Memo to Premier Stelmach - Alberta's International and Intergovernmental Department Needs a Very Strong Minister

As Premier Stelmach get out the shop tools and builds his first Cabinet with his own team and mandate there is one key department that needs to be elevated and have a much stronger Minister to head it. That department is International, Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs.

In the constitutional wars of the 70’s this department was the intellectual powerhouse of the Lougheed government…and it had to be, given the constitutional and other challenges Alberta was facing then with Ottawa. It was an impressive group of minds and focused motivations in those days and the depth of ability is still there notwithstanding the budget cuts of the mid 90s.

The challenges Alberta is facing now on the intergovernmental front are even more complex and critical. That is why this Ministry needs the political leadership from the best and brightest talent available to Stelmach. It has the right stuff in the staffing and administrative leadership. It needs the political leadership to be beefed up significantly. It is not an entry level Cabinet position or a holding tank for under performing Ministers. Nor can it be merely a transition appointment pending retirement anymore.

Alberta has lots of complex issues do deal with on many fronts and with many different influences and influencers. The Alberta-Ottawa dynamics will be heating up significantly over the environment, climate change, transfer payment fairness, immigration and US trade relations, to name a few. There will be uncertainty caused over what appears to be an inevitable NAFTA review by President Obama or Clinton. Alberta will be one of the victims of the enormous desire for much tighter border control and homeland security measures that will undoubtedly be pursued under President McCain, if that is the Presidential election result this November. There is a raft of legislative initiatives in the US Congress that all impact the future of our so-called “dirty oil” from the oil sands development that need to be handled properly.

Then there will be the growing American demand on our oil sands sector to provide secure, reliable and relatively less expensive continental energy supply that will put even more growth pressures on Alberta socially and environmentally. Local upgrading versus shipping raw bitumen into new pipelines that have just been approved into the US refiners will be a friction point. The impact of more foreign direct investment in the oil sands, particularly from China will be a hot international and intergovernmental issues too.

The reconciliation of these different interests the between the integrated energy sector players, American political and economic interests and Ottawa policy approaches will impact Alberta’s control over its own future. These are powerful geopolitical forces and they put Alberta right in the cross hairs and a target in so many ways and at so many levels.

And then there will be the domestic intergovernmental pressures resulting from the growing central Canada angst over the power and influence shift to Alberta and BC from Ontario and Quebec. Alberta has half the population of Quebec and a much larger rate of growth and investment, that along with BC is rivaling Ontario. That power shift to the Canadian west will have to be handled adeptly as well.

The TILMA agreement with BC will be a dynamic intergovernmental situation for Alberta as BC’s Premier Campbell takes over the national leadership stage on the environment on carbon tax and other green alternative initiatives. That effort by BC will put pressure Alberta to match them under TILMA provisions sooner than later. There will intergovernmental issues with BC and Ottawa on how to deal with the Mountain Pine Beetle as it threatens to devour the boreal forest.

I have not even touched on the aboriginal aspect of the department which has its own challenges and urgency's. I could go on but I am sure you get my drift. Premier Stelmach held this portfolio and enjoyed it. Ron Hicks, the Deputy Minister of Executive Council served as Deputy Minister in this department too. They know it and no doubt see its emerging importance in the future of Alberta. I look forward to the Cabinet appointments this week – and the IIA Ministerial appointment with particular interest.

Revisiting Citizenship and Cynicism

I wrote a post way back on August 10, 2006 - one of my very first. It dealt with citizenship and cynicism. A reader recently reminded my of it and its timeliness in Alberta around the concern of a lower and lower voter turnout in elections.

Here is the link to a reflection on our declining state of citizenship.

I hope revisiting this post generates some new commentary on this Blog about how we can revitalize civil society and revive a sense of citizenship as both a duty and a right. People died for us to have this opportunity for a free and democratic society and that seems to be cliche now. Sad when you consider that our troops are making personal efforts and sacrifices, in our name, to help others in Afghanistan. They are risking their lives right now so others can have these democratic rights that we are blithely taking for granted.

We seem to have lost our way somewhere along the way as we seem to have adopted the dominant social goal of getting "rich" instead of the more exciting goal of becoming "enriched." Or is that just me talking?

Low Voter Turnout Will Not Be Fixed by Tinkering

Every time I find myself agreeing with Lorne Gunter I am convinced one of us does not understand the issue. His column today about NOT voting is a right too makes some very good points.

We see the losing parties in the Alberta election calling for electoral reform because of low participation rates. Any regular reader of this Blog knows I harp and carp about voters showing up. I also agree that while voting is a “duty” of citizenship and a right as well – it is not a legal obligation. Just as there is freedom of religion in Canada…there is freedom from religion too.
I saw a sign on a mailbox in Edmonton during this election that said it all. It was not the usual

“No Flyers” but rather the more disturbing message of “Don’t Ask Me To Participate.” That is not an unreasonable position to take these days - for many reasons – but it is emblematic of a sad state of affairs.

I too am saddened by the low turnout in Alberta and I share some embarrassment over it too. I do not bemoan this reality as if it were the fault of the voter. It is not. It is the fault of the political class, and political parties in particular. The “fix” is not tinkering with the system like preferential ballots, proportional representation or transferrable votes. The fix is for politics to become relevant to people’s lives. We need to adjust the balance between rural and urban seat in Alberta to be more equitable and that will happen by 2010 – well before the next election.

The big issues for me is how ignorant our citizens are about politics and civics in Canada – and apparently even more so in Alberta. My definition of ignorance is not pejorative but more of an adaptive challenge. Ignorance to me is the absence of all that stuff which could be learned that would be helpful - IF it were learned. This ignorance is masked by excuses for not voting that are mostly of the “my dog ate my homework” variety But the real question is why do people have to make excuses – lame or otherwise?

