• Raise up to $25 billion through notes, bonds, debentures, or interest-bearing or non-interest-bearing treasury bills issued by the Crown, or any other securities under which the Crown is the debtor
• Approves the terms and conditions of any of that money

The lieutenant government approved the recommendation.

Last week, I broke a story about a similar approval for $1.25 billion. That borrowing was specifically for an oil refinery.

This newborrowing is for an undetermined purpose. Which is odd.

In addition to the $1.25 billion that Toews was approved to borrow last week for the refinery, he was approved for up to $7 billion in November for securities of ATB Financial and Alberta Capital Finance Authority, which was changed to $9 billion last month. In February, he filed for another approval—$2.8 billion for securities from Agriculture Financial Services Corporation.

These three orders in council are the only ones authorized by the Lieutenant Governor since the UCP government was elected, and every one of them expressed an explicit purpose.

Yesterday’s announcement had no purpose listed. It’s just requesting the approval of $25 billion, the largest approval yet. In fact, it’s more than all the other approvals combined.

There are certainly plenty of places they could spend it.

Making up for the loss of $4.7 billion from the corporate income tax cuts implemented last February and this past January (and every January until the election), for example.

Or perhaps covering up for the $2.7 billion shortfall in healthcare, the $2.5 billion shortfall in K–12 education, or the $6 billion shortfall in postsecondary funding.

At this point, however, it’s anyone’s guess. Either way, it’s certainly going to push the $95.6 billion debt that they forecasted for this year past the $100 billion mark.

Companies should pay higher taxes. After all, they consume more public resources than people do.

Companies want educated employees. Every employee, assuming they were educated in Alberta, requires 13 years of public schooling. More if the employer requires a college diploma or certificate or a university degree. Those years of education cost money.

Companies want healthy employees. The hospitals, clinics, and healthcare professionals necessary to keep those employees healthy cost money.

Companies want secure workplaces, protected from crime, fire, and other physical threats. Those protective services cost money.

Companies want fresh, clean water coming into their workplace and dirty wastewater taken away from their workplace. That costs money.

Companies want robust infrastructure for transporting materials to their workplace and finished products from their workplace. That infrastructure costs money.

And the list goes on.

The demand companies put on public resources far outweighs the demand that individuals put on public resources. Despite this, companies pay less in taxes in absolute dollars than individual taxpayers do.

The Alberta budget 2020 expects to receive $12.6 billion in personal income tax and $4.5 billion in corporate income tax. In other words, for every $1.00 the provincial government collects from businesses, they collect $2.80 from individuals. It’s unfair that individual Albertans should have to bear such a large financial burden just because governments think businesses deserve a tax break.

Companies consume more public resources; they should pay more for public resources.

While there were only 38 cases connected with the plant on 13 April, just a week later, that number had climbed to 515, including households. A telephone town hall over the weekend identified 360 cases that were directly connected to Cargill workers, and yesterday’s COVID-19 pandemic update had it at 401.

Cargill had claimed, as of Sunday, that they’re implementing several measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19:

• Checking temperature of staff when they arrive for work
• Handing out face masks to all workers
• Enhancing cleaning and sanitizing practices
• Staggering shift breaks
• Providing shift flexibility
• Prohibiting visitors at the plant
• Increasing distance between workers
• Installing screening between individual workstations

In addition, Cargill—along with Alberta Health Services—have encouraged workers to limit carpooling, citing that household transmission and carpooling have been connected to the outbreak.

This is problematic.

Highlighting carpooling like this is a way for Cargill, in partnership with Alberta Health Services, to move blame for the outbreak away from the company and onto the workers.

Why, for example, are they increasing distancing between workers now? Does that mean they weren’t far enough apart before?

On 28 March, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the chief medical officer of health, advised Albertans to stay two metres apart at all times. A little over a week later, she recommended that those who can’t keep two metres apart from others should wear face masks.

The fact that Cargill decided to increase distance between workers, install screening between workstations, and provide face masks shows that workers were too close together during shifts.

