Final tally paints a picture of how Alberta voted

Elections Alberta workers completed their unofficial tally of votes on Friday, giving Albertans the first complete glimpse into how voters marked their ballots on April 16.

JANET FRENCH

Updated: April 24, 2019

An unofficial count of ballots in the 2019 Alberta provincial election is complete. DAVID BLOOM / POSTMEDIA

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Elections Alberta workers completed their unofficial tally of votes on Friday, giving Albertans the first complete glimpse into how voters marked their ballots on April 16.

When it reconvenes in May, the legislature will be dominated by fresh faces since 45 of 87 MLAs will be new. There are 26 women and 61 men, leaving the legislature about 30 per cent female. There will also be five MLAs named Jason, all representing the United Conservative Party — Jason Copping, Jason Stephan, Jason Nixon, Jason Luan and Jason Kenney.

The count last Friday found 1,880,508 Albertans voted in the provincial election, which was a provincial turnout of 71 per cent. That’s a substantial jump in participation from the 2015 election, when 57 per cent of eligible voters marked a ballot.

Turbulent turnouts

The voters in the riding of Airdrie-Cochrane streamed to the polls, posting the highest turnout in the province at 83 per cent. Almost as enthused were voters in Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, which had a 82.9 per cent turnout.

Least engaged were voters in Calgary-East, only 43.1 per cent of who turned out to vote.

Calgary voters were slightly more likely to head to polling stations than their counterparts in Edmonton. Tallies show 68.3 per cent of electors in Calgary ridings voted, compared with 67.6 per cent of Edmonton voters. Electors outside the major centres were more enthused, with more than three-quarters of those eligible scratching out an X.

Show me some love

Not only do the folks of Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre love to vote, they love to vote for Jason Nixon. The returning UCP MLA-designate was Alberta’s top vote magnet with 20,579 ballots, which made up 81.6 per cent of the votes in the riding, despite Nixon facing seven challengers.

Almost as popular was re-elected Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills UCP MLA-designate Nathan Cooper. Cooper was the only other candidate to earn more than 20,000 votes, cruising to a comfortable win with 78.6 per cent of total ballots cast.

Some Calgary candidates, meanwhile, eked out narrow wins. The smallest margin was in Calgary-Falconridge, where the UCP’s Devinder Toor triumphed over the NDP’s Parmeet Singh Boparai by 102 votes, or 0.7 per cent. Turnout in that riding was one of the lowest in the province, at 53 per cent.

Across town, the UCP’s Nicholas Milliken usurped former NDP cabinet minister Brian Malkinson by 188 ballots in Calgary-Currie. The difference was just 0.8 per cent of the vote.

The NDP candidate to win her seat by the largest margin was NDP Leader Rachel Notley, who earned support from 72.1 per cent of Edmonton-Strathcona voters.

Returning officers are now completing a second count of poll votes, Elections Alberta’s deputy chief electoral officer Drew Westwater said Tuesday. The agency will release final counts on Friday.

jfrench@postmedia.com

With files from Anna Junker 

Kenney election promise could spell trouble for in-situ oil sites

EMMA GRANEY

Updated: April 24, 2019

In-situ projects extract bitumen too deep to be mined, generally by using steam. They comprise around 80 per cent of Alberta’s oil reserves.

But Kenney’s pledge to nix the cap will change all that, making in-situ sites subject to federal review processes, rather than those of the Alberta Energy Regulator.

These pipelines carry steam to Suncor's Firebag in-situ operations north of Fort McMurray.

POSTMEDIA, FILE

Jason Kenney’s election promise to remove the oilsands emissions cap will likely have far-reaching consequences for Alberta’s in-situ oil projects.

It all stems from federal Bill C-69, which would overhaul Canada’s energy regulatory process and change the rules for project approvals.

In-situ projects extract bitumen too deep to be mined, generally by using steam. They comprise around 80 per cent of Alberta’s oil reserves.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi told Postmedia Tuesday his government had assured Rachel Notley that in-situ sites would not be subject to C-69 — and therefore federal regulations — as long as the NDP’s 100-megaton emissions cap was in place.

But Kenney’s pledge to nix the cap will change all that, making in-situ sites subject to federal review processes, rather than those of the Alberta Energy Regulator.

Tim McMillan, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, is unimpressed.

The emissions cap wasn’t going to affect the industry for years, if not decades, he told Postmedia, adding the province is the best regulator.

“I think it’s inappropriate for the federal government to use that as a lever to put the responsibility into a regulator that doesn’t have the expertise,” he said.
Consultations continue

Canada’s Senate is in the midst of nationwide hearings on Bill C-69.

The Alberta NDP government had a ream of concerns with the bill, and both Notley and her environment minister Shannon Phillips took those worries to Ottawa.

One of their problems was the bill’s perceived over-reach into provincial jurisdiction. Sohi said Tuesday his government “gave an assurance” to Notley that wouldn’t be the case.

“(Notley’s) other concern was that as long as the cap remains on emissions, in-situ projects should not fall under C-69, and we gave her assurance on that,” Sohi said.

And if the cap is lifted, as Kenney has promised?

“Then in-situ will be part of Bill C-69,” he said.
‘Federal sucker punch’

Whether Kenney knew of the implications for in-situ sites before he promised to lift the emissions cap is unclear.

Christine Myatt, spokeswoman for the premier-designate’s office, wanted to know when NDP and federal Liberals agreed to a deal.

“It’s well known the issues with Bill C-69 go far beyond whether in-situ projects are exempted. According to experts, the legislation makes it unlikely that new pipelines can be built,” Myatt said in an email.

“The incoming UCP government looks forward to a productive discussion with the federal government on these key issues.”

Kenney has made no secret of his dislike of the bill.

