CHARBONNEAU – Premier Smith waffles on federal help to cities

ALBERTA PREMIER Danielle Smith must wake up each morning and think: How can I stick it to the feds today?

That’s the purpose of Smith’s Bill 18, the Provincial Priorities Act, which would prevent provincial municipalities, school boards and universities from entering into funding agreements directly with the federal government.

The bill would also include trivial matters such as leases on RCMP buildings, Canada Post mailboxes, and Canada Day celebration costs.

If you don’t like what Smith is saying, wait awhile and it will change.

A few years ago Smith was in favour of independent cities. On a podcast she said: “We should have our municipal levels of government be able to be sovereign in the decisions that they make that are within their municipal boundaries.” she said at the time.

Her new law is precisely the opposite of that.

As evidence of just how political Bill 18 is, her attitude would change if Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was to become prime minister. Smith said she has no problem with Poilievre’s proposal to give municipalities a building bonus to incentivize housing construction — so long as he goes through her provincial government.

Of course she has to add the last bit, about going through her government, in a vain attempt not to look completely political.

She can’t shake the talk-show host mentality. Smith imagines her role is to stir the pot, keep the anger towards Trudeau and Liberals simmering. She wants to make sure that no credit is given to the Trudeau government in its initiatives to streamline housing construction.

Federal Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Sean Fraser has been hard at work – coaxing, cajoling and pushing cities into making it easier to build housing, using the $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund as a carrot.

Much to Smith’s chagrin, 179 Canadian municipalities have signed agreements with Ottawa, each promising to amend their planning rules to make it easier to build multi-unit housing in more places.

In a display of paranoia, Smith worries that Alberta municipalities are going for the carrot.

In January, her Minister of Municipal Affairs ordered cities and towns to report back to the province detailing all agreements they have with Ottawa.

She wants municipalities to disclose mundane agreements that could include anything from leases on RCMP buildings, to Canada Post mailboxes and Canada Day celebration costs.

Why wouldn’t municipalities accept badly needed money to house the homeless in their towns and cities?

She’s afraid that she is losing grip of municipalities.

Municipalities are pushing back at Smith’s paranoia and her demand to know federal agreements.

“It becomes somewhat pedantic to ask these questions,” said Paul McLaughlin, president of Rural Municipalities of Alberta. “We have a fruitful relationship with the federal government and the provincial government and will continue to do so. We never want to be caught between the two.”

“Is this a command control move? Is this someone who knows better than we do?” McLaughlin wondered.

Stay tuned for Smith’s next flip flop. She would do well to ditch the talk-show chatter and study the statesmanship of Alberta premiers such as Peter Lougheed.

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.