.

However, the Ministry of Health applied to postpone payments until after the pandemic, which the Ontario Divisional Court approved, although acknowledging midwives’ frustration with the ministry’s “significant delays in compensating them.”

SEIU Healthcare Calls For Investigations After Losing 3 Workers To COVID-19
“Negligent operators” should be held responsible, the union’s president said.

NATIONALIZE NURSING HOMES UNDER MEDICARE

An Ontario health-care union is calling for criminal investigations and public inquiries into COVID-19-related deaths in the province’s long-term care homes.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare says Toronto and Peel Region police should open criminal investigations and the Progressive Conservative government and Ontario’s chief coroner need to do public inquiries.

“Both frontline workers and the elderly in our long-term care system are saying the same thing: keep us alive,” the union’s president Sharleen Stewart said in a press release.

“That’s why we’re calling for urgent investigations that will keep people alive and hold negligent operators responsible for the death of our healthcare heroes.”

As of Tuesday morning, 1,003 long-term care residents had died with COVID-19 in Ontario. There are outbreaks of the deadly disease in 218 of the province’s 626 homes, according to numbers collected by Public Health Ontario.


COURTESY SEIU HEALTHCARE

Christine Mandegarian and Arlene Reid both died from COVID-19 while working as personal support workers in Ontario's long-term care sector. Their union wants to see public inquiries and investigations into possible criminal negligence.

SEIU Healthcare has lost three of its members to the virus. Personal support workers (PSW) Christine Mandegarian of Altamont Care Community in Scarborough, Ont., Sharon Roberts of Downsview Long Term Care in North York, Ont., and Arlene Reid of Victorian Order of Nurses Peel, all died after contracting the coronavirus, union spokesperson Corey Johnson told HuffPost Canada.

Mandegarian was 54 and had worked at Altamont for 31 years, according to the Toronto Star.

“She would do whatever she could to make you feel welcomed in her home at any time. She gave her heart to what she did and paid the ultimate price,” a family member told the newspaper.

This is what an angel looks like. Her name is Christine Mandegarian. She worked for 31 years as a PSW. She died as angel while taking care of our most vulnerable. God bless you Christine. pic.twitter.com/RSDHCkBNsG— Steve Ryan (@SteveRyanCP24) April 17, 2020

Roberts was 59 and had worked as a PSW for 24 years.

“She treated these residents like family,” one colleague told CP24. “She was amazing to them.”

Sharon Roberts, 59, dedicated the last 24 years of her life to caring for seniors at Downsview LTC in North York. She is the 3rd PSW to die in Ontario after contracting #Covid_19. Her coworkers tell me she was a beautiful, kind person who treated the home’s residents like family. pic.twitter.com/YDxJH30b4U— Beatrice Vaisman (@BeatriceVaisman) May 3, 2020

Reid was 51 and worked three jobs, The Globe and Mail reports. She was remembered by family as “sassy but very caring.”

This is Arlene Reid, a personal support worker from Brampton - and mother of 5 and grandmother of 3 - who died this week after her family says she contracted COVID-19. She was 51 years old. Deepest condolences to her family. pic.twitter.com/JS6P3bBQ3a— Laura Stone (@l_stone) April 30, 2020

Neither Premier Doug Ford nor Health Minister Christine Elliott said whether they would call a public inquiry when asked about the union’s demand Tuesday. “We are doing everything in our power, not just ourselves — everyone is doing everything in their power to make sure that people in long-term care have sufficient [personal protective equipment],” Ford said.

“When they call, they get it. We’ve been able to move some hospital staff, front-line health-care workers over to long-term care. We’ve called the military in. We’re pulling out all stops on this.”

On the contrary, Reid’s family told the Globe that she was not allowed to wear protective equipment to her job at Heritage House Retirement Home in Mississauga and was scared to go to work.

Elliott listed other measures that have been taken, for instance only allowing visitors if their family member is “imminently” expected to pass away.

“Many steps have been taken and we will continue to take those steps until these outbreaks are under control,” she said.

Police in Toronto and Peel Region did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    IN CANADA IT'S THE LAW 

BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN IT IS

              ENFORCED

CINQUE DE MAYO

ON THIS DAY

Mexico was victorious over French forces at The Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

OPINION | After romping to victory one year ago, Kenney faces unprecedented challenges in 2020

A year ago Kenney was on top of the world. Today, he must feel like he's been tossed into the pit
Graham Thomson · for CBC News · Posted: Apr 16, 2020 

United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney arrives at a rally in Sherwood Park before last year's provincial election, on Monday April 15, 2019. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)

If a week is a long time in politics, a year is an eternity.

