RMZ Corp and CPP Investments Announce Second Commercial Real Estate Joint Venture in India


NEWS PROVIDED BY Canada Pension Plan Investment Board

Mar 01, 2022,

Star Tech, Bangalore (CNW Group/Canada Pension Plan Investment Board)

RMZ Corp logo (CNW Group/Canada Pension Plan Investment Board)

CPP Investments logo (CNW Group/Canada Pension Plan Investment Board)


BANGALORE AND MUMBAI, INDIA, March 1, 2022 /CNW/ - RMZ Corp ("RMZ"), one of India's largest privately-owned real estate owners, investors and developers, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ("CPP Investments") announced today that they have entered into their second joint venture to develop and hold commercial office space in key cities across India.

The total aggregate capital commitment by CPP Investments into the joint venture will be up to INR 26.5 billion (C$ 449 million), to support the development and acquisition of projects across India.

Manoj Menda, Corporate Chairman, RMZ Corp said, "We are delighted to expand our relationship with CPP Investments. This joint venture will provide RMZ additional opportunities to forge new strategic financial co-investments and remain ahead of the curve whilst also significantly increasing capital allocation to the core and development asset portfolios. The two joint ventures together have been established to develop assets worth in excess of US$2.5 billion across cities. This partnership takes RMZ a step closer to our supercharge vision and growth strategy by 2032."

The joint venture will be seeded with StarTech – a 1.37 million-square-foot Grade A office building located in Koramangala, Bangalore, which is currently co-owned by RMZ and Prestige Estates ("Prestige"). CPP Investments will acquire Prestige's entire stake in StarTech. This is the second joint venture between RMZ and CPP Investments, following their first joint venture formed in 2021 to develop and manage approximately 10 million square feet of Grade A commercial office spaces across Hyderabad and Chennai.

Arshdeep Sethi, Senior Managing Director, RMZ Corp said, "We are pleased to broaden our relationship with CPP Investments, an organization that shares our commitment to protecting our environment and ensuring sustainabity in building and construction processes. This second joint venture builds on our existing partnership in Hyderabad and Chennai and reiterates RMZ's strategic objective to expand the Group's asset base and development pipelines across other cities."

Hari Krishna V, Managing Director, Real Estate – India, CPP Investments, said, "We continue to identify high demand for premium commercial office space in top city locations in India, such as Bangalore. As the city grows as a destination for technology businesses and start-ups, we are working alongside market leaders, such as RMZ, to grow our portfolio to support the demand. Our overall focus remains to enhance our ability to deliver solid long-term risk adjusted returns to CPP contributors and beneficiaries."

Spread across 8 acres, Star Tech is a LEED Platinum-rated green building and is a premium commercial campus with 100% occupancy.

About RMZ Corp

RMZ Corp is one of India's largest privately-owned real estate owners, investors, and developers committed to building socially, economically, and environmentally responsible assets and communities.

The company's Massive Transformative Purpose is to imagine, create and transform for the future. They own and operate a real asset portfolio of 67 million square feet, and are poised to grow to 350 million square feet of assets by 2032. They are amongst the only zero-debt real estate companies globally. Their innovative approach to developing and managing real estate invariably raises the industry's bar for quality and sustainability. By taking a leap of faith and adapting to, and indeed embracing the digital universe,they are driving a sustained transformation program to deliver superior real assets with elevated member experiences.

RMZ currently owns US$12 billion worth of of real assets that are operational and under development. The organization plans to diversify into new asset classes such as Industrial, Logistics and Hospitality through new platforms and global partnerships. Additionally, the company plans to invest in and develop both brownfield and greenfield projects leveraging its strategic, development management and financial engineering capabilities, that will focus on adding value to and enhancing its development portfolios.

RMZ Corp has racked up many triumphs, and garnered many accolades - from curating the only development project from India to win the 2020 ULI Asia Pacific Awards for Excellence to being the first company globally to achieve a WELL Health—Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management. The company has developed the largest portfolio of assets certified under LEED Arc, a building performance monitoring and scoring platform. RMZ Corp, today, ranks among the world's flagship real estate firms.

