Rabble

Policies that once distributed wealth more evenly have been and continue to be dismantled. It is a threat to democracy too.                           

In today’s problem plagued world, there are not any problems creating wealth. Never In our entire history has there been such extreme wealth. However, we do have an extremely serious distribution of wealth problem. 

It couldn’t be clearer the signs of a society in decline are everywhere. 

record homeless encampments, overwhelmed food banks, increasing violence, shootings, stabbings, assaults, auto thefts, car jackings and home invasions are up.

Underlining it all is a rise in child poverty, which was supposed to be eliminated   by 2,000. There is something seriously wrong when a country as rich as ours can’t ensure   all children have the needed food to grow and develop and parents can’t get affordable, safe and secure child care.  Fewer and fewer people show up to vote.  Only 17 per cent of the people voted for Ontario premier Doug Ford.   Just like the US, anger, resentment and distrust of government is growing fast.  There is something seriously wrong while at the same time the five richest billionaires double their wealth over the past four years according to the CBC.   The gap between the haves and the have nots is growing at a record rate.    It is important to note there were no food banks until 1981 when, because of a terrible recession and need they were created.   There is something seriously wrong when instead of addressing the reasons for food banks, they have become a permanent feature of our society and we are under constant   pressure to keep them supplied with food and cash donations. 

In the 1980’s UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher and US president Ronald Reagan brought in tax cuts, deregulation, now called “cutting red tape” and privatization. They claimed it would fix  the economy and  benefit everyone. Critics called it “trickle down” economics.”  The theory being that wealth would trickle down to everyone. Trickledown economics   made a resurgence under both Canadian Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper and Former Ontario premier Mike Harris’s “Common sense” revolution in which tax cuts, deregulation and privatization were the center piece.  Now “common sense” is Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s main talking point. Tax cuts in particular are the main policy of Conservatives everywhere.  The wealthy have been very successful at making the public believe tax increases on the working 

Class is bad and made every politician in every party terrified of announcing any kind of progressive tax increase. The logical conclusion that tax cuts, deregulation and privatization will lead to prosperity is this. Let’s cut taxes to zero, lets eliminate all regulations and let’s privatize every public service including   the water and the air.  Then, then we will have prosperity for all.  

Charles Dickens was a critic of the uber wealthy of his times and creator of the greedy grasping Ebenezer Scrooge character. In the 1830s, Dickens wrote “the rich will take the widows mite and the orphan’s crumb.” Never in our entire history, has so much wealth been accumulated by so few while at the same time so many suffer deprivation. These billionaires and their now trillion-dollar corporations have done everything, they can to avoid paying taxes which has been enabled by their political friends. Dickens would have roundly criticized us in the strongest possible language. 

Big Tax cuts for the wealthy and their corporations, were done under the cover of tiny tax cuts for the public.      Conservatives like Ford and Poilievre like to say   they want to leave more money in your pocket. You have to ask yourself has having a few more dollars in your pocket due to all the tax cuts since 1995 made any difference in your life at all?  I’m betting you, your family and people you know have had trouble accessing healthcare, education and childcare.    

Poilievre says “everything feels broken and only “common sense” can fix it” Now you can say, yeah, 30 years of “common sense” policies broke the country.  Where is the leader who says It is time to end the insanity of trickle-down policies? History has clearly shown the pathway to affordability and prosperity is a   progressive tax system and that public services and public enterprise works very well for both public and business prosperity.  Reversing tax cuts for the wealthy and their corporations is not raising taxes; it is restoring funding to rebuild our once civil society. 

If we don’t take that path, Dickens would say, “Are there no prisons?” Are there no shelters? Are there no foodbanks? And“Let them eat cake.”

The post Failure to distribute wealth is the cause of decline and unrest appeared first on rabble.ca.

Earlier this year, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced dramatic changes to that province’s approach to the healthcare, education, and inclusion of transgender youth.

READ MORE: In Alberta’s new war on trans people, children will suffer

Since then, queer activists and groups supporting the rights of 2SLGBTQIA folks have come together to challenge and speak out against policies like the ones proposed in Alberta and have done their best to support queer and trans youth across the county.

