The News Rundown

Alberta Is Calling

Alberta is Calling, Alberta is calling for young professionals to move from big cities like Vancouver or Toronto to address a labour shortage.
This week the UCP government and Jason Kenney launched a campaign to highlight the attractiveness of the province.
The campaign highlights the affordability of the province, lifestyle available, and the open labour market.
On affordability the lack of a provincial sales tax and the low home prices compared to Toronto, Vancouver, and even the likes of Ottawa and Hamilton.
On lifestyle the campaign highlights Calgary’s 50 minute drive to the mountains and Edmonton’s festival scene.
For jobs the tech sector, health industry, and trades are highlighted with links to the Alberta provincial jobs database.
This all culminates in showcasing Alberta as being the place where you can have the highest after tax income in the country and have the most disposable income.
This is what the province is and what Ralph Klein famously called the Alberta Advantage.
It goes without saying that since 2015 due to the worst economic downturn and the dark times of the past couple years that Alberta has seen a net loss in migration.
Media stories on the Alberta is Calling campaign went one of two directions if they weren’t attacking Jason Kenney for unveiling policy on his way out the door.
The first is that they cited recruitment agencies from the lower mainland where the stories talk about people moving the other way but bury the lede when it comes to actually talking about affordability which is an issue for so many Canadians.
The recruitment agencies say that people want to live in Vancouver because it’s a walkable city and apparently has a better quality of life.
But rent and high costs that just keep going higher and higher don’t let an individual get ahead.
It’s that affordability, specifically around the housing market where the recruitment agencies admit that Alberta might just have a point.
That’s problem #1 in the media coverage.
The second comes from the continual distraction of the UCP leadership race in the media coverage.
More local publications aside from the Canadian Press wire service have linked the story to Danielle Smith’s leadership campaign.
In particular they keep wanting to talk about the Alberta Sovereignty Act which is still proving to be a lightning rod in driving discussion.
In particular though when it comes to that Bill and what Alberta is doing, the fear that has been talked about is that the province turning inward could drive investment and people away as happened when the Parti Quebecois was first elected in Quebec.
This angle is more of a cautionary tale because it should tell Albertans and in particular UCP members that the goal has to be on the province maintaining its competitive edge.
Danielle Smith is following the Donald Trump playbook where what is said won’t be exactly what is enacted but if she were to become Premier we can expect a Sovereignty Act in some form.
The media and other UCP leadership candidates don’t get this and it’s what has provided her campaign the energy it has had since the start of this campaign.
That energy has been misplaced as it draws the attention away from the forces at work in Edmonton and Calgary of the NDP pushing resources and micro-targeting potential voters.
The angles talked about both from the Vancouver side and the UCP leadership side conveniently ignore what the actual frame is on the Alberta is Calling campaign.
The goal of this campaign, if the Premier were allowed to lead the province into the next election, would be to set up a narrative where Alberta is doing so well that we need people from other provinces and even countries to work here!
The media missed this angle since anyone who can read between the lines of the official Government of Alberta Press Release could hopefully see that.
The UCP leadership candidates with the exception of a couple also need to realize that this is the game that needs to be played yesterday, not today, and certainly not tomorrow to avoid a loss of momentum.
The really unfortunate part about this is that Danielle Smith’s years of broadcasting before being Wildrose leader and her return to broadcasting after the floor crossing position her to deliver a message.
If she were delivering the Alberta is Calling message, we’d be having an entirely different discussion and the provincial mindset and frame would have shifted days ago.
This story illustrates why communication is so important and there are currently dynamics in play that have been missed by both the mainstream media and various UCP leadership candidates.
Supplementals:

Toronto might lose some representation in the House of Commons because of faster population growth outside of the city, and some local MPs (all Trudeau Liberals) say that’s an unacceptable drop in democracy for Canada’s biggest metropolis.
Under suggested new boundaries for federal ridings in Ontario, Toronto would fall from 25 to 24 voting districts as part of a redrawn electoral map that accounts for an extra 1.3 million provincial residents with the addition of a single seat.
John McKay, the long-serving Liberal MP for Scarborough—Guildwood, who noted how Scarborough is taking the hit in Toronto by dropping from six ridings to five under the proposed changes, and called it 'outrageous' and an “egregious diminution of the influence of Scarborough and Toronto in the Parliament of Canada.”
Scarborough North MP Shaun Chen echoed McKay’s position and expressed concern that the proposed boundaries would split communities like the Alton Towers Circle neighbourhood into different ridings. Chen said: “Once again, Scarborough is getting shafted. I encourage everyone to speak out at the upcoming public hearings.”
Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, who has represented the riding of Beaches—East York since 2015, also criticized the proposed changes for decreasing the number of Toronto seats in the House of Commons. He said: “The goal of any boundary redrawing should be to strengthen representation, and this proposal instead undermines that goal.” Erskine-Smith is the Liberal party’s caucus chair for its 24 MPs in Toronto, said that the group would be 'actively reviewing the proposal and will be working together to ensure that any changes improve representation in the city and province'.
The proposal was unveiled Friday as part of a once-in-a-decade process to recalibrate federal ridings across Canada to ensure fair representation in the face of population shifts. The changes for each province are recommended by an independent commission; in Ontario, they are based on a target for each riding to contain around 116,590 residents.
The chair of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario, Superior Court Justice Lynne Leitch, said the redrawn electoral map is meant to “correct wide variations in voter equality that have emerged across the province over the past decade due to population change.”
Responding to the Star’s questions about the changes in Toronto, the commission said faster population growth in areas outside of the city limits prompted it to cut one riding from Toronto and add two in other areas of the province. The commission had to work with 122 ridings to represent Ontario’s 2021 population of more than 14.2 million people. The last time riding boundaries were redrawn, Ontario was given 121 seats for its population of almost 12.9 million people in 2011.
Census data from 2021 shows some of the fastest growing communities in Canada are in the suburbs outside of Toronto, including East Gwillimbury, which grew by 44 per cent from 2016 to 2021, and New Tecumseth, which increased by 28 per cent. Toronto grew by less than three per cent over those five years.
In the coming months, the commission is staging public hearings about its proposed riding changes, and is scheduled to receive and consider “objections from MPs” before issuing a final decision in September 2023.
After the redistribution is complete, the number of seats in the House of Commons is slated to increase by five, when Canada will have 343 members of Parliament. BC and Ontario will each gain a seat, and Alberta, underrepresented for decades, will gain 3 seats. The other provinces will not change. With this, the 4 largest provinces by population will have roughly the same amount of population per seat.
So while the Liberal MPs of Toronto may whine about Toronto's 'decrease in democracy', the boundaries and work of the Electoral Commission should be respected and its non-partisan nature should be celebrated, considering the issues that other countries have when politicians meddle with district areas.
Supplementals:

https://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2022/08/19/new-federal-electoral-districts-proposed-in-ontario-would-cut-seats-in-toronto-north/

Pressure mounts on B.C. government as public sector strike drags on

The BC General Employees Union (BCGEU) began job action after a proposed deal with the BC government fell through when the government's best offer would not even match a cost of living increase, which has gone up because of rapid inflation over the past year.
Now, pressure is mounting on the province to find a resolution to a strike by the unionized government workers, as other unions come out to show support. In the four days since the BCGEU began job action, leaders with the nurses’, teachers’ and hospital employees unions have all joined the picket lines.
BCGEU president Stephanie Smith said: “It’s not just [about] public sector unions, it’s the labour movement in general. People recognize that BCGEU members, the 33,000 in the public service, aren’t just fighting for their own wage protections, they’re fighting for wage protections for all workers.”
Numerous B.C. public sector unions are currently without a deal, and are pressing the government for a cost of living adjustment in the ballpark of five per cent, amid historic inflation rates. So far, the province has offered the BCGEU wage increases amounting to about 11 per cent over three years, with a $2,500 signing bonus.
The Hospital Employees Union has currently paused negotiations with the province, while the nurses won’t begin until the fall. The B.C. Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) is currently at the table. Union president Clint Johnston said the province’s latest offer is far below what teachers are seeking, but that there has been movement.
Johnston said of the wide support for the BCGEU: “The workers of B.C. are united, they’re together, and they’re supporting each other in pursuing what we think is really pretty simple and fair, which is a cost of living increase to our salaries so we don’t fall further and further behind. But I think the fact that both sides are still working and there’s movement should give people a lot of hope.”
So far, job action has been limited to picketing warehouses used by the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch. This means that government run liquor and cannabis stores are not being resupplied with products, and what they have on their shelves is what they will have in the near future. In the meantime, the BC government has imposed a limit on alcohol sales at government-run outlets, effective immediately.
All customers, including bars, pubs, restaurants and the public, will be rationed to no more than three of any individual items of liquor, with the exception of beer. This includes refreshment beverage products that come in 4-packs, 6-packs and other formats and will count as one product. This will remain in place until the Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) distribution centres resume operations.
While everyone watches as BC enters a soft kind of prohibition rationing period, one hopes that the government can make a deal that's fair to workers that have had their wages clawed back by inflation and taxes, before strike action affects more sectors and people.

