Alberta NDP screws up yet again

[logicalview]

Folks, this is why you never vote NDP. Period.

Thomson: NDP MLAs refuse to take some good advice

Oops.

Just when you thought the NDP government was perhaps ready to take the training wheels off, you realize they might need training wheels on the front as well. Helmets and face shields wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

They’re still a bit wobbly.

On Thursday, the NDP members of an all-party legislative committee managed to do a face plant, not once, but twice. And to add insult to injury, they did it while the Wildrose members of the committee were warning the government members to stop, take a breath and think before charging ahead.

At issue was a 7.25 per cent raise for independent officers of the legislature — people such as the auditor general, the ethics commissioner and the chief electoral officer.

Everybody on the 11-member committee thinks the independent officers do important work and they do it well. But in a time of fiscal restraint, with a burgeoning government deficit, should public servants get a 7.25 per cent raise comprised of a five per cent wage hike on top of a 2.25 per cent cost-of-living allowance?

Keep in mind the officers already make between $148,000 and $273,000 a year.

The NDP MLAs thought the pay hike was fair and necessary. Their reasoning is murky — the portion of the committee meeting dealing with the debate over the pay hike was done in camera.

What we do know is they approved a ridiculously generous raise — and then they voted to send themselves on a taxpayer-funded junket to Boston.

Besides an understandable public backlash, the story is remarkable for a number of reasons.

One is that the NDP MLAs could be so politically tone deaf they didn’t think of the terrible optics of approving such a large pay increase when the province is going through tough times.

The second is that the Wildrose members on the committee didn’t see their heads explode from sheer frustration.

They — as well as the one PC MLA on the committee, Manmeet Bhullar — practically pleaded with the NDP to reduce the hike to just the 2.25 per cent cost-of-living allowance for the officers.

“While I certainly appreciate the work that they do,” said Wildrose MLA Nathan Cooper, “now is not the time to be raising the cost of wages for members that serve the legislature or, quite frankly, in the public service either.”

Cooper was proposing a reasonable compromise, just as Wildrose MLA Glenn van Dijken suggested the committee send two people rather than four to a convention of the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws in Boston in December (the opposition members all refused to go on the trip).

The NDP members rejected the opposition’s sage advice and furiously pedalled themselves over a cliff and into a maelstrom of public outrage.

Within hours, a politically battered and bruised committee chair, NDP MLA Denise Woollard, announced, “I will be calling this committee back together in the coming week to reconsider this decision.”

Translation: We screwed up big time.

There are echoes here of a controversy involving an all-party legislative committee last February, when the PCs were in control. Back then, the committee voted to increase the budget of the auditor general’s office, but was ordered by then-Premier Jim Prentice to reverse the hike.

The opposition at the time — including the NDP — attacked Prentice for improperly interfering with the work of an independent committee of the legislature.

This time around, NDP officials deny Premier Rachel Notley had anything to do with Woollard’s sudden about face. Woollard, they say, simply saw the error of her ways after the meeting.

Next week, the committee will reconvene to do what the opposition said they should have done in the first place.

They should also make sure the government’s training wheels are on good and tight.

http://calgaryherald.com/opinion/column ... ood-advice

[GrooveTunes]

Within hours, a politically battered and bruised committee chair, NDP MLA Denise Woollard, announced, “I will be calling this committee back together in the coming week to reconsider this decision.”

Bravo. They "may" reconsider. Unlike the Harper CONS who totally ignore the tax payers and have given MPs a raise how many times? Or made their pensions secure for life while taking steps to cut public pensions!

Nice try.

[maple leaf]

Reminds me of the first thing Christy Clark did when she won the last election ,and wanted to give out big raises to her staff and had to back track on that.

[flamingfingers]

^ I agree. It is to the Alberta NDP's credit to reconsider their proposal which has been seen in the public light as opposed to the closed door arbitrary and cronyism actions of the ChristyLiberals in rewarding their friends and gleaning 'friendly donations' to the BC Liberal Party.

[logicalview]

^ I agree. It is to the Alberta NDP's credit to reconsider their proposal which has been seen in the public light as opposed to the closed door arbitrary and cronyism actions of the ChristyLiberals in rewarding their friends and gleaning 'friendly donations' to the BC Liberal Party.