This week on rabble radio, Jack Layton Journalism for Change fellow Eleanor Wand sits down with Bennett Jensen, the director of legal at Egale Canada to discuss what’s at stake under the proposed legislation targeting trans youth in Alberta.

“When there are restrictions on access or information around queer and trans people, that communicates that there is something wrong with being queer or trans.”

Bennett Jensen (he/him) is the director of legal at Egale Canada where he develops, leads and directs strategic litigation in furtherance of 2SGLBTQI rights. Jensen began his career as a litigator at a leading law firm in New York City, before becoming the deputy head of the firm’s award-winning pro bono practice and leading responses to national rights violations like the Muslim travel ban and the family separation crisis.

Prior to joining Egale, he served as a policy advisor and then as director of litigation to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada where he supported the passage of the criminal ban against conversion “therapy.” He has been recognized as a Rising Star by the American Bar Association, as one of the LGBTQ+ Bar Association’s Best 40 Lawyers under 40, and, most recently, with the 2024 Canadian Bar Association’s National SAGDA Hero Award.

Egale Canada is the country’s leading 2SGLBTQI rights organization. Egale’s vision is a Canada, and ultimately a world, without homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and all other forms of oppression so that every person can achieve their full potential, free from hatred and bias.

If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

The post Protecting trans youth in Alberta and across the country with Egale Canada appeared first on rabble.ca.

The federal government has mandated against telework. But the Public Service Alliance of Canada is fighting back for its members – and all Canadian workers. Also: the LabourStart report about union events. And the Workers’ Song Community project.

RadioLabour is the international labour movement’s radio service. It reports on labour union events around the world with a focus on unions in the developing world. It partners with rabble to provide coverage of news of interest to Canadian workers.

The post Working for telework appeared first on rabble.ca.

This month on our Off the Hill political panel, we asked the question: how just is Canada’s justice system? Who is it serving and protecting – and who gets left behind? Does our justice system truly respect everyone’s rights and freedoms? From the ongoing federal Black Class Action lawsuit alleging systemic anti-Black racism in the federal public service, to a history of policing and silencing Palestinian voices, and more, clearly we can tell something isn’t working.

On Wednesday, November 20, 2024 we dove into this discussion with poet and activist El Jones and rabble’s own parliamentary reporter Karl Nerenberg. Co-hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies.

El Jones is a poet, author, journalist, professor and activist living in Halifax. She is the author of Abolitionist Intimacies (2022) and Live from the Afrikan Resistance! (2014).

Karl Nerenberg is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and filmmaker, working in both English and French languages. He is rabble’s senior parliamentary reporter.

Since 2019, Off the Hill has been rabble.ca’s live monthly panel. Through this series, we break down important national and international news stories through a progressive lens.

This webinar series invites a rotating roster of guest activists, politicians, researchers and more to discuss how to mobilize and bring about progressive change in national politics — on and off Parliament Hill. Co-hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies.

Join us the third Wednesday of every month at 4:30pm PT / 7:30pm ET. The live, digital show is one hour long – 45 minutes of moderated discussion followed by 15 minutes of audience participation.

Want to help projects like this going? rabble runs on reader support! Visit rabble.ca/donate today.

The post How just is Canada’s justice system? (FULL VIDEO) appeared first on rabble.ca.

Yesterday, the Liberal government tabled legislation for a two-month Good and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST) holiday for products commonly bought around the holidays including food and alcohol. 

The bill was introduced after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a promise to bring in the tax holiday as well as a $250 rebate for workers who made $150,000 or less in 2023. 

As a minority government, the Liberals need the support of another party to pass legislation. Leader of the NDP, Jagmeet Singh, said his party would not support the bill unless it separated the tax break from the $250 rebate. He said the GST holiday must be passed immediately but the rebate cheque program be expanded to include seniors, students and people living with disabilities. 

“We need to see real relief for Canadians. People are hurting right now,” Singh said. 

Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) said the measures to include a GST break will provide temporary relief but it is not enough. 

