Plawiuk for Premier

As I announced on Facebook this morning
Eugene Plawiuk announced today that he is throwing his hat into the ring for leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative party...."I am the only progressive in the race" he said, "the rest are Conservatives" His hat did not comment....

Perks

One of the perks of being a one party state is that you can give yourself pay raises without fear of opposition in the legislature.

EDMONTON — One of the wealthiest provinces in Canada has dramatically boosted the pay packets of its premier and cabinet ministers.

The Alberta government has approved a pay hike, which will see each of the province's 23 cabinet ministers get a pay hike worth about $42,000, bringing their annual compensation to around $184,000 per year.

Premier Ed Stelmach will become among the nation's best paid premiers after approval of a 34 per cent pay hike.

That brings his total compensation package to over $213,000 per year.

Stelmach is defending the hefty hikes, saying they're needed to help recruit more people into politics.

Scott Hennig, a spokesman for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, is critical of the move, saying it's not fair that the premier and cabinet were able to get such big pay raises without first putting the matter before the legislature. (CTV)

Oh that's rich Scott the legislature is dominated by the PC's. And they very rarely meet. In fact this pay increase goes to the politicians that work the least in Canada since Alberta has the shortest legislative sittings of any government in Canada. And in fact like most things done by the Alberta Government, (tm)(c) of the PC Association of Alberta, this increase was passed by Cabinet fiat.The issue never will come up in the legislature. That would mean it would be subject to public debate.

When Alberta’s freshly re-elected premier Ed Stelmach decided to hand his caucus a massive pay increase this week, he avoided such complications: there was no panel, no polling. Just a quiet notice buried in the daily compendium of passed Orders in Council, of something called the “MLA Remuneration Order.” In actuality, it was an eye-popping 30% pay raise for cabinet ministers, who now will make $184,000 a year, instead of $142,000 — more than federal MPs and most provincial premiers. Premier Stelmach gets an even bigger boost to the paycheque: He’ll now make $213,450 a year, up from $159,450. Mr. Stelmach now makes more than his Ontario counterpart, Dalton McGuinty, who manages a province nearly four times as large, making Alberta’s CEO the highest paid premier in the land (Quebec’s premier makes $194,900 and everywhere else the rate is $165,000 or lower). Not bad for a government that famously chooses to sit in the legislature for less than five months out of the year. MLAs will also get bonuses for attending committee and cabinet meetings, which had previously been considered part of their full-time job.

Ok folks the Premier has set the rate for collective bargaining increases in Alberta for this year. After all he claims his 34% increase is needed for purposes of attraction and retention, a current problem faced by all employers in the province.

Then Stelmach tried to explain the inexplicable.

"If we are going to attract younger people for government we've got to pay them appropriately," the premier said. "I remain committed," he said without much conviction.

And the Alberta Weekly Average Wage increase was 4.53% as announced by the Government in April. Ed gets a whopping 30% increase over that. Far greater than the incease most Albertans got this year. And a salary increase that is larger than the annual Canadian salary.

Albertans have every right to be furious at Premier Ed Stelmach and his 23 cabinet ministers for topping up their salaries by 30 to 34 per cent.

That's an extra $41,950 to $54,000 a year for work that's always been included in their base salary -- attending meetings for cabinet, Treasury Board and policy committees.

Not a bad promotion, considering the average weekly earnings in Canada last year were just $751, or $39,052 per year.

And certainly larger than any minimum wage increase in Alberta.

In June 2007, government announced minimum wage increases would be adjusted based on the average weekly wage and come into effect April 1. If Alberta's average weekly wage increases from one year to the next, the minimum wage will increase by the same percentage.

And its not like they don't get raises, the Government members get an annual increase based on this same index, so its not like they weren't going to get a raise anyways.

Edmonton Journal

Published: Monday, April 03 2006

Members of the Alberta legislature received pay raises of 5.23 per cent effective Saturday, an increase more than twice the rate of inflation.

That brings their yearly salary to $71,244, up from $67,698 last year.

Salary levels for Alberta MLAs are set every April 1 based on the annual increase in average weekly earnings in the province as calculated by Statistics Canada.

