The Dangers of Self Interest

Yesterday Derek Fildebrandt resigned from the UCP Caucus.

The 31 year old Fildebrandt is known for his fiery outbursts as much as his libertarian values and his criticism of government regulations. The former Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation which ironically advocates for greater government accountability, was found to have rented out his taxpayer-subsided accommodations, double dipped on expense accounts, and claimed a housing allowance for an apartment he shared with a co-worker. He is currently charged with a hit and run accident in his condo parking lot.

In a statement ripe with irony Mr. Fildebrandt kinda sorta accepts responsibility for his actions.

I have worked for more than a year to help create the United Conservative Party, because Alberta needs a new government that can fight for the common-sense priorities of regular people.

During the fight for unification I said that we must put Alberta before our party, and before ourselves.

This young party cannot afford to be distracted from the formative period that it is in right now as we come together as conservatives. I owe that to my colleagues, my party members, my constituents, and all Albertans.

Right now, media controversy is distracting from the work that must be done as the UCP is founded. The UCP Leadership race should be focused on issues of leadership and values, and not on personalities.

I have made honest mistakes – always doing what I believed was best at the time – and I accept responsibility, and am truly sorry.

Honest mistakes? 

You can make a mistake once but when you keep making them, it's a pattern of behaviour. Not a mistake.

Leadership?

This is a man whose own website states he has consistently stood for free speech and personal responsibility yet blames the media instead of himself as his reason to quit caucus. The same free press that somehow implies he is a victim by calling him both "embattled" and "beleaguered" instead of a man whose errors are of his own making. 

Values? 

This is a man who called for a wage freeze for all  government employees and scorned an increase in the minimum wage while earning more than $138,000 a year as an MLA.

This is a man who "led the fight against the abuse of taxpayers’ money" yet has now abused that same taxpayer dollar to line his own pockets.

A man who instead of initially taking  responsibility for his actions, claimed  there was a smear campaign against him- a juvenile response that  indicates he feels "it's only wrong if you get caught." 

Fildebrandt is a self-proclaimed conservative and libertarian. He believes in acting in self interest but his also believes there should be very few regulations governing human behaviour. 

If the ideologies of conservatism and libertarianism are combined, all citizens require a moral compass to guide their actions. If that moral compass does not exist, laws must be in place.  Unfortunately, Mr. Fildebrandt has demonstrated that those laws must be detailed as the "letter of the law" is not enough. Apparently, for people like him, it needs to be spelled out that you cannot claim the same expense twice. It needs to be explained that you cannot receive a housing allowance and then rent out that same accommodation for profit.  You cannot share an apartment with a colleague and then both claim it as an expense.

His actions clearly exemplify the flaws in his ideology. If one is encouraged to act in self-interest, how do we preserve the common good? If we maximize personal autonomy, how do we protect society from those who choose to bend the rules? 

Mr. Fildebrandt may have left the caucus, but the ideology he espouses remains. 

The ones who went before

"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it," said George Santayana. 

I hope we learn from history. Otherwise why teach it? I hope people are able to take away some positives from disasters and tragedies. 

We wanted people to learn about our Slave Lake story. That was one reason we wrote The Sky was on Fire:Slave Lake's Story of Disaster, Exodus and New Beginnings.  In fact, the reviewer at the St. Albert Gazette called it "a cautionary tale that all Albertans should read."

High Level is in my thoughts. I wonder if Alberta has learned anything from our Slave Lake story.

THEN When fires struck Slave Lake on May 15 of 2011, "fire season" had just begun. Water bombers had just arrived at our tanker base. It was a dreadfully dry year. There was speculation that we were not prepared.

NOW After the fire, Environment and Sustainable Resource Development made specific recommendations in 7 key areas in the Flat Top Complex review.  One was to advance start times for resources. Fire season now begins on March 1. Necessary supports are in place well before the snow melts and fire risk increases. 

THEN Communication was poor during the 2011 fire. There was no evacuation notice. People saw the fire in their back yards. Some were actually in their homes while they were on fire. Mandatory evacuation was called 5 hours after the fire swept through the town. In the days that followed, communication continued to be limited. Rumours on social media filled the vacuum created by the lack of official response.

NOW There are clearer lines of communication, especially in wildland urban interface areas. While wildland fires are unpredictable, and people had very short notice to leave the community, High Level Andy Fort Mac residents were told to evacuate.  Post-fire, the provincial government provided lengthy daily updates to the press, on its website and on social media as well as evening "town hall" phone in programmes.  Their comprehensive website provides a wealth of information for evacuees.  Slave Lake MLA Danielle Larivee was Minister of Municipal Affairs during the Fort Mac fire. She lived through the Slave Lake fires. I am sure she used that experience, all the things she remembered from those difficult times, to help those evacuees. Hopefully some of her wisdom was passed on to the current government.

THEN In High River after the 2013 floods, former MLA Danielle Smith had to beg for information from the government so she could relay it to her constituents. My own MLA was rarely heard from during the Slave Lake evacuation.

NOW In Fort McMurray, Wildrose opposition leader Brian Jean was one of the first on the ground. He been working with the provincial government every step of the way, appearing with them in press conferences and being part of the solution.