Firing Line

Union leaders frustrated by Bank of Canada’s advice for companies not to adjust wages to inflation

The question of inflation has been the talk of Canada’s economy for the last year or so. There has been discussion about how long it would last and what should be done to combat it.
Last month Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem suggested that employers not factor in inflation growth into wage negotiations.
What this means is that the Bank of Canada Governor thinks that (even for the time being) businesses should offer wages that are more comfortable pre-inflation.
The exact words were spoken at an event hosted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business where Tiff Macklem said, “Don’t build that into longer term contracts. Don’t build that into wage contracts. It is going to take some time, but you can be confident that inflation will come down.”
Anyone who is trying to buy groceries, gas, or a home will know that stagnant wages are actively putting everyday Canadians behind.
The comment from the Bank of Canada Governor has even caught the attention of union leaders who are looking to keep wages of their members up given the inflation battle.
Unifor’s newly elected leader Lana Payne said, “We have an opportunity, right now, for workers to make gains. So it’s a shame that in the middle of all this, you see Mr. Macklem go out there and make those comments.”
Inflation hit an almost 40 year high and only just this past month ticked down a fraction of a percent but anyone will remember that we were feeling the push of inflation before it reached 40 year highs.
The concern amongst business leaders is that a self induced wage-price spiral could occur where both businesses and workers expect higher inflation so they push up prices and demand higher wages generating more inflation.
That’s all fine when it comes to economic theory but it ignores the reality for millions of Canadians on the ground trying to buy things day by day.
Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said that it was not the role of the Bank of Canada to “undermine the collective bargaining power of workers.”
The concern is that what could happen is what happened in the 1970s and 1980s when union membership was higher and wages were much more closely indexed to inflation.
At the end of the day, this looks like the central bank putting the burden of reducing inflation on workers rather than monetary or government policy.
Peggy Nash, former NDP finance critic and member of Parliament, said that this is also a “fortuitous” moment to encourage non-unionized workers to think about the benefits of unionization – mainly, as a means to negotiate higher wages.
This raises an interesting question of where today’s NDP lead by Jagmeet Singh is when it comes to this question.
This storyline used to be the bread and butter of NDP policy but neither on Jagmeet Singh’s Twitter or the official NDP feeds nor press releases have talked about this.
Who did mention it was Conservative leadership hopeful Pierre Poilievre who said, “Labour leaders are right. Bank of Canada is wrong. It’s not high wages causing inflation. It’s rampant money printing to fund Trudeau deficits. For Gov to say worker wages should stay low as living costs soar is exactly wrong. We need less inflationary deficits & bigger wages.”
This could be the beginning of an interesting relationship between organized labour and the Conservative Party of Canada.
It’s well known that the UK Conservatives before their Brexit policy turn were using this exact playbook that proved very successful for Prime Minister David Cameron.
Could this be happening in Canada? We’ll have to wait and see.
The unionization rate in Canada is dropping and has crept up very slowly while private sector unionization has fallen.
Canadian Federation of Independent Business President and Chief Executive Dan Kelley said that the Bank of Canada Governor’s warning should be seen as a warning to the government and large employers but that doesn’t change the context of how it looks.
This is a problem that’s been brought on by stimulus spending before the pandemic and then a higher level of stimulus spending during the pandemic.
It falls to both the government and Bank of Canada to fix this problem and not labour leaders.
Should there be a fall election campaign, this could prove to be an interesting point of discussion.
Supplementals:

Quote of the Week

“Don’t build that into longer term contracts. Don’t build that into wage contracts. It is going to take some time, but you can be confident that inflation will come down.” - Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem on inflation and wages.

Word of the Week

Riding - administrative jurisdiction or electoral district, particularly in several current or former Commonwealth countries.

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Show Data

Episode Title: Strike One

Teaser: Alberta is Calling for people to move to the province, electoral redistricting could see Toronto lose a seat, and the BCGEU strike forces rationing at BC liquor stores. Also, the Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem blames worker wages for inflation.

Recorded Date: August 20, 2022

Release Date: August 21, 2022

Duration: 47:51

Edit Notes: None

Podcast Summary Notes

Duration: XX:XX