Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Gary Mar addressed rural concerns in a media conference call from the campaign trail in Lacombe on Thursday. If selected for premier, he would be a “champion for all of Alberta,” not just Calgary, Edmonton, the north or the south, he said.
Government has been doing “too much telling and not enough listening,” Mar said. “If we only ask Albertans themselves, ‘what are their solutions,’ we’ll actually get really, really good answers.”
Mar promises to put Bill 36, the Land Stewardship Act, on hold until “we have a full dialogue” to resolve “legitimate and unresolved” issues.
“Nothing touches Alberta more personally than property rights, and that’s why in my view there’s been such an intense reaction to bills like 36, 19 and 50.” The province needs roads and infrastructure and a plan for future land use but also a “consultation process that actually engages Albertans on the issues and options and gives people their say,” he said.
The objectives of Bill 36 are good ones but unresolved issues of compensation, the compensation process, access to courts and cabinet powers need resolution, he said. He does not think it should be repealed “because a lot of work has already been done.”
If repealed, it opens up the possibility that the federal government would come in, according to Mar.
A Mar government would also assess the need and the timing for north and south transmission lines as well as remove the discretionary power of cabinet in Bill 50. He would also guarantee “a fair process and a fair compensation for landowners” when decisions affect landowners, he said.
Mar would direct the Alberta Utilities Commission and the Alberta Electric System Operator to work with the electricity market to find ways to reduce costs for industry and consumers, he said. He would also work with financial institutions to provide “green mortgages or loans” for farms, industry, and homes to be a “micro-generator” to provide its own electrical power and to help feed the grid. With municipal districts and countries, he would look at leveraging renewable energy and improving energy efficiency.
On resources for people and industry, water is an obvious concern, particularly in southern Alberta, he said, adding even in “water rich northern Alberta,” development is creating issues of supply and downstream water quality. Mar wants Alberta to be a leader in “comprehensive water management.” He would consult with Albertans before making any changes to the Water Act.
He said he looked at centralizing health services as a previous health minister but concluded it wasn’t the right thing to do.
Health care is the top “people priority” in rural Alberta, he said. Mar would move forward on a “single specialists registry” and a province-wide intake system to give easier and faster access to specialists and surgery.
He would also give people access to their health records to give them a more active role in health and create a wellness innovation fund for community organizations. He would offer a tuition refund to students who qualify in family or community medicine and contract to work in rural Alberta.
Municipal funding
Mar also discussed changes he would implement to municipal funding. “The idea is to give municipalities more control over the money they raise in their local property taxes.
“I think that we should let local governments govern and that we should have some faith that they actually understand the priorities of the local community better than we can as a provincial government working out of Edmonton.”
Mar would start a provincial-municipal-premier’s council within 30 days of becoming premier. He said he does not want to just give municipalities the education property tax and download provincial responsibilities on them. He would also aim to make sure no municipality gets less money than with the current system and would fund education entirely from the general revenue fund and provide funding to school boards on at least a three-year basis. The province may still fund some departments like libraries, he said.
“We should be spending more money on these local priorities and less money on the administration,” he said, adding that administration for collecting money in municipalities, applying for grants to get it back and accounting for spending is “administratively burdensome.”
The education property tax would become property tax, but Mar would respect the right of catholic school boards to collect. He would aim to implement the policy by 2014.
