A Broken Government
It is a government running on empty.
That's sadly ironic given that Alberta's Progressive Conservatives are perched on a wealth of energy resources.
A once-great party of the people, the PCs have been undone by their leaders’ rigid, authoritarian ways and their rank incompetence in managing the province’s business.
The government has lurched from one policy disaster to another.
Consider the PC government’s forlorn hallmarks since its most recent election victory three years ago…
February 2011
The people of Alberta could endure a lame duck provincial government for two full years, due to the PC party leadership’s intention to extend the internal contest to determine a new party leader and premier until the autumn. Party president Bill Smith says the new, unelected premier will not have to call an election until 2013.
January 2011
Embattled Premier Ed Stelmach announces he will not run in the next election, which had been expected in a year’s time. But Stelmach says he’ll stay on until September, triggering a long and costly leadership contest among his cabinet ministers. Two top minister soon resign in hopes of becoming Alberta’s 14th premier by way of a members-only vote within the PC party.
January 2011
Figures show that in real terms, Premier Ed Stelmach is Canada’s highest-paid provincial leader. Meanwhile, Alberta has the second lowest minimum wage in the country. It is one of three Canadian provinces that lacks a poverty reduction program.
December 2010
The Stelmach government is blamed by federal and independent reviews for contributing to public distrust of Alberta’s oil sands through improper monitoring and a failure to keep pace with development.
December 2010
Premier Ed Stelmach warns of deeper cuts to public services as the province’s deficit rises to $5 billion. Stelmach admits that his government cannot keep its promise to balance the budget by 2013.
November 2010
Top emergency doctors accuse Premier Stelmach and his ministers of ignoring warnings of a “worsening disaster” in Alberta’s emergency wards. Coincidentally, the boss of Alberta Health Services is fired after shrugging off reporters’ questions about the crisis by saying that he’s too busy “eating my cookie”.
November 2010
Stelmach’s PC caucus expels Raj Sherman, a Tory MLA, emergency doctor and legislative assistant to the Health Minister. His sin: speaking out against government inaction over the crisis in Alberta’s Health Services. Sherman later alleges that Stelmach and others have threatened his medical license through a “whispering campaign” of smears, including at least one phone call to the physicians’ licensing authority questioning Sherman’s state of mind.
September 2010
After a three-year slump caused by the Stelmach government’s ill-fated royalty hikes announced in October of 2007, Alberta’s oil and gas industry finally returns with record land acquisitions. But Stelmach’s delayed, seven-stage reversal causes a flight of capital, jobs and equipment to neighbouring provinces, which deepens the government’s revenue woes.
September 2010
The government plays catch-up as a University of Alberta study finds high levels of toxins near oil sands sites in the northeast of the province. Stelmach promises: “We’ll have the scientists sit down and compare the data. Some of the measurements, I couldn’t explain to you, but let it be discussed scientist to scientist.”
September 2010
Flood victims in southern Alberta slam the Stelmach Government for taking too long to send out relief payments to cover damages caused by heavy rains earlier in the summer. Meantime ballooning administration costs of $30 million on the $200 million program cause outrage in hard-hit communities.
August 2010
Premier Stelmach is a no-show at a public forum in Vegreville, which he represents in the Alberta legislature, over concerns about the proposed route for a high-voltage above ground power line. Stelmach claims he’s not ducking the public: he’s merely concerned about a possible conflict of interest since one of the possible routes would cut through his own land.
August 2010
Angry flood victims from the Medicine Hat area deluge the government with complaints over its sluggish response to their damage claims from rain-related flooding in June. More than 100 claimants confront Municipal Affairs Minister Hector Goudreau at a public meeting, asking why relief is still nowhere in sight despite Premier Stelmach’s apology for the delay more than a month earlier.
July 2010
Premier Stelmach apologizes to flood-stricken communities in southeast Alberta for his government’s late response to relief claims. Farmers, however, continue to wait for word on damage payments for their losses.