THEN Lesser Slave Lake Regional Fire Service fought a fire that is beyond the scope of any fire department of its size. They reacted almost by instinct, using concepts that are more frequently used in wildland fires to protect key buildings and infrastructure. In some cases they, alongside heavy equipment operators, created firebreaks by chopping down some buildings to save others and by bulldozing the middle of a mall. 30% of Slave Lake was destroyed by fire. It would have been more if these firefighters had not used the tactics that they did.
NOW Slave Lake fire crews were dispatched immediately to Fort Mac. Their unique knowledge was used by Fort Mac firefighters to save large portions of the city. They won't tell you more than that. Because urban firefighters are trained to save houses, they don't like to talk about the times when they didn't. But maybe, just maybe, their knowledge helped save the 85% of Fort Mac that remains standing today.

THEN Red Cross donations flooded in to Slave Lake. Yet a year after the fire, only 177 thousand of the 5.5 million went to direct support. A further 2 million went to community groups and programmes. The bulk of the money went to volunteer support and hiring and housing Red Cross employees. Those who requested direct aid were humiliated by having to beg for assistance which was then denied. Neither the federal or provincial government provided financial support to the Red Cross.
NOW  Almost immediately after the evacuation, the Red Cross announced its Fort McMurray disaster relief drive. That fund is now up to 67 million dollars. Both the federal and provincial government announced matching grants to the Red Cross so aid could go to individuals and families. Ten days after the fire started, the Red Cross announced it would provide $600 in direct aid to every evacuee. 

THEN In 2011, university students were told "we are here for you" but then were refused any financial help. 

NOW  The U of A announced a Disaster Relief Bursary.  And while Slave Lake and High River post secondary students were given no breaks in paying for their student loans, Alberta's Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt recently announced a six month reprieve for student loan repayments.

THEN Most people with homeowners or tenant's insurance have mandatory evacuation insurance.  My own insurer phoned me the the day after the fire to tell us we were covered and to come in and pick up a cheque.  Those without insurance had to rely on friends, family and total strangers. It was heartwarming to see communities large and small come together to assist. However, people can't sleep on cots in a temporary shelter forever. Those who lost their homes and had no insurance were in deep trouble with nowhere to turn.

NOW The Alberta government announced the Wildfire Evacuee Transitional Accommodation Benefit that will cover rent, damage deposit and utility connections for up to 90 days from the date of evacuation.

THEN A third of the homes in Slave Lake were destroyed by fire. Many shady contractors showed up to rebuild, causing costly delays and leaving homeowners with poorly constructed houses. They have been without recourse.
NOW The Alberta government established the New Home Warranty Programme in 2014.
 

THEN Slave Lake Homeowners begged for assistance from Mike Holmes of "Homes on Homes" but he wasn't interested. 

NOW Holmes has announced help for Fort McMurray.

THEN We Slave Lakers survived our ordeal and rebuilt our community on our own. Sure, we had moral and financial support from communities far and wide that was deeply appreciated. We had some help from the provincial government. But there weren't any people out there who had been through what we went through. We made mistakes along the way. But but we figured it out.
NOW The wisdom and knowledge of Slave Lake has been widely shared. From the "Lessons Learned" and "Wisdom Gained" and heartfelt wishes from Alberta Emergency Management, the Town of Slave Lake and MD 124, from the Facebook pages providing support, the people of Fort McMurray have people to talk to who can provide them with guidance and suggestions about their insurance, the issues their children will face, and more. 

The people of Fort McMurray are receiving the benefit of our disaster experience, whether they realize it or not. Governments and social agencies and regular folks are learning from the mistakes of the past.  Last week I was talking to a co-worker about how our school reacts to disasters. We provided free materials and instruction to Slave Lake evacuees and we are doing the same for Fort Mac. I speculated that the government was learning from the past.  He wasn't sure about that. 

I don't know if the Government of Alberta has learned a lot about how to manage a disaster but I do think that this new government has a better sense of people and their needs and that is why we are seeing the improvement that we are. They are turning people loose to do what actually needs to be done ...there seems to be a greater degree of "caringness" than there was before, and I don't think that is something you can plan for, it is either there or it isn't.

In the process of writing this, I found myself becoming a little angry. Three of my kids were in university in fall 2011. They could have used a break. I have friends that certainly could have benefited from some additional financial aid from the Red Cross. And everyone in my town would have loved more information and support from others who had gone before.
But anyone who experiences a disaster like a flood or a fire suffers.  

Why should I begrudge someone whose suffering might be alleviated because of lessons learned from our experiences?   A grade 6 kids submitted his story for our book. He wrote:

I lost everything in the fire, I lost my house, I lost my cats. I lost my gerbil. It was the worst weekend of my life. I feel bad for everyone, because if I just felt sorry for myself, I would not have learned anything from this experience. The fire taught all of us to be thankful for what we have.  

King Solomon's Seal blooming through the ashes. June 2011.

Social Studies Teacher Laments a Lifetime of Accomplishing Absolutely Nothing

WEST BUTTE ALBERTA    A retired Albertan educator is demoralized after learning that his former students learned absolutely nothing during their 12+ years of public education.

