Editor:
What on earth is going on in Alberta? It’s Premier Danielle Smith that is going on – full steam ahead.
After keeping a rather low profile during her election campaign last year, in so much as to hide her true agenda, and pander to Albertans about the “real issues” we care about, she is showing her true colours now.
Her push for sovereignty is flying high. Bill 18 would disallow municipalities from accepting federal funding for such things as funding for housing, research at universities, a range of entities from municipalities to post-secondary institutions and school boards. That is, without her approval.
She calls it taking back control, I call it picking a fight with Ottawa for the sake of picking a fight. Smith also uses words like keeping out federal ideology. The NDP opposition critic called it an ideological attack with grave concerns for students and institutions.
Bill 20, tabled in the legislature in April, goes after even more power for the UCP, striping municipalities of their independence. The bill will allow the province to make councillors in Calgary and Edmonton declare their political affiliation, give the province power to repeal local bylaws, remove elected officials(s), prohibit the use of electronic vote-counting machines – even Donald Trump is chuckling about this one.
Bill 21 is causing great concern over how it will give the province more power over emergencies, undermining local municipality's own response, and lesson authority of local leaders.
Policing Alberta is becoming complicated. It’s no secret Smith wants to rid the RCMP in Alberta and create her own police force. Against the wishes of the majority of Albertans, she is increasing another level of policing. She is increasing the duties of sheriffs in Alberta. She continues to assert that Mounties are ineffective and don’t do their job well because they don’t have ties to the communities they serve. The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services Mike Ellis even went so low as to say that “constrained RCMP resources … are putting police officers and the public at risk.”
And in regard to Smith’s desire to create an Alberta Pension Plan and make us give up our Canada Pension Plan, the UCP refuse to release the results of their own survey, denying multiple requests from various news agencies, by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. This is one of the pillars of Smith’s power grab. If she doesn’t get what she wants, she ignores it. Yikes.
Marilyn Foxford,
Canmore