June 2010
Spending watchdogs say the Stelmach government is lavishing top officials and ministers with excessively expensive cars and SUVs, despite the recession and the government’s swelling deficit. Top appointees are offered $43,500 towards a vehicle, with many choosing Audis, Acuras or other high-end brands. Ministers receive up to $45,000, with Justice Minister Alison Redford enjoying an Audi A4 Avant 2.0T, while controversial Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett goes for an Infiniti EX35 Crossover.
June 2010
Stelmach’s Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett backpedals after Alberta’s film and television professionals denounce his denigration of their work. Blackett told a panel at the Banff World TV Festival: “Why do I produce so much shit? Why do I fund so much crap?” In condemning his remarks, Canadian producers and artists note that the Stelmach government’s under-funding and ignorance of the industry has made Alberta the least film-friendly jurisdiction in North America.
May 2010
The government’s U-turn on its ill-fated energy royalty review is complemented by another costly incentive program to spur exploration and development. Stelmach and his ministers claim the $1.5 billion cut into future royalties is not a giveaway, in hopes that lost revenues will be offset by new income in land sales. The premier avoids explaining why the royalty scheme wasn’t refined before its “unintended consequences” grew to unsustainable proportions.
April 2010
Despite sagging public popularity, the Progressive Conservatives’ fundraising remains strong, thanks to the party faithful, particularly its extensive network of patronage recipients and appointees. Figures show the PC party raised more money in the previous year than its three opposition rivals combined, upwards of $2.8 million.
March 2010
Heads are scratched in the Alberta Legislature as Premier Stelmach paints a misleading picture of oils sands emissions. "Al Gore and Greenpeace certainly won't lead their stories with respect to the carbon dioxide emissions, the reduction from the oilsands, have come down 38 per cent since 1990.” In truth total CO2 emissions have gone up dramatically and continue to rise. It’s the intensity of emissions, or carbon dioxide per-barrel produced, that has decreased by 30%.
March 2010
A Progressive Conservative constituency association writes to Premier Stelmach, stating that the PC party is “nearing the precipice of moral insolvency to govern.” The letter charges that the Tory party “is bereft of policy, planning, execution, follow-through and communication to the members of the party, and, most importantly, to the citizens of Alberta."
March 2010
Students and public servants march on the Alberta Legislature to protest the government’s budget cuts. The PC’s are accused of fighting the recession on the backs of provincial employees, students and families in need.
March 2010
A national study finds that Alberta’s health system lags behind other provinces, meeting only two of five benchmarks regarding patients receiving required treatments and procedures. Government spokesmen admit that Alberta must “dramatically improve” wait times for elective surgeries.
March 2010
Premier Stelmach refuses to apologize for his two-year delay in addressing the “unintended consequences” of his oil and gas royalty review. Instead he claims the rollback is a response to market disruptions beyond his control. He omits mention of evidence placed before him prior to the 2008 election, which clearly indicated his policy would seriously damage the province’s revenue streams.
March 2010
The government enacts a final revision of Premier Ed Stelmach’s energy royalties scheme, flip-flopping back to rates in effect before the regime went into effect 15 months earlier. But oil and gas experts say the industry is so depressed it could be years before the impact of the premier’s U-turn is clear. In the year previous, an average of only one in four available drilling rigs was operating at any one time in Alberta, the worst utilization rate in memory.
February 2010
Researchers at the University of Calgary report that the government’s oil and gas policies place Alberta last in terms of competitiveness among six major producing jurisdictions in North America. Premier Stelmach’s royalty scheme, they say, places a drag on energy investment twice as high as other sectors of the province’s economy.
February 2010
Bowing to public anger, Stelmach announces an independent review of the huge salary increases he and his cabinet ministers awarded themselves immediately after the March 3, 2008 election. Critics deride a subsequent 6% reduction for the premier and 3% cut for ministers as too little, too late.
January 2010
Wait times continue to worsen in the busiest emergency wards, according to the Health Quality Council of Alberta. Some 42% of patients waited more than two hours to see a doctor, compared to 38% in 2007. Other measures, too, reveal steady deterioration in services, despite the government’s promises to improve health care.