“Millions of Canadians are facing skyrocketing grocery bills, unaffordable housing, and stagnant wages. These challenges demand bold, structural solutions—not just tax holidays,” Bruske said. “A temporary tax break on certain items over the holidays is helpful but does not address the systemic issues driving inequality and financial precarity.” 

Bruske and the CLC held their annual lobby day at Parliament Hill on Wednesday. The congress and its member unions demanded decisive action to support workers. Concrete steps the government could take include expanding Employment Insurance access, investing in skills training, strengthening the care economy and improving workplace standards and union access to protect workers’ rights. 

“Canadians are being squeezed from every angle, and the government has a responsibility to act now,” said Bruske.

While the CLC is pushing for larger investments and systemic changes to address the affordability crisis, the opposition has denounced the proposed tax holiday and rebate altogether. 

Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, said his party will vote against this bill because it is “irresponsible” and “inflationist.” 

However, some economists argue that inflation is driven by price gouging and business decisions, not government nor monetary policy. 

Mario Seccareccia, professor emeritus from the University of Ottawa’s economics department, previously told rabble.ca the price of goods is driven by the decisions made by business firms. 

READ MORE: Bank of Canada inflation policies widened wealth gap

D.T. Cochrane, senior economist at the CLC, made a similar point in a past interview with rabble. Cochrane emphasized the role of price gouging in driving up inflation. He said the idea that inflation is driven by demand is “misguided.” Increasing worker purchasing and bargaining power shouldn’t spark fears of rising inflation. 

“There is this turmoil that’s happening. Because prices are rising higher, powerful companies are able to boost their profit margins,” Cochrane said. “The inflation we were experiencing was coming from the supply side.” 

In a press release about the CLC lobby day, Bruske said the government should hold corporations accountable for their role in the cost of living crisis. She said measures to lead working families out of this crisis must address the root causes of the current economic inequality. 

“The government should prioritize meaningful investments in housing and health care to create lasting impact,” she said. “A real plan to support working families goes beyond seasonal relief—it requires lasting change.”

The post Liberals have tabled a GST holiday but CLC says it is not enough appeared first on rabble.ca.

Was Premier Danielle Smith’s Sovereignty Act moment formal notice she intends to unilaterally declare Alberta independence soon, evidence she thinks she’s found a magic constitutional formula to overturn federal laws she doesn’t like, or just another day of using provincial resources to campaign against the Trudeau Government in Ottawa? 

Perhaps it’s a bit of all three. Who can tell?

Regardless, you have to give Smith and Alberta’s United Conservative Party (UCP) credit. No one can flood the zone like they flood the zone, and the stuff they’re flooding it with just never stops spewing. 

With her claim she plans to use the UCP’s unconstitutional Sovereignty Act to try to make it illegal for Alberta fossil fuel companies to obey federal laws or admit federal officials to their premises, the better to hide the amount of carbon they’re pumping into the planet’s atmosphere, the volume and velocity of the spew surpassed almost anything we’ve seen to date. 

While local Alberta media tried to make it sound as much as possible as if Smith’s fast-paced gaslighting about how the planned federal emissions cap is really a production cap actually makes sense, yesterday was one of those days when it was the most frustrated responses that truly made the most sense. 

My favourite, I have to admit, was Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne’s exasperated tweet: “Oh Christ this craziness again.” (One really shouldn’t take the name of the Lord in vain, but, sometimes, what else is there to say?) “So we’ve got a lawless lunatic to our south imposing tariffs inside a free trade zone, and a lawless lunatic in Alberta pretending to veto federal laws inside a federation. I assume Quebec will be along in a few minutes to make the circus the full three rings.”

This sounds about right to me. Of course, for saying that, Coyne was labelled a Laurentian elite, a grave insult out here in Wild Rose Country where the Cordilleran elite holds sway. 

University of Calgary law professor Martin Z. Olszynski also made a useful contribution to this conversation: “Is Danielle Smith a singularly gifted provincial premier who unlocked a hitherto unknown constitutional super-trick for getting around federal laws that she doesn’t like (a problem as old as confederation)?”

