Members of Alberta’s labour relations community were scratching their heads Monday and Tuesday about Bill 5, the Public Sector Employer Amendment Act, 2023, last on the list of the first five bills to be introduced by the United Conservative Party (UCP) in the new session of the provincial Legislature that began Monday.
Public sector employers and unions were not expecting legislation in this area, and as a result speculation was rife about what Bill 5 could mean.
Here’s some, starting with a question: Is the Smith Government proceeding with its plan to implement parts of the separatist Free Alberta Strategy during this session?
There wasn’t a hint of this in the campaign leading up to the May 29 Alberta election, of course.
In fact, there were concerted, deceptive efforts by Premier Danielle Smith and many UCP candidates to deny that any such game was afoot – especially when it came to the plan to hijack the Albertans’ retirement savings in the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and create a huge slush fund to keep the fossil fuel industry on life support as the world electrifies.
Although by now on the radar of 90 per cent of the adults in Alberta, Premier Smith’s planned CPP grab was also not mentioned in Monday’s Throne Speech.
So why would amendments to the Public Sector Employers Act be required or desired? After all, under former Premier Jason Kenney the UCP had already given itself near-absolute power to secretly direct all public-sector bargaining, despite the fact that amounts to prima facie evidence of bargaining in bad faith.
This question is especially pertinent since many changes to employment law can be implemented through regulation, and do not require legislation to be passed by the Legislature.
Well, there’s the so-called Free Alberta Strategy – one of whose three authors is Rob Anderson, the former Wildrose Party House Leader who is Premier Smith’s ideological Svengali and conveniently also the executive director of her office.
In addition to calling for the creation of an Alberta Revenue Agency to collect all provincial taxes (a massive expense and huge red-tape hassle for Albertans if it ever comes about), on page 26 the separatist manifesto calls for creation of an “Office of the Alberta Public Sector Employer.”
It states:
Create the Office of the Alberta Public Sector Employer (“APSE”), which would become the official payor of all Alberta public sector employees. There would be no changes of to any collective bargaining agreements, salaries, pensions, or other benefits for these workers as negotiated by their current provincially funded public employers. The only change would be that the APSE would become the provincial agency issuing their paycheck [sic] (much like a private corporation paying its staff through an independent payroll company). The APSE would then remit these withholdings to the Alberta Revenue Agency.
Late Tuesday, the government sent a notice to media saying Finance Minister Nate Horner would hold an embargoed news conference the following morning saying he is about to “introduce two bills that propose a new governance model for public sector compensation and would help ensure Alberta’s tax system remains up to date.” (In the language of public relations, “remains up to date” can mean anything.)
Putting aside the absurdity of an “embargoed news conference,” does this mean the Smith Government indeed intends to introduce this aspect of the Free Alberta Strategy – which would be more accurately termed the “Free Alberta agenda” – in the form of Bill 5?
That is not immediately clear. Horner’s message to media speaks of two bills. Really this could be anything from a couple of minor administrative matters to another outrageous attempt like the UCP’s pension policy to create a constitutional crisis and upset the apple cart of Confederation.
There is no question, though, that creating a massive and redundant new government bureaucracy to pay all public employees would avoid the hurdle now faced by Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe’s attempt at overturning the rule of law. At least Alberta’s government wouldn’t have to ask executives of Alberta Health Services to violate criminal law if the UCP decided not to pass federal taxes on to Ottawa. They will have created their own political/financial agency to break it.
Then, presumably, they could use their unconstitutional Sovereignty Act to say they were entitled to break federal laws, even the Criminal Code – and we Albertans would have a chance to find out if Smith was telling the truth in October 2022 when she pledged to abide by any decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada involving the legislation. Anderson made the same promise at about the same time.
Otherwise, I guess, the UCP’s best chance might be to use ATB Financial to create the constitutional crisis they clearly desire.
Whatever the purpose of Bill 5 turns out to be, there is much more extremely troubling stuff in the openly separatist Free Alberta screed, including calls to drop out of the Canada Health Act and Employment Insurance, create that Alberta pension plan, unconstitutionally declare Alberta’s courts to be independent of Supreme Court oversight, set up a fake diplomatic corps, and, on page 38, adopt a strategy to “prepare Alberta for national political sovereignty should … independence become the only viable option for the province.
“In short, it sets up Alberta for independence in the event that independence must be considered.”
Their words, not mine.
Anderson’s Free Alberta co-authors are lawyer Derek From, whose potted biography boasts that his legal specialties include “firearms rights,” and University of Calgary political scientist and right-wing commentator Barry Cooper. Dr. Cooper has notoriously stated that “precisely the idea” of the pension grab is “to inflict a little pain on Canada.”
None of this should surprise anyone. It’s been obvious almost from the day Smith launched her campaign to lead the UCP that the former right-wing talk radio host had the potential to lead the party to a dark place. From here on, though, Albertans need to start paying attention to the separatist project that now animates the governing party and measure all UCP policies against the Free Alberta agenda’s dangerous potential to create the constitutional crisis advocated by Dr. Cooper.
Support rabble today!
We’re so glad you stopped by! Thanks for consuming rabble content this year.
rabble.ca is 100% reader and donor funded, so as an avid reader of our content, we hope you will consider gifting rabble with a donation during our summer fundraiser today.
Whether it be a one-time donation or a small monthly contribution, your support is critical to keep rabble writers producing the work you’ve come to rely on as a part of a healthy media diet.
Become a rabble rouser — donate to rabble.ca today.
Nick Seebruch, editor