And for Premier Jason Kenney it must seem like a lifetime.

A year ago Kenney was celebrating a decisive electoral victory over the NDP after running on a campaign platform that could be summed up in three words: jobs, economy, pipelines.

A year later he is dealing with an unprecedented disaster that can be summed up in three words: pandemic, recession, debt.

Alberta may circumvent Health Canada to gain access to COVID-19 tests and drugs, premier says

Kenney must be looking back at April 16, 2019, with more than a little nostalgia.

The year began happily enough for him as he used his summer of repeal, among other things, to fulfil election promises scrapping the provincial carbon tax, cutting corporate taxes, reversing the NDP's environmental strategy, and getting tough with the federal Liberal government as part of a 'fight back' strategy.

When the economy continued to sputter and jobs continued to disappear, Kenney maintained course.

He cut government spending, made plans to balance the budget, introduced business-friendly legislation, championed more private delivery of publicly funded health care, and set up a "fair deal" panel to explore how Alberta could have more control over provincial issues including a police force and pension plan.

He was doing pretty much what he had vowed to do during the election campaign. "Promise made, promise kept," became his mantra.

Even when his popularity began to slip late last year after Albertans realized the cuts would be deeper than advertised, and thousands of civil service jobs would be lost, Kenney pushed ahead, using his "historic" one-million-vote election victory as both shield and weapon against his critics.

Finance Minister Travis Toews,(RIGHT WING MORMON) left, delivers the 2020 budget the Alberta legislature as Premier Jason Kenney looks on. (Jason Franson/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

On February 27, he introduced a provincial budget with so many sunny predictions you needed sunglasses to get through it. Oil prices would stabilize at $58 USD a barrel. Employment would surge. The provincial deficit would be wiped out in two years.

"There are signs that in 2020 we will turn a corner and see real economic growth return to the Alberta economy," declared Finance Minister Travis Toews.

We turned a corner, all right. And got mugged in a dark alley by COVID-19 and OPEC+.

A week after the budget was tabled, Alberta recorded its first case of the novel coronavirus. Oil prices tumbled after Russia and Saudi Arabia got into a bitter fight over production.

A year ago Kenney was on top of the world. Today, he must feel like he's been tossed into the pit.

'Sharp downturn'

Kenney says this year's budget deficit could hit an unprecedented $20 billion. Unemployment could reach 25 per cent. He predicts the price of Western Canadian Select oil could slump below zero later this month.

A report from the Conference Board of Canada released Wednesday predicted Alberta's economy will continue to lag behind any global recovery later this year.

"The provincial government is in a tight spot," says the report. "It has, appropriately, been deploying fiscal stimulus to mitigate against the sharp downturn in economic activity. At the same time, it must grapple with the evaporation of billions in royalty revenues on which it depends heavily."

IT'S ALL KENNEY'S FAULT NOW THAT SHOE IS ON OTHER FOOT
Alberta economy on track for most severe annual decline on record, national report predicts
Kenney is spending billions of dollars, all the while he's losing billions of dollars. He's investing $1.5 billion in the Keystone XL pipeline this year and putting up $6 billion in loan guarantees next year.

Why Alberta is throwing billions behind the Keystone XL pipeline

Ironically, Kenney is on track to become the biggest-borrowing, biggest-spending, most interventionist premier in Alberta history. For a free-market, free-enterprise, small-government conservative, this must be galling.

Canada's oilpatch sheds almost $9B in spending: IHS Markit

The pandemic and downturn are not Kenney's fault but he has made things worse by picking a fight with doctors over compensation and billing practices that led to the Alberta Medical Association launching a $250-million lawsuit against his government last week.

This 2015 file photo shows the Keystone Steele City pumping station, into which the planned Keystone XL pipeline is to connect to, in Steele City, Neb. (Nati Harnik/The Associated Press)

His government gave itself a black eye by promising to maintain education funding and then days later cutting $128 million that triggered mass layoffs.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley, somebody who was premier during her own crisis — the Fort McMurray fire — has some advice for Kenney:

"Albertans need to know that they can trust Jason Kenney, that he's going to put his own agenda that was developed at a different time in a different place aside in order to come up with the best solutions for them," says Notley. "That, I think, is evidenced by the doctor dispute and the education funding."