Something that I can tell you about Prof. Olszynski is that he is a calm and thoughtful observer of the constant swirl of constitutional piffle and bafflegab that Smith and her advisors emit, so we can have faith that he had it right when he answered his own question succinctly with “No & no.”

If we wait a few days, I expect, his reasonable conclusion will be spelled out in more detail in the University of Calgary’s always informative law blog, found at ABlawg.ca. 

The UCP position seems to be that since the Canadian constitution gives provinces jurisdiction over natural resources, therefore the Alberta Government can order fossil fuel companies here not to obey the laws passed by Parliament. One doesn’t need to be a constitutional expert like Prof. Olszynski to suspect that this is not going to go anywhere if it ever gets to court. 

That said, it’s quite reasonable to assume that Smith and the two cabinet stooges who flanked her on the podium yesterday – wisely silent Energy Minister Brian Jean, a lawyer, and not-so-wisely verbose Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz – have no intention whatsoever of actually testing this performative nonsense in a court of law, except perhaps as a stalling tactic. (Judging from the government’s royalty-free photos, Justice Minister Mickey Amery, also a lawyer, seems to have been in the room too, presumably silently wishing he was somewhere else.) 

It is said here that this is not about so much an attempt to “make it virtually impossible for Ottawa to impose the cap in Alberta,” as Postmedia columnist Don Braid quoted someone saying when he reported the day before yesterday that the UCP was about to break out the Sovereignty Act again, but to make it virtually impossible for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberals to get re-elected. 

That’s hard to imagine given the level of unpopularity to which Trudeau personally and his party seem to have sunk, but you never know. 

As Braid wrote in another column, Smith’s biggest fear has to be that her hero, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, has just handed Trudeau his comeback chance with that 25-per-cent tariff threat. Never mind that once he’s president again Trump still won’t have the authority to arbitrarily impose a tariff higher than 15 per cent, even with his fake national security claims about refugees and fentanyl from Canada. (Count on it, the refugees, and not all of them from third countries, will be moving in the other direction soon.) 

Of course, that would depend on Trudeau expeditiously cutting a deal with Trump. Since Trump, as Coyne accurately assessed him, is basically a lawless lunatic, that’s probably too much even for the PM to hope for.

Meanwhile, one item of interest from the news conference that will not be reported by mainstream media was the giggles that erupted when the premier responded to a question by a CBC reporter with her trademark, “Well, look ….” As has been observed here many times, this is a sure sign she’s about to tell a whopper. 

Apparently the Legislature Press Gallery has caught on to this tell and warned Ms. Smith about it. So you won’t be hearing it as much in the future. But listen carefully, it’s likely to be replaced with a new phrase soon. 

The post Danielle Smith claims Sovereignty Act exempts province from federal greenhouse gas emission cap appeared first on rabble.ca.

It’s not often a book is published detailing the specific activities of an informant for the RCMP.

For that reason alone, A Communist for the RCMP – The Uncovered Story of a Social Movement Informant by author Dennis Gruending, and published by Between the Lines, is an interesting read. But beyond interesting, this 234-page book is also a very important contribution to our understanding of how extensively Canadian Security Services monitor innocent individuals and how they go about it.

Most of us are aware of the RCMP’s longstanding practice of using undercover agents or informants to monitor individuals, demonstrations, conferences and other activities. But it is rare to read about an informant’s activities in such great detail.

This book traces the life of Frank Hadesbeck and shares details of his undercover work as an agent for Canadian security services.

The backstory to this book is almost as interesting as the book itself.

Frank Hadesbeck, the informant, gave a box of personal notes documenting his activities “spying” for the RCMP to a Regina academic. Hadesbeck’s hope, according to Gruending, was that someone else might write a book based on his notes, and so, in 1987 he “gifted” these to Otto Dreidger, who at the time was the Dean of Social Work at the University of Regina. While Dreidger considered the writing project, it never came about. In 2019, Dreidger contacted Gruending to ask if he might want the documents as he was culling his files and was not sure what to do with them.

Gruending recognized the significance of telling the story of Frank Hadesbeck, who informed for the RCMP for 35 years, from 1941 through to 1976.

