The Alberta government’s Throne Speech that opened the UCP’s second session of the 30th Legislature on Tuesday (Feb. 25) contained a lot of the same stuff as the last: cutting spending, supporting pipeline construction, reducing corporate taxes to encourage investment, removing barriers to inter-provincial trade, allowing for more parental choice in education. There were a number of proposed initiatives that seemed designed to assuage the growing unrest and independence sentiment driven by Ottawa’s apparent distaste for Alberta and its major industry – initiatives to make Alberta stronger and freer. And more like Québec..The proposed measures recall the efforts of that province during the “Quiet Revolution” in the 1960s when Québec sought to take charge of areas hitherto controlled by or shared with the federal government, including tax collection, pension management, and health care provision. Québec also bought and nationalized the private electricity providers, placing all under the umbrella of the hugely profitable Hydro Québec. Jean Lesage, the premier of the day, famously referred to the process as becoming “Maîtres chez nous” (masters of our own house). And Jason Kenney – a man who never misses an opportunity to show off his French and who frequently expresses a grudging respect for la belle province – appears to be taking notes from the Lesage playbook..Bill 1, The Critical Infrastructure Defence Act, for example, might be interpreted as a rebuke of the federal government’s belated and seemingly reluctant policing of the blockades of railways and other public places by (mostly) anti-oil activists on the pretext of supporting the handful of renegade Wetsuweten “hereditary” Indian chiefs. All 20 elected chiefs and tribal councils along the route support the Coastal GasLink L.N.G. pipeline, but the media have bought the narrative that this handful of these would-be monarchs speak for First Nations. Bill 1 – which was tabled following Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell’s reading of the Throne Speech, could also be seen as a precursor to the creation – or more correctly the re-creation – of the Alberta Provincial Police force, which was disbanded in 1932, but which Alberta sovereigntists – the the Maîtres-Chez-Alberta bloc – have been pushing for several decades..An A.P.P. was one of the initiatives discussed at the recent series of town halls held by the UCP’s “Fair Deal Panel,” which makes its recommendations in March. A proposed provincial police force is also found in the Buffalo Declaration, the long-winded manifesto presented by Calgary MP Michelle Rempel and three fellow CPC MPs last week. The police force was also recommended in the so-called “Firewall Letter” written by a future prime minister, Stephen Harper and several of his “Calgary School” fellow travellers to Premier Ralph Klein in 2001. That letter urged more provincial autonomy a-la-Québec. (Ralph – a paper tiger when it came to fighting the feds – appointed a committee to examine the firewall proposals, which rejected every one of them.).Bill 1 creates new provincial penalties for damaging, destroying, obstructing, or trespassing on “essential infrastructure,” including pipelines, oil and gas plants, highways, rail lines, bridges, and public buildings. It specifies fines of between $1,000 and $10,000 for the first day, and $1,000-$25,000 for each subsequent day for each person summarily convicted, plus an up to six-month jail sentence..Although analogous to federal Criminal Code laws against trespass and mischief, the provincial legislation is likely to be enforced more wholeheartedly and rapidly by a police force – currently the contracted RCMP or municipal forces – under the aegis of an attorney general less dependent on the environmentalist vote..“These kinds of illegal protests on critical infrastructure are already illegal, but apparently those disincentives have not been strong enough for some people”, said Kenney at a presser preceding the Throne Speech. “We are using the powers that we do have to create summary offences of this nature… to give police and prosecutors additional tools to crack down on illegal blockages of critical infrastructure and we’re adding to the disincentive of that kind of lawlessness.”.Among the other sovereigntist-flavoured measures outlined in the relatively short, 2,400-word Throne Speech (3,500 words is average) read by Mitchell, 80, in her final Throner of a five-year term that ends in June were the following:.Legislation to replace the federal Parole Board with a provincial parole board in charge of parole eligibility and terms for provincial prisoners.A citizen initiative act that will allow Albertans to put important issues to a referendum. The bill explicitly outlaws referendums of a “constitutional” nature, meaning they will not allow a vote on independence.Amendments to the Alberta Senate Election Act to “update the election rules” for the next Senator-in-waiting election to be held during the 2021 municipal elections.The establishment of a new “investment promotion agency” with funds set aside in the 2019 budget to expand Alberta’s profile in key capital markets around the world. This enhancement of Alberta’s existing trade missions abroad brings to mind Québec’s aggressive expansion of its presence abroad that began during the Quiet Revolution and now numbers 26 offices in fourteen countries, with several enjoying embassy-like status..Then there’s the business of state capitalism, otherwise known as “crony capitalism”. Kenney isn’t about to nationalize the oil industry like Québec did to its Hydro, but rather as the Notley government did with petrochemical plants. He has opened the door to using taxpayers’ money to fund energy projects that are having difficulty finding investors. And like Notley before him, Kenney invoked the sainted name of Peter Lougheed, who, during a time when the booming province was swimming in cash, created the Alberta Energy Company (AEC) – among other government investment corporations – to find ways to spend it. The AEC was jointly owned by the government and by members of the general public who bought shares, and it invested in energy projects, most famously the fledging Syncrude oilsands project, of which it owned 10% (the federal Liberals had 15%)..At his press conference, Kenney said his government would be setting up an AEC-like agency in which the public would be able to buy shares..“When regulatory uncertainty, hostility by the federal government, or pressure from special-interest groups inhibits investment in Alberta resource development, my government will act,” Kenney’s Throne Speech read. “Like the government of the late Premier Lougheed, Alberta is prepared to invest directly and support companies and indigenous groups, when necessary, to assure the future of responsible resource development.”.This recalls Lougheed’s remarks in defence of his state capitalism policies, which many harder-line conservatives called socialist. He said he would use the government to do what the private sector “can’t or won’t.” And in an interview for the Alberta in the 20th Centuryhistory series in 2001, Lougheed admitted, “We were not a conservative government, never pretended to be. We were an activist government wanting to get things done.”.Yet while Lougheed’s investment in Syncrude worked out well – the initial $200M investment returned a profit of $1B over ten years – other investments by he and especially by his successor Don Getty, who was handed the reins as the economy galloped into recession, proved to be costly mistakes..Lougheed had the money to gamble and his mistakes – the purchase of Pacific Western Airlines comes to mind – got lost in the green wash. Getty’s failures – the purchase of the Novatel cell phone company subsequently lost taxpayers $900 million – contributed to what history remembers as a failed premiership..Kenney, having failed to be blessed with high oil prices, is now toying with Lougheedian models of government largesse in Gettyesque times. This too seems somehow very French..Ric Dolphin is the Alberta Political Editor of the Western Standard. He has had a long career in journalism with Maclean’s, the Globe and Mail, Edmonton Journal, Calgary Herald, Alberta Report, and the original Western Standard. He was previously Publisher and Chief Editor of Insight into Government..rdolphin@westernstandardonline.com
