Tamara Lich arrives to appear as a witness at the Public Order Emergency Commission in Ottawa, on Friday, Nov 4, 2022.--CP FILE PHOTO
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Talk coming out of Tuesday’s Alberta budget wasn’t only about was in it, but also who was there to hear it.
Tamara Lich, one on the leaders of the convoy protests in Ottawa last year, attended in the gallery as a guest of Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes, who introduced her to a round of applause from certain government members.
Barnes told the News he felt it was important she be there.
“First, Tamara is a constituent and subject to the most overreach from a government imaginable,” he said in a phone interview from Edmonton.
“It’s also why I want taxes lower and government to be smaller and more accountable. Her fight for personal freedom is indicative of a fight for economic freedom, and we need both.”
Lich, who has been generally unreachable by the News via traditional means, was a leader of the protests that shut down portions of downtown Ottawa one year ago, leading to the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act.
She faces trial on mischief charges in Ontario in September.
Barnes said he understood the move to reserve her a seat in the legislature gallery and introduce her specifically, might be seen as controversial.
“Thank God we live in a Western democracy where peaceful protests are allowed,” he said.
The budget address was certainly open to debate as finance minister Travis Toews presented the fiscal plan.
“Alberta is leading the nation in economic growth … today, after some very difficult years, the opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs are exploding,” he said. “And, today, I again present a balanced budget.”
The budget itself predicts a $2.7-billion surplus, thanks largely to high energy prices, while $2 billion will be added from revenue in 2022 and 2023 to the Heritage Trust Fund.
Operational health and K-12 education spending will increase by 4.1 per cent and 5.2 per cent, respectively.
Opposition says that still doesn’t keep pace with needs, and say affordability measures are set to expired after the expected May election.
“It’s a fraudulent budget before an election that will spring the costs on Alberta after they go to the polls,” said New Democrat Leader Rachel Notley.
“This could be the last budget that puts corporate profits ahead of working government and the last when the people of Alberta have to worry how many different ways the government is trying to fool them through the budget.”
Barnes, who had called for the surplus to be directed to lower taxes, said the budget which increases spending but doesn’t levy or raise new taxes, is a “disappointment.”
“The UCP has issued a huge opportunity to help Alberta families,” he said. “They chose to spend 23 per cent more than the NDP spent (in 2018).”
The budget also leaves in place a previously announced plan to change a system of municipal infrastructure grants to cities in 2024. That total funding rises from $485 million in 2022 to $722 million this coming year.
Overall, operating and capital funding to municipalities will grow to $3.4 billion from $2.5 billion, but that includes funding for major light-rail transit projects in Calgary and Edmonton, slated to start this year.
A overview of the province’s capital plan shows few items for the southeast region.
Of note however, is $5 million to study the potential to build the Eryemore Reservoir, southwest of Brooks. That decades-old proposal to build a huge off-stream reservoir in the Eastern Irrigation District was mentioned by Smith during the fall byelection.
Other regional projects of note:
– Highway 3 twinning from Taber to Burdett is slated to receive $94 million over the next three years, but no future phases are broken out. That figure is not including $28 million spent in 2022.
– The 2022 budget included $500,000 for the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede grandstand redevelopment, but the new budget outlines a $1-million expense in the last year, but no other funds in the three-year capital plan.
– Carbon capture and storage, $58 million in 2023 and 2024, for dozens of projects currently before the government, including the City of Medicine Hat’s “project clear horizon.”
– New funding to pay for 58 major school renovations or new builds, and the ministry is scheduled to hold a press conference Wednesday to discuss specifics.
— with files from The Canadian Press