Writing books is time consuming, particularly books that require a lot of additional research, as this one did. Since Hadesbeck was not a public figure, according to Gruending, it took a lot of research to fill in the gaps between the notes that Hadesbeck left. It was challenging. And according to Gruending, frustrating at times when Freedom of Information requests were stymied and unusually lengthy. Even after publication of the book, some FOI files have yet to arrive.

It takes mettle to dig through these types of documents, then write about it, and also find a publishing house willing to print the story. I think it took grit and moxie on the part of the author, and an intrepid publishing collective like Between the Lines of Toronto, to ensure the telling of this story.

The 35 pages of notes and index attest to the research and detailed sourcing that the manuscript required. Let’s face it — when dealing with security services you want to make sure that the record is clear, unquestionable, beyond reproach. Gruending’s sourcing is meticulous. We the readers benefit from the author’s stamina in telling this story.

A Communist for the RCMP is engaging. Not only does author Gruending provide us with an inside look at what it takes to become an informant, but also how reporting between the informant and his RCMP handlers took place, public meetings attended, and who was surveilled. It also provides insight into Frank Hadesbeck the person — who he was, how he lived, and how he came to be an informant.

Hadesbeck appears to have been a quiet and unassuming fellow, who at times formally joined organizations so that he would have more to report on… and at times made friends with those who he included in his reports. He joined the Communist Party for a time, volunteered on local committees, and in so doing, gained access to membership lists and more.

As Frank Hadesbeck’s life unfolds and covert activities are chronicled, A Communist for the RCMP provides a memorable walk through moments in Canadian and global history. From the settling of western Canada, the depression years on the prairies, through to the Spanish Civil War and the Mackenzie-Papineau Brigade, through to the Second World War, on to the formation of the CCF-NDP and the organizing that took place to create public health care in Saskatchewan, the founding of the National Farmers Union, and much more; readers are reminded of the key social movements that have led to better living conditions in Canada.

The individuals Hadesbeck was ordered to report on had files opened by the RCMP without their knowledge, and without having committed any crime. This is a point that author Dennis Gruending emphasizes on many occasions throughout the book. The people Hadesbeck monitored for the RCMP were challenging the status quo, working to improve social conditions  and in so doing exercising their democratic rights.

A Communist for the RCMP makes clear that Hadesbeck was part of a vast network of informants. The RCMP would provide their informants with names and photos and then ask, in this case, Hadesbeck to monitor the individual’s activities and report back. Reports were tagged with a descriptor – Hadesbeck’s was Secret Agent 810 or S.A. 810 – rather than a name so that informants could not be tracked by anyone.

Gruending notes in the book’s preface, that between 1919 and 1979, the Canadian Security Service opened files on more than 800,000 individuals and organizations. “That,” states Gruending in the preface, “is an astonishing number more consistent with a police state than a mature democracy.” Gruending goes on to emphasize: “The Security Service betrayed Canadians by casting such a wide net in its surveillance and using that information against ordinary and well-intentioned people.”

As Gruending states many of these organizations and individuals were community-minded and working to better the circumstances of their urban or rural or global communities. But Hadesbeck received orders to report on them.  Some may have been leaders in their organizations, others were volunteering to help challenge inequities or improve social conditions. They were progressives who were advocating for much-needed improvements. Some of those individuals today are members of the Order of Canada, or celebrated for outstanding community and social service.

These people were part of farmers’ movements, labour unions, environmental groups, the public health care movement, the peace movement, the women’s movement, academics and university students, Indigenous movements, human rights groups, and recognized political parties such as the CCF and later the NDP, especially the Waffle movement within the NDP, as well as the Communist party. Hadesbeck included names on what he called his “Watch Out lists.” Some of the names on his list include Tommy Douglas, a.k.a the father of Medicare and named ‘the Greatest Canadian,’ as well as farm leaders such as Roy Atkinson.

In the end Hadesbeck’s “Watch Out list” runs to more than 2,000 pages. In a recent interview for this review, Gruending clarified just how long that list was.

“If I had included all of the names in the book,” states Gruending, “my book would have looked more like a phone directory… the people the RCMP was interested in had done nothing wrong. They were exercising their rights as good citizens to engage in various organizations and in the democratic process.”

