Reforms on agenda at UCP conference

A United Conservative Party government would implement MLA recall legislation, repeal Bill 6 and put a halt to the current government’s education reform plans if elected in the upcoming spring election.

UCP leader Jason Kenney laid out these policy promises and more to candidates and party faithful at a UCP election readiness conference Feb. 16 in Edmonton.

Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken was there. He said the conference was meant to be an opportunity for the current crop of UCP candidates to work together to finalize a few policy platforms.

“Of course, we’re not unveiling all the platform all at once, but we’re beginning to have a discussion with Albertans on policy, rather than the mudslinging that the NDP decided to do,” said van Dijken after the conference.

“There were no surprises to me. This is stuff we’ve been working on for four years in trying to ensure that Albertans are well-served by a government that consults with them and doesn’t just move in a direction that fits their ideological bend at the time.”

Democratic reform policies were high on the priority list with promises from Kenney to ban floor-crossing from one party to another, legislate fixed election dates and make it possible for constituents to recall their MLAs partway through their mandate.

“We are very concerned. We want to ensure that the Alberta election process has the rules and regulations in place that ensure that Albertans have confidence in the election and its results,” said van Dijken, who is also in favour of election finance reforms.

van Dijken also highlighted Bill 6, the Alberta farm and ranch workplace legislation, which was implemented by the NDP government soon after it was elected. Its implementation was “ideological,” he said, calling it an “egregious rollout of a government policy that went far beyond anything they had even mentioned to industry.”

The bill mandated occupational health and safety standards and Workers’ Compensation Benefits be extended to waged, non-family workers while they’re working on a farm or ranch and was highly criticized for lack of consultation by many farmers, as well as the opposition, when it was implemented in January 2016. van Dijken called it a “very negative” experience for many farmers.

“We want to ensure that a farm safety program has huge buy-in by the group that is affected ... How better to destroy a farm safety program than to essentially come with a sledge hammer and try to force it down their throats?”

“We need to have the stigma of Bill 6 gone and start afresh. As we transition to that, we will make sure that farm employees will be protected,” said van Dijken.

“Unless you ask the questions and find out from the stakeholders how it is going to turn out, you’ve made an ideological decision.”

van Dijken also said he thought ideology is heavily involved in the NDP government’s overhaul of the school curriculum. Kenney called it “an ideological rewrite” at the conference.

“When I look at the transparency of the curriculum rewrite, I don’t want to see where we have politics in the way of developing good educational materials,” said van Dijken, citing the concerns of Lindsay Gibson, a University of Alberta professor who stepped down from a working group overseeing the rewrite of the Social Studies curriculum last fall.

“The gentleman stepped down citing the fact that the process was broken because there was too much interference from the ministry on the direction it had to take. The minister should be essentially putting a process in place that allows the experts and the stakeholders, the parents, to have input in a way that develops it without any pre-ordained outcomes,” he said.

The Alberta government introduced the curriculum review in 2016 and it was expected to cost $60 million when all was said and done over a six-year period.

van Dijken said he recognizes that people are concerned about the money that has already been spent.

“I understand the concern of Albertans about the cost of the process, but I also understand we have a whole generation of students that are relying on us too get it right,” he said.

“I really think it’s an important part of our next generation of learning to do it in a way that parents can be confident that when they send their child to school they are confident in their child’s future education.”

At a Feb. 17 press conference, education minister David Eggen called Kenney’s policy promises “a drive-by shooting on our curriculum and our kids’ education and Jason Kenney really should be ashamed.”

Kenney also said his government would also put the province’s carbon tax up for a referendum.

“With the carbon tax, I believe that it’s a failed program and I believe the vast majority of Canadians will recognize it as a failed program,” said van Dijken. “It’s a program that is putting our country in a very uncompetitive position and we need to have a global conversation on how we can move forward on this file. To hamper our ability to compete in a global competitive environment is very detrimental and puts us in a very weak position.”

With a federal election scheduled for October, van Dijken said that in the end it will be up to the voters as to whether a federal carbon tax is implemented, as the government has planned.

“I believe that Canadians are not going to put up with this.”