The key files on the desk of the Premier of Alberta at this
time are complex and varied. Here are the top six:
1. What to do about
the financial situation in Alberta.
Alberta, unlike many parts of North America, has full
employment, is experiencing significant economic activity and is also very
attractive destination for many seeking work. With a grey tsunami looming (with
its impact on health care), spending on both operating and capital for
Government will increase while revenues are, even on optimistic scenarios, flat
or actually declining. Alberta currently spends more per capita on government
services than many Canadian Provinces and US States, but doesn’t show
substantially better results (except in education on a limited range of
measures). Alberta has both a spending problem and a revenue problem.
Courageous action is needed.
The other challenge with this file is that this file belongs
to Doug Horner. He is using this file as a power base for his bid for the
leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party and the Premier knows that he
is, de facto, running the Government. Changing the mind-set of Albertans with
respect to revenue, debt and finance is one challenge related to this file;
dimming Horner is the other.
2. Education
Alberta has a world-class education system at the moment,
but a Minister is out to wreck it in the name of austerity. The Minister, Jeff
Johnson, doesn't see it like this of course, but that is what is happening.
The issue is that teachers are seeking changes in their
working conditions (hours worked, nature of the work) so that they can be
better prepared for the transformation the Minister (and his two predecessors
talked about). The Minister has systematically and brutally gone about
destroying trust and understanding both in terms of process and in terms of
rhetoric. Teachers no longer trust the
Minister and the Minister has now made it clear that he doesn’t trust them (or
for that matter school trustees).
But teachers are just one part of the problem. Building and
staffing new schools are the other. School systems cannot cope with demand in
major cities and other schools cannot cope with falling enrollment. There needs
to be some new thinking about schooling. It will not come from this Minister.
Then we have post secondary education. UofA is in the hole
for $10m and goodness knows how bad things are at Athabasca. The Premier has
already sent in the clowns for this portfolio, but re-imagination is not the
strong suit of the Deputy Premier (who is conveniently absent from the house as
it returns and will not be present for the budget – a shrewd move for someone
with leadership aspirations).
3. Health Care
Alberta Health has retained KPMG for their work on results
based management and is not able to see too far forward in terms of outcome
based budgeting for its future, given growing demand. The dispute with doctors
will not help.
Klein kept hinting at the need to look seriously at how
health care is delivered, but caved into those who see the health system through
rose tinted glasses. It is way past time for a radical rethink of the largest
cost component of the Provincial budget. A smart and courageous Premier would
position this as an opportunity and start a serious process.
4. Environment and
Energy
The Premier has a competent and very insightful Minister of
ESRD. But she has a challenge. It is time to rethink the approach to environmental
policies and practices – the green/white zones, forest management, water,
biodiversity – and not to cow tow to the energy companies. Time to put the future
before the horse.
Since oil and gas no longer deliver the revenue goods, it is
also a good time to get tough on regulation, royalty and compliance. Rather
than pussy foot about hoping that the world would change (“if only you would
all change, we could be the energy super-power we have always wanted to be”).
It is also time to do the right thing for Wood Buffalo and
put community before oil – allocate the land and close the deal. A tough call,
but the right one.
5. Equity
Social inequality is growing in Alberta and under
pseudo-Premier Horner will grow further. The gap between rick and poor is growing
and those in poverty are finding it harder and harder to cope. We can expect,
with the Horner mantras of “no new money”
and “debt is bad” ringing after March 7th, poverty and inequity will
grow. Yet Alberta is a wealthy place. Rethinking social and economic policies
to promote equity would be a smart thing to do.
6. The Other File
The other file on the Premiers desk is the career choice and
options file. This is the file she must be looking at frequently, given that
the knives are out and her days seem (at least to some) numbered. Judge,
Ambassador, President of a University…what next…time for her to look carefully
at her next move before she is rushed into it by “events”.
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