How did being included in Hadesbeck’s surveillance reports impact lives and organizations? Hadesbeck’s reports would have been added to that provided by a wide net of informants. As Gruending notes at the Saskatoon launch of A Communist for the RCMP, people’s names were placed on lists for a reason. Security Services monitor people so that they can be targeted, identified and picked-up at will.

In a final chapter titled “Suppressing Dissent,” Gruending emphasizes that surveillance in Canada continues. The technology used to surveil has changed since Hadesbeck’s time, of course, but informants are still used alongside digital methods. These days Canadian security services surveil environmentalists and climate activists, those who campaign against the oil and gas industry and pipeline projects, or support the peace and anti-war movements, Indigenous land-defenders, among others.

Asked what he hopes A Communist for the RCMP will achieve, Gruending responds:

“By telling the story of Frank Hadesbeck in a detailed way, I have been able to show how the RCMP organized and executed its surveillance on Canadians for much of the 20th century. He was a low level RCMP informant, but there were undoubtedly many more like him in the towns, cities, mines, packing plants, and factories across Canada. And as I show in my last chapter, a  close reading of the news and other sources indicates that the RCMP’s focus on communists in past decades has shifted to focus on environmentalists and Indigenous land defenders. The RCMP has traditionally been employed by the state to maintain the political and economic status quo. Those progressives who challenge that mandate can expect to be surveilled and harassed. It is important to blow the whistle on that.”

The post Scouting for ‘subversives’ — Book traces an RCMP informant’s life appeared first on rabble.ca.

Militarism has brought us here with lightning speed as the world now stares down the barrel of its own nuclear guns. The two Cold Warriors, NATO and Russia, after half a century of playing their expensive military games, have now snookered themselves and the world into an untenable and ultimately fatal position. A position, that if not resolved, will lead to the end of humanity. And what is clear is that none of the protagonists involved in this growing world war have the capacity within their own means to extricate themselves from this metastasizing conflict. 

The failed attempts at resolving this growing conflict between NATO and Russia in Ukraine, as it approaches the three years mark have floundered in ineptitude or cosmetic showmanship. No suitable party has come forward to engage the warring parties in constructive sustaining negotiations that have the capacity to resolve differences such that a durable peace might be achieved.

The only individual capable of filling that role is UN Secretary-General António Guterres. By virtue of his position and the institute he represents the Secretary-General carries the stature and gravitas and impartiality to conduct a mediation between the parties. As well, personally, Guterres has had extensive and successful careers as a political leader and high-ranking diplomat. And importantly he has indicated to the world community since the outbreak of the Ukraine war his availability and willingness to play a mediating role in quelling this conflict. And this is not a job to be left for the clownish Donald Trump.

Guterres’ services are essential in the face of the world’s communal inability to end this war. But rather instead the efforts of the protagonists have only proven to escalate the conflict.

As Canadians we should ask that our government put forward the following resolutions to the U.N. General Assembly:

1. That the world calls for an end to all shipments of weapons to the warring factions in the Ukraine war.
2. That the world calls for an end to all future expenditures of weapons with public funds.
3. Require all warring parties in the Ukraine war to meet with the UN Secretary-General and his team on a sustained and constructive basis to complete negotiations towards resolution of all conflictual issues.

Without eliminating militarism and the arms industry on which it thrives, we have no chance of eliminating the causes that have brought the world community to this perilous position we find ourselves in today.

Further, unless there is sustained dialogue led by an experienced and skillful diplomat this war will only continue to escalate until it reaches the unthinkable.

The post Preventing the war in Ukraine from becoming something unthinkable appeared first on rabble.ca.

The United Conservative Party (UCP) is pulling the plug on regional planning in Alberta in a move that will be a big win for the “Sprawl Cabal” of wealthy developers and for municipal politicians in smaller communities clustered around the province’s two biggest cities.

But it’ll be a disaster for Edmonton and Calgary taxpayers and the liveability of Alberta’s cities – and, longer term, it won’t be good news for the province’s natural beauty or the climate either.