OPINION | Kenney under fire from the front-line workers in the war on COVID-19

Notley says she's trying to work with the government during the crisis. In a private meeting with Kenney a month ago, she suggested he allow NDP members to sit on the government's economic recovery council.

Kenney apparently didn't laugh her out of the room. He simply didn't respond. On Wednesday, though, his office sent me an email saying, in so many words, "no way."

"The NDP, of course, is welcome to provide its suggestions via the Legislature Assembly or elsewhere," said the premier's office. "We have admittedly been disappointed that at times the NDP seems more interested in playing petty partisan politics."

Both the NDP and UCP can be accused of playing partisan games.

That's one thing that hasn't changed in the past year.

This column is an opinion. For more information about our commentary section, please read this editor's blog and our FAQ.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Graham Thomson

You can find columnist Graham Thomson's thoughts and analysis on provincial politics every Friday at cbc.ca/edmonton, on CBC Edmonton Television News and during Radio Active on CBC Radio One (93.9FM/740AM) and on Twitter at @gthomsonink.

NOT SINCE DON GETTY

OPINION | Kenney cursed by bad luck like no other Alberta premier

HE IS LIKE THE CHARACTER OUT OF LIL ABNER

Political luck used to swing back and forth like a pendulum, from one extreme to the other


Graham Thomson · for CBC News · Posted: May 01, 2020 

During his first year as Alberta premier, Jason Kenney has been bitten by bad luck time and again.

Peter Lougheed had it. So did Ralph Klein.

Jason Kenney most definitely does not.

It is that most precious of qualities that has defined Alberta's successful premiers and, by its absence, damned the rest.



I'm talking here about luck.

And when I say "luck," I mean high prices for oil and/or natural gas.

Conversely, "unlucky" pretty much defines what's happening to Kenney, who's struggling with an economy hit by negative oil prices.

In a masterful bit of understatement on Wednesday, Kenney said 2020 has been a "very challenging year."

And it's going to get worse.

"We anticipate that the provincial deficit will move from a projected $6 billion to something in the range of $20 billion," said Kenney. "And we're not even halfway through the year. 2020 is throwing a lot of unknowns at us."

The lucky/unlucky rhythm of Alberta premiers has swung like a pendulum from one extreme to the other.

Let me emphasize I'm not trying to be flippant or facetious.

Luck depends on energy prices

Because of our outsized reliance on energy, Alberta's political fortunes have risen and fallen on the price of oil and gas. In other words, luck.

Lucky Lougheed rode an oil boom to fame and provincial fortune in the 1970s. He was followed by luckless Don Getty who was premier during an oil-price recession and became so unpopular he lost his own seat in Edmonton in 1989.

Then came Lucky Klein, who had so much natural gas money flowing into the provincial treasury that he paid off the provincial debt and gave away more than $1 billion worth of "Ralph-bucks" to Albertans on a whim.

He was followed by hapless Ed Stelmach, who became premier just in time for the 2008 world financial crisis, and faced so much pressure he quit the premiership less than two years later.

Then the pendulum became stuck on "unlucky" for subsequent premiers.

Not only were recent premierships hit by faltering energy prices, they were also hammered by a series of natural disasters. It seemed a climate-changed Mother Nature was rubbing salt in the wounds.

For Stelmach, it was the Slave Lake fire.

For Alison Redford, the Calgary flood.

Jim Prentice tried to warn Albertans that bad luck was on the way via an oil-price recession in 2015. He was rewarded by being kicked out of office by the NDP in that year's provincial election.

Alberta's first-ever New Democrat premier, Rachel Notley, was in turn hit by a double whammy of bad luck: an oil-price recession and the Fort McMurray fire.

Notley seemed to be the unluckiest premier of all.

Until Jason Kenney.

Plenty of blame to go around

His premiership has been hit by a triple whammy: a pandemic; a looming recession; and, incredibly, oil prices that have gone negative.

And now he is dealing with the Fort McMurray flood.

Of course, you can't blame Kenney for pandemics or floods or low oil prices.