About CPP Investments

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP InvestmentsTM) is a professional investment management organization that manages the fund in the best interest of the more than 20 million contributors and beneficiaries of the Canada Pension Plan. In order to build diversified portfolios of assets, investments are made around the world in public equities, private equities, real estate, infrastructure and fixed income. Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, New York City, San Francisco, São Paulo and Sydney, CPP Investments is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan and at arm's length from governments. At December 31, 2021, the Fund totalled C$550.4 billion. For more information, please visit www.cppinvestments.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

SOURCE Canada Pension Plan Investment Board

Bank of Canada hikes key interest rate to 0.5%

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More small rate hikes expected as central bank tries to rein

 in inflation

Pete Evans · CBC News · Posted: Mar 02, 2022 10:04 AM ET | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

The Bank of Canada slashed its benchmark interest rate when the pandemic began, but on Wednesday signalled that it will start to slowly raise it again to help rein in inflation. (David Kawai/Bloomberg)

The Bank of Canada raised its benchmark interest rate to 0.5 per cent on Wednesday, a move that's expected to be the first of a series of small rate hikes this year in an attempt to tame inflation that has risen to its highest point in decades.

It's the first time the bank has raised its rate since 2018. Before the pandemic, the bank's rate was 1.75 per cent, before it quickly slashed the rate down to 0.25 per cent to help the economy.

The Bank of Canada's rate affects the rates that Canadian consumers get on things like mortgages, lines of credit and savings accounts at their own banks.

While the bank has been telegraphing its plans to raise its rate to fight inflation for a while now, the bank acknowledged in its announcement Wednesday that inflation is heating up even faster than anticipated.

The bank cited news this week that Canada's economy grew at a 6.7 per cent annual pace in the last quarter of 2021, a figure that the bank described as "very strong."

"This is stronger than the Bank's projection and confirms its view that economic slack has been absorbed."

The bank also cited factors beyond Canada's borders as reasons for its move.

"Economies are emerging from the impact of the Omicron variant of [coronavirus] more quickly than expected," the bank said.

Investors think there could be as many as five more small rate hikes before the year 2022 is out. Adam Brown with BDO Canada told CBC News in an interview that there's "no need to panic" but Wednesday's move clearly shows that rates are finally going to start inching higher.

"Clearly there's more rate increases, and there's potential [for them] to be faster than we expected," he said.

• PRICED OUT
  Here's how inflation works and what can be done about rising prices

Lenders are already starting to move in reaction to the central bank's hike. Royal Bank is raising its prime lending rate to 2.7 per cent, starting tomorrow, up from 2.45 per cent. The other big banks are expected to follow suit.

The cost of those hikes could add up fast. Right now, a qualified buyer looking to buy a $500,000 home with a $400,000 mortgage could easily get a 25-year variable loan at about one per cent. That would cost them $1,507 a month right now.

If the central bank raises its rate five times and that buyer's lender matches the hikes, their monthly payment would jump to $1,842 a month — almost $300 more every month.

War in Ukraine a factor

The Bank of Canada cited the ongoing invasion of Ukraine as yet another factor that could influence inflation, or other parts of Canada's economy.

• ANALYSIS
  Higher interest rates are coming. Omicron is unlikely to change that

Among other things, Russia's unprovoked attack on its neighbour has caused the price of commodities like fertilizer, natural gas and oil to skyrocket, as the country is a major producer of these items.

Canada is one of many countries that have pledged to no longer import oil from Russia, but one of the impacts of that move is to cause the price to spike. The price of the North American crude oil benchmark known as West Texas Intermediate topped $111 a barrel on Wednesday, its highest price in eight years.

That drives up the price for energy that all Canadian consumers and businesses need, which will further contribute to inflation.

"The invasion of Ukraine is putting further upward pressure on prices for both energy and food-related commodities," the bank said. "All told, inflation is now expected to be higher in the near term than projected in January."

• ANALYSIS
  Central banks talk about inflation, but are they losing credibility when interest rates don't budge?