According to the CBC, one worker claimed that “everybody’s too close and standing.” Another said that “the number of workers in my line, we were in full force. Elbow to elbow.”

Or why is Cargill only now increasing sanitation efforts? It’s a meat processing plant. Surely they should’ve already had strict, comprehensive sanitation practices in place.

Three weeks have passed since the two-metre recommendation were established by the province, yet Cargill has only just started increasing workstation distancing and sanitation measures.

One worker started exhibiting symptoms on 7 April. It didn’t take long before others did as well. After all, it can take up to two weeks for symptoms to emerge, during which time, you can be contagious. And within 6 days, there were 38 cases confirmed by the workers’ union.

The day before, over 250 residents called for the plant to be closed for two weeks to help prevent the spread of the virus. The residents were either Cargill workers or their families, and they were afraid the virus would infect other workers. The union joined in with the closure call the next day.

Four days later, the number of cases directly connected to Cargill workers was at 200, with 158 others connected to the workers. Out of those 158 infected, 3 of them were married to Cargill workers and work for Seasons Retirement Communities, which operates a continuing care facility in town.

As noted above, the number of cases was at 401 yesterday, In 14 days, Cargill went from one possible case to over 400 confirmed cases—all workers.

Cargill’s workplace practices are partly to blame. Their more than 2,000 workers worked too closely together. They had no masks. Clearly, sanitation practices didn’t prevent the spread.

But that’s only part of it.

Workers who had tested positive for the virus felt pressure to not isolate for two weeks, that Cargill supervisors were trying to skirt Alberta Health restrictions and bring workers into work. Workers were told that—even if they had tested positive—they could come to work if they showed no symptoms.

The company also provided bonuses during the outbreak, which increased the pressure that isolating workers felt to come back to work.

Cargill was never committed to reducing the introduction—let alone the spread—of COVID-19. Their workstation practices showed that. Their sanitation practices showed that. Their lack of respect for Dr. Hinshaw’s distancing and isolation recommendations showed that.

They weren’t committed to preventing viral spread because they weren’t concerned about workers. They’re concerned about production.

Cargill’s High River plant processes over 4,500 cows every day. That’s 2.25 cows per employee. If 400 employees are self isolating, that number increases to 2.81 cows per employee. Assuming, of course, that all 2,000 employees work every day, which obviously isn’t the case.

Their meat isn’t just shipped local. It also goes into the States. There’s pressure to get that meat out the door and across the line. Pressure from CFIA’s limited inspection hours. Pressure from clients. Pressure from head office in Minnesota. Pressure from the C-suite executives who saw the company hit $2.82 billion in profit in 2019, but which was down 12% over 2018. They don’t want 2020 to drop, too. Especially with fewer restaurants buying meat.

This past Monday—nearly 2 weeks after the first worker started showing symptoms and a full week after High River residents demanded the plant shut down—Cargill announced they were temporarily ceasing operations.

UFCW 401, which represents the workers, is glad the plant is shut down. It’ll help prevent the spread from worsening, and it’ll allow the company to thoroughly clean the plant.

But worries about profit-driven exploitation of labour value have now been replaced with worries about worker pay. The company has been silent on whether they’ll be paying their workers during the shut down.

After all, if they’re paying employees while those employees aren’t producing revenue, it’s going to be tough to top $2.82 in profits this year.

And to be clear, this isn’t just a problem with Cargill, who also shut down their Pennsylvania plant. JBS has 67 confirmed cases at their meat packing plant in Brooks, and they’ve shut down plants in Pennsylvania and Colorado. National Beef Packing Co. cancelled operations at their Iowa plant. Smithfield Foods closed their South Dakota plant. United Poultry has 27 confirmed cases at their meat processing facility in Vancouver.

This is bigger than just carpooling.

As well, Tyler Shandro, the health minister, refused to negotiate with the Alberta Medical Association to develop a new contract with doctors in the province. Then he unilaterally cancelled their contract and all negotiations, forcing them to take significant wage cuts.

And now the AMA is suing the government.

