Last week the Feds unveiled the Sustainable Jobs Act, Danielle Smith responded in her typical word-salad fashion and the press lauded her for standing her ground.
Against what?
The Feds said…
Natural Resources Minister, Johnathan Wilkinson, says the Act is about creating and protecting jobs as we shift to a clean energy economy.
It does this by setting up processes to enhance accountability and transparency, namely:
- it forces Ottawa to present a plan (every 5 years) to create jobs and help workers and communities shift to net-zero emissions.
- it sets up a Secretariat (made up of government people) to ensure everyone is rowing in the same direction as the government implements net-zero policies/programs
- it sets up an advisory council (15 non-government people) to advise the Secretariat (ie. bring in perspectives from workers and others)
The Act is about “plans” and “committees,” It’s not about “laws” and “lawmakers.”
But it triggered Smith who barrelled in with guns blazing.
Smith replied…
In a press release Smith demonstrated her failure to grasp the obvious:
“It appears the primary purpose of the proposed ‘Sustainable Jobs Act’ is to form an advisory council that will provide the federal government with recommendations on how to support the Canadian workforce during transition to a ‘net zero economy.’
It’s about more than an advisory council, it’s about transparency and accountability.
Then she pivoted to ‘we don’t need your help, we’ve got this.’
“I once again remind the federal government that Alberta has already released and is actively implementing our own Emissions Reduction and Energy Development Plan that strives to achieve a carbon neutral energy economy by 2050, primarily through investment in emissions reduction technologies and the increased export of Alberta LNG to replace higher-emitting fuels internationally.
Excuse me?
There is nothing magical about Alberta’s ERED plan. It restates the government’s commitment to invest $800M over 3 years in TIER and $225 million over 4 years in Emissions Reduction Alberta (those two climate change initiatives were created by premier Ed Stelmach way back in 2007 and 2009).
The rest of ERED is a list of vacuous commitments to “engage,” “share,” “explore,” and “investigate” this and that, with a few million in window dressing tossed at municipalities and communities along the way.
The ERED plan has as much substance as cotton candy.
Next, she made her demand:
“As the development of Alberta’s natural resources and the regulation of our energy sector workforce are constitutional rights and the responsibility of Alberta, any recommendations provided by this new federal advisory council must align with Alberta’s Emissions Reduction and Energy Development Plan. To that end, multiple Alberta government appointments to the council to ensure this alignment should be a mandatory requirement of the proposed legislation.
Given the lack of substance in the ERED plan this should be a cakewalk. Although the demand to appoint people to the council makes me wonder whether the MLAs who failed to get elected may finally find themselves a home.
Then she made her threat:
“To be clear, if this new advisory council provides the federal government with recommendations that are inconsistent with Alberta’s Emissions Reduction and Energy Development Plan or otherwise interferes with our province’s constitutional jurisdiction over the development of our natural resources and regulation of our energy workforce, Alberta will not recognize the legitimacy of those recommendations in any manner.
Is Smith really going to violate the rule of law by invoking the Sovereignty Act so she can refuse federal assistance to transition unemployed oil and gas workers to other jobs? Will she block Alberta companies from accessing the $80 BILLION the Feds are offering to companies promoting clean energy projects? Really?
Then she reminded us that oil and gas jobs are sustainable jobs:
“I remind the federal government that due to emissions reduction technologies, oil and gas sector jobs are also sustainable jobs and will continue to be so for many decades and beyond. This must be clearly recognized by the government and its new advisory panel members.
Wilkinson agrees that some oil and gas jobs are sustainable, but qualifies that by saying to survive the industry must invest heavily in reducing GHG emissions to survive. So yes, when you put it that way we might be persuaded.
Some sabre rattling:
“Alberta will not recognize, cooperate with or enforce any attempt to phase out our province’s oil and gas industry or its workforce. This is non-negotiable.
Non-negotiable? The industry cut its workforce by 27.6% between 2014 (when it peaked at 170,268) and today (123,384). It’s too bad Smith and Kenney didn’t tell the industry that workforce reductions were non-negotiable when the UCP dropped the corporate tax rate to 8%.
And now for the big finish:
“I look forward to upcoming discussions with the federal government to secure alignment between its and Alberta’s emissions reduction strategies. Doing so as quickly as possible will unlock hundreds of billions in investment dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs for Albertans and Canadians.”