For Donald Trump, Putin warrants praise and Trudeau’s a tyrant. This puts Canada’s Conservatives, and Pierre Poilievre, in a difficult spot

Source
The Globe and Mail
John Ibbitson, Canadian Politics

2022-03-01 

For Donald Trump, Putin warrants praise and Trudeau’s a tyrant. This puts Canada’s Conservatives, and Pierre Poilievre, in a difficult spot

Mr. Poilievre championed the convoy protesters and now the MAGA crowd has granted that cause the moral equivalency of Ukrainians resisting a Russian invasion. This is not a good look

The performance art that passes for conservative political discourse in the United States these days has reached new heights, or depths.Donald Trump has long been an admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin. When that suddenly became awkward, a few days ago, the former president and presumptive Republican nominee in 2024 crafted a new mantra: The Russian government is bad for invading Ukraine, but the Canadian government is worse for shutting down the protests in Ottawa.

This is a problem for those Conservatives who stood with the horn-honking truckers and their supporters in opposing pandemic measures. Leadership contender Pierre Poilievre, in particular, championed their cause. Now the MAGA crowd has granted that cause the moral equivalency of Ukrainians resisting a Russian invasion.

This is not a good look.The Russian invasion of Ukraine would be deeply embarrassing for Mr. Trump, if he were capable of embarrassment. On Wednesday, even as Russian troops were on the move, a video surfaced of the former president extolling Mr. Putin’s keen grasp of realpolitik. headtopics.com

Letters to the editor: March 1: ‘If Pierre Poilievre becomes Conservative leader, I will never vote for them.’ More candidates emerge, plus other letters to the editor

“I mean, he’s taking over a country for two dollars’ worth of sanctions. I’d say that’s pretty smart,” he said in a speech.Except Mr. Putin’s armies haven’t taken over the country, at least not yet, and the sanctions are crippling Russia’s financial system. Maybe not so smart after all.

Shameless as ever, Mr. Trumppivotedon Saturday night in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. He characterized the Russian invasion of Ukraine as “an assault on humanity.” But he insisted that Mr. Putin was “smart” to invade, while “our leaders are dumb.”

And he declared that anyone looking for a real danger to liberty should “start with the democracy that is under threat right next door, a place called Canada.”He claimed that “the tyranny we have witnessed in Canada in recent weeks should shock and dismay people all over the world. ... The peaceful movement of patriotic truckers, workers and families protesting for their most basic rights and liberties has been violently put down.”

As conflict rages, Russians in Canada fear guilt by association

“A line has been has crossed,” he told the CPAC audience. “You’re either with the peaceful truckers or you are with the left-wing fascists.” That would be Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government. (We’re assuming Mr. Trump isn’t aware of the provincial role in ending the protests, unless he thinks Ontario Premier Doug Ford is a left-wing fascist as well.) headtopics.com

As for Mr. Trump and his house: “We stand with the truckers and we stand with the Canadian people in their noble quest to reclaim their freedom.”Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert echoed the sentiment on Fox News: “We also have neighbours to the north who need freedom and who need to be liberated.”

There are dank pools of the internet where people believe Mr. Putin is smart and strong, Joe Biden is dumb and weak, the protests in Ottawa were peaceful and patriotic, and Mr. Trudeau is a fascist.A few of them might be card-carrying Conservatives, though most are likely more aligned with People’s Party Leader Maxime Bernier, who has

Trudeau to ask Canada’s broadcast regulator to review RT’s ‘presence on Canadian airwaves’

calledMr. Trudeau a “fascist psychopath.”But these are not the attitudes of the great majority of the Canadian people, who would never in a thousand years equate courageous Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression with truckers complaining about vaccine mandates.

The American right sees Canada as an enemy. Should we be worried?

For all the kind words Democrats have for Canada, they have also been working on protectionist trade measures, Edward Keenan writes.

By Edward Keenan

Washington Bureau Chief

TOR STAR

Tue., March 1, 2022

WASHINGTON—Over the past week, the eyes of the world have been glued to Ukraine, whose citizens are trying to fend off a Russian invasion that threatens to level their cities, kill many of them, and end their country’s independence. It’s a battle that Canada, the United States and the European Union describe as being not just about democracy versus autocracy, but about the global, rules-based order that says a country cannot just take what it wants by force.