However, not all doctors are responding to the disrespect with a lawsuit. Some are reducing the services they provide. Some are even leaving Alberta entirely.

According to the AMA, 400 clinics in Alberta are laying off support staff or considering closing. Here are some of them.

Bragg Creek

At least 1 doctor in Bragg Creek is closing her practice. She will be leaving the province, citing a lack of feeling valued and supported by the government.

Calgary

In a letter to the health minister, 85 emergency room doctors in Calgary expressed concern about the effect clinic closures will have on demand in their ERs.

Canmore

A doctor in Canmore announced that she was relocating her medical practice to Calgary. She claimed fee cuts could run as high as 40% for some doctors in Alberta, which made it hard for her to manage her high overhead and deal with recruitment challenges.

Cochrane

One clinic in Cochrane is closing down. At least one doctor from that clinic may be leaving the province, and the others will work out o other clinics in the short term.

Cold Lake

Three doctors in Cold Lake will be leaving Alberta by the end of 2020.

Crowsnest Pass

Crowsnest Pass apparently lost 4 doctors.

Edmonton

A surgeon and his colleagues in Edmonton will be shutting down the clinic they run at Grey Nuns Community Hospital.

A paediatric clinic in Edmonton claims that newly introduced patient caps means that they will need to send some patients to the emergency room—instead of the clinic—for service.

Fort McMurray

A family physician in Fort McMurray is reviewing recruitment materials from other provinces.

Lac La Biche

In Lac La Biche, 10 of the 11 doctors there filed a letter of resignation with provincial and local healthcare officials saying that they wouldn’t be practicing at the local hospital after 31 July 2020. One of the doctors is the hospital’s chief of staff and managing doctor. They cited government funding changes as the cause for their resignation, saying that the cuts amount to eliminating a third of their salary.

Lacombe

A rural family practice in Lacombe laid off 13 employees, citing government cuts to health care. This clinic had a partner resign, and lost two locums who were going to fill in for sabbaticals next year. The locums, recent Alberta residency grads, have decided to move to BC instead.

Lethbridge

In a letter to the health minister, 22 emergency room doctors in Lethbridge expressed concern about the effect clinic closures will have on demand in their ERs. After-hours walk-in clinics in Lethbridge have closed.

In another letter to the health minister, 4 palliative care physicians in Lethbridge wrote that recent cuts will hinder their ability to travel to rural communities and will limit home visits.

Medicine Hat

A maternity clinic may lose some of their 10 physicians. They cite fee changes as the reason they’re considering not practising at this clinic anymore.

In a letter to the health minister, 22 emergency room doctors in Medicine Hat expressed concern about the effect clinic closures will have on demand in their ERs.

In another letter to the health minister, 8 palliative care physicians in Medicine Hat wrote that recent cuts will hinder their ability to travel to rural communities and will limit home visits.

Okotoks

A family physician left Okotoks, citing unsustainable overhead costs . Two others are considering leaving Alberta.

An oby/gyn in Okotoks started the process to relicense in British Columbia as an exit strategy for leaving Alberta.

Peace River

A clinic in Peace River has stopped providing family medicine. The other clinic in the town has a waiting list of over 800 patients.

Pincher Creek

The Associate Clinic in Pincher Creek announced that 9 doctors there were discontinuing hospital-based services as of July.

Ponoka

A doctor at the Battle River Medical Clinic in Ponoka announced yesterday that she’s leaving her practice at the end of June. She didn’t cite the recent cuts as the reason for her leaving—saying that “an opportunity came up to do this training and the timing felt right”—however, she was one of hundreds of doctors last month who signed a letter asking for Jason Kenney to reverse funding cuts.

Red Deer

A Red Deer doctor is leaving his practice to work in British Columbia. He also cited the provincial cuts.

A Red Deer surgeon is moving to British Columbia.