We can all agree that it’s important for the Feds and the province to move ahead quickly with their emissions reduction strategies. We can also agree that settling these strategies sooner rather than later will unlock billions in investment and hundreds of thousands of jobs in the clean energy economy. What we’d like to see is the two levels of government working together to achieve this goal without the incessant politicization of the issue on the part of politicians like Danielle Smith.
Because Smith and her supporters may think she’s “standing her ground” but the ground beneath her feet is burning.
Susan on the Soapbox 
Ummmmmmmmmmmmm.
The “Gobble-dee-Goop Award”, for smoke-n-mirrors, and, double speak
gooooes to, drum-roll please……Danielle Smith.
The “Artificial Unintelligent Award” for gross, over stated
stupidity……drum roll please……..Danielle Smith.
Though the word artificial really doesn’t work here, cuz there is
nothing artificial about being unintelligent.
Gord, loved the smoke-n-mirrors award. Perfect.
As I have stated on other forums!!
https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+king+canute+famous+for&ei=KLyPZPq0MfqB0PEP1qeFiAk&oq=king+canute&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQARgBMgoIABBHENYEELADMgoIABBHENYEELADMgoIABBHENYEELADMgoIABBHENYEELADMgoIABBHENYEELADMgoIABBHENYEELADMgoIABBHENYEELADMgoIABBHENYEELADMgoIABCKBRCwAxBDMgoIABCKBRCwAxBDMg0ILhCKBRDUAhCwAxBDMg0IABDkAhDWBBCwAxgBMg0IABDkAhDWBBCwAxgBMg0IABDkAhDWBBCwAxgBMg8ILhCKBRDIAxCwAxBDGAIyDwguEIoFEMgDELADEEMYAjIPCC4QigUQyAMQsAMQQxgCMg8ILhCKBRDIAxCwAxBDGAJKBAhBGABQAFgAYNUTaAFwAHgAgAFQiAFQkgEBMZgBAMABAcgBEtoBBggBEAEYCdoBBggCEAEYCA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp
Queen canute will soon perish !
TB
trailblazer2017: I loved the way the article at the link said “… [he] sat on the seashore and tried to command the tide not to touch his feet, yet the sea ignored him.”
Just as the sea ignored the king, so shall the wildfires, and the droughts, and the floods, and the infestations of pine beetles, etc, etc, etc. ignore our queen and all of her climate change denying followers.
Can Dodo Danielle look any dumber….her base applauds her every word and the rest of Canada has a good laugh. Hard to negotiate with an idiot….
Sharon, your last sentence says it all. It is indeed “hard to negotiate with an idiot.”
I was reading Smith’s statement about the meeting she, Brian Jean and Rebecca Schulz had with the Feds on this.
Smith proposed “a bilateral working group” made up of the Feds & AB apparently to redo the work the Feds and all the provinces (except AB) did on this topic over the last 2 years.
Smith said she made it clear the feds couldn’t legislate an oil and natural gas emissions cap or electricity regulations impacting provincial jurisdiction without Alberta’s approval. The law prof Shaun Fluker tweeted a “markup” of this statement indicating it was not sound in constitutional law. No surprise there!
Interestingly, one thing Smith didn’t mention in her statement was that she had the Sovereignty Act and wasn’t afraid to use it. Maybe she’s going to wait until round two. Or maybe she knows it’s a nonstarter.
If anyone connected with the Alberta NDP is reading this blog, can you please remind Rachel Notley and the Alberta NDP that because of their amateur hour election campaign, we have to listen to Smith’s drooling idiocy for the next four years.
Thirty eight seats notwithstanding, the NDP did not win silver, they lost the gold.