Low voter participation is not a systemic or an election process issue…it is an ignorance and education issue. Citizens have large gaps in their knowledge of the place, importance and implications of politics in their day to day lives. As a result the rationally conclude politics has little relevance to them. The bickering and belligerence they see in the television news clips coverage of Question Period is not something any reasonable person would respect nor likely see as relevant.

I do not want voters showing up at polls who are uninformed and indifferent and only “participate” because they may face a fine or not be able to renew their drivers’ license. I want informed engaged citizens who value democracy and see a positive role for government and want to have a say in their individual and collective future – and not only at election time.

If we do not start to have politics that are relevant and engaging to citizens we open ourselves up to all kinds of problems from corruption and demagoguery to despair with a disintegration of our sense social cohesion and common purpose.

The world is run by those who show up and those who don’t are mostly content to delegate their democratic rights to those who do get informed and engage…so be it. Political parties, politicians and leaders and the media need to get the gamesmanship out of the process and need to start helping educate the citizens about politics and how they can engage.

There is lots of work to do and it will take time because citizen’s ignorance of the political system has many sources. They include convention and habit, isolation, fear, uncertainty, rationalization, complexity, limits of culture, willful ignorance, belief in an “infallible ideology “, conventional success, geocentricism and constraints of circumstances – just to name a few.

So let’s not get trapped into tinkering with the tools of election processes and thinking that we can fix the citizen engagement situation. The disengagement and dissatisfaction of rational citizens in the politics of our times is not going to be resolved with such superficial solutions.


Democracy to survive and thrive needs an informed, engaged and effectual citizenry. Our political institutions are not fulfilling their responsibilities to the citizenry, their true political masters. This is because they have descended into a gamesmanship and media manipulation mentality.

This predominant adversarial gamesmanship kind of politics that dominates today is merely confirms to rational citizen that our key governing institutions are largely irrelevant and clearly impotent at dealing effectively with the real world concerns of the citizenry. Why would anyone with half a brain and a modicum of self respect want to show up, engage and encourage this kind of behavior that is the basis of our current political culture?

It is not the system that is the problem. It’s the combination of citizen ignorance of politics caused mostly by a stupid “modern” political culture that is the root cause of low voter turnout.

Federal Court Agrees With Stelmach - Environment Trumps Economy

Premier Stelmach is right the environment trumps the economy…and the Federal Court sees the world the same way. The Imperial Oil’s Kearl oil sands project has been sent back to the federal-provincial review panel because they did not adequately assess the environmental damage in the project in its first decision.

The Court was not satisfied that the environmental damages incurred could be mitigated and with specific reference to the representation that the project would not significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions.

And that is the environment trumping the economy my friends.

Our Oil Sands Survey found that CO2, a greenhouse gas was the second most important value driver that concerned Albertans about responsible sustainable oil sands development. For your interest our surveyfound that protecting wildlife habitat was the #1 value driver concerning Albertans about responsible and sustainable oil sands development.

Alberta is not a place that is all about getting rich or die trying. Once again the Courts intervene to be sure the right thing is done in the right way in the interests of citizens. That is supposed to the job of our governments but it is not always job 1 for those power focused politicians who are chronically disintereted in being statesmen.

Good government is always good politics. Good politics is rarely good government.

Stelmach Still a Target of the Energy Sector

Here is another piece out of the Calgary Herald that shows some folks are still thinking Stelmach isn’t up to snuff and that the energy business elites are still calling the shots in Alberta. Actually I am expecting Stelmach to evolve into a triple bottom line Premier who deals with the tax and resource revenues prudently. I expect his farming background will have him proving that he respects the environment even more prudently.

His election victory and new mandate with his experience as the Minister of both Infrastructure and Transportation will serve him well in addressing the growth and social pressures in Alberta. His experience as Minister of International and Intergovernmental Affairs will hale him be much more effective is dealing with determining Alberta' place in relation to the nation and the world too.

That means the business community has its place and creating jobs and wealth is a good thing so long as it serves the larger cause of a healthy society and a health environment. The need to design, develop and deploy an integrated effective public policy approach required of modern governments that must be individually accountable and still interdependent and interrelated on a global scale like Alberta will be much more difficult than the typical marketplace competition challenges of business.

With all the investment approved and in place in Alberta already we now need out government to start ensuring for citizens there are no are unintended secondary consequences of such accelerated growth. These unintended consequences don’t just emerge out of the Royalty Review for the energy sector but also for the rest of us. Look at the unintended consequences of unleashed growth in housing costs, inflation, family breakdown, gang crime, misuse of the environment including water, land and air plus an appalling lack of reclamation efforts, poor habitat protection - just to name a few.

Not all of the energy industry has this intimidation couples with an insouciant attitude…there are some absolutely wonderful exceptions and we all know them and are thankful they are here. But they don’t happen to be in the majority nor on the radar screen of this writer who implies the more condescending view that government is stupid and doesn’t knows its place. This is a very unwise stance for anyone who needs to acquire a lease, meet regulatory and statutory requirements to do their business.

Is it time for a change in attitude so some mutual respect can be developed between the Alberta government and the energy sector in this province. The coziness and favoritism and cronyism of the past relationship has to disappear and be replaced by a more open, transparent and professional relationship. If that were to happen I am willing to bet there would be more respect from the citizens of Alberta shown to both their government and the energy sector too. Voters have the real power after all. Anyone doubting that truth should have had it dissipate on election day.