But …There is plenty of blame to go around for allowing Alberta to be the most vulnerable province in the country during the pandemic.

For decades, Alberta governments — supported by Alberta voters — relied too much on revenues from oil and gas, didn't set aside money during the good times, and refused to embrace a sustainable tax regime. We spent too much and saved too little.

The fate of the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund is a microcosm of what we've done wrong.

When first set up in 1976, the government pumped 30 per cent of revenues from oil and gas into the fund as a long-term savings account. When bad times hit a decade later, we stopped putting money in. Then we began stripping the interest earned each year from the fund. Even during the years we were awash in record surpluses, we kept taking money from the fund.

In 1985, the fund was worth about $14 billion. Today, it's worth about $18 billion. What would it be worth if we had simply left it alone? That number differs depending on how you do the math but it would be much more than $100 billion.
'We made a mistake ... '
IN POWER FOR 44 YEARS AND THEN KENNEY BLAMES NOTLEY AND THE NDP 

AND WINS AN ELECTION BY REACTIONARIES FROM CALGARY SOUTH In 2002, Alberta's former finance minister Jim Dinning acknowledged the government had mishandled the fund: "We made a mistake of drawing too much out of the fund, to use it as a buffer to avoid making some tough decisions. As a result, we spent a lot of the revenues that could have made the fund worth $80 billion today."

If we didn't take saving money seriously, we did the same with climate change.

We were shocked when the Slave Lake fire devastated the community in 2011. We were still learning our lessons about fire mitigation when an inferno ravaged Fort McMurray in 2016.

We continued to build homes near forests and on flood plains. Seven years after the Calgary flood, construction has yet to begin on an upstream reservoir project to protect the city from future disasters.

Fort McMurray residents deserve our support and sympathy. They also deserve more government funding and planning to mitigate against future disasters.

No, we can't blame a premier for having bad luck — even though Alberta voters tend to do just that.

But we can blame Kenney for continuing to focus too heavily on oil and gas as our economic saviour, for continuing to downplay the threat of climate change, and for continuing to reject an overhaul of our taxation system.
The time to rely on luck yet again to save us has long passed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Graham Thomson
You can find columnist Graham Thomson's thoughts and analysis on provincial politics every Friday at cbc.ca/edmonton, on CBC Edmonton Television News and during Radio Active on CBC Radio One (93.9FM/740AM) and on Twitter at @gthomsonink.

OPINION | Kenney ignoring teachers' pension fears after AIMCo's $4-billion 'blunder'

THAT WAS MY RETIREMENT FUND HE JUST SPENT!!!
Graham Thomson · for CBC News · Posted: Apr 24, 2020

ATA worried about pensions' future under AIMCo
Alberta teachers are calling on Premier Jason Kenney to reverse his government's decision about their pension fund.

Premier Jason Kenney is fluent in both of Canada's official languages. Yet he can't seem to communicate with Alberta's teachers.

That became evident this week when Kenney and the Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) butted heads yet again over the government's investment arm, the Alberta Investment Management Corporation, commonly known as AIMCo.

The government is forcing the teachers' $18-billion pension fund, the aptly named Alberta Teachers' Retirement Fund (ATRF), to use AIMCo as its sole investment manager rather than invest with any manager it chooses. AIMCo manages $119 billion in assets, including the pension funds for 375,000 public sector workers, as well as the Alberta Heritage Savings Fund.

Kenney has said rolling the teachers' pension fund under AIMCo's management will save teachers $20 million a year in premiums, increase the scale of AIMCo's portfolio "to invest prudently in a larger class of assets," and generate better returns for the fund.

The ATA is not happy. It hasn't been happy about this since last fall when the government passed Bill 22 forcing the ATRF funds under the AIMCo umbrella.

AIMCo lost $4 billion

The ATA has a long list of reasons to stay clear of AIMCo: the ATRF has been doing a perfectly good job managing the fund for the past 80 years; the Kenney government unilaterally made the decision without first asking the 46,000-member teachers' association what it thought; and the ATA is suspicious of pretty much everything the Kenney government does.

And this week, another reason: AIMCo reportedly lost a whopping $4 billion in the pandemic-hammered stock markets. The story was first reported in the New York-based magazine, Institutional Investor, that called the AIMCo investment strategy a "blunder."
The magazine pointed out that although "Canada boasts some of the world's most sophisticated and best-performing public investment funds ... AIMCo is not among that top tier, experts and data suggest."