Susan: Thanks for sharing another great blog. Danielle Smith is so oblivious to reality. She is blaming the federal Liberal government for what they have no control over, and doesn’t see how the UCP’s own policies aren’t making things easier for Albertans. The federal Liberals do not control oil prices. Oil prices are not rising, but are in decline. In addition, the UCP’s corporate tax cuts were an illusion to make people believe they would create employment. Yet, oil companies have been doing massive layoffs, and there were proclamations of them nicely timed to come after the provincial election. The Sovereignty Act is something is going to be something that will be shot down, like a cat catching a bird. Danielle Smith doesn’t know how governments and courts really function. Danielle Smith is a very green politician. In, addition, in the oil industry, as well as in other areas, automation is taking over, replacing jobs. Danielle Smith can’t do anything about this. Acting like a petulant teenager still won’t change reality. Peter Lougheed was the most logical of the Conservative premiers in Alberta. His oil industry experience in Oklahoma was a learning experience of how the oil booms can go bust. That’s also why he created the Heritage Savings Trust Fund, which wasnt properly funded, when premiers like Ralph Klein diminishe the oil royalty rates to an extremely low amount. If the oil industry is so sustainable, why are all these layoffs happening? Danielle Smith doesn’t get it. If I recall correctly, Peter Lougheed was also a lawyer, and so was Brian Mulroney. Peter Lougheed wouldn’t be behaving like Danielle Smith is. Also, Brian Mulroney’s experience as the Prime Minister, also put Danielle Smith’s Sovereignty Act into oblivion, when this matter was brought up to him on one of the political shows, that had past political leaders, and former politicians on it. Brian Mulroney knows the Sovereignty Act isn’t going to get anywhere. Furthermore, there’s the environmental issues that have to be dealt with. Orphan well remediation, which is likely $260 billion, and beyond, is one of them. Tailings pond leakages are another important matter. Danielle Smith can’t ignore those issues. If she thinks she can, someone else might intervene, and do something about it. I’ll play some more fitting music. This is a song by the German group, Kraftwerk, called We Are The Robots. It’s from 1978.
Hi Dwayne. Re layoffs in the bitumen industry, I think you’ve missed the point. Automation–replacing people with computerized systems–is MAKING the industry sustainable. Economically. For now.
You’re absolutely right that Danielle Smith doesn’t get it. This ought to be astonishing, given that she has a degree in economics from the University of Calgary. However, her profs were the founding members of the “Calgary School,” whose guiding principle–to the extent they had one–was apparently “Give the oilpatch what it wants, when it wants it.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danielle_Smith#Early_life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_School
Dwayne, great choice. When I played this clip my mind went to all the people who admired and respected Peter Lougheed and Brian Mulroney but still came out to vote for Smith’s UCP. Were they mistaken in their belief that the PCs and the UCP were the same thing or were they simply robots voting blue?
I would reply that both Peter Lougheed and Bryan Mulroney are now communists as well. I mean if you just listened to Brian Mulroney’s speech about Justin Trudeau you can quickly see what conservatism was about.
Moreover you can easily detect the quality of politicians in the 80s and 90s and what we have today. Can Danielle Smith say anything constructive? If she can, I never heard it and I do not expect to because all she thinks about is destroying rather than building. She only likes a world built on what she believes and wants like standing against Ottawa. Other than that she does not have the capacity to understand the simplest political concepts because she is the world. She does not need any ones opinions.
There is so much wrong with this, it’s hard to know where to begin.
– her objections to the federal government’s “sustainable jobs plan” confuse cause & effect: the feds aren’t cutting oil & gas jobs, the industry is doing that all on its own, not only because of an economic transformation being brought about by global action to address the climate change issue, but by simple capitalist market forces as they increasingly turn to automation; the feds are simply trying to ease that transition for affected workers
– her charge that the Trudeau government’s CO2 emissions targets are too ambitious is laughable when you consider the flak they are taking outside the boundaries of this insular & self-obsessed province for not being ambitious enough
– there is a great deal of reason to be skeptical about the billions being invested in the uncertain, unproven technology behind “CCUS” — carbon capture, utilization & sequestration — which many energy experts tell us might not be effective on the massive industrial scale we would need to be able to make meaningful reductions in atmospheric CO2
— indeed, many credible authorities doubt there is any way to achieve emissions reductions from the fossil fuel industry while maintaining production: the notion that we can keep pumping out oil & gas at the same level as today, or even higher, without increasing CO2 emissions, seems to many to be a dangerous fantasy
– finally, the conservative suggestion that we can export natural gas to countries that currently use coal to generate power, and by that means reduce global emissions — which is also part of the federal Conservatives’ climate “plan” — really means that one of the seven richest economies in the world need not make any sacrifices in the fight against global warming, but instead developing economies in the global south need to invest billions they don’t have to convert coal-fired power plants to burn Alberta natural gas; the selfishness & narcissism of this idea is disgraceful
Sadly, I also need to point out that the Alberta NDP & Rachel Notley have not been offside with many of these denialist proposals; what they did offer — that more voters than we might have expected seemed to buy into, but not enough to change the outcome of the election — was a calmer, more reasoned dialogue with Ottawa instead of the overwrought rhetoric we get from Daniellezebub & her minions. However, the substance of the NDP’s platform on this file did not & does not differ much from that of the UCP.
