A mysterious vaccine roll-out, a no-meet public accounts committee and a pastor is jailed
Things are getting spicy in this week's Irrational Report for Feb. 14-20
With the vaccine doses now flowing to the provinces, the Alberta government can no longer blame Prime Minister Trudeau for its own lack of clarity around the COVID-19 vaccination plan.
According to the COVID-19 Tracker website, Alberta has fully vaccinated the most people of any province other than Ontario. However, Alberta is about middle of the pack when you look at doses administered per capita. We’ve administered about 78% of the doses delivered so far but it appears that we’ve opted for a strategy that focuses on getting both doses to some people who qualify in Phase 1.
Unfortunately, we have yet to begin vaccinating most senior Albertans over the age of 75 not in long term care. And according to federal statistics, that could be about 90% of seniors between the ages of 74-85 and 70% of seniors over the age of 85.
We still have to vaccinate large swaths of older Albertans who are not in long term care but still are at significant risk. And we don’t yet know how the government plans to do this with only eight days left in the Phase 1 stage of vaccination.
This week, the government announced that something will be revealed on Wednesday (Feb. 24) but we don’t yet know the process for getting the vaccine out to this group of at-risk Albertans. Concerns have already surfaced in Ontario about reaching seniors, especially those who don’t have supports or have mobility limitations.
Never fear though, the UCP government put out two releases about proposed federal legislation giving municipalities more freedom to regulate firearms. Since vaccines have been sorted, gun control is a convenient and dependable way to fire up their voters to keep them perpetually angry at Trudeau.
Instead of this, we need “all hands on deck” on the part of the government. All Cabinet Ministers’ efforts should be focused on COVID-19 and vaccinating all Albertans. Justice Minister Kaycee Madu should be looking at justice through the COVID-19 lens, not on a private members bill that calls to limit the freedom of municipalities. The bill, which would likely lead to a court challenge, damages an already terrible relationship with the province’s big cities, and is likely to be overridden by the federal law ultimately. Stay in your provincial lane, please.
Finally, on the topic of COVID-19, I just want to give a shout out to Scott Schmidt who wrote this brilliant piece in the Medicine Hat News using a shark attack analogy:
Here’s a recap of the many nonsensical actions of Jason Kenney and the UCP government over just the last week. It was slower than usual as the government issued only 14 official news releases, including seven releases about the COVID-19 pandemic and one procedural release.
The week started on a dour note with the UCP using their majority on the Public Accounts committee to adjourn a meeting as soon as it started. They wanted to avoid even discussing an item asking the Energy Minister and the Alberta Energy Regular to appear before the committee at some future date.
The motion to adjourn was introduced by Livingstone-Macleod MLA Roger Reid, whose constituents are overwhelmingly ticked off over the rescinding of the Lougheed Coal Policy and the Grassy Mountain coal project, which falls within his electoral district. The UCP-dominated committee voted to adjourn as soon as the meeting started.
The whole thing gave me flashbacks to 2012 and the “no-meet committee” scandal where MLA’s (under multiple conservative governments) were being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for committees that never meet. Is this just a new version of this and will the committee members be paid for a committee that adjourns itself before tackling any agenda items? Are taxpayers on the hook for any expenses for the 12 members of the committee who all attended despite saying it wasn’t on the schedule?
Not surprisingly, Roger Reid was absolutely destroyed on Facebook for this. MLA Richard Gotfried was outraged because the meeting was “unscheduled,” and on a Tuesday after the long weekend. He thought that since the next meeting was already set for – get this – April 6 – about seven weeks away – it was an affront to consider talking about it before then.
All this went down while Albertans’ anger continues to smoulder over the coal policy. The government seems only capable of further fanning the flames with its blatant lack of accountability. After COVID-19, Alberta’s disastrous coal strategy and meddling with the Parks system is probably the concern galvanizing the most people (of all political stripes) right now.
“…Kenney’s bid to open more of Alberta’s slopes to resource exploitation reveals his misunderstanding about what Albertans cherish—moreso, even, than economic growth. The same tin ear was apparent when the UCP sought to trim the parks budget by closing or ceding provincial control of 164 “underutilized” park and wilderness sites.” (Jason Markusoff, Maclean’s)
The week really went downhill from there with the following breaking stories:
Poor communication led to the mistaken exclusion of workers in the non-profit sector from the list of those eligible for the Critical Workers Benefit. Turned out they were eligible after all. No wonder our mental health is ranked the lowest of all Canadians in a new study. Even when something good happens, the UCP government can’t get its facts straight.
It was reported by the CBC that oil and gas companies owed rural counties and districts about $245M in unpaid property taxes. The Rural Municipalities of Alberta association president called it a “crisis.” Where is the love now?
The AIMCO board chair Mark Wiseman wrote in BNNBloomberg that Canada’s pension plan is “well managed and safe” made the case for “independence and strong corporate governance.” He’s looking at you, Kenney, a politician who meddles with public sector pension funds for political purposes and wants to take us out of the Canada Pension Plan.
The extremist Christian pastor James Coates who says that COVID-19 is a message from God and that the government shouldn’t be allowed to protect us from it, won’t comply with bail conditions so remains in jail. Kenney’s conservative friend, Danielle Smith, always willing to take advantage of a crisis, took him to task over the arrest. With friends like these…
Well, the sun is at least shining and the weather has warmed up. Today, I’m taking part in the Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser to support people who are hungry and unhoused in these terrifying times. I’m walking 5 km and have only reached about 60% of my goal of $250 so if you can spare a small donation, every little bit helps!
I’m going to end this week’s Irrational Report with a song about community and helping each other through tough times.