December 2009
The government scrambles to reverse a plan by its Health Services board to save $70,000 a year by cutting free toiletries for mentally ill patients. Blistering criticism had been directed at the cuts, which were widely seen as a trivial and insensitive way to address to the health department’s staggering $1.2 billion deficit.
December 2009
Pollsters find Ed Stelmach to be Canada’s least popular provincial premier, with only one in seven Albertans approving his leadership. Angus Reid charts the decline in Stelmach’s approval rating from 43% in February of 2009 to 14% by November.
December 2009
Alberta Health Services is forced to borrow $220 million from the Royal Bank of Canada as its deficit is set to reach $1.24 billion in 2010. AHS scrambles for further savings, leaving posts vacant and encouraging early retirement by health professionals, despite increased demand for services by Alberta’s aging population.
December 2009
Recession fears aggravated by perceptions of poor government leave one in three Albertans experiencing employment anxiety, the highest level in Canada. The Royal Bank’s Consumer Outlook finds 36% of Albertans worried about job security, significantly above the national average of 27%.
November 2009
As Alberta’s deficit projection rises to $4.3 billion, and Premier Stelmach warns of $2 billion in government spending cuts, an independent report finds that the premier and his ministers are enjoying huge benefits from their self-awarded salary raises for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation comments that politicians should not be trusted to adjust their own pay.
November 2009
Statistics Canada reports that Alberta has suffered the largest job losses in the country. Year to year from October 2008, the province’s employment fell by 3.3% or 68,000 jobs, the steepest drop in Canada.
October 2009
As the recession threatens the finances of families throughout Alberta, Premier Stelmach rewards his senior officials with unseemly pay increases. His chief of staff receives a total of $390,241 including bonuses, while his two senior publicists rake in $288,179 and $216,748 respectively. Meantime the highest ranked civil servant is handed an embarrassment of riches: $531,587 in base salary and benefits. Opposition leader David Swann brands the payments “Obscene, in the climate that we’re in.”
October 2009
Bankrupt PR firm Highwood Communications, run by a PC party insider and member of the Stelmach government’s election team, is cited by Alberta’s auditor general as evidence of a need for closer monitoring of outside agencies. Highwood earned a 4% fee on its placement of $41 million in government advertising, but filed for creditor protection owing $5.3 million to 353 creditors.
October 2009
Alberta’s auditor general slams executive pay and “gold plated” retirement schemes in government departments and provincially-funded organizations. Fred Dunn directs his harshest criticism at Alberta Health, and says the University of Calgary attempted to “deceive” the legislature over their outgoing president’s multimillion-dollar pension.
September 2009
The CEO of Royal Dutch Shell says that both the industry and government are failing to properly promote the benefits of the Alberta oil sands. Peter Voser says officials and companies haven’t done enough to make a case for unconventional crude.
August 2009
Forced into aggressive cost-cutting, Alberta Health Services ask nurses and other health professionals to take early retirement – even as public demand on the system is increasing. Critics say that reducing the number of workers is equivalent to reducing the health care system itself.
August 2009
The government revises its budget deficit sharply upward as energy prices sag. A projected shortfall of $7 billion forces the Stelmach government to search for another half-billion dollars in program savings. Meantime the Heritage Fund enjoys a billion-dollar rebound in the stock markets. But much of the gain is soaked up by the revenue-hungry government, which transfers $730 million from the Heritage Fund to general revenues.
July 2009
MLA Guy Boutilier is kicked out of the Progressive Conservative caucus for challenging Premier Ed Stelmach to keep his promise to build a new seniors’ care facility in Fort McMurray. Boutilier later joins the rival right-of-centre Wildrose Party. Vital infrastructure continues to crumble in McMurray’s oil sands-related population boom.
July 2009
Alberta posts its highest unemployment rate in 13 years, jumping to 7.2% from 6.8% in June.