Well said Jerrymacgp. The other thing I’d add to your list of “reasons why Smith is wrong” is that the industry expects a sizable chuck of the billions to be invested in unproven CCUS technology to come from the taxpayer in the form of government subsidies. (Apparently they’re happy to make windfall profits, but not happy to earmark it for CCUS).
I recall industry executives complaining that the government should NOT subsidize solar and wind power because if the market place didn’t believe in these technologies (and demonstrate that belief by investing in them) then the government shouldn’t waste taxpayer dollars on them.
However, now that the pressure is on for industry to cut emissions, they think it’s just fine for the government to subsidize CCUS. If CCUS is the panacea industry says it is, then they can damn well pay for it themselves.
It’s the goose/gander argument.
Jerry enjoyed very much reading your post especially the very last paragraph on the NDP and Oil with which I fully agree.
I also loved your phrase ‘dangerous fantasy’ which I think it should be used in for example:
UCP
A Dangerous Fantasy
Carlos: agreed. There’s also Jerry’s reference to the “overwrought rhetoric” of “Daniellezebub & her minions.” Conjures up all sorts of images, doesn’t it.
It sure does – great imaginative writing
‘it really means that one of the seven richest economies in the world need not make any sacrifices in the fight against global warming, but instead developing economies in the global south need to invest billions they don’t have to convert coal-fired power plants to burn Alberta natural gas; the selfishness & narcissism of this idea is disgraceful’
This is so true and for reasons I do not comprehend we decided to have our turn on how to use our reputation has a fair nation and our economic power to gain from anyone at any fashion including the third world. An attitude that has made the American nationality dangerous to wear on your backpack.
The world does not need more colonialism of any form.
Trying to tell the world we can produce more and more oil with less CO2 emissions is, like you said, a dangerous fantasy, very dangerous indeed.
I just ask the question – so where is that oil going to be burned?
This is the kind of people we have now running (trying) our government. It is indeed a Dangerous Fantasy.
Well said, Carlos. Thank you.
Most of what Smith does or says does not stand up to rigorous scrutiny, but of course that never stopped her. Fighting with Ottawa sounds good to the base and apparently riled them up enough to turn out and vote when needed.
The problem is later when it becomes apparent all of Smiths fighting words are accomplishing nothing, that riled up base will eventually turn on her, just like they turned on Kenney when all his supposed fighting words and referendums on equalization and other initiatives also accomplished nothing.
The Federal government has a lot of powers constitutionally, so Alberta can protest, but those protests can be ignored. If the Federal government needed votes in Alberta to win, perhaps in place of legal strength, Alberta could use political pressure instead. However, the Federal Liberals have long ago realized that there is little to gain for them to go out of their way to be nice to Alberta or its conservative government.
So we will likely just continue the current pattern – the Feds will do what they want, Alberta conservative will shout louder and the ineffectiveness will eventually become apparent.
Dave. good comments. To pick up on your point about the UCP base turning on its leader when the leader fails to deliver. Last night I heard poli sci prof Duane Bratt discuss the election. He pointed out that the TBA controls half of the UCP board of directors and will likely take over the other half at the UCP’s next AGM. That means TBA will control the UCP and the UCP leader, Danielle Smith.
TBA has scrubbed its website of the things that set Bratt’s teeth on edge, but they will continue to force their agenda on Smith and her government. Given how far right the TBA is, the UCP may implode sooner than we expect.
It is the same thing every week. Danielle Smith says or does something incredibly stupid and we all write in to say what a bad person she is. Next week can we try something different? Why don’t we write about what the NDP can do better, what they can do differently. Let’s work on improving the NDP because Smith will never change no matter how much we carp about her.
For example, perhaps we can ask the NDP to stop trying to be “UCP Light” out of fear of alienating a conservative voter that is never going to vote NDP. Shift back to the left.