I don't think anybody at AIMCo will be printing out the Institutional Investor article to send home to mom.

"For example, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan delivered 9.8 per cent annualized over the last decade, whereas AIMCo gained 8.2 per cent — a gap of more than 1.5 percentage points per year," said the article. "Even within its own province, AIMCo has trailed the smaller Alberta Teachers' Retirement Fund."

Teachers call for repeal of Bill 22

Fortunately for the teachers' fund, its $18 billion in assets have not yet been placed into AIMCo's portfolio. That transition is still underway as both sides work out details. But the ATA, rattled by the AIMCo blunder, wants Kenney to reverse course.

"Teachers invest their own money into their pension plan," said ATA president Jason Schilling. "Teachers were not consulted on the takeover and this story further validates our concerns. I am calling on the Government of Alberta to finally listen to teachers and stop the takeover by repealing Bill 22."

When I asked Kenney during a news conference Wednesday if he'll listen to Schilling or transfer control to AIMCo, Kenney seized on the word "control" and ducked down a rabbit hole.

"No, we were never going to transfer control to AIMCo. The premise of your question is completely unfactual," he said, setting us up for a Kenneysian lecture.

Kenney said the ATRF board will continue to be the governing authority and AIMCo "would simply act as the investment agency for the board as it does for every other public pension fund in Alberta."

That sounds innocent enough, except for a couple of glaring issues.

For one, those other public pension funds are handcuffed to AIMCo. They don't have the freedom to take their money and find a manager that doesn't make billion-dollar blunders.

As for teachers, Schilling said the final decision on investing their money will be made by AIMCo, not the teachers' retirement fund board.

"What's being transferred from the Alberta Teachers' Retirement Fund to AIMCo is the control of the investment management," said Schilling. "There will still be an ATRF board. The board can give suggestions to AIMCo, in terms of investment management strategies, but they don't always have to follow it. And this is the problem teachers have with this transfer."

NDP happily joins the fray

Kenney did point out correctly that the teachers' pension benefits are protected under law, even if the pension fund should take a financial hit. But Schilling said if AIMCo lost, say, $4 billion of the teachers' fund, teachers still on the job would likely see their pension contributions increase to help make up the deficit.

(We don't know yet if the ATRF has lost money during the pandemic crisis. A statement on its webpage said, "while we can't avoid losses when the market falls as it did in March, we structure the portfolio to avoid making a bad situation worse when it does happen."

A Globe and Mail article this week said while the average Canadian pension plan lost 8.7 per cent of its value in the first three months of this year, "AIMCo is expected to be down far more than this.")

The NDP, not surprisingly, has happily jumped into this controversy.

New Democrat MLA Christina Gray has tabled a private member's bill that would reverse Bill 22 as well as give other public pension funds under AIMCo's umbrella the freedom to find other investment managers, if they so choose.
Bill 203 is purely symbolic, of course, in the face of the United Conservative Party's majority government.

Kenney seems not to understand the teachers' concerns. Or, perhaps more accurately, he understands perfectly well what they're saying but has turned a deaf ear.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Graham Thomson

You can find columnist Graham Thomson's thoughts and analysis on provincial politics every Friday at cbc.ca/edmonton, on CBC Edmonton Television News and during Radio Active on CBC Radio One (93.9FM/740AM) and on Twitter at @gthomsonink.

America's Cash Assistance Program Appears Dead When People Need It Most

Tara Golshan HuffPost May 5, 2020

Americans are in need of cash.

In March, congressional leaders and top White House officials negotiated a coronavirus relief package that included up to $1,200 in direct cash payments to most Americans and a $600 weekly increase in unemployment benefits for four months.

But they completely left out a preexisting program that’s meant to give cash assistance to America’s most vulnerable. Temporary Assistance For Needy Families, or TANF, has played no role in the government’s coronavirus economic relief efforts, and Congress didn’t touch the program in its package of emergency funding.

“We are starting from scratch and we completely glossed over this other program where this was the intention: to provide cash aid to families with kids,” said Luke Shaefer, a poverty and social welfare expert at the University of Michigan. “How it got just missed is just pretty astounding.”

The program is still operating in states. In early April, officials in Columbus, Ohio, made $1.5 million available through TANF, offering $500 checks to families making up to 200% of the federal poverty level — about $43,000 annually for a family of three. It was gone in one day.

