City Notebook: Has Barnes ‘gone rogue,’ or just ‘blowing off steam’?

By COLLIN GALLANT on June 20, 2020.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

A day in politics can seem like a week, and several weeks ago this column mused widely about what’s happening behind the scenes with Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes.

At that point he was seemingly out of step with his party on a couple fronts and this week, the Fair Deal Panel member released a stronger than expected letter stating the tepid report on provincial independence didn’t go far enough.

Now, the national and political landscapes is a complete bizarro dimension this spring compared to last when Alberta’s blood was boiling looking for a bigger profile in confederation and more of our money back, come hell or high water.

Premier Jason Kenney has now spent two days describing the Fair Deal exercise as useful, but downplaying talk about actual separation, which Barnes is talking up.

Let’s go to the commentator’s reactions.

“A chance to vent? Oh, Joy!” wrote Rick Bell for Postmedia.

Or how about former Postmedia columnist, Graham Thompson: “If Barnes has truly gone rogue, Kenney won’t be happy. Or Kenney might be letting Barnes blow off steam on behalf of (hardliners in the party) … Let the speculation begin.”

Ah, the weekend.

Just in case hardware stores weren’t busy enough this spring, along comes Fathers’ Day on Sunday. June 21 also marks the longest day of the year, National Indigenous Awareness Day (celebrated in the Hat this year drop-in style at eight locations) and the official start of summer after what’s been an unbelievably long spring.

As a morale booster, the Southeast Hill Community Association is having a paint your sidewalk event this weekend.

Medicine Hat’s only other community association, the North Flats Neighbourhood Association, will hold a bottle drive on Sat., June 27 to support the group’s after-school programming that lost its funding under a new government model for early childhood development efforts.

Watch this space

SpaceX, the creation of mysterious billionaire Elon Musk, has applied to Canada’s telecom regulators to provide satellite internet service to rural communities that have lagged behind in having high-speed service, a top business story in Globe and Mail stated on Friday.

Is this the solution anyone envisioned in eastern Alberta?

High finance

You’ll have to wait until Friday, but the province’s Standing Committee on the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund will convene on June 26.

That’s the first time since, as one national columnist put it, “heaping shame” has been piled on fund manager AIMCo for its actions during the March meltdown on global financial markets.

Speaking of the St. Patrick’s Day massacre – which concluded a 10,000-point, two-week rout for the Dow Jones industrial average and a 37 per cent drop in Toronto over the same time – both indexes have regained two thirds of their losses over the last 100 or so days.

High finance is complex, but it appears the AIMCo losses don’t involve stock picking, but rather the fact they offered a hedge to other investors that would only pay off if the market remained stable.

The effect on the city’s holdings in AIMCo may be outlined soon as the city’s thrice yearly financial reports are due soon outlling the January-to-April time period.

A look ahead

The draft of the proposed update to the Municipal Development Plan will arrive at the city’s municipal planning commission on Wednesday. The document that lays down land use and priorities looking ahead to 2050 is updated every five or so years. An online survey about the plan is set to close June 26, and administrators hope to have the final document before city council for a vote in early September.

The process website, including drafts, documents and rationales, can be found at shapeyourcity.medicinehat.ca.

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