In other words, it’s right on brand for the Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP, with its power base concentrated in rural Alberta, its ever-increasing contempt for Alberta’s big cities and their residents, and a vision ever focused on fossil fuels and fossil politics. 

Something like this has happened before, back in 1993, not long after Ralph Klein became premier of Alberta.

Rural municipalities were frustrated with the powerful regional planning commissions required by the Municipal Government Act of the day, and as the “Klein Revolution” got under way, urban politicians worried something might be up. 

But when announcement was made by Klein’s municipal affairs minister, Steve West, on Oct. 7, 1993, it landed like the proverbial bombshell. 

While the Klein Government’s free-market sentiments had been well known, “the municipal affairs minister’s announcement nevertheless came unexpectedly,” one observer with whom readers of this blog will be familiar wrote at the time. “And the end of formal, legislatively mandated regional planning in Alberta … followed swiftly.”

In the mid-Zeros, Progressive Conservative premier Ed Stelmach made a stab at getting regional planning and regional co-operation around Alberta’s two largest cities back on track on a voluntary basis. 

Arguably, though, it took until 2016 when Rachel Notley’s NDP government passed the Modernized Municipal Government Act, which among other things restored some mandatory regional planning to Alberta, that something approaching sanity was restored on the fringes of Calgary and Edmonton. 

“We want to encourage municipalities to work together so that we can eliminate duplication of services, we can find efficiencies but, quite frankly, so that we can plan and manage growth in the way that works for all of our citizens,” municipal affairs minister Deron Bilous said in the fall of 2015 when the NDP introduced its legislation. (Emphasis added.)

The Edmonton and Calgary regional metropolitan boards were formally established in 2017. 

And it even seemed to be working for a while, even though the Sprawl Cabal – the term is thought to have been coined by former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi – hated it because it made it harder to slap up cheap, high-profit subdivisions outside city boundaries and dump many of the costs of urban sprawl on city taxpayers. 

Last spring, a report on new-house sales prices tracked by the City of Edmonton suggested that “the sprawl subsidy” – the cost of servicing new subdivisions on the fringes of Canada’s big cities – created profits of more than $1 billion on revenue of about $11 billion over a decade for Edmonton developers. 

By contrast, the city of Edmonton estimates that more than 90 per cent of the vehicle kilometres travelled on regional roadways that must be maintained by city taxpayers with little help from the province are by residents of surrounding communities, clear evidence of disproportionate use by regional residents. 

But plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, this is Alberta, so obviously the return to mandatory regional co-operation wasn’t going to last. 

There’s been a buzz for several days that the UCP was going to do something bad to regional planning, and do it fast while they flood the zone with … other dubious policies. 

But history repeated itself, presumably this time as farce, when Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver channelled West and surprised everyone all over again. 

“The news was sudden. It was unexpected,” Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board Chair Allan Gamble told a Postmedia reporter after learning that the province was cutting the EMRB’s modest $1 million dollar funding and doing the same thing to its Calgary counterpart. 

McIver also told the two regional planning bodies that membership would be voluntary henceforth – another page ripped from the Steve West playbook.

The result will be the same too, the collapse of regional planning in Alberta a little more than 30 years after the last time it was made to collapse.

Frankly, it’s mildly surprising former UCP premier Jason Kenney, who often governed by spite, didn’t dump it in the summer of 2019 just because it could fairly be described as an NDP policy. 

As for Nenshi – now leader of the NDP – he predicted that the result will be “the wild west in planning.”

“When you’re in a housing crisis, that’s the worst possible thing you can do because you can’t plan where to put the houses where the infrastructure already exists, where transit is already in place,” he told The Edmonton Journal’s reporter. 

What he most likely won’t say, if he gets around to making an official statement, is what the obvious solution is, to wit: amalgamation of the municipalities around Alberta’s two biggest cities.

This will never fly, of course, in a province dominated by politicians from rural ridings who are quite content to let urban voters pay the freight whenever possible. And we’ll probably have to put up with the Opposition staying mum on that suggestion as well. 

