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A new ski resort village plan proposed for Lake Louise in Banff National Park triggered intense opposition at public hearings in 1972. Local proponents, backed by Imperial Oil, had entered into agreements to expand services at Lake Louise, which led to federal public consultations. We investigate Parks Canada's early public consultation process and how it was institutionalized in federal policy making from 1964 to 1979. Public debate was significant and influenced political decisions in the Village Lake Louise controversy. The National and Provincial Parks Association of Canada, Bow Valley Naturalists, Environmental Law Association, mountain clubs, academics, and others advocated for protection as conservation lobbyists and the Government of Alberta also objected to the proposal, leading Minister Jean Chretien to halt the plan. It was a win for citizens, environmentalists, and ecological integrity as Village Lake Louise debates became Canada's town hall. Past environmental protection is relevant to civil society and public space in a moment of new approvals for massive ski hill industry expansions in national parks. Precedents in civil society and governance can inform understanding of public consultation and a new environmental politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the political situation in Alberta and Saskatchewan during the 1930s. Emergence of the Social Credit movement; Activities of the Farmers Unity League.

Poised to implement its own Property Assessed Clean Energy program (PACE), Alberta is in an ideal position to develop regulations that address the program's main issues by learning from other jurisdictions' experiences with PACE. The goal of PACE is to help Albertans live greener by providing financing for clean energy upgrades to their properties. The funding would take the form of a loan repaid through an annual amount added to their property taxes. A 2018 survey reported that 68 per cent of Albertans believe the provincial economy would benefit by transitioning to lower carbon energy sources. Nova Scotia's experience has borne out PACE's intrinsic value - homes with PACE-financed upgrades in that province reduced their total energy consumption by 33 per cent, thus saving approximately 10 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year for each home. This paper examines the experiences with PACE in both the U.S. and Canada and offers a framework for creating an Alberta model. Still at square one with newly enacted legislation, the Alberta government must address through regulation such issues as the size of PACE loans, eligibility requirements for property owners, what types of environmental upgrades will be permitted and even the interest rate on loans funding the program. The mayors of Calgary and Edmonton along with officials of smaller Alberta municipalities have expressed their enthusiasm for a provincial PACE program. However, Alberta will face a number of unique challenges first. The downturn in the provincial economy, combined with the decline in household income, the highest personal debt levels in Canada and the highest unemployment rate in the country, may make Albertans averse to taking on more personal financial obligations. Finding trustworthy contractors, getting estimates and researching the products available for the desired upgrades can also add up to an exhaustive effort that could deter busy homeowners. Clarity around the terms of the PACE lien will be a key factor for the program's success in Alberta, as the lien has proven problematic elsewhere. The lien is supposed to be attached to the property and not the owner, but the U.S. has seen numerous instances in which buyers insisted the PACE lien be paid off before the sale closed or demanded that the seller lower the asking price to account for the loan's outstanding balance. Problems with PACE in the U.S. have also included unethical and fraudulent practices on the part of contractors who have targeted low-income homeowners and the elderly, upselling them and falsely promising them large tax refunds from the renovations. The Alberta government will need to find a way forward that combines best practices from other jurisdictions with a regulatory framework that addresses PACE's shortcomings. To paraphrase Kermit the Frog, being green may not be easy, but PACE's challenges are not insurmountable. The research in this paper offers a starting point from which the Alberta government can fashion a strong and equitable PACE program that would be a model for other jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores Alberta's climate change policies and laws in conjunction with parallel federal climate change measures. The authors provide an overview of the existing regulatory structure applicable to industrial carbon emissions, and an evaluation of the recent evolution of the regulatory structure. The comprehensive regulatory structure as a whole is then analyzed for its practical impacts across industries, and the authors identify a number of strategies for oil and gas producers, natural gas-fired electricity generators, renewable power project developers, and public entities to manage their performance within the new Alberta governance model for climate change management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of dramatic policy changes commencing in late 2015, including the Government of Alberta's announcement of the Climate Leadership Plan, the Renewable Energy Program, and the decision to introduce a parallel capacity market into Alberta's previous energy-only market, the future of Alberta's electricity market is uncertain. However, regulatory intervention in an attempt to improve the function of electricity markets and encourage renewable generation is not a new concept. Other jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and jurisdictions in the United States, have used regulatory intervention to address issues in energy markets and to drive renewable generation. Regulatory intervention in these jurisdictions has not always achieved the intended consequences. In some cases, regulatory intervention has exacerbated issues it intended to solve, or created new problems. In other cases, regulatory