Meanwhile former Tory Energy Minister Greg Melchin gets to become a paid lobbyist to the government that used to employ him. This is the same guy who screwed Albertans out of our fair share of royalties from his pals in Big Oil. This is the ultimate kick back for his doing his masters bidding.

Word of the cabinet pay hike broke the same day we learned former energy minister Greg Melchin was hired on to the board of a Calgary oil company -- just three months after leaving politics.

Turns out Melchin is exempt from the government's six-month cooling-off period because he hadn't been energy minister since 2006. (He's also not bound by the new 12-month cooling-off period because he left politics before April 1.) He was most recently minister of seniors. So, there's no problem with him taking the oil company job, says the province's ethic's commissioner.

Rules are made to be broken or gotten around, or well you see how it works. It's all very transparent and above board. The rules don't apply to clever Tory Cabinet Ministers never have, never will. After all those who write the rules know how to get around them, they wrote them.

The Democratic Deficit continues in Alberta, it is the Alberta Advantage for the Tired Old Tories.


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His Majesty Requests

His Majesty the RH Stevie Harper the First requests the presence of Canada's First Ministers,at 24 Sussex, two years after getting elected and with no consideration for the Premiers own First Ministers Conference.

Harper has summoned Canada’s premiers and territorial leaders to his official residence at 24 Sussex Drive Friday night. Harper’s office said the meeting is part of the ongoing discussions that the prime minister maintains with first ministers.

Right ongoing discussions...uh huh... what by email and phone, certainly there has been no FORMAL meeting between the PM and the Premiers since his election in 2006. Despite their demands for one. So much for Harpers much touted new, open, accountable, federalism.

Premiers left out in the cold

The Gazette

Published: 12 hours ago

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has made it his policy to have as little as possible to do with reporters, seems to have taken the same position about the premiers.

His office announced last week that Harper will meet the provincial and territorial leaders over dinner at 24 Sussex Drive this Friday night. It's easy to imagine Harper starting to yawn and stretch just as the dessert dishes are cleared, saying "well, guys, it's been a long week ..."

The premiers, and especially Ontario's Dalton McGuinty and our own Jean Charest, have been asking for months for a meeting with Harper.

In recent decades, first ministers' meetings became frequent and an accepted part of Canadian governance, almost a separate level of government.

But the newly-elected Harper had one such a meeting in February 2006, also on a Friday night, and hasn't convened the group since.

It's almost as if he considered the premiers to be a bunch of poor relations who have nothing to offer except begging and grumbling.

And he is only calling the meeting now because of the perceived downturn in the Canadian economy. Daddy is going to tell the kids that it's belt tightening time again. Since the Harper believes in reducing federal interference in provincial affairs, the coming recession will have to be shouldered by the provinces on their own. Watch for it.

It was never clear how much a first ministers meeting on the slowing economy could accomplish. But the Prime Minister has gone out of his way to diminish the prospect of results at this Friday's gathering, and has ensured minimal coverage of the event with his offbeat scheduling. In a two-page letter written to the premiers and obtained by The Globe and Mail, Stephen Harper outlines plans for a four-hour discussion on Jan. 11 at his Ottawa residence, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

But what Harper and David Dodge believe is a coming crisis for the loonie and the Canadian economy due to the American recession may not be the economic reality. After all as G.B.Shaw once said; "If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion. "

Loonie's rise may continue in '08, say experts

Even a 12-per-cent depreciation in the U.S. dollar, if it were sudden and disorderly, would hurt Canadian exporters directly, who would be paid in a deeply depreciated currency for many of their products, which are priced in U.S. dollars, and it would hit Canada's economy indirectly through a serious contraction in the U.S. economy, Canada's primary export market.

It would take a concerted effort by the world's major central banks to deal with such a crisis, Iacobacci says.

The problem is that they don't appear to have a strategy for dealing with such a crisis, he adds.

"You need to prepare in advance," he says, suggesting the central banks need to determine in advance what amount of support for the currency would be needed in and how it would be delivered.

But even if a run on the U.S. dollar is not be in the cards, a further appreciation in the Canadian dollar may be.

"I'm back to being quite bullish on the Canadian dollar," says Dennis Gartman, U.S. author of the influential financial newsletter that bears his name and is read by traders around the world.