How about we ask the NDP to start explaining what they are doing in more detail to stop the UCP from dictating the narrative. For example, raising the corporate tax rate to eleven percent is excellent policy. How about telling us why eight percent was a monumental failure.
Why not ask the NDP to have some pride in their accomplishments from 15 to 19 and toot their own horn. They did a better job than Kenney, especially considering the mess they were left.
In summary, let’s get on the NDP and hold their feet to the fire on how they are going to improve their lot and what they are going to do better. The bottom line is they lost an election that was theirs for the taking.
Jaundiced, with all due respect, winning every seat in the provincial capital & over half the seats in the province’s largest city — assuming those two cities are not one & the same — would put any party well on the way to winning government in any other province. The real issue is that the NDP needs to crack the code on winning seats in “Otherland” (Jason Markusoff’s coinage for everywhere outside Calgary & Edmonton). It’s not just “rural” Alberta they can’t seem to win in, but the smaller cities not connected to a big city: Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer, Fort McMurray*, & Grande Prairie. (I don’t include St Albert in this list because it’s part of the Edmonton “doughnut”).
Each of these cities has a population over 60,000 — in fact, other Lethbridge & Red Deer have broken 100,000 — & has big city issues, like homelessness, the opioid crisis, public safety, and so on. But the NDP is hated in most of those cities with the fire of a thousand suns, and they — we — can’t win elections in that kind of an environment. But fix that issue, and the path to majority government opens up.
(*technically the “Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo”, or RMWB, but everyone still calls it McMurray).
Jaundiced Eye I agree with Jerrymacgp that we can’t just lay the blame on Rachel Notley. The path to victory here in Alberta is tortuous.
I heard Duane Bratt at an event last night. He made the same point Jerry makes, that we used to believe that any party that won two of the three legs of the stool (Edmonton, Calgary, the rural areas) would win the election. Unfortunately the rural voters have outsized influence.
Bratt also discussed the 5 cities Jerry mentioned: Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer, Fort McMurray & Grande Prairie and suggested that redrawing the electoral boundaries, something that will happen in Smith’s term, to separate the more urban ridings (eg. the core of Medicine Hat vs the rural areas outside of Medicine Hat) would help the NDP.
Bratt said, despite all of the NDP’s hard work, the path to victory was difficult.
That being said I take Jaundiced Eye’s point that the NDP needs to think about how it is going to attract voters who care about issues like climate change, income inequality, etc, because the tactic of “borrowing” conservative votes had limited success and will fail if/when Smith is replaced by someone the conservatives consider to be more sane.
Smith’s comments about bringing in investigators to see if the wildfires were arson proves to me that she is listening to rightwing conspiracy believers which probably includes some oil industry CEOs. It’s the smaller companies which will go down first when oil becomes less important and I think they tend to be the strongest UCP supporters.
I am so tired of politicians who are too cowardly to face reality. Smith is useless. She thinks stamping her feet at Trudeau will accomplish something, but she is so bad at negotiating that she will fail to achieve anything useful for Alberta.
Valerie, I agree with you. Peter Tertzakian, a well respected energy analyst, says much of the oil service industry is based outside of Calgary and Edmonton and they’re fervent UCP supporters. Which means they believe the garbage that the Feds are out to get them and only Danielle will protect them.
On the point of Smith protecting them. she doesn’t have the power to rewrite the Constitution, so regardless of what she’s promised her supporters she can’t win with the Sovereignty Act.
What a mess.
Enough with the finger pointing. While everyday folks are dealing with the actual results of climate change – Edson, Alberta is now dealing with a flood emergency while Jasper, Alberta has received over 20 centimeters of snowfall – fires continue to rage though the heavy rain should go a long way to assisting bringing them under control.
As for job sustainability in the O&G field, one must laugh. O&G layoff joke: ‘Knock knock’ ‘Who’s there?’ ‘Not you’. Seriously, O&G firms have the whole reduce the workforce scenario down to a science. It is all about the bottom line, which is the entire reason those businesses exist. Not to prop up politicians or bolster the government budget balancing act. Politicians may encourage voters to believe they are fiscally prudent but most can’t manage their own household finances, let alone public ones.
