Bit by bit, politicians will be taking more money from your family this year
Another year and another New Year’s dominated by COVID-19. Restrictions on hockey games, travel and even community gatherings lead the news. While that diverts our attention, politicians are nickel and diming us with higher taxes. In 2022, we’ll pay higher income taxes, carbon taxes, property taxes and even higher taxes for a bottle of booze.…
Without that trust, public officials lose their social licence to govern
The heartbreaking death of Nathanael Spitzer, the cancer-stricken boy from Ponoka, exposed a most callous streak in Alberta’s medical bureaucracy. There’s no forgiving how Alberta Health Services appallingly used a child’s death to promote yet more COVID-19 fear. However, one should dismiss the promise from Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Deena Hinshaw, to process…
Alberta invests $55.1M to taking vaccines, antiviral drugs from discovery to manufacturing
Alberta is building a better pipeline, but this one’s not for oil and gas products – it’s for vaccines and therapeutic drugs to fight viral diseases. The province announced a $55.1-million grant on Wednesday for University of Alberta research on ways to prevent and treat COVID-19, including $15 million for vaccine projects and $10 million for studies…
$27M from Alberta government goes to research in health, energy, environment, agriculture and astrophysics
An investment of $27 million from the Alberta government will significantly boost research capacity and lead to innovations across the sciences at the University of Alberta. The provincial government announced recently that a four-year investment through its Research Capacity Program will be used to upgrade or create new facilities and infrastructure for 11 research projects.…
Without a plan, the government is flying blind
It’s ironic to procrastinate on planning. Sure, things will change, and any plan will have to change too, but it’s still essential to have some ideas about where to go and how to get there. There will never be a better time to make a plan. Yet Alberta is putting off its financial planning. It…
Making it easier for professionals certified in over 100 occupations to move to the province
While nearly one in three Canadian businesses is reporting labour shortages, Alberta is taking steps to make it easier for professionals certified in over 100 occupations to move to the province. Currently, these professionals wait between six and 12 months for their credentials from other provinces to be recognized. Thus, highly proficient Canadian-trained professionals like…
A show of force would strengthen our hand in our fight for fairness with Ottawa
Tired of yelling at the TV every time you hear about how much of our money is sent out east? Well, you’re in luck. The provincial government wants you to have your say on Canada’s equalization program during the province-wide municipal elections on Oct. 18th, 2021. Premier Jason Kenney is right to embrace some direct…
Playing on fears, bribing and threatening to produce compliance is unconscionable
I am sorry to be so frank to a man whom I admired and from whom I expected good things. I confess that in younger days, I thought of Albertans mainly as people who cornered too slowly on mountain roads. But I learned, partly from you, that I must think much more of them than…
The history of government attempting to pick winners and losers in a market-based economy is absolutely abysmal
One of the eternal questions of public policy is: should governments get into bed with private businesses? Whether it’s called a public-private partnership, buying a controlling interest for taxpayers, investing in the technologies of tomorrow or just avoiding a business failure on our watch, the debate over whether the overall idea of government investing in…
Officials need to streamline and eliminate child-care regulations
The federal government has spotted another pretext to increase its intrusion in our lives: subsidized child care. Despite knowing economic lockdowns have caused massive job losses, federal officials argue that unaffordable child care impedes women from returning to the workforce. Subsidies are a shallow, top-down policy that would generate aid dependency from child-care centres and…