City Notebook: Provincial power

By COLLIN GALLANT on June 17, 2023.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Danielle Smith is most upset about “Just Transition” legislation that passed the House of Commons this week with the stated goal of training workers for a changing energy sector.

Smith and many Albertans, of course, argue the unstated goal is to phase out petroleum production, and the thinly veiled threat to break out the Alberta Sovereignty Act to thwart Ottawa.

We’re still not 100 per cent on what the Sovereignty Act is (are you?), and the Just Transition is also open to speculation despite rather high-minded talk about future-proofing the economy.

There’s a lot of doubt about how a green economy could swap jobs one-for-one with the current landscape, even with a present labour shortage, but as well, concern about ignoring economic trends for a show of support for the oil patch.

Watch it all start to unfold on Tuesday when the Alberta legislature resumes with a rare June sitting.

Another potential showdown is a Liberal push to create a “national” power grid, which runs afoul of Alberta conservatives with a percolating interest in constitutional jurisdiction (like electricity).

There’s a team of premiers ready to fight against it, we’re told by press release this week, though a roster seems thin.

Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, and even hydro-rich Manitoba, don’t need it to meet emissions goals. And Atlantic Canada is already doing it.

That leaves some usual suspects in opposition, namely Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, whose provinces have potential wind and solar resources owing to geography and weather, to meet internal needs, thank you very much.

There might actually be very little need for a “national grid,” however, though inter-connectivity sounds nice, but this is an age of protectionism, even with premiers routinely stumping for more inter-provincial trade.

It also might be nice for Alberta consumers to have a more reliable import-export system that could even out the extreme spikes in pricing.

Speaking of…

Power – the time is nye for Hatters to consider what the heck to do with power contracts that expire this summer. Expect more on this soon in the News.

Name game

A lot of Hatters were likely happy last week to hear Daniel Engel discuss plans by Swift Current-based SG Group to create an engineering and manufacturing hub for ag equipment in Medicine Hat later this year. It’s 30 jobs this fall, with an eye for 100 eventually.

Some may even remember Engel, a communications officer with S3, as the one-time head of Tourism Medicine Hat and Hideaway Studios in this city. He has worked for S3 for about 15 years.

Hockey talk

So much for the Winnipeg Ice… they’re the Wenatchee (Wash.) Wild as of Friday morning (see the sports section). “Why not Walla Walla?” one might ask. And in case you’re wondering, Wenatchee is about halfway between Seattle and Spokane (though eastern Washington is a pretty big place).

A look ahead

The Alberta legislature convenes this week following the May 29 election.

City council will discuss a funding request from HALO air rescue at its Monday meeting.

Jazzfest kicks off Monday and runs through next weekend at venues throughout the city. The WCPA chuckwagon races also return to the Hat starting Thursday.

100 years ago

Plans for Medicine Hat’s 40th anniversary expanded to include a sports program complete with track meet, “Scotch dancing,” lacrosse, five-a-side football and baseball, according to the News of the day in June 1923.

An appeal was made to members of the public who could provide oxen or prairie schooners to organizers of the planned “Parade of Progress.”

Storms lashed the region with heavy ran and hail reported in Josephburg, Brutus, Burstall and Hilda. At least 50 telephone poles between the city and Pashley siding were downed. A two-storey home near Sceptre lost its roof to wind overnight and the home’s infant was found dead of exposure at dawn.

Hoping to save the town of Catana in Sicily, Italian troops began digging ditches to channel the flow of lava from an erupting Mt. Etna.

“The Whole of Western Canada is a potential oilfield” was the boast in a circular published by banking syndicate in the United States, which noted American capital interests were flooding into the region.

The number of divorces in Canada rose tenfold over two decades, spiking since the end of the Great War, according to statistics in Ottawa. A total of 58 were granted in 1901, and the number in 1922 was 514, including 129 in Alberta alone.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com.