Gartman, who two years ago predicted the loonie would reach parity with the U.S. greenback, says the Canadian dollar is poised to rise even further, but on its own merits, and not because of a run on the greenback, which he suspects is already oversold on world exchange markets.

"It's time once again to say the major trend is in favour of the Canadian dollar to rise, and not just relative to the U.S. dollar, but to rise even more relative to the euro," he says.

In fact he expects the loonie will be one of the strongest performing currencies this year.

"Has anything changed fundamentally that was driving the Canadian dollar higher relative to the euro and the U.S. dollar? The answer is no," he says. "Canada has the things that the rest of the world needs."

"You've got wheat, you've got canola, you've got base metals, precious metals, and most importantly you've got energy," he notes, adding Canada also has water, suggesting that over time that will become an increasingly precious commodity.

While Gartman won't make a prediction on how high the loonie will go, he "bet it makes a new high relative to the U.S. dollar ... ."

"I think we'll see Canada versus U.S. dollars higher than the best levels that were seen in November," he says, indicating it will at least top the $1.10 US, breached in 2007, and set a record high against the euro as well.

However, he also expects the Canadian currency will eventually retreat back to parity against the greenback.

There are others who predict the loonie's retreat will come sooner and go further.

The federal export promotion agency, in its latest forecast says: "We expect to see it below 90 cents US by the end of 2008. "

The reason is that a global economic slowdown will ease demand for Canadian export commodities and in turn reduce the speculation, that drove the loonie to new highs in 2007, it says.

SEE:

Loonie Beats Dollar Benefits Who

Loonie Flashback

If It Ain't Broke

Harper The Autocrat

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Alberta KGB

I await the outrage of the Blogging Tories and their right wing ilk, that claim the mantle of the anti-Stalinist right wing.

Those folks who remind us of the horrors of Marxism by referring to the Stalinist USSR as an example of police state socialism.

The example they gave was always about how the State would spy on its citizens.

Suddenly they are sure quiet when the shoe is on the other foot when it applies to their bastion of conservatism in North America; the One Party State of Alberta.

Utility regulator breaches privacy with spies at public hearings

Utilities Board wrong to use private dicks: privacy commissioner

The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has determined that the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) contravened the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP) when it hired private investigators to monitor proceedings at Rimbey, Alberta.

The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board hired a private investigation company to monitor a public hearing about the North West Upgrader project in May, documents obtained by the CBC show.

This is the second time the board hired the firm of Shepp Johnman to attend one of its public hearings.

The board is already being investigated by the government for hiring Shepp Johnman to monitor landowners at a hearing in Rimbey who were opposed to a proposed powerline between Calgary and Edmonton.

Ironic that the virtuous right wing anti-statists never seem to protest such obvious statism when it is their government in power. Why should they now that they are in power they can abandon their principles as so much shaft in the wind,

EUB Offers No Apologies After Damning Privacy Report

This state sanctioned corporate monopoly applies its own jurisdictional law against the public interest and against small producers. It should be abolished.

Tiny Bearspaw Petroleum alleges persecution from Alta regulator

CALGARY (CP) _ Tiny Bearspaw Petroleum Ltd. says Alberta‘s energy regulator takes a “hypocritical approach‘‘ when it comes to enforcing safety rules. The company lined up against the Alberta Energy and Utilities board today in a third-party inquiry into allegations that the natural gas producer has been unfairly persecuted. Jirka Kaplan, an engineer with Bearspaw, told the inquiry that Leo Touchette, the board‘s Red Deer office team leader, had an “intense dislike‘‘ of the small Calgary-based company and did what it could to find things wrong with its operations. Bearspaw alleges that on one occasion, the regulator gave it a high-risk compliance citation and a potential explosion risk for one missing nut on the cover of a piece of well equipment. Kaplan says he hired an independent company to check out the regulator‘s safety concerns and no potential problems were found. Bearspaw has appealed some of the board‘s actions and challenged the legality of some of its processes. The inquiry, which was initiated by the regulator, is scheduled to run until Thursday, and chairman Bob Clark says he will try to expedite a ruling.

Still waiting to hear the outrage of the neo-con right....waiting....not even a peep out of those who would proclaim themselves libertarian....the silence is deafening.