The transition to so called ‘clean’ energy should be an Alberta government priority, if for no other reason than sheer self preservation. Have to keep up the illusion they actually can influence the economic outcomes when in reality it depends on whether the world wants to buy what Alberta has to sell. Methinks the rats are beginning to realize the ship may sink…..
Good points Linda.
I think we tend to forget is that facts don’t matter. It doesn’t matter how many times progressives point out that the conservative governments squander more money and subsidize more companies than progressive government ever have, the UCP base still believes the NDP will throw their tax dollars away. The same goes for climate change and the value of public healthcare vs private healthcare etc.
So we can’t waste our time debating with people who’ve covered their eyes and blocked their ears. We need to find more people who are deeply concerned about these issues and get them involved.
The facts don’t matter. Her/UCP supporters love this tough talk. I hear it everyday where I live.
Comment: I can’t imagine what that would be like for you. We’re lucky here, we supported two NDP candidates in our area and both of them were elected.
Susan: Here is my second song pick. This is a composition from John Mayall and Eric Clapton, from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, called Double Crossing Time. It was recorded and released in 1966. Eric Clapton joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in 1965, after he quit The Yardbirds, that same year, to be replaced by another guitar legend, the (late) Jeff Beck. Jimmy Page, also a future Yardbirds guitarist, and founder of Led Zeppelin, was also a producer and session musician. He did produce some tracks for John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, and this might be one of them. The lineup for this version of the band includes John Mayall on lead vocals, piano, organ, harmonica and rhythm guitar. Eric Clapton is on lead guitar, and on lead vocals on one of the album tracks, John McVie, later of Fleetwood Mac is on bass guitar. Hughie Flint is on drums. Other guitar legends that were in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, after Eric Clapton abruptly left the band in 1966, to form the supergroup Cream, were Mick Taylor, who would replace Brian Jones in The Rolling Stones, and the (late) Peter Green, who would co-found Fleetwood Mac with John McVie and Mick Fleetwood. I have this in my music collection. I saw John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers live, and he signed this CD after the show. I also saw Eric Clapton once live.
Thank you Dwayne. I enjoyed this piece a lot. A friend told me at lunch today that when he was young it was his dream to be a guitar playing song writer. But after 8 years of guitar lessons he accepted the fact that he was terrible and went to law school.
It’s cool that you’ve got an autographed CD, plus the memories of seeing people like Mayall and Clapton live.
Susan: I also saw Fleetwood Mac live.
Susan: Here is my third song pick. This is a Don Nix composition, coverd by The Jeff Beck Group in 1972, called Going Down. We lost Jeff Beck this year at age 78. Jeff Beck would be 79, on June 24. I saw Jeff Beck twice live and did meet him.
Dwayne, thank you for this. When you mentioned Beck’s age when he died I remember that there are still some “old timers” out there playing for us. It’s incredible how long some of them have lasted.
Yes unreal how some have lasted considering that most of them were very heavy into drugs.
Maybe the drugs are not as detrimental as the current political environment.
That was a good one Carlos!
Duh-Duh-Danielle’s patent performance as snarlin’ cur in the Federal manger is as trite as its expected.
I marvel at how some Albertans are continually fooled by this transparent populist technique of “us” vs “them”.
It also saddens me these same jackasses are entertained by the sorry spectacle and take it as rock-ribbed evidence of their faith in her judgement and efficacy as advocate of their interests with the Federal Govt.
Its going to be a slow couple of summer months until the House sits – get rested up folks, there is going to a whirlwind of bluster ‘n’ stupid comin’ this fall.
Lee, you raise the issue that continues to perplex me. How dense does a person have to be to continue to support this government through thick and thin. Especially when the UCP plays “us” vs “them” when it suits them and sidles up to the Feds for handouts when it doesn’t.
Hypocrites, the lot of them.
United Cruelty Performers.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/dr-deena-hinshaw-was-hired-by-the-ahs-indigenous-health-team-then-removed-against-its-wishes-1.6884770
From the CBC article:
Tailfeathers, a celebrated and award-winning physician, said having a doctor selected by the IWC team be vetoed from above was only the latest example of an old theme in Canadian politics.
“Metaphorically, to me it’s like the Indian agent still exists. The Indian agent thought he was carrying out the Queen’s wishes and the Indians’ voice didn’t matter.”