March 2009
Stelmach announces yet another partial tweak to his new royalty regime, two months after it went into effect. The incentive program, aimed at maintaining jobs among small and mid-sized oil and gas companies, will cost Alberta taxpayers up to $1.5 billion.
February 2009
The government faces criticism as Alberta’s rainy-day Heritage Savings Trust Fund sags at 20% less than it stood 20 years earlier, adjusted for inflation. The fund’s earnings, hard hit by the recession, fail to make up for years of profit skimming by successive PC governments seeking to balance unwieldy provincial budgets.
February 2009
The PC government’s finance minister reveals that Alberta has entered a “sharp period of recession”, and that a deficit of $1.4 billion is forecast for the coming year, one of the largest Canadian provincial shortfalls for 2009. Alberta’s first deficit in 15 years comes with a warning that at least 15,000 jobs will be lost as the economy shrinks by up to 2%. Drilling companies predict that rig activity will decrease by a third compared to disappointing 2008 levels.
February 2009
Alberta’s chief electoral officer is fired by a Tory-dominated committee of MLA’s. Opposition members say that Lorne Gibson’s is ousted because he criticized the government, tabling more than 100 recommendations for improvements to the provinces electoral system. Gibson had asked for authority to appoint non-partisan returning officers, following controversy over the Progressive Conservatives’ selection of party members for many of the posts, including the Returning Officer in the Calgary Currie constituency.
January 2009
Stelmach announces that his government is launching a detailed study of the economic competitiveness of Alberta’s conventional energy sector, in advance of further easing of it’s new regime of royalty increases, now in effect. The move is the same recommendation made a year earlier during the Alberta election by candidate Arthur Kent, whose campaign was subsequently sabotaged by PC senior Party “insiders” by way of a defamatory smear published in the neo-conservative National Post and PC-friendly Calgary Herald.
December 2008
Premier Stelmach admits for the first time that his government – and Alberta taxpayers – may be saddled with a budgetary deficit. The red ink is threatened by collapsing energy revenue and the Tory government’s 32% increase in spending since 2005.
December 2008
Alberta’s junior oil and gas explorers, who find and produce the province’s cleanest new energy supplies, find it next to impossible to raise significant operating capital due to the dual obstacles of low prices and higher royalties set to kick-in on New Year’s Day, 2009.
November 2008
Another grim measurement emerges of the royalty review’s “unintended consequences”, with estimates that $3 billion to $4 billion in land sales to oil and gas explorers will be lost in the government’s quest for an additional $1.2 billion in royalty payments. Worse, the royalty increases are forecast to disappear due to lower prices and decreased production.
November 2008
Stelmach admits that recession-plagued commodity markets will slash the government’s surplus to $2 billion from an earlier projection of $8.5 billion. The drop in resource revenues is aggravated by a flight of capital investment, jobs and equipment from Alberta’s conventional oil and gas sector to neighbouring provinces, the result of Stelmach’s harsh new royalty regime. In response, the government announces an easing of royalties by way of transitional rates, in what will become the first of seven gradual rollbacks of the policy leading to its complete reversal by March of 2010.
September 2008
Alberta’s auditor general launches an investigation of the PC party’s favoured ad agency, Highwood Communications, which handled some $41 million worth of TV, radio and print advertising buys for the PC government over the previous decade. Despite the government forwarding ad payments to the firm, Highwood owes $5.3 million to more than 350 creditors, including dozens of weekly and daily newspapers. The Calgary Herald, a steadfast supporter of the PC government, is owed $285,781 while its sister publication the Edmonton Journal is out by $241,797.
September 2008
Figures show that fundraising efforts by Stelmach’s PC Party within Calgary’s energy industry have been cut by up to 50% as a result of controversy over the government’s review of oil and gas royalties.
May 2008
Ten weeks after re-election, Stelmach and his 23-member cabinet vote themselves unprecedented pay boosts. Ministers enjoy a $42,000 raise to $184,000 yearly, while Stelmach becomes Canada’s highest paid premier with a $54,000 increase to $213,450. The move is made behind closed doors. The public only finds out two days later.