intervention has relatively improved the function of electricity markets and incited renewable generation. This paper considers the evolution of energy policy and competing policy drivers, including system reliability, use of sustainable fuels to generate electricity, and price surges. The paper will discuss the success and failure of regulatory intervention in select jurisdictions, and how these lessons might apply in the new age of Alberta's electricity market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alberta’s royalty debate has focused on rates, exhibiting a myopic approach to the royalty system. Addressing this, the paper qualitatively appraises the Alberta royalty review from a socio-legal standpoint. It claims that the review reveals the context and lessons that could displace the myopia of the royalty debate: this might lead to a holistic understanding of the economic interests of the government and the private sector in the royalty system, and the moderation of claims over royalties. The context revolves around a consideration of how resource development works, the nature of royalty and the changing landscape of the resource sector, and the lessons are on the nuances that should guide the royalty system, metrics that should apply in the calculation of royalties, broader implications of the royalty system, and backing up royalties in case of the unexpected. Overall, the paper presents broader lessons useful to resource economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk assessment methodologies, specifically water safety plans (WSPs), provide a water operator with a greater awareness of the drinking water system and the hazards that may occur. This brings key issues to the forefront and promotes a proactive approach to drinking water safety. This paper identifies the challenges in completing a WSP and evaluates the robustness of procedures. Experts knowledgeable in drinking water treatment were asked to complete Alberta's Drinking Water Safety Plan template for a hypothetical community. Findings from use of a condensed version of the WSP are also described, and the resulting risk scores obtained from both methodologies are compared. A high degree of variability between experts' responses was observed from both; however, trends between responses show that the condensed WSP makes it easier to compare hazards relative to each other, to determine key risk areas that warrant more attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipal associations lobby senior levels of government for legislative changes. This article tests how the composition and size of municipal associations affects such policy requests for provincial programs or funding transfers by examining four Canadian associations in BC, Nova Scotia and two in Alberta between 1999 and 2013. The findings suggest that associations with more homogeneous member populations lobby primarily for provincial programs; those with more heterogeneous member populations are more likely to lobby for funds to enact municipal programs. This suggests that the collective intergovernmental lobbying of local government associations is influenced by the internal composition of members as well as the political norms and the external environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alberta's current NDP government has multiple money problems. Some of those problems arose as a result of the drop in oil prices; others arose because of spending choices the government made. Either way, a course correction is necessary. Otherwise, the burden from this government's building up of debt will be unfairly shifted to the shoulders of future Albertans. This paper examines various measures the government can, and should, employ in both the short and long term to better align spending and revenue. The NDP's spending choices appear to be based on the precarious assumption that a rebound in oil prices will heal what ails the Alberta economy, as well as on the refusal to significantly reduce spending with almost zero attempt to contain costs. The NDP bases its choices on a black-and-white scenario of either spending or imposing austerity and drastic cutbacks. However, there is a middle ground that would allow the government to maintain services without the quality of those services suffering. These include moderating public sector wages, engaging in better procurement practices, lowering administrative costs, and delivering services and programs more effectively. Alberta is a big spender on health care, but the government could learn much from what other provinces are doing that enables them to spend less while still delivering quality health care. Alberta's 2017 budget projects deficits of $10.3 billion this fiscal year, dropping to $7.2 billion by 2019-2020, and offers no concrete budget-balancing plan. Credit-rating agencies such as Moody's see danger in the NDP budget of a speedily increasing debt burden, long-term deficits and growth in spending that is above inflation levels. The government's projected rise in oil prices, on which it is depending to stabilize the economy, is also considered to be far too rosy. There are ways out of the gloom. For example, by reducing raises for all public sector workers, unionized or not, the province could save $1.5 billion over three years. Emulating Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia by applying the brakes to runaway infrastructure spending would save $4.6 billion over the next three years. Public programs and services can be restructured, as has been done in other provinces, to make them more efficient and effective and administrative and procurement costs can be reduced. Reducing Alberta's per capita spending levels to those akin to levels in other large provinces would eventually yield annual savings of $6.6 billion. Economic growth won't come from poorly thought-out spending; rather, it will evolve from the creation of a more positive climate for investment. The NDP's carbon tax and its emphasis on more heavily taxing higher income earners do nothing to promote economic growth that could shore up government revenue. Tax reform is key: less economically damaging taxes would improve growth prospects and help close the deficit. Use of the carbon tax should