Although he wasn’t named to premier Jason Kenney’s cabinet, Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA-elect Glenn van Dijken remains upbeat and will focus on the needs of the constituency.
Kenney announced his cabinet in Edmonton April 30 and it includes 20 ministers and three associate ministers, one of whom will be devoted to the task of reducing red tape. Seven of the 23 members are returning MLAs, while the largest contingent comes from Calgary, with 13 members, including the premier himself. The cabinet has seven women, while Edmonton’s lone UCP MLA, Kaycee Madu, was also named.
Cabinet’s lone northern Alberta MLA is finance minister Travis Toews, the MLA-elect for Grande Prairie-Wapiti. Southern Alberta has only one rural representative, Grant Hunter, the MLA-elect for Taber-Warner, who was named associate minister in charge of reducing government red tape.
“At the end of the day we have a very qualified caucus and a very qualified cabinet. I’m happy to help serve in whatever capacity I can. I believe we have a government that’s possibly one of the most qualified that we’ve ever seen in Alberta,” said van Dijken May 4, taking time away from work on his farm. “Not everybody can be in cabinet, let’s put it that way.”
van Dijken, who’s in his second term as an MLA, said not having a portfolio will allow him more time to focus on the needs of his constituency.
“We have a very large riding and this gives me a little bit more ability to work within the constituency — that part I’m glad about. We have nine counties in this riding and seven towns so there’s a ton of work to do just within the constituency,” he said.
“One thing that has become very evident to me is that there’s a real need for rural Alberta to have strong representation and that’s what I believe my role is in this term.”
Other appointments included a parliamentary secretary of immigration, the house and deputy-house leaders and the party whip and deputy whip. The new session of the Legislature begins May 21, when van Dijken will be sworn in.
“We have three days of caucus meetings next week and then on the 21st the UCP caucus gets sworn in. And that afternoon we’ll elect a speaker and then on the 22nd there’ll be a speech from the throne and the session will begin and we’ll get down to business.”
Carbon tax ruling
One of the UCP’s election promises was to repeal Alberta’s carbon tax brought in by the former NDP government.
In a split decision released May 3, Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal ruled that the carbon tax imposed on the province by the federal government is constitutionally sound and falls within the legislative authority of Parliament.
Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe said the decision will be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, while Kenney says Alberta will join Saskatchewan in its appeal — Kenney said his government is currently reviewing the 155-page decision.
Lawyers for the Moe provincial government had argued the tax is unfair and unconstitutional. The decision was not unanimous as three judges ruled in favour of the federal government while two ruled the law was wholly unconstitutional. The federal government’s carbon price starts at a minimum of $20 a tonne and is to rise $10 each year until 2022.
“The balls are definitely still in the air,” said van Dijken on the split decision. “I truly believe Canadians will make their decision in October (the date of the federal election) if the federal government is going down the right road. What we’ve been saying all along that a retail carbon tax on consumers in Canada is a failed policy … a flawed policy.
“Unless the globe is willing to have that discussion, we’re just shooting ourselves in the foot and not accomplishing anything. We can’t think that a carbon tax is a climate policy.”