But when the thought leaders of the Republican Party gathered at the influential Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, it was like they were doing table reads for a reboot of the “South Park” movie, where the American battle cry is a chorus of “Blame Canada.”

“The radical left is trying to replace American democracy with woke tyranny. They want to do the same thing to America that Trudeau has been doing to Canada,” former president Donald Trump told the crowd, which booed loudly at the reference to the Canadian prime minister. He suggested that if Americans want to fight for democracy abroad, “they should start with the democracy that is under threat right next door, a place called Canada.”

It wasn’t just Trump. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who has made headlines for insisting on carrying a gun in Congress, saying in a TV interview from the convention floor that she is praying for Ukraine, “but we also have neighbours to the north who need freedom and need to be liberated.”

It can seem like satire, this kind of not-too-subtle suggestion that Canada poses a threat to democracy that could require a military response — and may seem easy to brush off, because it comes from people with a history of outrageous claims in a party that’s not in power.

But this isn’t a marginal fringe of conspiracists. Trump intends to run for president again in 2024 and may well win, while Boebert sits in a caucus that seems likely to control Congress after November’s midterm elections.

Of course, President Joe Biden and his Democratic Party still publicly and privately consider Canada a valued friend and partner. Indeed, during the Ukraine crisis the two countries have been working in lockstep on the response. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland reportedly led the efforts to convince the U.S. and its European allies to sanction the Russian central bank, which may have been the most punishing and immediately effective sanction imposed so far.

But for all the kind words Democrats have for Canada, they have been steadily working on measures to implement more protectionist trade measures that could have severe economic consequences up north.

Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin said the recent anti-vaccine blockades of the Canada-U.S. border showed “we can’t be this reliant on parts coming from foreign countries,” and “we have to bring American manufacturing back home.” Even before the convoy occupations, Biden was beating the “buy American” drum, with procurement measures and proposed electric vehicle subsidies that some feared could devastate Canadian industries.

And while Biden’s economic agenda has been stalled in Congress, he continues to talk about bringing it back in pieces through this year, and remains committed — along with many members of Congress — to the sort of protectionist measures that have so alarmed the Canadian auto industry.

So we have, on both sides of the political aisle in the U.S., a chillier environment for Canada than perhaps we’ve grown accustomed to. For a generation or more, Canada has based much of its economy on an ever-growing partnership with the U.S., which is now the destination for 75 per cent of our exports. At the same time, Canada has virtually outsourced our national defence to the U.S.

In promising to send lethal aid to Ukraine, the writer Dan Gardner noted on Twitter, Canada is not sending state-of-the-art anti-armour weapons, because we don’t own any. Instead, we are sending anti-tank weaponry designed in 1946. Much of Gardner’s recent work has focused on how psychology affects decision-making. “The roots of this situation lie [in] politics and culture but also psychology and recent history: ‘That’s never happened before’ or ‘that hasn’t happened in ages’ becomes ‘that will never happen’ becomes ‘let’s save some money by cutting that.’ Until it happens,” he wrote.

The past week has provided another reminder — as if COVID-19 and climate change weren’t enough — in how disastrous outcomes that people let themselves believe would never happen can suddenly occur. In response to the invasion of Ukraine, we’ve seen much of Europe’s postwar order overturned. Germany, for example, has pivoted from steadfast pacifism to planning the highest military spending of any country in Europe.

It’s unlikely that the strong relationship between Canada and the U.S. will sour disastrously anytime soon. In confronting the current international crisis, Canada and the U.S. are as united as they have ever been — together with other allies — and appear to be working together more closely than they have in a long time.

But in the background, with strains of outright hostility coming to the forefront of the American right and support for economic barriers coursing across the U.S. political spectrum, it may be time for Canada to start thinking about the risks of pinning the health of our economy and our national security on the continued goodwill of our neighbour.