Opposition politicians called Thursday for firings at Alberta‘s energy and utilities regulator after a report found serious privacy breaches by detectives hired to spy on people opposed to a new power corridor. But Premier Ed Stelmach said he wants to see more evidence about the decision of the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board to use private detectives at two hearings since last spring.

“It‘s to ensure that all Albertans have full confidence in the AEUB,‘‘ said Stelmach. “It is an important instrument for Albertans in terms of finding the balance between the production and the development of our resources.‘‘

Alberta's energy regulator says it will give opponents of a proposed new Edmonton-Calgary power line enough time to exhaust all appeals before granting any permits for the project.

Landowners who oppose the massive new transmission line were in Alberta Court of Appeal yesterday trying to get a stay on the Energy and Utility Board's decision on whether the project can proceed.

But board lawyer Rick McKee told the hearing that a stay was not needed as the regulator would give landowners enough time to appeal any decision before construction starts.

The board says a decision on the proposal by AltaLink, Alberta's largest transmission company, might not come until at least November.

Joe Anglin, a spokesman for one of the landowner groups, says he fully expects the board to rule in favour of the new power line but his group wants to make sure its voice is heard before some towers are built and their opposition becomes mute.

The power line is also the subject of various provincial inquiries and legal actions over allegations that the Alberta regulator hired private investigators to spy on opponents of the project.

Waiting, waiting.


SEE:

Transparency Alberta Style

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Stelmach's Rats Desert

Alberta is the only rat free province in Canada. And we intend to keep it that way, thanks to the unelected and unpopular Eddie Stelmach.

The rats are deserting the sinking ship of state.

Clint Dunford Decides to Pack it In

Red Deer's Victor Doerksen Packs it In!

The only rat-free zones in the world are the Arctic, the Antarctic, some especially isolated islands, the province of Alberta in Canada, and certain conservation areas in New Zealand.

Alberta is unusual in that rat infestation was prevented by deliberate government action.

Although it is a major agricultural area and has a fairly high human population density, it is far from any seaport and only a portion of its eastern boundary with Saskatchewan provides a favorable entry route for rats. They cannot survive in the boreal forest to the north, the Rocky Mountains to the west, nor the semi-arid High Plains of Montana to the south.

The first rat did not reach Alberta until 1950, and in 1951 the province launched an extremely aggressive rat-control program that included shooting and poisoning rats, and bulldozing, burning down, and blowing up rat-infested buildings. In the first year of the program 64 tonnes of arsenic trioxide was spread in 8,000 buildings (8 kg/building) on 2,700 farms along the Saskatchewan border. Fortunately, in 1953 the much less toxic and more effective poison Warfarin was introduced, and since then the control program has consumed between 5 and 13 tonnes of Warfarin annually.

By 1960 the number of rat infestations in Alberta had dropped below 200 per year and has remained low ever since Any wild rat population is eliminated by the government Rat Patrol immediately after it is detected. The effort is aided by hundreds of pest control officers and thousands of local citizens, who will not tolerate the introduction of rats.

The laws regarding rats are draconian and firmly enforced. Only zoos, universities, and research institutes are allowed to own caged rats, and possession of an unlicensed rat (including pet rats) is punishable by a $5,000 fine or 60 days in jail. The adjacent and similarly landlocked province of Saskatchewan initiated a rat control program in 1963, and has managed to reduce the number of rats in the province substantially.

We are also facing the extinction of Ord's Kangaroo Rat, but it is not a rat, nor a kangaroo, nor is it a Tory.

But like other Albertans it too is suffering at the hands of the Tories and their Big Oil Pals.

Kangaroo rats feared hopping toward oblivion

The kangaroo rats of southern Saskatchewan and Alberta are disappearing along with the sand dunes they call home, researcher Darren Bender says.

The Ord's kangaroo rat, as the furry rodent is more formally known, most resembles a gerbil, but with larger hind legs and a longer tail. It hops around like a tiny kangaroo.

With fewer than 1,000 kangaroo rats left, it is a prime candidate for the country's endangered species list, said Bender, a biologist with the University of Calgary.

The sand dunes the animal needs to live are threatened by human development, such as resource exploration, as well as natural erosion, he told CBC News Wednesday.