Just as I expected, I post what is an obvious condemnation of the ineptitude and stupidity of the NDP in Alberta (surprise!) and the NDP nattering nabobs show up and somehow make it all about Christy Clark and Stephen Harper. How typical.

I did laugh though that somehow you want to bestow credit on the NDP in Alberta for reconsidering what was an insanely stupid decision in the first place, and one that they were told not to do by everyone else. Then, their decision goes to Notley, who tells them to reverse the decision, and then they lie about it and say that they somehow magically just changed their minds, without speaking to Notley. Making bad decisions, and then lying about why they changed their minds and decided to reconsider. Yes, full credit to the NDP in Alberta all right. But this is what you get when you elect a team of Starbucks baristas, man-made climate change activists and union bozos as your government. A bunch of bums who don't have the first clue about how to govern.

And their decision to go to the conference in Boston? I've yet to meet an NDP'er who didn't want to waste gobs of taxpayer money on five star junkets. Perhaps Jenny Kwan is consulting for them?

[flamingfingers]

^So now you are saying that the Alta government should NOT have changed their minds?
Are you saying that only the NDP make poor decisions? You probably should not go down that road, LV.
And do you want to suggest that ONLY the NDP spend 'gobs' of taxpayer money on 5-star junkets? You probably should avoid that road as well, LV.

[GrooveTunes]

Just as I expected, I post what is an obvious condemnation of the ineptitude and stupidity of the NDP in Alberta (surprise!) and the NDP nattering nabobs show up and somehow make it all about Christy Clark and Stephen Harper. How typical.

I did laugh though that somehow you want to bestow credit on the NDP in Alberta for reconsidering what was an insanely stupid decision in the first place, and one that they were told not to do by everyone else. Then, their decision goes to Notley, who tells them to reverse the decision, and then they lie about it and say that they somehow magically just changed their minds, without speaking to Notley. Making bad decisions, and then lying about why they changed their minds and decided to reconsider. Yes, full credit to the NDP in Alberta all right. But this is what you get when you elect a team of Starbucks baristas, man-made climate change activists and union bozos as your government. A bunch of bums who don't have the first clue about how to govern.

And their decision to go to the conference in Boston? I've yet to meet an NDP'er who didn't want to waste gobs of taxpayer money on five star junkets. Perhaps Jenny Kwan is consulting for them?

[/quote]

:)...please don't post at dinner time. I almost choked laughing. :)

By the way...do you live in Alberta?

[mr.bandaid]

Hey don't blame starbucks! My bet is there are some college professors in there too.

[maple leaf]

What LV complains about in Alberta,he supports in BC provincially ,pretty funny all right.

[logicalview]

^So now you are saying that the Alta government should NOT have changed their minds?

No, what I am saying is that I agree with the article. That the current NDP government in Alberta is made up of really dumb people, who seem driven more by ideology than by understanding their environment and what best practices are in terms of governing. And from what the article says, they seem to have a long way to go in that regard. Because the NDP seems to really attract only very dumb people.

Are you saying that only the NDP make poor decisions?

No. But it does seem that the NDP makes the worst decisions. Driven by their own ideologies and the fact that they aren't very bright. Which is why the NDP rarely last more than one term, because voters and the general public are fed up with their really really bad decisions, and kow-towing to unions, as was demonstrated in 1998 by Glen Clark when he and Adrian Dix bent over for the BCTF and gave them class size and composition rights, a mess that BC is still trying to clean up 17 years later.

You probably should not go down that road, LV.

Why not? You should probably not tell other posters what roads to go down, given how bad the roads you travel are.

And do you want to suggest that ONLY the NDP spend 'gobs' of taxpayer money on 5-star junkets?

No, I am saying that the NDP love 5-star junkets. Almost as much as Quebec politicians do, and that's a lot. Why are the Alberta NDP going to a five star junket in Boston? When they are in a period of fiscal restraint? That's what the article is pointing out. The NDP just don't get it. No, you don't need to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars right now on a junket to Boston. You idiots.

[logicalview]

:)...please don't post at dinner time. I almost choked laughing. :)

Then I would suggest that you shouldn't read articles exposing how dumb the NDP are while you are eating. I agree it is funny in a sad kind of way. A lot of people held out hope that maybe, just maybe, this version of the NDP in Alberta wouldn't be mind-numbingly stupid like so many other versions of the NDP. It appears that hope is fading fast.

By the way...do you live in Alberta?