During the election campaign he repeatedly vowed to launch a constitutional challenge to Bill C-69, saying it would prevent the building of future pipelines.

“Bill C-69 is a federal sucker punch to an already reeling Alberta economy,” he said.

Edmonton Pride Festival Cancelled After Organizers Call Police on People of Colour

The Edmonton Pride Festival Society cited the “current political and social environment” in the cancellation.

NEWS

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By Hilary Beaumont

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Apr 11 2019, 10:44am

Photo via The Canadian Press

Organizers have cancelled this year’s Edmonton Pride festival, citing the “current political and social environment,” according to an internal email that leaked late Wednesday.

“In light of the current political and social environment, it has been determined that any attempt to host a festival will not be successful,” the email states. It says the board of directors voted to cancel the festival, which was scheduled to start June 7.

The Edmonton Pride Festival Society, which organizes Pride and sent the email, hasn’t explained what that means, and hasn’t answered a request for comment from VICE. But for a group representing Black, Indigenous, people of colour within Edmonton’s LGBTQS+ community, it’s pretty clear.

In response to the leaked email, the Shades of Colour Community released a statement expressing “profound disappointment” in the actions of the Edmonton Pride Festival Society, culminating in their decision to cancel Pride.

“We are calling this decision for what it is: namely, a disavowal of deep systematic problems in the framework of EPFS as well as an attempt to dismiss, target, and put out of play the efforts put on the part of Black, Indigenous, and people of colour in the LGBTQ2S+ to point toward alternatives on how this organization carries out its activities.”

At last year’s Pride parade, BIPOC members of the LGBTQS+ community and their allies briefly stopped the parade to demand that police and the military be uninvited to Pride. After the protest, the groups appeared to be working together to resolve the issues.

Two weeks ago, the Shades of Colour Community and refugee-advocacy group RaricaNow published a list of demands sent to the EPFS. They said the society had already agreed to two of their demands, including removing police and military from Pride, and encouraged people to come to a community meeting on April 4. The demands focused on funding and making space for QTBIPOC at Pride.

The meeting didn’t go so well. According to CBC, four representatives of the groups were invited to speak at the meeting, but when 30 people arrived to show support, they were told they had to be a member of the organization to attend. Clayton Hitchcock, co-chair of the EPFS, told CBC the group entered the meeting without permission, prompting board members to call police on them. In comments on the EPFS Facebook page, people who attended the protest said it was peaceful and they were simply standing in the hallway.

In a Facebook post, EPFS said “due to safety concerns, the meeting was moved to another location.”

The decision to cancel Pride also comes only days after the Pride Centre of Edmonton fired Shay Lewis, a transgender person of colour, without giving a reason. Although the centre hired an Indigenous, transgender, two-spirit person to replace Lewis, critics contend the organization is mostly white, with few BIPOC board members, according to CBC.

“What the pride centre has traditionally said and continues to say is well we have one person here so you don’t get to complain,” Lewis told CTV. “And it’s frustrating because it prevents progress but on top of that it’s frustrating because it just shows that lack of faith.”

“Edmonton Pride Festival Society has repeatedly taken multiple steps backwards in reassessing and resserting its commitments to the community—whatever was called progress last year is but an empty statement when they are willing to put communities into further vulnerable positions time and time again,” the Shades of Colour Community statement reads.

Although the festival is cancelled, several other organizations say they will still hold Pride events.

Canadian Oil Companies Might Be Emitting Way More Than Reported

A new study suggests oil sands carbon emissions could be as much as 64 percent higher.




Photo by Larry MacDougal / The Canadian Press


Companies in Canada’s oil sands could be inadvertently painting a sunnier picture of their greenhouse gas emissions than is actually true, according to a new study that could have major implications for Canada’s Paris Agreement commitments.

The peer-reviewed paper in the journal Nature Communications found these companies could be underreporting their emissions by as much as 64 percent, according to measurements gathered from aircraft flying over the oil sands in August and September, 2013.


“The results indicate that CO2 emission intensities for [oil sands] facilities are 13 to 123 percent larger than those estimated using publicly available data. This leads to 64 percent higher annual GHG emissions from surface mining operations, and 30 percent higher overall [oil sands] GHG emissions (17 megatons) compared to that reported by the industry,” the study says.


It’s not that companies are lying about their emissions, the paper says; it’s that the methodology they’re using could be giving inaccurate results. And the authors say the findings indicate that other industrial sources of GHGs could also be reporting inaccurate numbers.

The global energy industry alone makes up about 35 percent of human-caused emissions, and most of that is the upstream oil and gas sector, the paper states. The large contribution of the industry “underscores the need” for accurate reporting, the authors say.

The findings are a big deal because, as the authors point out, the Paris Agreement that Canada signed onto sets out a goal of limiting the increase in global temperature to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Figuring out where we can make those cuts relies on accurate emissions estimates and reporting. And under the Paris Agreement, Canada has to submit emissions data every year. The study suggests that data from the oil and gas industry “may be more uncertain than previously considered”—meaning the data we’re submitting could be inaccurate.


This is especially worrying for Canada, which a government study published April 1 found is warming at more than double the global rate. Much of that warming is locked-in, meaning we can’t stop it.


Already, the government study found, Canada’s glaciers and sea ice are thinning quickly, permafrost temperatures are increasing, there is a higher risk of water shortages in summer, and the number of heat waves is climbing along with risk of drought and fire weather. Flooding in cities is increasing, and sea level rise is threatening the east coast.


Under an ambitious scenario in which we rapidly decrease our emissions, Canada could cap its emissions to 2 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial rates, the government study said. But if we continue with business as usual, Canada’s temperature would warm by 6 degrees Celsius.