Ord's Kangaroo Rat

Recovery Team Update (94.0K, PDF format)
Alberta Ord's Kangaroo Rat Recovery Plan 2005 (447 KB PDF format)

Like the poor Kangaroo Rat, Stelmach's Tories have become an endangered species.

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Strom More Popular Than Stelmach

Here is another nail in Eddie Stelmach's coffin.

He is less popular than Harry Strom.

Stelmach polled at 32% in a new poll released Tuesday, likely the lowest ever for a Conservative leader in Alberta.

Even Harry Strom, Alberta’s last Social Credit premier, polled at 43%.

Strom led the Alberta Socreds in their swan dive as the lame duck Premier who would be defeated by Peter Lougheed's PC's.

The PC's had only seven seats, and the NDP had one, when they defeated the eternal party of Alberta.

Strom became Premier and Social Credit leader in 1968, succeeding Manning who had just led the Socreds to their ninth consecutive term majority government in 1967. However, this election proved ominous for the party. Despite winning 55 of the 65 seats in the legislature, it won less than 45% of the popular vote. It previously won with more than half the popular vote. More importantly, the once-moribund Progressive Conservatives, led by young lawyer Peter Lougheed, won seven seats, mostly in Calgary and Edmonton.

Today the Opposition Liberals have sixteen seats, the NDP have four and the right wing Alberta Alliance has one.

Whenever Stelmach calls the election, winter or spring, it will not be an anointment of a new King for Alberta. It will be a defeat for the Tired Old Tories, not the ultimate defeat, but like the one that Strom faced from the upstart Lougheed, it will be the penultimate defeat. A loss of seats and support. Which will then lead to a final defeat in the following election.

It is not how the opposition parties look now that will determine who comes out the winner, but how they are poised after the next election.



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Rural Boots

Here is why Farmer Ed our unelected Premier is falling behind in support from his rural roots.

Albertans protest approval of seismic testing in Marie Lake

He can blame his competitor for the Premier, Ted Morton, for some of this.

Sustainable Resource Development Minister Ted Morton is right about one thing. The province has to reform the way it sells oil and gas leases if it wants to avoid more battles like the one over proposed oil extraction on Marie Lake.

Currently, the energy department sells a lease with no regard for environmental issues or community concerns. In fact, the department doesn't even have to notify landowners that a lease has been sold in their area.

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Stelmach Falls Can't Get Up

In a downward spiral goes the Man Who Would Be Premier.Unelected and unloved is our Eddie. And he lives up to his nickname of Steady. As in de-Klein, err decline. He goes from the Man Who Would Be King to the Man Who Is Strom.

Support for Stelmach drops, poll finds

KATHERINE HARDING

August 22, 2007

Edmonton -- A new poll suggests support for Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach's Progressive Conservative government has dropped significantly in August to 32 per cent from 54 per cent in January.

The Cameron Strategy poll provided to The Globe and Mail also shows during that same time period the number of undecided or unsure voters has risen to 36 per cent from 18 per cent.

Mr. Stelmach became Premier last December after Ralph Klein retired. A provincial election is expected as early as next spring.

The telephone survey of 602 people was conducted between Aug. 7 to 13, and has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points 19 times out of 20.

And if that wasn't bad enough.

Ex-Tory slams Tories

The former president of the Alberta young Tories has a message for the Stelmach government heading into the next election: wake up and smell the disenchantment.

David McColl resigned as president of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Youth Association earlier this year, saying the party isn't progressive enough.

Now, with the prospect of a winter or early spring election, McColl says the Conservatives - and politicians across Canada, for that matter - must change their ways: politics must focus on social action, not on the cult of personality or pursuit of power.

Otherwise, it will face increasingly hostile public receptions.

McColl points to the PCs' own annual general meeting a few months ago, at which its members from across Alberta asked for a provincial commitment to set national environmental protection standards and to put future surpluses into savings for the days when oil can no longer sustain the economy. Both ideas were rejected.

It is possible, McColl said, to be fiscally conservative but still recognize the legitimacy of social progress; in fact, he said, the public already verges towards a consensus middle-ground on many issues that politicians don't seem to even realize exists.

"Peter Lougheed gets this and is spot on: we're supposed to be the wealthiest province but we won't be forever the way we're doing things. "

There are long-term issues that have to be resolved in Alberta, and the party isn't listening and it isn't questioning. Instead, it's just more smoke and mirrors."