 Saskatchewan·First Person

I can't work as a nurse in a province led by a government that is anti-science

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As a nurse, parent and cancer survivor, I feel ignored by

 Premier Scott Moe

Melissa Fuller · for CBC First Person · Posted: Feb 28, 2022 

Melissa Fuller is the mother of a child too young to get vaccinated, a recovering cancer patient and a health-care worker. She says she feels a lack of support living in Saskatchewan. (Matt Howard/CBC)

This First Person piece is by Melissa Fuller, a mother and registered nurse in rural Saskatchewan. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.

I feel lonely.

And it's not only because of the physical isolation to avoid COVID-19. As society embraces the lack of any government restrictions, I'm left feeling like I'm not valued here as a registered nurse, a mother to a child too young to be vaccinated, and a woman recovering from cancer.

My husband and I have listed our house for sale and we're ready to leave Saskatchewan behind. 

In 2016, I landed a job as a registered nurse in rural Saskatchewan and we moved here from Toronto six years ago with great expectations.

We were drawn by a different kind of life that we saw when we visited some friends. Things cost less, were less polluted, and although everyone lived further apart, they seemed to be closer together. It was surreal to find a place where you could feel personally significant despite being so awesomely dwarfed by the land and sky.  

In 2019, several years after moving, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

I underwent a successful operation but was left with lymphedema, a condition that can be managed but only gets worse. There were days at work where my leg would swell to double its size and functioning with the pain became hard to bear. I had appointments sometimes twice a week which involved three to four hours of driving. The constant travelling was its own new affliction that made life hard.

Dealing with cancer was already isolating, especially being so far away from my family. Then the pandemic began and we felt extremely vulnerable. My son's history of asthma combined with my chronic illness prompted us to take every public health measure, and then some. 

I had returned to work but found bedside nursing grueling with my debilitating condition. As I fought through a haze of pain, exhaustion, and hours long daily therapies just to work in the health-care system, I was growing frustrated with how that health-care system was being stretched beyond its limit.

Melissa Fuller and her husband Daniel Rayment moved from Toronto to the Prairies six years ago. (Matt Howard/CBC)

 

Throughout the Delta wave, it became clear to me the Saskatchewan government wasn't respecting the work my colleagues and I had done throughout the pandemic.

At every turn, they seemed to be downplaying the severity of the problem despite rising hospitalizations. Experts were begging to be heard and were ignored. Therapies and treatments were being cancelled and delayed.

• Sask. teachers say they're 'making decisions in the dark,' want more COVID-19 data as mandates lift

• ANALYSIS
  How Sask. Premier Moe's messaging on unvaccinated people has shifted since the Delta wave

Premier Scott Moe's letter of support to "trucker rallies" in late January was insulting to me. I've never heard him rave about health-care workers like that. He also made the false claim that vaccination doesn't reduce transmission and pledged to remove proof-of-vaccination requirements.

I found myself increasingly disillusioned by the ineptitude of our provincial leaders. I could see that their strong-headed decisions and disengagement from science was impacting real people.

I myself am sick and have substantial health-care needs. I am waiting for a surgery for my condition that will change the way I live the rest of my life. I could feel an alignment between my pain, and the pain of other patients whose needs were far greater. Where before we suffered from our afflictions, now we also suffered from a growing sense of abandonment.

I love being a nurse because I get to connect with people and help them reclaim their dignity amidst the towering unfairness that illness brings. I get to use my skills to relieve their suffering, and my attention to let them know they are more than just a body to pump medicines into and take samples out of.

Many people will not understand what illness and hospitalization truly involve until their time of weakness comes. I feel demoralized and desperate when witnessing health-care policy that prioritizes petty inconveniences over real and substantial suffering. I love being a nurse and I hate that the pleas of my profession have been wholly ignored throughout this pandemic.

• Sask. has stopped trying to control COVID-19. What does that mean for seniors?

• How disagreements about COVID-19 have driven families, friends apart

And now I feel out of place here.

Every move is a risk. My family and I traded convenience and dizzying real estate gains for a different kind of life in Saskatchewan. Now we feel spurned by a government whose vision of health care seems bent on capturing the style of failures we've seen in America.

The future undoubtedly holds many crises for Saskatchewan. I firmly believe that facing them with a government that is anti-science will drive away the professionals needed to solve them.