      "I didn't think they were all paying attention in class," said 63 year old Social Studies teacher Grant McIteer of West Butte, Alberta, "but I wasn't thinking it was quite this bad. I can't help but wonder what I was doing wrong all those years I taught high school." Upon learning more than 56,000 Albertans believed they could remove a majority government from power based on an online petition, he shook his head and continued, "I can accept the poor spelling and bad grammar. I can even accept that no matter what I do, some students still believe Hitler was a communist. But the fundamentally flawed understanding of the democratic process is a bit hard to take." Echoing the sentiments of dozens of teachers across the province, McIteer continued, "Recent events have called into question whatever it was that I thought I had accomplished after more than 30 years as a teacher." 

     When reached for comment, an unidentified representative of the province's Ministry of Education stated "We're not really sure what to think at this point. Alberta has an excellent curriculum and traditionally one of the best records in the world when it comes to test scores. So to learn a significant number of Albertans believe they can call on the unelected Lieutenant Governor to overturn democratically enacted legislation is a bit confusing." 

     Rumours of a Royal Commission are unfounded at this point, but something the government has not ruled out. "Something went wrong, there is no doubt about it. We're just not sure what."

Guide to Alberta Politics:Recall, Plebiscite and Petition

In my last post, I discussed how elections work. 

Elections in Alberta are the means by which voters select representatives in the legislature. 

If the person or the party elected does not do the job electors hoped for in some parts of the world, there is a way to call for an end to a particular piece of legislation or remove a representative through peaceful and legal means.  However in Alberta, the only legal way for voters to effect change while a majority government is in power is through election. 

Recall Legislation allows registered voters to remove a politician from office and hold another election when voters have lost confidence in their representative.

British Columbia is the only province in Canada with recall legislation. The Province of British Columbia brought in Recall and Initiative legislation following a province wide referendum in 1995. Under this legislation, voters can petition to remove a representative after member has been in office for 18 months. The petition requires the signature of more than 40% of all eligible voters in the riding. No one has been recalled so far.

Under the same legislation, a registered voter can propose a new law or changes to an existing law. The voter must obtain the signatures of 10% of registered voters in each electoral district. To date, there have been nine petitions approved and one-regarding the Harmonized Sales Tax-was successful. 

Alberta very briefly had recall legislation from 1936 until 1937 when it was repealed. There have been several private members bills requesting recall legislation. None have passed. Wildrose MLA Lelea Aheer proposed such legislation in November 2015. Her proposed bill includes a recall based on a petition 20% of registered voters. It is highly unlikely to pass because the Wildrose does not control a majority of the seats in the house.  A summary can be found on David Cournoyer's blog.

We do not have recall legislation in Alberta. There is no mechanism to recall an MLA or a Premier other than another provincial election.

Plebiscites provide an opportunity for registered voters to have their voices heard on important issues by direct vote. 

The government may call for a plebiscite or, under section 128 of the the Elections Act,  the Lieutenant Governor may request one if she feels it is expedient. However, since the Lieutenant Governor is largely a figurehead, it would be unprecedented for her to act against an elected government. Even if she did, the plebiscite would not be binding. 

In other words, the government is under no legal obligation to conduct a plebiscite or act on the results.

Historically, there have been five plebiscites in Alberta:

• 1971  Daylight Savings. Called by the government. Passed
• 1967  Daylight Savings: Called by the government. Defeated
• 1957  Liquor Sales: Called by the government, this had two parts, one calling for more ALCB (government owned liquor stores) and one calling for "mixed drinking" to be allowed in bars.  Passed.
• 1948:  Electrification: Called by the government, this asked if the province should create a crown corporation to deliver electricity. Split.
• 1923:  Prohibition. Triggered by a vote in legislature after the presentation of a petition in accordance with the Citizens Referendum Law (no longer in effect), a petition for a plebiscite was presented by the Prohibition Committee which wanted to see the end of liquor sales in Alberta. The plebiscite was defeated.

Petitions

Online and paper petitions are a great way for people to demonstrate their views on many issues. I have signed many petitions myself and in fact I used an online petition drum up support for the retention of air ambulance services in my community. However, what is their legal status in Alberta?

There are circumstances when a petition can be legally filed.  For example, under the Elections Act, a citizen can petition the government in the case of a controverted elections, ie when the legitimacy of an election is in doubt. Citizens can also petition the Minister of Municipal Affairs on certain municipal issues.

Citizens may also petition the government of Alberta directly. Petitions must be presented by a Member of the Legislative Assembly. Members are not obligated to present these petitions. The petitions must be in proper form and must be reviewed by Parliamentary Council before they can be presented. Petitions cannot call for any money to be spent by the government.

Neither the Assembly nor the Government are compelled to take any action on a petition.

To recap, we do not have recall legislation in Alberta and will not have it any time soon. The elected government is not legally obligated to act on either a plebiscites or a petition. 

The next provincial election will take place in 2019. As a citizen, there are many ways you can effect change. But to effect a change in leadership, you must wait until the next election.