Rimbey

In Rimbey, 2 of the 6 doctors there announced that they plan to leave the province once the COVID-19 pandemic is over. One of the doctors said the last straw was the cuts to after-hours hospital fees. Previously, he was paid $38.03 for each of the 20–30 patients he saw during a 24-hour shift. That works out to about $31.69 an hour. The new fees are $31 per patient, which works out to about $25.83 an hour. He also cites reduction in insurance reimbursements as a reason for leaving, which used to cover most of the more than $8,000 he had to pay annually. The other doctor, who was trying to build up her clinic into a full scope rural practice, cited the changes to the complex modifier, which allowed doctors to spend more time with patients in an effort to adequately address their health challenges, particularly if they had multiple issues concurrently. Three other Rimbey doctors are considering leaving.

Rocky Mountain House

Rocky Medical Clinic will require patients with multiple issues to come in for multiple appointments, due to changes to complex patient changes. This clinic is short 4 family physicians, but that number will increase to 6 by the end of the year due to retirements; one of those retirements is a direct response to the government budget cuts.

As well, 7 physicians at Rocky Medical Clinic have given their notice to Alberta Health Services that after 90 days, they will no longer be working at the hospital.

St. Paul

Some doctors in St. Paul plan to pull out of emergency room service, and some clinics will close.

Stettler

Stettler saw 7 physicians there, who work at two clinics in town—Stettler Medical Clinic and Heartland Medical Clinic—say that because of the government cuts, they could no longer afford to practice in the emergency room at the local hospital. There are only 10 physicians in the town.

Sundre

Because of the changes to insurance I covered above, none of the physicians practicing in Sundre are insured for obstetrical services a Sundre Hospital. A family medicine resident from the University of Alberta, who was supposed to train in Sundre has to look for other options because of the closure of services.

Eight doctors at the Moose & Squirrel Medical Clinic in Sundre cancelled not only obstetrical services but also acute care and emergency department services at the Sundre hospital.

Three Hills

A family doctor at the Kneehill Medical Clinic in Three Hills is closing his practice at the end of June.

Westlock

At least 1 doctor has withdrawn his privileges from the Westlock Hospital and went on to imply that they might be leaving Alberta, as well.

In addition to all the vacancies these closings will create, for the first time in Alberta’s history, it has over 20 residency positions open.

Finally, the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association tweeted out a press release yesterday, saying that out of 300 rural doctors recently surveyed, 47% said that they’ve “been forced to decrease their hospital-based services by July”, with more indicating they’d likely need to do so beyond July.

Less than a week later, a Reddit user going by the name of MutantProgress shared a screenshot of a message from a healthcare worker regarding masks that workers at their hospital in Calgary are being asked to wear.

The information in the screenshot—as well as the ensuing discussion in the comments on the Reddit post—have raised questions about the provincial government’s decision to donate millions of protective equipment to other provinces.

In the message, this healthcare worker outlines a couple of issues with the masks they and their colleagues are being asked to wear.

First, instead of receiving a new shipment of masks every day as usual, this hospital received no new masks during a 5-day period. And second, when the new masks finally arrived, they were low quality: they ripped easily and are poor fitting.

This message, however, doesn’t seem to be a solitary opinion. Several comments confirmed the general sentiment of this message regarding protective equipment.

I’m an RN in the central zone and I can confirm this is true. The masks are terrible, don’t fit properly, have fallen off nurses faces while in patient isolation rooms, and smell really terrible. They’re causing skin irritation, sore throats, and bad headaches. It’s so disappointing that this is what we have to deal with.

FunctionalChocoholic

My girlfriend is a nurse. She confirmed this to me as well. Also complained that the new masks have a noxious chemical odor to them and gave her a headache for her entire shift.

PFCthrowaway2018

I’m an RN in Alberta, and I can confirm these masks are absolutely terrible!! Constantly sliding down your nose, huge gaps at the sides, can’t properly seal the nose so you’re blowing air into your eyes whenever you exhale, and the worst part is they are causing massive issues with skin irritation, throat and lung irritation. On my second shift wearing one my face was swollen and burning within an hour and I could feel my airway constricting, so I had to take it off. Probably half the nurses on my unit have had similar reactions to these masks. Makes me sad that the health and lives of frontline healthcare workers are worth so little to this government.