address competitiveness issues through deregulation and cutting business taxes. And for the long term, the government needs a solid plan to balance the budget with specific annual deficit targets. Common sense, moderation in many things and a firm hand on the fiscal reins will go far towards righting this dangerously listing ship, but the NDP government has to be bold enough to take the initiative. Unrestrained spending is not the answer to any economic predicament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legitimacy of wetland decisions depends on how science and values are integrated and reflected in wetland management decisions. Natural capital and ecosystem services (ES) have become integral to how we think about ecosystem management however there is no consensus on how these concepts should be applied in management. Through the example of Alberta’s wetland policy, we show how policies designed to mainstream natural capital and ES in decision-making are aligned with liberal governance arrangements that emerged in the nineteenth century. There is a governance gap between individual wetland decisions and collective ecological outcomes. The Alberta wetland policy highlights three challenges to embracing the natural capital metaphor in a liberal government context: lack of consensus on policy objectives; case by case enforcement of policy leading to continued wetland drainage; and minimal consequences for non-compliance. The combination of norms about what is fair in terms of government intervention in land use decisions and scientific uncertainty about wetland ecosystem function makes it difficult to achieve consensus on limits to wetland loss contributing to continued loss of wetland ecological function. The discussion highlights the necessity of renewed political discourse about freedom, power, and justice in relation to collective economic and ecological security. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 2012, the Alberta Government introduced Bill 2, the Responsible Energy Development Act, to replace the Energy Resource Conservation Board and to establish a single energy regulator. Among the most controversial aspects of this Act is section 67, which allows the Minister to give mandatory directions to the regulator. This article looks at the implications of that provision including its effect on board independence, board accountability, and the democratic process as a whole. After evaluating the case law, exploring issues of statutory interpretation, and comparing section 67 with similar provisions in Ontario and British Columbia, the author concludes that section 67 leaves open significant questions about the scope, legal status, and procedural requirements of directives issued under section 67. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New public management reforms have delivered many benefits and also generated numerous administrative challenges. Chief among the latter is increased fragmentation of public services and resulting problems of service delivery coordination. Recent research on 'post-NPM' governance suggests political executives have tried to rectify these coordination problems by vertically reintegrating devolved and outsourced service delivery functions into new centrally controlled service agencies. Research also suggests public servants oppose post-NPM integration because it threatens their devolved powers. This article uses an empirical case study of the Government of Alberta's one-stop-shop service delivery initiative to determine the contemporary drivers of and obstacles to service integration. The study shows provincial bureaucrats pushed for the integrated one-stop-shop while the political executive defended the existing NPM-era outsourced delivery network. In the case of Alberta the emerging theory of post-NPM misconstrues the drivers and impediments of service integration. Bureaucrats in jurisdictions such as Alberta that pursued outsourcing and public service retrenchment are likely to champion integration reforms such as one-stop-shops because these delivery models favour implementation via public agencies and thus provide a new rationale for public service provision. These findings show bureaucrats are playing a larger and more constructive role in post-NPM efforts to overcome the deficiencies of the new public management. Furthermore, they highlight the need to rethink established assumptions about bureaucratic attitudes and responses to administrative fragmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INCREASING DISCONTENT AMONG provincial employees in Alberta in the late 1960s and 1970s led to growing militancy culminating in a series of strike actions in 1974 by members of the Civil Service Association of Alberta (CSA OF A) and the transformation of that organization into the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees. In response to growing labour unrest in the public sector, the Lougheed government created a joint government/union task force with the CSA OF A on 11 February 1975 to review the legislation governing provincial employees and to recommend changes in legislation necessary to achieve a better system of labour relations. The creation of the task force created a period of labour peace in the provincial public sector leading up to the provincial election in the spring of 1975. However, following the re-election of the Lougheed government, public sector labour legislation was revised with the passage of the highly anti-union Public Service Employee Relations Act in May 1977. Internal government documents of the day suggest the task force process was a cynical manipulation of the union in an effort to defuse public employee militancy and to delay conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a report introduced by the Select Special Committee on Upper House Reform of Alberta in 1985 which has been used to popularize Triple-E Senate proposals and reframe discussions about Senate reform. Topics discussed include the formation of the Reform Party of Canada, the Bills S-4 and C-43 brought in by the Conservative minority government of Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and the applicability of the amending contents of the Part V of the Constitution Act of 1982.