No. The author of the article does though, and that article is the topic of this thread, not Stephen Harper, not Christie Clark, not you choking on your vegan meal, and not where posters live.

[logicalview]

What LV complains about in Alberta,he supports in BC provincially ,pretty funny all right.

I'm not sure where you got the idea that I support the NDP here in BC (who by the way appear just as dumb as the NDP in Alberta, or worse). But to set the record straight, no I don't support the NDP in either province, mostly because they are a terrible party that just can't govern to save its life. The NDP is just plain awful, and this article was a good illustration of that.

[maple leaf]

*removed*

[The Green Barbarian]

Hopefully this is on topic, as it relates to the NDP in Alberta. Which is a far cry from most of the posts in this thread, which seem to be from the usual suspects with a serious and sickly fascination with Christy Clark.

Canada's NDP future? See Alberta

Canadians who care to look will see what a federal NDP government would look like by examining the actions of Alberta’s new NDP government under Premier Rachel Notley.

Outwardly, Notley and her cabinet give the impression of being ideologically reasonable and fiscally prudent, just as federal New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair is doing.

But it’s a mask. It’s socialism with a smiling face.

Now that Notley’s provincial Dippers are safely in power, their radical side is beginning to show.

In their first three months in office, the Notley Crue announced higher taxes for the upper-middle-class, a 20% spike in business taxes, a 33% increase in emissions taxes, $1 billion more in health and education spending (already among the highest in Canada), a willingness to let environmentalists dictate oilsands policy and an unwillingness to push pipeline construction with other provinces.

But this week, without the Alberta legislature even being in session, the NDP decided to take its social-democrat agenda up another notch (or two).

First, Environment Minister Shannon Phillips conceded the new government is considering a carbon tax, higher gasoline taxes and much higher vehicle registration fees to encourage Albertans to get out of their personal vehicles – or at least to buy smaller ones and drive them less.

These “incentives and disincentives” (those all sound like disincentives) are being considered because the Alberta NDP, just like their federal cousins, are consumed with climate change alarmism.

Facing a deficit this year that the NDP have already admitted will be the largest in Alberta history after considering inflation and population, the Notley government has begun hinting broadly that its new taxes on “the rich” and on evil corporations may not be enough.

To keep an expected $6.5-billion deficit from ballooning to as much as $9 billion, the NDP have started sending signals that all manner of sin, consumer and middle-class taxes, fees and surcharges may be in the works when they finally get around to bringing down a budget.

(The Alberta budget has been delayed until after the federal election so any controversy it may generate does not harm Mulcair’s chances federally.)

Premier Notley also admitted last Sunday her government plans to add even more than the extra $1 billion it has already authorized for “core services.”

In the coming budget, health, education and welfare will get huge boosts.

Whenever, you hear anyone talk about increasing public spending in Alberta, remember this: Even under the supposedly miserly Tories, Alberta’s per capita public spending was the highest in the country, with the possible exception of Newfoundland and Labrador.

At $11,800 per person, Alberta’s spending is $2,500 more than B.C.’s each year for every man, woman and child.

It is $3,000 above Ontario’s and even $3,700 above Quebec’s.

The point is, if Notley’s NDP feels the need to run deficits and borrow money so it can increase the already huge amounts the Alberta government is spending, it cannot be the prudent fiscal managers it claims to be.

It is also proving that, like the NDP everywhere, it cannot be satisfied. No amount of tax dollars will ever be enough.

Finally, this week, Notley’s government went behind closed doors at a legislature committee to approve a 7.25% pay raise for senior civil servants earning between $243,000 a year and $272,000. And it is considering bigtime pay raises for all of the provinces 200,000 public-sector workers.

It might even contemplate pay raises for MLAs at a time when tens of thousands of oil industry workers are losing their jobs, the provincial economy is in recession and the government’s books are a mess.

So much for the new, moderate, responsible, transparent, accountable NDP.

http://www.torontosun.com/2015/09/26/ca ... ee-alberta

[mr.bandaid]

And who said that the NDP couldn't learn anything. Here in BC the Liberals gave themselves a nice fat raise 27% for MLA's and 35% for the Premier then went hat in hand to the public service workers claiming hard times and in some cases held their possibilities to 0 or as in the case of the HEU, rolled back their wages. Politicians will look after themselves first and in the case of the NDP in Alberta, it is probably going to be a one time thing so make as much as they can while they have power.