Ouch.



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Transparency Alberta Style

It has not been a good week for Alberta CEO Ed Stelmach, his regime has failed to be transparent as promised. Just another week of scandal for the tired old Tories.

NDP say Alberta Energy and Utilities Board aware of spying on power line opponents

EUB coverup shocking

Fire AEUB directors, Mason urges

And it just gets better. The party of rural Alberta screws rural Albertans. And the guy doing the screwing is non other than the California Born, Republican wannabe,and Herr professor of the Calgary School; Ted Morton. A guy who ran for the Premiers job appealing to the social conservative rural base of the Tory party.

Like Marie Lake, everything is for sale in this oil-rich province

NIMBY bites Premier Stelmach

Time to review industrial development, Tory MLA says

Alberta’s sustainable resources minister can’t guarantee seismic testing won’t hurt pristine Marie Lake and says he won’t release other seismic studies supporting the decision to allow the tests.

Still, he conceded, damage is possible. “Sure, it’s a question of risk management. But as I said this has been done on six other lakes with no evidence of adverse effects.”

Morton said the government has the legal right to reject seismic testing applications, but to shut off the exploratory process that early wouldn’t be fair to the company and wouldn’t make sense. His department noted that 34 other lakes have been tested in a similar manner in the last five years, and would not provide details of what took place in the other 28 cases.

The public has no reason to trust the government if it won’t even release the studies that support its decision, said Marie Lake resident Hal Bekolay.

“I can’t use the language I want to use to describe this,” he said. “But what it shows me is their complete lack of caring. It’s unbelievable that people we’ve elected choose to do this to us.” Now local residents want their MLA, Tory Denis Ducharme, to back up his earlier complaint about the testing by crossing the floor and sitting with another party or as an independent, said Bekolay.

Anywhere else in Canada and this would cry out for a comment from Democracy Watch. But in Alberta it's business as usual.

NDP condemns Suncor exec's gov't job

NDP question Suncor executive's appointment

Alberta defends decision to appoint Suncor executive as assistant deputy minister

EDMONTON (CP) _ The Alberta government is defending its decision to appoint a Suncor Energy executive as assistant deputy minister of its oilsands sustainable development secretariat.

Bart Johnson, a spokesman for the Treasury Board, says the government has set up safeguards against any conflict of interest.

Johnson says Heather Kennedy can‘t buy or sell any Suncor shares during her two-year appointment and must excuse herself from any decisions pertaining to Suncor.

He said Suncor will continue paying Kennedy during her two years with the government, but the province will reimburse the oilsands company.

NDP Leader Brian Mason has suggested Kennedy‘s appointment shows just how far the Progressive Conservatives have crawled into the pockets of big oil.

The oilsands secretariat reports to the Treasury Board.

And while we weep for the lack of democracy in the Banana Republic of Alberta, one of the last One Party States in the world, it just keeps getting worse....

Oil royalties going down?

Report Says Alberta Losing Oil Money

Alberta's oil royalties could drop: report

Not only do we sell off our resources at fire sale prices, Albertans could be taken to the cleaners by both Big Oil and the Federal Government while our tin pot Tory tyranny twiddles its thumbs.

In his study for Alberta Energy, Calgary-based consultant Pedro van Meurs said the proposal – which would allow companies to calculate royalty payments on a choice of either the finished synthetic crude product or the tar-sands bitumen from which it is extracted – could lead to two significantly different outcomes.

The companies being offered the new plans, Suncor and Syncrude, have until this year to decide which to opt into.

If the companies opt for royalties based on synthetic crude, Alberta’s royalty rates will be 8% higher than if it opts for a rate based on unprocessed bitumen, says Van Meurs.

If Alberta allows them to choose the latter, recent changes to federal tax laws mean the federal take will increase while Alberta’s take decreases, he indicates.

“It is very obvious that Alberta is faced with a very high level of royalty reduction, when under the Suncor and Syncrude terms companies opt for a switch to bitumen values from SCO values,” he notes.

He said the switch “will result in a drop of about 8% in the overall government take. However, that drop is only experienced by Alberta, the federal share actually goes up, since royalties are now deductible for tax purposes.

