“Thomas Mulcair appears to be carrying on the tradition of eastern politicians pitting Alberta’s oil sands against the rest of the country for political gain. Our province and our country have endured no small amount of hardship and division while working towards the understanding that what’s good for Alberta’s oil sands is good for Canada. We still have some work to do, but by repeatedly attacking Alberta’s oil sands, Mr. Mulcair is threatening to undo a lot of the goodwill that has been fostered across the country. Alberta’s oil sands are an economic and technological achievement – the safest, most secure and reliable source of energy anywhere in the world. As a national leader, Mr. Mulcair should be promoting these facts, not attacking them.

“His comments should also serve as a stern reminder to Premier Alison Redford of the uninformed and dangerous attitudes that some in eastern Canada have about our province. She should consider their true implications as she insists on forging ahead with a so-called Canadian Energy Strategy.”

Horne’s comments were spurred by Ontario’s Premier Dalton McGuinty who earlier this week pleaded with provincial governments across the country calling for a united front on how much doctors are paid. 

“It is ludicrous to suggest that our valued front line workers in our health system are the ones who need to take a pay cut,” Forsyth said. “With millions of dollars wasted on layers of upper management and inefficiencies in delivering health services to Albertans, taking aim at how much doctors are paid is the wrong way to go.”

 Forsyth went on to add that Alberta should not waste resources and energy on forming a national health policy with the Premier of Ontario. 

“We need to commit to the eight hour wait time benchmark, we need to commit to long-term care nursing beds and we need to commit to hiring more family physicians,” Forsyth said. “What we don’t need is direction from Ontario on how to best improve our health system.” 

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As has been recently reported, several CFOs have attempted to set up ‘shadow gun registries’, including in the province of Alberta, after the federal Conservative government passed strong legislation to put an end to the costly and burdensome long-gun registry. 

The Wildrose proposal would make Alberta’s CFO answerable to the Solicitor General.  Currently the CFO is free to make decisions with respect to sales and permits – and in this case, registries – with no input from the provincial government.  Appointing our own CFO and administering the firearms program provincially, as British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, P.E.I and New Brunswick do, would trigger federal transfer payments to replace the current program being administered. 

“After several years of fighting for the rights of law-abiding gun owners to no longer be treated as criminals, our friends in Ottawa finally put an end to the wasteful long-gun registry,” Saskiw said. “Though our ties remain strong with the current federal government, we believe it is important to ensure interference by Ottawa bureaucrats does not become common practice in future years.” 

Saskiw also criticized the PC government and Premier Alison Redford’s soft stance on defending the rights of gun owners.  Early on this past year when visiting Quebec, the Premier defended the Quebec government who wanted to retain the data of law-abiding gun owners. 

“Redford and her Solicitor General have been slow to react and stand up for the rights of firearm owners,” Saskiw said.  “Albertans deserve a government that is willing to stand up on these issues rather than sit on the sidelines.” 

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As reported today, an excess of cheap electrical supply imported from British Columbia allowed for a brief period where the cost per megawatt-hour hit zero dollars between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. Monday morning.  

Anglin pointed out that residents on the regulated rate were suffering higher power prices during the winter months when costs were over-estimated and are still being hit hard now with their rate remaining more than twice as much as the actual cost of power. 

“The current power market primarily benefits power producers and continues to fail families and seniors, especially those who rely on fixed incomes,” Anglin said. “With the construction of unnecessary power lines along with extra costs being tacked onto Albertans’ power bills, there needs to be a more concerted effort to make sure competition and the market is working for consumers.” 

Anglin added that the Wildrose supports bringing new ideas to the energy market which include reducing future transmission costs for consumers, reforming how electricity is bought and sold to reduce price spikes and encouraging the reduction of power by offering tax rebates for those who invest in energy efficient measures. 

“It’s obvious that the current system we have in place is putting the interests of families and seniors on the backburner,” Anglin said. “For too long the PC government has sat idly by but it is our hope with their new government in place that we can work together to put forward much needed solutions.” 

