That gratuitous shot that Premier Christy Clark’s throne speech took at Alberta’s fiscal mismanagement ricocheted around the B.C. and Alberta governments Wednesday.
And while there were a lot of wide-eyed, innocent denials in B.C. that it was meant as a dig (“some of my best friends are from Alberta,” etc.), there was also a pointed reference to the number of homeless people from Alberta now in B.C.
In a section about how fragile the economy is and how big the challenges are, Alberta was held up as an example of how not to run a province.
“Over the decades, Alberta lost its focus. They expected their resource boom to never end, failed to diversify their economy and lost control of government spending.”
The remarks are generally pretty accurate. But it’s not the kind of thing you point out to your neighbour, particularly from the elevated platform of an agenda-setting throne speech. The “decades” reference makes it clear she’s talking over the long haul, which includes a succession of Conservative governments.
But over five years in office, Clark hasn’t really spent much time dwelling on Alberta’s mismanagement. It just became worthy of noting this week. That’s partly because the province has plunged into serious financial trouble, verging on crisis.
It’s also because Alberta now has an NDP government. Premier Rachel Notley had nothing to do with all that lack of focus. She has been premier for just nine months.
Nonetheless, the idea of an NDP government grappling with a dismal economy brought on by overspending is an irresistible contrast for Clark, no matter who was responsible. Notley is going to be a punching bag for the B.C. Liberals, regardless of how little she had to do with all of the problems now on her desk.
Clark had a “frosty” relationship with former premier Alison Redford for much of the three years their terms overlapped. Then it turned “fabulous” during Jim Prentice’s brief term ending last May, to the point where Clark endorsed him for re-election. Now it looks to be “fraught,” as in, with peril.
There was another line in the speech about how B.C.’s carbon tax is revenue-neutral, “not an opportunistic reach into taxpayers’ wallets.” A sensitive Albertan might read that as another shot, although it could have been aimed at the B.C. NDP.
Hours after the throne speech, Clark spoke at a party fundraiser at the Victoria Conference Centre and got off another line about Alberta, a joke about how governments there are always making “solemn oaths to do something about their terrible spending habits.”
The Alberta government waved off the slight Wednesday, saying it was a reference to the past, not the present. That generous interpretation of the nuances in potshots coming from over the Rockies isn’t going to last.
Housing Minister Rich Coleman was asked about the reference and said: “I don’t think it was a shot at anybody.”
But then he started in on “the reality” of the biggest upsurge of winter homelessness in the past seven years.
“We track it, and a lot of it is in-migration from people coming from other jurisdictions, particularly Alberta.”
He said everybody knows the province is being rocked. Previous governments were rich, built things they didn’t need, weren’t frugal and “now it’s all coming home to roost.”
Energy Minister Bill Bennett is from the East Kootenay, closer to Alberta than most. He said: “For a long time there was some of that kind of stuff coming across the Rockies our way.”
He recalled the old Alberta joke that B.C. means “Bring Cash.”
“I guess there’s a little bit of it going back the other way; I think it’s harmless.”
Bennett is trying to get Ottawa to fund a billion-dollar power line that would allow B.C. Hydro to sell to Alberta. A side-argument about Alberta’s mismanagement doesn’t help that.
Whether it was just a neutral object lesson, or an ideological dig at a government that’s borrowed heavily from the B.C. NDP for brainpower, is still up for debate.
Coleman’s final oblique thoughts on the matter don’t exactly put the issue to rest.
“We’re all big folks, we all know what the politics are and we all know what we’re trying to say.”