---

Interested in writing for us? We accept pitches for Opinion and First Person pieces from Saskatchewan residents who want to share their thoughts on the news of the day, issues affecting their community or who have a compelling personal story to share. No need to be a professional writer!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melissa Fuller

Melissa Fuller is a mother and registered nurse in rural Saskatchewan. She is a surgery patient recovering from cancer.

Feds seek to fast-track LNG project amid Ukraine attack: Pieridae CEO

Michelle Zadikian, BNN Bloomberg

The head of Calgary-based natural gas producer Pieridae Energy Ltd. said he’s fielding inquiries from the federal government over how the company’s proposed Goldboro liquefied natural gas (LNG) project could be completed quicker than anticipated.
 
Alfred Sorensen, chief executive officer of Pieridae, said government officials are mainly interested in the current status of the project and what might be needed to move the project along faster. 
 
“We certainly have been speaking with different departments in how we might be able to find a near-term solution versus a much longer-term solution,” he said. 
 
Representatives from the Natural Resources; Innovation, Science and Industry; and International Trade ministries weren’t immediately available to comment on Sorensen’s remarks. 
 
Sorensen said the project has had a higher profile over the past few weeks, particularly in light of growing tensions between Russia and the U.S. over Ukraine. Those tensions have now escalated into a full-blown attack on Ukraine from Russia, while further concerns are raised about Europe’s dependence on Russian energy supplies. 
 
“We know that Russia is a significant source of natural gas and oil for European partners. And one of the things that we've been doing over the past number of weeks is ensuring that there are alternatives to Russia, not just to make sure that our friends and allies in Europe continue to be able to function their economies and support their people, but to make sure that Putin no longer draws sustenance for his economy,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a press conference on Thursday. 
 
The Goldboro LNG project has already been significantly scaled down from its original proposal. Originally envisioned as an onshore LNG export facility in Goldboro, N.S., the project is now being developed as floating facility off the coast of Nova Scotia. 
 
The new, revamped project is expected to process 2.5 million metric tonnes of natural gas annually and cost roughly $2 billion. The original facility was estimated to cost as much as $10 billion. 
 
Sorensen said the decision to scale back the project was driven by a number of obstacles including the high operating costs and access to capital.
 
“I don't think debt is a big issue. It’s very much equity. That has been the problem for the last year, but certainly I think we see most of that really driven by the green movement away from fossil fuels,” he said.
 
“If we had financial support five years ago, we would be [exporting] today. I do believe that the project still has substantial merit in reducing the amount of dependence on Russian gas and this is one of the principal reasons I think we've seen a revived interest.”
 
Another roadblock has been a lack of pipelines connecting Alberta to Eastern Canada.
 
However, Sorensen said that renewed regulatory efforts to resolve natural gas transport issues and better access to capital could mean that the project could grow to meet European demand. 
 
“We are producing over 200 million [cubic feet of natural gas] a day right now. We think that we can easily move to 400 million, which is the current size of our current project," he said.
 
"If there was additional interest to resolve some of these pipeline issues, we could very easily go back to the five metric tonne project, which is roughly about 800 million [cubic feet of natural gas] a day. And just to put that in a bit of context, that's roughly about 10 per cent of German daily demand.”

United Conservative members organize against Jason Kenney ahead of leadership vote

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Organizers aid registration fee reimbursement, charter

 buses to boost attendance

Elise von Scheel, Audrey Neveu · CBC News · Posted: Mar 02, 2022 

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney gives a COVID-19 update in Calgary last month. UCP members will vote on his leadership at a special meeting in Red Deer on April 9. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

Five weeks before United Conservative Party members vote on Premier Jason Kenney's fate as leader, grassroots organizers and MLAs are working to tip the balance.

Take Back Alberta, a provincial conservative grassroots group, says it's been holding meetings since December to convince members to vote to turf Kenney in the upcoming leadership review. 

The group is also working to pay for transportation and attendance costs for members who would not otherwise be able to attend the special meeting in Red Deer on April 9.

David Parker, a campaign organizer for Jason Kenney during his United Conservative Party (UCP) leadership bid in 2017, is running the efforts.