Ironically, I am sure this pleases Her Royal Smithness, and those that would wallow in the offal of Golgotha with her.
There’s a little more detail, and lots more questions, here:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/analysis-deena-hinshaw-alberta-health-services-john-cowell-1.6885949
While I sympathize with Dr. Tailfeathers’ outrage at this arrogant political interference, I can’t help believing she’s taking it a bit too personally. Whoever fired Hinshaw—and I believe it was Danielle Smith—cared nothing about Esther Tailfeathers’ feelings or professional credentials. This was a knee-jerk reaction, highly personal, and specific to Deena Hinshaw.
It’d be interesting to discuss this with a good labour lawyer. When Danielle Smith fired Hinshaw in November 2022, I thought it’d be the perfect opening for a wrongful-dismissal suit against the Alberta government in general and Danielle Smith personally. Now it’s happened again, for even less reason. What more do you need to prove personal animus against Dr. Hinshaw?
I think you are wrong to dismiss Dr. Tailfeathers’ reaction. The fact is Smith has no business interfering in this matter, assuming it was her who did it. Tailfeathers’ reaction was appropriate for her professional position. When a politician gets out of line, a public servant may have no choice but to resign in protest. It takes guts and integrity to do so, and it shows the politician in a very bad light.
(My main problem with Hinshaw is that she did not do the like when the Kenney UCP used her for political cover of their bad decisions.)
Smith has poisoned all her interactions with Indigenous representatives with her stupidity and obliviousness and it will bite her in the ass again and again.
Valerie, GoinFawr, Mike J:
I think Dr Tailfeathers took a principled position when she quit over this. She did her due diligence and found the candidate she determined was best suited for the position. She didn’t have the authority to offer Hinshaw the position so she passed it up the line to the person who did have that authority. That person accepted Dr Tailfeathers’ recommendation and the offer of employment was made. Then someone got wind of it and decided (apparently) that it wouldn’t play well politically and as a result Dr Cowell, the Administrator appointed by Smith after she fired the AHS Board, rescinded the offer.
So now what we have is a situation where even a relatively low level hiring decision must be vetted by whoever it was that pulled the pin on Hinshaw. It’s inefficient, unfair and utterly ludicrous. Especially for a government that is busy privatizing everything because the private sector does it better.
I’ve worked in the private sector all my life and I’ve never seen anything this shameful.
“I can’t help believing she’s taking it a bit too personally”
I don’t agree with what you can’t help believing. Dr.Tailfeather’s decision is principled, not petty. And the metaphor is so very apt. She doesn’t take that stand alone, either;
(from linked CBC article)
“I say, “at least” two senior doctors are gone in wake of this, because much higher up AHS’ org chart, the agency also lost the executive who oversaw the Indigenous Wellness Core a few days after Hinshaw’s un-hiring, CBC News can confirm.
Dr. Braden Manns resigned as the health agency’s interim vice-president of provincial clinical excellence on June 11. He detailed his reasons in a lengthy letter to Dr. John Cowell, hired by Premier Smith as AHS’ administrator, or one-man board of directors.”
Interesting that Smith suddenly makes this apology. Was the 2015 defamation case just settled now, or is she dealing with her past legal missteps in preparation for an investigation? I wonder if there are more apologies to come?
and
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/david-xiao-former-tory-mla-sues-cbc-wildrose-and-political-commentators-1.3106957
More people apologising in this thread, so I guess the case was just settled.
Valerie, remember when the conservatives were all over Trudeau for apologizing all the time. I think Danielle has got Trudeau beat both in why she’s apologizing and how many apologies we’ve already heard. My all time favourite was when she kind of apologized and said we should ignore everything she said and thought before she became a politician. Crikey!
My comments come late to the discussion. I have been travelling. When in Toronto on June 20, I saw the Globe and Mail Report on Business.Page B4. Had an opinion piece by Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek titled, ” Is Calgary still an oil and gas town?” It is a reasoned discussion of the “paradox facing industry…. one where we must reduce carbon emissions while…. ensuring the world has access to a secure, affordable energy supply. Mayor Gondek has used her authority and position to to speak to the ‘effort to attract global climate focused investment and create multiple options for the city (Calgary) to stay vibrant. This piece offers selective opinion and analysis.