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In a letter to Hancock, Anderson made a four-step proposal for how the new all-party Legislature Policy Committees could improve the legislative process: 

1. All substantive government bills should pass second reading in the spring sitting and then be referred to the appropriate Legislature Policy Committee.
2. The Committee would then take the remainder of the spring sitting and the summer recess to review each bill and seek input from affected stakeholders as well as all Albertans.
3. When session resumes for the fall sitting, each bill would then be debated in Committee of the Whole and in third reading incorporating the feedback from summer consultations.
4. During the fall sitting, the Legislature Policy Committees would hold pre-budget consultations, soliciting input and presenting findings to government in advance of the following year’s budget.

Anderson said Premier Redford’s proposal to create more meaningful all-party Legislature Policy Committees is a constructive step in the right direction, however, Albertans need some specifics on how these revamped Committees would work.

The Wildrose proposal would allow for more careful consideration of government business and give MLAs and regular Albertans a greater role in debating and improving legislation. 

“Our proposal will give regular Albertans and their elected representatives much more influence on the business of the Legislature regardless of which party their MLA belongs to or what position their MLA holds,” Anderson said. “Premier Redford has indicated she wants to improve how the Legislature operates and we certainly support that. We believe our proposals would go a long way toward achieving that goal.”

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POSITION:

Reporting to the Executive Committee and its representative, the Party President, the role of the Executive Director is to manage the day-to-day operations of the party. To do this, the Executive Director will have a budget for staffing and party operations, as approved annually by the Executive Committee.

FOCUS:

1. Customer / Member Service
2. Constituency Growth and Development
3. Maintaining and Cultivating a Professional Image of the Party
4. Assisting the Executive Committee and its members
5. Fundraising

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Preparing the annual party budget, with the assistance of the Treasurer, for the Executive Committee.
• Working with constituency associations to ensure they have the resources required to operate. This includes assisting with end of the year financial document filings, ensuring that they hold annual general meetings and follow the bylaws of the association.
• Assist in the planning and execution of the annual Leader’s dinners, the Annual General Meeting and any other major party initiatives as approved by the Executive Committee.
• Manage a party staff of between 4 and 15 members.
• Act as a liaison between the Party, the caucus, the Leader and the Executive Committee.
• Work with the fundraising committee to establish fundraising targets, methods and ensure that goals are being reached.
• Other responsibilities as required by the Party Compensation Committee or the Executive Committee. This list is in no way a comprehensive list of duties required.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• The applicant must have completed a post secondary educational program, complemented with at least 10 years of experience in a professional environment, with at least 5 years in a leadership role.
• Experience dealing with the media.
• Experience with budgeting is required, with preference given to those who have managed an annual budget of at least one million dollars.
• The applicant must also have experience fundraising, with preference given to those who have managed large scale fundraising campaigns of over one million dollars a year.
• Experience with managing staff of various experience levels is required.
• Experience being involved in the management of either a political organization or a campaign will be considered an asset but is not required.

OTHER:

• The applicant must possess their own vehicle and cellular phone which will be used for party business. Compensation will be provided for the use of both.
• Travel around the province will be required based on the need of the party.

COMPENSATION:

• Please indicate your salary expectations when submitting your resume and cover letter.

If you are interested in applying, please submit a cover letter and resume to edsearch@wildrose.ca by no later than May 30^th 2012. The Wildrose Alliance Political Party is an equal opportunity employer. All submissions will be considered, however only those advancing to the interview stage will be contacted.

In the letter Smith writes that she shares the Premier’s intention to improve decorum in the legislature while strengthening the constructive role of the opposition parties.  She also proposed a meeting with the Premier shortly before the House resumes to discuss these issues. 

The letter in its entirety can be viewed here. 