He says that after devoting time to getting Kenney elected, he's lost patience with the leader and believes others feel the same way. 

• UCP MLAs look to leadership review for answers ahead of 2023 election

"Anyone who cares about the future of the province from a conservative angle must vote Jason Kenney out," Parker told CBC News. 

"On April 9, we're voting out a tyrant."

Since December, he estimates the group has held about 200 face-to-face meetings with members. The number of participants varies from a few dozen to a hundred, according to Parker. 

The movement is seeing the participation of several MLAs from Kenney's own party. Parker says half a dozen are involved. 

MLAs participate in meetings to boost vote attendance

CBC News obtained a partial audio recording from a meeting on Feb. 17 in a community hall in Glendon, Alta., which is northeast of Edmonton. 

In the recording, Dave Hanson, the MLA for Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul, says he fears seeing "interference" in the April 9 confidence vote, similar to allegations of fraud that tainted the 2017 leadership race.

Hanson confirmed to CBC News the recording is authentic, but says he participated with the understanding the meeting would not be recorded. He declined to comment further.

During the meeting, he said he was pleased people are working to attend the leadership review. 

"It's a groundswell. I'm very, very happy to see it happening here, too."

The UCP has consistently said the leadership review is happening in line with the rules used for others before it. Kenney said Wednesday a successful vote is 50 per cent plus one, like any majority vote in a democratic system.

• OPINION
  Jason Kenney sees opportunity in political chaos

Angela Pitt, the MLA for Airdrie-East, told CBC News she's attended some Take Back Alberta meetings but has also attended upward of 100 other grassroots meetings in living rooms and barns across the province. 

"I have been actively meeting with Albertans of all stripes to teach them how to become actively involved in the political process inside our party," she said. 

"High levels of civic engagement give you good government. And I believe, based on what I've been hearing for the last number of years, people want to see a change in their government, and this is how you do that." 

MLA Todd Loewen, who was expelled from UCP caucus in 2021, is also calling on members to travel to Red Deer to vote against Kenney.

In a Facebook post, the constituency association for Airdrie-Cochrane says it's offering a 50 per cent rebate for members who sign up to attend the meeting, and is offering free travel on a chartered bus. The attendance fee for the meeting is $99. 

Kenney responds to news of organized opposition

The premier was asked Wednesday for his reaction to this organization against him. 

"What I'm doing on my end is working with our great team to build Alberta: a strong economy and a strong province," Kenney said, listing off recent economic successes like the projection of a balanced budget. 

The premier said similar rumours of plans to take him down have swirled before but never materialized.

"I think the broad, mainstream of Alberta conservatives want us to continue getting the job done."

Fill the convention centre, win the vote, organizers say

After Hanson's portion of the recording, one of Brian Jean's key advisors chimes in. Vitor Marciano, who is working to get the former Wildrose leader elected under a UCP banner in Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche, says the only way to remove Kenney as leader is to send enough members to the meeting in Red Deer to win the vote. Marciano also confirmed the authenticity of the recording. 

Jean recently re-entered provincial politics vowing to revitalize the UCP and take out Kenney. 

• Jason Kenney leadership review to be held in Red Deer, Alta.: UCP board

"That's what this meeting is about. It's about making sure that we send enough members there. Frankly, Jason Kenney is counting on the fact that people might be mad, but are they mad enough to drive to Red Deer? Are they mad enough to spend $99? Ultimately, $99 is a really small investment in freedoms, it's a really small investment in sending politicians a message," Marciano said.

Marciano and Parker, however, claim the Jean camp and Take Back Alberta are not officially teaming up — rather, their interests are temporarily aligned.

Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Mount Royal University, says good budget news, COVID restrictions lifting, a byelection in Jean's riding and other riding nominations make it hard to tell which side has the momentum right now. 

"Almost every event you look at in Alberta politics, you have to view it through the lens of the leadership, because Kenney is," he said.

Bratt said the brief moment of positive news for Kenney likely won't be enough on its own.

"I've been punching you every day for two years, and now I stop. Are you happy?"

Two recent conservative leaders in Alberta have received more than 75 per cent support in leadership reviews, yet stepped down in the months after.