In Michigan, applications for TANF have almost doubled. Same with California. In Washington state, the week before the pandemic hit, there were about 1,100 applications. The week of March 16, when Gov. Jay Inslee (D) called for a temporary shutdown of nonessential businesses, there were about 3,000.

Once idealized as one of Congress’ great compromises to alleviate poverty, TANF’s effectiveness has been on the decline since the program was established in the 1996 welfare reform bill. When it began, for every 100 families in poverty, 68 received benefits. In 2018, only 22 families out of 100 in poverty were getting aid.

For years, states have diverted the money given to them through federal block grants to other programs, from “crisis pregnancy centers” to prekindergarten and Head Start programs, justifying the funding transfers as ways to help job creation and encourage two-parent family life. An audit of Mississippi’s TANF program released Monday found the state’s funds went toward sponsoring college basketball tournaments and paying former NFL star Brett Favre for speeches that never happened.

On average, states spend as little as 20 cents of every TANF dollar on cash assistance. And when the economy sours, as it has during the pandemic, states have even less money to dole out to people who need it.

As far as Congress is concerned, TANF isn’t worth touching anymore.

TANF really is dead as a chapter in our book. Luke Shaefer, University of Michigan public policy expert

House Democrats attempted to remove TANF’s work requirements in April, but dropped their demand in negotiations with the White House. A senior Democratic aide close to the talks said House priorities now are to extend unemployment benefits; boost funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps; provide refundable tax credits; supply broadband and water utility relief; and fund another check for all Americans.

“TANF’s distribution of dollars among states is not ideal,” a senior House Democratic aide familiar with leadership’s thinking said. “SNAP is a much more universal low-income program. SNAP will be a priority again in the next bill.”

In the Senate, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Finance Committee who was behind the unemployment insurance expansion, plans to propose a whole new program to get financial assistance to low-income Americans, separate from TANF altogether. The senator this week is expected to announce a $5 billion grant for states to give cash assistance and other benefits to those at 200% of the poverty line and below.

“The fact that this is the biggest response to an economic crisis — it ended up being $2 trillion — and we didn’t include anything for TANF ... TANF really is dead as a chapter in our book,” Shaefer said. Still, he noted, the pandemic is forcing more people into poverty while states have less money to help.

“The crux is, what happens when we run out of money?” Shaefer asked.

People line up for food at a food distribution point for people economically impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, organized by New Orleans City Councilman Jay Banks, in New Orleans, Wednesday, April 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

TANF hasn’t responded well in recessions. But the need is there.

During the last major economic crisis in 2009, TANF got a boost: The Recovery Act created a $5 billion TANF emergency fund, which expired in 2010, to help states handle increasing demands for help. The program was complicated and riddled with problems.

States largely didn’t target their neediest residents for the funds. Still, every state except Wyoming took the federal funding.

As welfare programs go, TANF has a substantially smaller role than programs like SNAP and unemployment insurance in an economic crisis.

It’s also less advertised. Unlike unemployment insurance and food stamps, TANF has “faded from the public imagination,” Kathryn Edin, a Princeton University sociologist, said.

“TANF is just not on the radar at all,” Edin said, reflecting on a congressional hearing she attended on anti-poverty programs in early March. “When we talk to people living on no cash income, it doesn’t even occur to them to apply to TANF. People who were on the verge of eviction and homelessness had never heard of the program.”

That’s in stark contrast to TANF’s predecessor, Aid to Families with Dependent Children. The AFDC program was effective at providing aid, but it was criticized for discouraging recipients from working.

TANF was created with support from Democrats and Republicans with the aim of putting people into jobs, keeping kids with their families, and encouraging two-parent households. To do that, the 1996 Welfare Reform bill made three big changes to AFDC. It instituted work requirements, limited how long people could receive aid, and changed federal funding into a block grant — a lump sum given to states to allocate under certain, albeit loose, conditions.


When we talk to people living on no cash income, it doesn’t even occur to them to apply to TANF. People who were on the verge of eviction and homelessness had never heard of the program. Kathryn Edin, Princeton University sociologist

The TANF work rules didn’t pan out in the 2000s, when jobs were hard to find. And the shortcomings are especially stark during the coronavirus pandemic, when work isn’t an option for many.