The UCP, naturally, will likely spin this change as doing something about Canada’s housing crisis, although most of the houses built on the ever expanding fringes of Edmonton and Calgary will not-so-mysteriously remain far beyond the financial reach of the folks who need housing most desperately. 

The post Alberta pulls plug (again) on regional planning appeared first on rabble.ca.

At its early November annual general meeting in Red Deer, Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party passed a resolution to “recognize the importance of CO2 to life and Alberta’s prosperity” and “recognize that CO2 is a foundational nutrient for all life on Earth.” The party also voted to get rid of critical net-zero emissions targets, among other measures.

Are they ignorant about climate science, physics and carbon cycles? Are they trolling? Or are they so deep in the fossil fuel industry’s pockets that they’ll do anything to support it? The Alberta government appears to be taking cues from the U.S. MAGA movement, so any or all of that is possible.

Regardless of their origin, these attacks on everyone and everything from transgender people to important and effective climate measures have dangerous, real-life consequences.

It’s true that carbon dioxide is “a foundational nutrient for all life on Earth.” We’re carbon-based beings, and the carbon cycle — which circulates carbon through living things, the ocean, minerals and the atmosphere — is a big part of what keeps Earth habitable. And plants do require carbon dioxide.

But, as the NASA Earth Observatory states, “Any change in the cycle that shifts carbon out of one reservoir puts more carbon in the other reservoirs. Changes that put carbon gases into the atmosphere result in warmer temperatures on Earth.”

Most carbon is stored in rocks, ocean, atmosphere, plants, soil and fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are solar energy that has been super-concentrated over millions of years. In converting sunlight to energy through photosynthesis, plants, algae and bacteria absorb and store CO2. Plants and the animals that eat them release it when they die and decompose. Plants and some animals buried millions of years ago get compressed over time, creating super-concentrated stores of carbon as coal, gas and oil.

Burning fossil fuels releases the concentrated carbon into the atmosphere as CO2 — far more than under normal cyclical processes and more than can be reabsorbed through natural processes. It remains for hundreds or thousands of years. Excess atmospheric CO2 — along with other human-generated greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbons — allow solar radiation to enter Earth’s atmosphere but prevent increasing amounts from reflecting back into space. This creates a heat-trapping blanket that’s been affecting air, water and land at accelerating rates.

Most of our species’ relatively short time on Earth has been during a slowly changing geological era (by human time scales), in which solar energy absorption and reflection have provided the relatively steady conditions we need to survive and thrive — overall, not too hot or cold, somewhat predictable weather patterns and natural systems capable of renewing and regenerating.

That’s quickly changing. As we burn fossil fuels and pump massive volumes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and destroy plants and waters that store carbon, we’re disrupting the carbon cycle and causing the planet to heat at an alarming rate, creating more extreme weather, shifting ocean and air currents, throwing water cycles out of whack, causing droughts, floods and wildfires and making equatorial regions increasingly inhospitable, leading to greater conflict and human migration.

And while plants need CO2 for photosynthesis, more isn’t necessarily better. Increased atmospheric CO2 causes some plants to initially grow faster and bigger but studies show accelerated growth dilutes nutrients such as phosphorus, iron, zinc and protein. This affects the entire food web.

Research also shows the overall benefits to plants diminish over time and as CO2 levels rise. Global heating’s impacts — droughts, floods, wildfires, storms and excess heat — also negatively affect plant growth and reproduction. As for agriculture, rising CO2 often helps weeds more than crops.

It’s all basic science, much of it understood for hundreds of years, with knowledge growing steadily. That’s why the anti-climate positions of some state, provincial and federal parties and governments in Canada and the U.S., especially Alberta and Saskatchewan, are so bewildering.

The justifications are blatantly facile and anti-science and serve only to bolster the fossil fuel industry, which itself is finding it difficult to continue its lies and disinformation around evidence even its own scientists provided as far back as the 1950s!

Decisions must be based on knowledge and science — especially when it comes to our survival! We all deserve better from our political leadership.

David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with David Suzuki Foundation Senior Writer and Editor Ian Hanington. Learn more at davidsuzuki.org.

The post Do fossil-fuel politicians understand carbon? appeared first on rabble.ca.