The three proposals include: 

Question Period

•   12 questions for the enlarged Official Opposition including the traditional first three daily questions

•   Two questions each for the Liberal and NDP opposition including questions 4 and 5 respectively

•   Government questions be moved to the end of Question Period as is tradition in many other jurisdictions including the current federal parliament 

Opposition Days

•   Introduce Opposition Days to the Alberta legislature, to be scheduled one afternoon every two weeks 

Official Opposition Office Space

•   The provisional arrangement we have been offered for office space is not adequate for fulfilling the role as the Official Opposition.  When a new Speaker is chosen the Wildrose requests to be moved into two adjoining floors.

The report shows that there are almost 1,500 seniors still on waiting lists for long term care beds across the province, of those 1,500, 489 are in acute care beds waiting for long term nursing beds. 

“Seniors deserve action from their government, instead of a government that continues to sit on its hands and fails to provide real solutions,” Wildrose Seniors Critic Kerry Towle said. “The proper investment needs to be made into long term care so our seniors are not asked to continue to wait in expensive and uncomfortable hospital rooms without getting the treatment they need.” 

On key wait time lists, the government is failing to meet many of their meager wait time targets.  Progress on hip and knee replacement surgeries remains stagnant while the benchmark to have patients admitted within 8 hours upon arriving at an ER continues to fall short. 

Wildrose Health Critic Heather Forsyth criticized the government for holding back this release until after the most recent election and said it reflects the PC government’s failure to respond to urgent needs and reforms that are needed in our health care system. 

“The lack of leadership on health care and lack of consultation with our health professionals by this government continues to produce unsatisfactory results,” Forsyth said.  “It’s time for this government to realize there is a problem with our health system and put forward some meaningful solutions.” 

The Wildrose Caucus stands for free enterprise, less government, increased personal freedom and democracy.

Major’s recommended base MLA salary of $134,000 is reasonable, Anderson said, but should be fully taxable. 

“Albertans pay tax on 100% of their salaries, MLAs should be no different,” Anderson said. “And a defined-benefit pension plan is nothing more than a lifelong entitlement for MLAs and should be avoided at all costs. It’s great that he’s recommended scrapping the RRSP contributions, but swapping it for a gold-plated defined-benefit pension is the wrong way to go.” 

Anderson said if a pension plan is brought in, it should be similar to other defined-contribution plans in the public sector. He also said the recommendation to cap transition allowances is sound, but the rate should be one month’s pay for every year of service up to the 12-year maximum instead of Major’s recommended two month’s pay. 

“This recommendation looks an awful lot like the proposed Wildrose bill that the PCs voted down last year,” Anderson said. “It’s a good start, but two month’s pay for every year is still higher than most severance packages in the private sector. It should be lower.” 

The Wildrose Caucus stands for free enterprise, less government, increased personal freedom and democracy.

EDMONTON, AB (May 1, 2012): Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith today announced the Wildrose Official Opposition critic roster. 

“Wildrose campaigned on the slogan ‘new ideas that put Albertans first’, and more than one-third of Albertans rallied to that cause,” said Smith, noting that Wildrose earned more votes than any other opposition party in Alberta history on April 23. 

“Today, we are united, excited and emboldened by the strong mandate we have been entrusted with to hold Alison Redford’s government to account over the next four years.” 

Smith said the Wildrose Official Opposition will work towards balanced budgets, saving for the future, fixing the broken public health care system, supporting families and seniors, and improving democracy, accountability and ethics in government. 

Among the major critic roles, Rob Anderson and Heather Forsyth will return to their chief critic portfolios of Finance and Health, respectively. Anderson will also return as House Leader. Bruce McAllister (Chestermere-Rocky View) will be Education Critic, Kerry Towle (Innisfail-Sylvan Lake) will be Seniors Critic and Whip, Shayne Saskiw (Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills) will be Critic for Justice and Solicitor General, and Jason Hale (Strathmore-Brooks) will serve as Energy Critic. 

“While we will not needlessly oppose the Redford PCs, we intend to use our role as Official Opposition to ensure that Albertans’ voices are clearly heard in the Alberta Legislature,” Smith said.  

The critic roster in its entirety can be viewed here .

The Wildrose Caucus stands for free enterprise, less government, increased personal freedom and democracy.