While Stelmach's blustered and fumed over the forces of Kyoto at the Premiers meeting last week, the reality is that under Klein, and now Stelmach, Alberta's oil resources are being sold off on a future promise. In reality the royalty regime in the province benefits big oil and everyone but Albertans.

There is no nasty Federal NEP that can be blamed for this, just tired old AlbertaTories, in the pockets of big oil.

It not been a good week for Stelmach who should have been basking in the glory of his victory over the discombobulated gaggle of Premiers who could not save the planet due to their limited provincial narcissism.

Stelmach is rumored to be considering a fall election, while realistically it probably won't be held in the winter but next spring.

Of course considering how badly he has botched his first six months in office an election sooner rather than later might be the only thing that will save his regime. For a short time. But like the former One Party that was in Power for 35 years, this one is bound to go. It's the law of entropy as well as history.



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Alberta Deja Vu

The tired old Tories in Alberta can only repeat one message and one message only since 1995 and that is restraint. Prepare to tighten your belts.

Having created the chimera of a mythical debt and deficit dragon that they so boldly slayed they now have nothing else to plan for. And so having failed to plan for the past decade they once again return to the tried and true.

I am having a Deja Vu flashback.

Alberta's education minister is warning the province's school boards not to expect large funding increases in the future.

Ron Liepert told a meeting of Alberta school board trustees in Edmonton Monday morning that the government needs to rein-in spending because Alberta's booming economic growth may start to slow down.

"I believe we have a potential revenue wall coming at us and it's not nearly as far out as some people think it is."

Alberta's Progressive Conservative government has decided to pump up the volume on this message, with Oberg appearing Tuesday on a radio talk show and Education Minister Ron Liepert telling a meeting of school board officials Monday that they should curb their funding expectations. Liepert says it's time for Albertans to face up to this reality as drilling is down 50 per cent from last year and corporate tax revenues are also expected to decline.

Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier keeps saying nasty things about the provincial government.

He's saying the Tories broke their word about stable funding for the future of this city which, in case nobody noticed, is the economic engine that makes the province run. Also, in case nobody noticed, it has started to come apart at the seams because of the boom that our provincial government, in its wisdom, apparently didn't see coming, and did not have a plan to deal with even after being roused from slumber.

Premier Ed, sounding somewhat steadier this day, responds to the cage-rattling of Ron Liepert, his tough-talking supremo of schools, who tells school boards Albertans shouldn't expect big dough from the province.

Ron warns the public coffers could lose a billion or more from the rising loonie. Oh my. A "potential revenue wall" is "coming at us." Ouch.

Big surpluses are done. Double ouch.

If the province doesn't hold tight to the purse strings we could one day end up in a deja vu disaster, like the early days of Ralph and his axe-swinging Ralpholution with all the cuts, to say nothing of all the nights of drinking to forget. Double vision ouch.

Seriously, Ron's Apocalypse Soon is hard to swallow.

A survey shows growing numbers of Calgarians already feel the quality of life is tanking and aren't hopeful of better things to come in the next five years.

The gong show of too many people and too little of everything is beyond rage. It is eroding psyches.

Despite this year's cash for construction from the province, including big bucks just to cover costs going through the roof because they are playing catchup at the height of the boom, there is still a huge backlog in building the province could have started on earlier by spending some windfall bucks of years past.

Alas, they didn't.

No, now is not the time to chatter about a scarcity of cash. People are not in the mood for a lecture on austerity, especially those of us who went through the '90s, paid the price, bought all the bull about sacrifice and are still waiting for the victory parade. Unfortunately, one reason you couldn't hold a parade is the streets are too clogged.

Of course, if the province wanted to give us a break and did think they'd run out of coin, Big Oil in the oilsands could pay more than a penny on the dollar in royalties.

Of course Ron could be just waving the red flag of lower expectations and budget doom and gloom to avoid paying the governments share of the Teachers Pension fund.

The task force will review options to address the teachers' portion of a pre-1992 unfunded pension liability. Since it started in the 1930s, the teachers' pension fund has been underfunded by both the government and the ATA. The liability currently totals $6.4 billion. Under a deal struck in 1992, the provincial government is responsible for two-thirds and teachers for the rest.

And while he cries the sky is falling the reality is; Centuries of oil left in Alberta



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