This essay examines the significance o f American political ideas within the political culture of the right in Alberta and Canada. While other parts of Canada distrust this influence from south of the border and have frequently denounced it, things are different in Alberta. In fact, Alberta is seen as being closest to the United States, especially from a political perspective. Drawing on work on political culture, the author will explore the nature of this American influence. Specifically, the author will analyze both its historical dimension dating back to the birth of the province, as well as its contemporary dimension within political parties, such as the Reform Party under Preston Manning and the Conservative Party under Stephen Harper, including a consideration of the question of neo-conservatism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the interaction of different modes and levels of legitimacy within network governance institutions over time. Drawing on new theoretical directions in European governance studies and empirical findings from Canada, we contend that whereas input legitimacy can be exchanged, or traded-off, with output legitimacy to reinforce the overall legitimacy of a network governance institution, “throughput legitimacy” functions as a necessary condition that sustains legitimacy over time. Through a comparison of homelessness governance networks in Toronto and Calgary, we find that throughput legitimacy carries an amplification effect that results in either virtuous or vicious cycles. That is, we argue and demonstrate that low throughput legitimacy in network governance institutions can effectively bring down the whole house of cards. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses Fourth Session of the 29th Legislature of Alberta resumed on October 29, 2018. Topics discussed include the sitting dominated by the Trans Mountain Expansion Pipeline issue, introduction of bill, An Act to Protect Patients, for limiting the health professionals in regaining professional licences if found guilty of unprofessional conduct based on sexual abuse and amendment of the membership of several legislative committees.

The Province of Alberta seems an unlikely early advocate of multiculturalism; yet, several months before the federal government unveiled its official policy on this issue, it was an Alberta premier, Harry Strom, who demanded that multiculturalism be a condition for constitutional reform during the 1971 Victoria Constitutional Conference. What explains this puzzle? Using William Riker's concept of heresthetics and the literature on Alberta politics, Western alienation, and Canadian federalism, the authors argue that Strom introduced multiculturalism at the conference as a strategic manoeuvre to bolster and defend Alberta's compact perspective on federalism and to block any constitutional change that would prevent Alberta from recognizing itself as an equal and autonomous partner in the Canadian federation. The authors' findings suggest that Riker's concept of heresthetics may be useful for analyzing other instances of intergovernmental relations in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores the influence of religion on the political thought of three key leaders from Alberta's political history and its subsequent impact on both the populist movements they led and the broader political development of Alberta. Although significant theological differences existed between the religious outlooks of Henry Wise Wood of the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) on the one hand, and William Aberhart and Ernest Manning of Alberta Social Credit on the other, both of these views were built atop an individualistic evangelical Christian foundation that differed in important ways from the social gospel movement prevalent on the Canadian Prairies in the first half of the twentieth century. This shared individualistic theology helped to generate varying levels of antipathy towards state-led collectivist arrangements in both the UFA and Alberta Social Credit, eventually blossoming into Manning's outright vilification of socialism in the 1950s and 1960s. The essay concludes with some thoughts on the relationship between these religion-based streams of political thought and Alberta's broader political trajectory in general and its consistent rejection of left-leaning political parties in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To fulfil a political promise to eliminate the provincial fiscal deficit, the (conservative) Premier of Alberta cut all budgets by roughly 20 per cent in 1993–1994. As an unanticipated by-product, this political solution to a political problem resulted in a 32 per cent decrease in provincial imprisonment between 1993 and 1997. Economic imperatives created the catalyst for changes in imprisonment policies. However, the types of change and the mechanisms for achieving them reflected Canada’s specific history, culture and politico-legal structures. Decarceration was consistent with core Canadian values rooted in the long-standing belief in the need for restraint in the use of imprisonment and a lack of faith in its effectiveness as a crime control strategy. On the surface, this case study is yet another example of decarceration. However, the interactive and multifactorial explanatory model underlying Alberta’s reduction in its prison population raises questions about not only single factors or simple additive models as explanations for changes in penal policies but also uni-dimensional solutions to jurisdictions in need of fiscal restraint. The historical and cultural embeddedness of Alberta’s decarceration alerts us to its country-specific nature and the need to situate imprisonment in a broader set of concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selecting participants is a key component in the design, operation, and outcomes of public-deliberation events to reflect the diversity of opinion in the larger public. This article examines how the City of Edmonton selected the members of its Citizen Panel on budget priorities in 2009 to inform Edmonton's 2010-2011 budget. The organizers relied on random selection stratified by gender, age, length of residence in the city, educational attainment, and income. This article also reports on the findings from pre-event and post-event public-opinion surveys sent to 5,000 citizens. It argues that the selection method for the Citizen Panel was justified because there were distinct views on key issues among different groups of citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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An analysis of current trends suggests that the delivery of policing services in Canada is fundamentally shifting. In 2011, the Province of Alberta established the Law Enforcement Framework, which includes Calgary Transit peace officers who are responsible for the safety and security needs of transit customers and employees. This article examines the role of Calgary Transit peace officers and makes recommendations for their incorporation into a broader model of nodal governance in order to ensure that the Calgary Police Service maintains a legitimate, coordinating role for the provision of public safety in the City of Calgary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers miscellaneous information related to politics and the government of Alberta which includes 3rd session of the 29th legislature, fair and family-friendly workplace act and Government Motion 16. Topics discussed include how Private Members' Public Bills (PMPB) introduced were granted Royal Assent, fair and family-friendly workplaces act introduced by Minister of Labour, Christina Gray and Marianne Ryan be appointed as Alberta's ninth Ombudsman.

The thesis that Canada's original major political parties were also the principal entities that bound the federation together is a well-explored subject. Over the last four decades, the disappearance of any political party in Canada that can convincingly claim to perform that function arguably throws into doubt the utility of the thesis. In the present article, and focussing once again on the political evolution of Saskatchewan and Alberta, the author re-examines the case he earlier advanced for the pre-eminence of political parties as fundamental institutions for the maintenance of Canada's unity. He argues that this analysis gave inadequate attention to the structures and practices of federalism, an oversight that has grown more evident in light of the strains that have accompanied recent developments in federal-provincial relations, in particular between the centre and the "twin" provinces created by Parliament in 1905. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the determinants of participation of Edmonton-area municipalities in shared services arrangements for recreational and cultural services. Potential determinants emerge from the literature on inter-municipal collaborative arrangements, but this analysis extends the empirical work on the determinants of participation to encompass small municipalities and to consider the appeal of potential partners. The major finding is that, in the Edmonton environment (and likely in many others), municipal population size is the critical determinant of participation, and participation is inversely related to population size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article compares the economic, social, and political outcomes of the hosting of sports mega-events in Canada to the outcomes of hosting such events in Japan, including discussions of the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Quebec; the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta; and the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Economic difficulties and political uncertainty following the Montreal Olympics are noted, and the impact of the Olympics on tourism is described. Other topics include the impact of hosting the Olympics on cities' reputations and on national identity, and the lack of benefit that lower-income citizens see from Olympic-related business.

The May 7, Alberta, Canada, provincial election saw the end of the current longest surviving democratic government. The Alberta Tories, at the 43-year mark, had survived recessions, mediocre leadership, and institutionalized hubris during that period, but a political "perfect storm" not only defeated them, but replaced them by a come-from-nowhere New Democratic Party (socialist) majority government. Much to the delight of many eastern Canadians, the Alberta Tories have had their comedownance. History has not been kind to inexperienced socialist governments, but the Alberta NDP has some prospective advantages, especially if the Great Recession finally ends. The relevance for federal Tories and NDP is more problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how the Alberta government used litigation--the JL Alberta Exported Gas Tax Reference--as part of its efforts to combat the federal government's National Energy Program (NEP) in the early 1980s. The decision gave the Alberta government new legal resources that were subsequently parlayed into political resources when the Alberta government used the decision to help negotiate a better energy deal with Ottawa. The introduction of the NEP in the October 1980 federal budget followed a series of unsuccessful meetings between Alberta and the federal Liberal government to arrive at a mutually agreeable energy policy.