[DrCaleb]

The UCP have perfected the art of the just under $75,000 sole-source contract

$1:

The UCP can’t help themselves. Earlier this week we reported on the appointment of a UCP donor and a pipeline company executive to the board of AIMCo, despite neither of them having any pension governance experience. Then on March 13 the UCP were caught continuing their long-standing practice of handing out sole-source contracts to UCP loyalists and donors.

NDP finance critic Shannon Phillips caught this one and pointed it out in the estimates process for the ministry of treasury board and finance: the UCP recently gave a sole-source contract for $74,500 to Alberta Right Consulting for Alberta Pension Plan engagement. Alberta Right Consulting is run by Bill Bewick, a former UCP staffer.

[DrCaleb]

The saga deepens!

Second Alberta family comes forward after patient discharged from hospital to hotel

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"Our deal was [Contentment Social Services] would give us $1,200 [for] each room for a month and then from there on, if they still need it, they would give us the next month's rent," he said.

"They were going to pay us the rent within 10 days from the time [the patients] moved in, and they still haven't."

So not only do they dump people in Motels, they don't pay for the rooms.

It is currently on the news that a family had to pay fees for the room, and the province is also settling the bill so other patients have a place to die quietly inside.

[DrCaleb]

Alberta non-profit housing patients in hotel rooms had $25K unpaid bill, premier says

39 people dumped in motels by this healthcare 'provider' that lost their licence in 2019.

And we all know they will get away with it.

[DrCaleb]

Alberta pharmacists can't offer publicly funded measles vaccine as outbreak worries grow

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There are calls for Alberta to improve access to publicly funded measles vaccines, by allowing pharmacists to provide them, as some Albertans struggle to access the shots.

Canadian health officials recently began urging people to ensure they're protected against measles, especially before travelling. Cases have surged in Europe and are popping up in parts of Canada as well.

Many adults are now scrambling to sort out if they need another dose.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, adults who were born before 1970 and plan to travel should have at least one dose of the vaccine. Those born after 1970 should have two.

[DrCaleb]

Alberta testing water tech as possible extreme drought looms

[DrCaleb]

MLA Rakhi Pancholi drops out of NDP leadership race, endorses Naheed Nenshi

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In an email and video message posted to social media, Pancholi said the former three-term mayor of Calgary has more than doubled the size of the party's membership within a week.

How is the UCP membership doing?

[DrCaleb]

A case study in misinformation: How the sexual assault of a “young nurse” was used by the police and premier to justify encampment sweeps

[DrCaleb]

Federal immigration limits undercutting Alberta's economy, premier says in letter to Trudeau

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Danielle Smith also wants to open province's doors to 10,000 more Ukraine evacuees

She wants tens of thousands of new taxpayers, but cancelled a hospital that would reduce the wait times for those new taxpayers. Not a dime for infrastructure, but billions in new power infrastructure left the province. Fracking is using more water than a small city, and we may face water restrictions this year. But, the more the merrier!

[Scape]

Did Reddit year-end recaps expose Russian interference in Alberta?

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There are clear goals being perpetuated by information warfare campaigns. Especially by Russia, whose information warfare campaigns are wreaking havoc on our society. Some of the obvious goals they have are:

• Balkanize their foreign adversaries. This is evident in the UK leaving the EU, Texas with the US, and Alberta with Canada.

• Have populist politicians support policies that cause chaos and issues in our society. Populist politicians are tapping into these information warfare campaigns to appeal to people whose only access to information about the outside world around them is through social media, where the information warfare is taking place.

• Cause distrust and havoc, by creating specialized propaganda to different segments of the population spread through social media. By polarizing debates through propaganda spread to the masses, Russia has effectively used information warfare to deliver targeted disinformation and appeal to specific demographics. Causing havoc in the LBGT and other minority communities.

• Russia has effectively infiltrated the religious right in America and Canada and empowered them, among many corrupt leaders worldwide through its information warfare.

https://www.reddit.com/r/GrandePrairie/ ... adians_on/

[DrCaleb]

I'd be surprised if Diagalon wasn't a GRU operation. It just has Rus logic behind it.

[DrCaleb]

Danielle Smith says province 'ready to assist' with Edmonton's financial challenges as city manager exits

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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government is standing by to help Edmonton with its financial challenges — if they ask — while political scientists and at least one city councillor say the province is in large part to blame for the state of affairs.

"We stand by ready to assist if they would like to ask us for assistance," Smith said at a press conference Wednesday where she fielded questions from news reporters on several topics.

In an operating budget update two weeks ago, Edmonton city administration showed a $48.3 million deficit for the end of 2023.

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Paul Kellogg, a professor at Athabasca University's Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies, said the problems stem from a long-term decline in funding.

"Every city requires significant support from the provinces," Kellogg said in an interview with CBC News Wednesday. "And if there's a province that's reluctant to support cities, which I think is the case with the UCP government, then there can be real problems internally in the cities."

The province is responsible for health care and social services, including mental health, addictions and shelter spaces.

Not enough is funnelled through to municipalities, despite the province's plentiful resources, Kellogg said.

"Those resources have been strangled by a long-term set of policies from the province, until that's addressed, we're going to have problems internally," Kellogg noted.

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Edmonton's operating budget is increasingly strained every year because of provincial downloading, he said, with city services taking the hit.

"So the province is trying to balance their books on the back of Edmonton and on the back of other municipalities around the province," said Janz.

The province gives municipalities grants in lieu to make up for not paying property tax on buildings they occupy, but have cut those in nearly half since 2019.

Janz said it amounts to $60 million less the city has to work with for services like snow clearing and waste removal,

Typical Marlana. Don't pay your taxes, then say that you 'want to help'. PAY YOUR FUCKING TAXES! The province paid cities through grants for the property tax on propertied they owned in cities. They stopped doing that, because who will make them?

[Scape]

[DrCaleb]

Meanwhile, in Alberta, Police investigate multi-tractor crash as carbon-tax protests continue in Alberta

[DrCaleb]

The thought of Cleetus, Bubba and Eli racing their tractors like it was NASCAR, then losing it made me think 'where else could you get a multi tractor pileup, but Alberta'.

[DrCaleb]

Edmonton mayor asks Premier Danielle Smith to restore municipal funding

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Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi has taken Premier Danielle Smith up on her offer to provide help with the city's finances by asking her to restore millions of dollars in municipal funding cuts the province has made over the past five years.

In a letter sent to Smith and released publicly on Tuesday, Sohi outlines nine ways her government could help.

They include restoring the full grant in place of taxes program to where it was before the UCP government under Jason Kenney cut the funding in half.

Edmonton estimates it has lost $14 million annually since the cuts were fully implemented in 2020. The grants replace property taxes owed on provincial buildings so the cut disproportionately hurts Edmonton as Alberta's capital city.

Sohi called on the province to pay back the grants it hasn't paid over the last four years.

"If they do that, we can reduce property taxes and we can eliminate our entire $60-million deficit," he said.