“There were some naive intentions that the ’90s economy would last forever and you could really get people into the workforce, and that work would sustain them,” Edin said. “But after 2000 that fell apart.”

The program’s core funding hasn’t been adjusted for inflation in decades. States have been shedding TANF recipients, even if poverty levels haven’t improved, and they’ve been using the money for other programs. Schaefer called it “free money” for the states.

And now, when they need it during the pandemic, states don’t have the money to plow back into TANF.
Congress doesn’t see TANF as a pandemic response

James Ziliak, who runs the University of Kentucky’s Center for Poverty Research, said Congress could step in. The federal government could waive TANF’s work requirements and time limits during the pandemic, and tailor a new version of the 2009 TANF emergency fund to actually get checks into people’s hands.

TANF “has the potential to be a cash program,” Ziliak said, unlike SNAP and other welfare programs. “Work is not really possible right now, so cash is the thing. Households don’t have access to cash — they are getting a stimulus payment, which is one and done, and that could be delayed. ... It could reach a very important and frequently left behind population.”

So far, that hasn’t been Congress’ approach. The $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package that was passed last month included the direct cash payments to Americans as well as the unemployment expansion. Neither directly target the poor.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., arrives for a news conference to announce members of the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) (Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

“The stimulus check was more about the economy than about the needy,” Edin said. “If you are trying to get money to the needy that is a highly inefficient way of doing that.”

There’s also an understanding among poverty experts that while TANF is far from an ideal model, it already exists and is specifically aimed at helping the neediest.

A child allowance system, or basic income ― popular ideas among anti-poverty experts during the pandemic ― are unlikely to provide immediate relief.

“The major advantage of the TANF program is that it adjusts as people’s needs adjust,” Edin said. “As long as you are below a threshold of income you have a base. It’s not a very good base … but the alternative is no cash at all.”

There’s no appetite in either party to address the program’s shortcomings.
A big compromise that aged poorly

The 1996 welfare reform bill was a compromise between President Bill Clinton’s administration and conservative House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Once idealized as a program that would fundamentally transform American society, TANF now is mostly forgotten history.

Some prominent Democratic policy advisers behind the program are still major players in today’s politics. One of them, Bruce Reed, is a close confidant of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and traveled with him on the campaign trail. The Biden campaign declined a request for an interview with Reed.

In 2016, at a Brookings event with Gingrich, Reed praised the welfare reform bill and funding structure. Pressed, he said he was “disappointed” in how states were handling the funding and called for adjustments for inflation and population changes. But he wasn’t critical of the program as a whole. For Gingrich and Reed, TANF remained a great legislative accomplishment, although Gingrich said he wouldn’t focus on the program if he were to address welfare then.

“One lesson of welfare reform ... it may be easier to get bipartisan agreement with big bold ideas than timid small ones,” Reed said at the Brookings event.

It’s the kind of thinking that Biden himself has been espousing on the campaign trail. “Compromise isn’t a dirty word,” the former vice president likes to say.

FILE - In this March 17, 2020, file photo, people wait in line for help with unemployment benefits at the One-Stop Career Center in Las Vegas. The number of out-of-work people filing new claims for jobless benefits in Nevada is closing in on 390,000 since casinos and other businesses were shuttered to prevent spread of the coronavirus. The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday, April 30, 2020, that more than 45,000 people filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week. (AP Photo/John Locher, File) (Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

But now, two decades into TANF, the program lies unmaintained in a time of rising poverty and need. Although Republicans traditionally resist direct cash assistance, they supported the coronavirus relief payments and will again get the chance with Wyden’s idea of providing funding for states to distribute cash payments.

But TANF won’t be on the table.

“The bigger issue is that cash assistance is often a non-starter for Republicans,” said Emily Rampone, a policy adviser on the Senate Budget Committee who works under Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) minority leadership.

Rampone pointed to Sanders’ proposal to provide $2,000 monthly cash payments through the coronavirus pandemic.

“That would be greater than any family could receive under TANF and negate a lot of the issues with TANF such as strict income limits, work requirements, and state matching funds,” Rampone said.

“Sadly,” Ziliak said, “I think Congress thinks this is a program on autopilot.”

People line up for food at a food distribution point for people economically impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, organized by New Orleans City Councilman Jay Banks, in New Orleans, Wednesday, April 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.