How many promises can a government break, alter or evade and still get away with it?
Premier Danielle Smith and the UCP seem determined to find out.
Already the government is ducking commitments from the election campaign last May.
Tax relief, provincial policing, municipal voting rules — the whole range is packed with post-election surprises.
Most breathtaking is the UCP decision to “pause” a hospital long planned for south Edmonton.
Calgarians should be wary of dismissing the capital’s fate just because it’s them, not us.
The premier’s thinking could apply to the whole province. It comes with notes of privatization, as well as naked favouritism.
On the radio Saturday, Smith questioned the cost of new full-service hospitals — and then promised just such a facility for Red Deer, home of Health Minister Adriana LaGrange.
The UCP lost every Edmonton city riding to the NDP. Red Deer is reliably UCP.
The middle-finger image is crude but inescapable.
“Red Deer is a growing city,” the premier said.
“They absolutely do need to have a full-service hospital in central Alberta . . . and perhaps that will also help to support some of the south Edmonton residents as well.”
Red Deer is more than an hour’s high-speed drive from south Edmonton. The suggestion that Edmontonians could race there for care is absurd.
Edmonton begins to look like a proving ground for Smith’s health-care dreams. Why not, when there’s no more political damage to be done?
How many promises can a government break, alter or evade and still get away with it?
Premier Danielle Smith and the UCP seem determined to find out.
Already the government is ducking commitments from the election campaign last May.
Tax relief, provincial policing, municipal voting rules — the whole range is packed with post-election surprises.
Most breathtaking is the UCP decision to “pause” a hospital long planned for south Edmonton.
Calgarians should be wary of dismissing the capital’s fate just because it’s them, not us.
The premier’s thinking could apply to the whole province. It comes with notes of privatization, as well as naked favouritism.
On the radio Saturday, Smith questioned the cost of new full-service hospitals — and then promised just such a facility for Red Deer, home of Health Minister Adriana LaGrange.
The UCP lost every Edmonton city riding to the NDP. Red Deer is reliably UCP.
The middle-finger image is crude but inescapable.
“Red Deer is a growing city,” the premier said.
“They absolutely do need to have a full-service hospital in central Alberta . . . and perhaps that will also help to support some of the south Edmonton residents as well.”
Red Deer is more than an hour’s high-speed drive from south Edmonton. The suggestion that Edmontonians could race there for care is absurd.
Edmonton begins to look like a proving ground for Smith’s health-care dreams. Why not, when there’s no more political damage to be done?
She said the new south hospital would cost $4.9 billion for 400 new beds.
But that wouldn’t meet the need, she added, because at least 1,500 acute care beds in Edmonton are occupied by patients who need other services — continuing care, mental-health treatment, etc.
“And so, what do we do? Do we build yet another (hospital) for $4.9 billion, or do we find a way to build facilities that are going to clear out those 1,500 beds?”
That’s the rationale in Edmonton. In Red Deer, not so much.
What would make sense is building the Edmonton hospital AND the facilities for non-acute patients.
But the project is now officially dormant after preliminary funding and work going back to 2021.
On other fronts, the government is breaking or bending expectations it created.
They’ve delayed income tax relief until 2026, after a campaign promise that had Albertans expecting a cut of up to $1,500 from this year’s tax returns.
Then there’s the plan for a provincial police force, which wasn’t part of the 2023 campaign.
Now it pops up with a bill that enables a switch from the RCMP to Alberta Sheriffs.
The drive for an Alberta pension to replace the CPP appears dormant but will rise again.
The premier still says she’s convinced by numbers in the report ordered by government. Albertans don’t like it, but we’re learning that what Smith wants, she’ll keep trying to get.
The province will also enable local parties in municipal elections, a major change to the non-partisan system.
The UCP has been testing public opinion (it’s negative), but the plan wasn’t part of the provincial election campaign.
Why do this? One reason is conservative failure to root progressives out of councils in Calgary and Edmonton.
Calgary elected Naheed Nenshi for three terms. Then came Jyoti Gondek. Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi is a former federal Liberal minister.
Dave Bronconnier was Calgary mayor for three terms, after running (and losing) for the federal Liberals.
The refusal of the big-city voters to banish political foes drives the UCP crazy.
Party slates would offer a single alternative and allow blanket attacks on sitting councillors.
In Vancouver, one of the few cities with a party system, a brand-new party called ABC (A Better City) overturned the sitting council, winning seven of 11 seats.
Governments can escape trouble if they bend or break a promise with a good explanation.
The UCP goes much further. It’s not reassuring.
Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald
X: @DonBraid
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