NunnersDaG

This is true. Our hospital has filed a complaint because the masks are terrible. The elastics break. They pucker at the sides and under the chin and the nose piece doesn’t stay bent. They smell and feel cheap:(. One of my coworkers broke out into hives from wearing it and had to go home. My eyes water from wearing it as if there’s chemicals in it.

muranogrl95

Can also confirm. Had a nice mask for one shift, had days off and came back to hear we were down to our last box. Had new ones come in and they are awful! They don’t fit on the face right and leave your cheeks, nose, and any contact rashy. Other nurses I work with stated headaches with the smell. We all hate them but are mandated to wear them for 12 hours.

jacido

One nurse in the South Zone reached out to me on social media and also confirmed these reports.

And it’s not just nurses. Lindsay Campbell, a family physician in Spruce Grove, offered her own confirmation on the quality of the masks through a tweet.

A doctor in Lacombe also confirmed these claims on Twitter:

Mike Chatenay, a surgeon in Edmonton, also agreed with the poor condition of the equipment.

As did a rural family doctor in the Red Deer area.

Finally, Edward Woo, a family physician and hospitalist at Rockyview General Hospital, also confirmed these complaints.

In a media release, AUPE—half of whose members are healthcare workers—echoed the sentiments seen above, referring to these PPEs as “part of the $200-million shipment of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Health Minister Tyler Shandro promised to the front lines in a press conference on April 11”.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) purchased the items from manufacturing giants across the globe. Over the last week PPE deliveries arrived at AHS facilities. Since then, health-care workers from multiple sites have taken to social media calling out poor craftsmanship of PPE and saying the government did not deliver on its promise.

Staff are reporting surgical masks that do not seal their faces properly, pinch their noses and straps that fall apart during patient care. Many have also experienced nausea, headaches, skin rashes and throat irritation after wearing the masks, which have an unpleasant and overwhelming odour. Some sites have started sending stock back.

The United Nurses of Alberta, the union that represents nurses in the province, stated in a Facebook post:

AHS normally procures and supplies the Primed PM-PG-1211 surgical mask but they have been unable to source the necessary volumes of this specific mask to meet the additional demands related to the new continuous masking guidelines. At this time, they have two additional suppliers providing two new types of procedure masks (Vanch & Primed 186771).

In the last few days, these new types of procedure/surgical masks have been distributed to sites across the province (which may include non AHS sites) and we have been hearing concerns from our members related to odor, fit, nose pinch and retention. We have raised these concerns directly with senior Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) representatives within AHS and they are investigating.

Alberta Health Services responded through their own Twitter account on a thread that referenced the Reddit post, saying that some PPEs are new models but that all of them are safe:

On Saturday, Steve Buick, press secretary to provincial Health Minister Tyler Shandro, echoed AHS’s Twitter thread:

AHS is doing a superb job of sourcing PPE. To do so, they’re working with new suppliers, and that includes adjusting products to meet their needs and respond to staff concerns.

Yet, only a day later, AHS seemed to change their mind, directly responding to concerns raised by healthcare workers in another Twitter thread:

AHS also responded yesterday in a Twitter thread that they’re creating a worker=led focus group to deal with this issue.

This change in response occurred because workers pushed back, and because the media started addressing it.

Before we get into the graphs, let’s highlight some larger numbers.

Combined, all city council members spent $62,338 for travel and per diem expenses in 2017, $55,098 in 2018, and $55,048 in 2019. They spent $172,484 over the entire 3-year period.

They had budgeted a combined $94,500 for 2017, $112,000 for 2018, and $112,000 for 2019. (Although Campbell and Crowson had prorated budgets in 2017, since they were elected in only the last quarter of 2017). That comes to $318,500 for the entire 3-year period.

They spent about 66% of their combined travel and per diem budgets in 2017 and about 49% in both 2018 and 2019. If you calculate their spending for the entire 3-year period, it comes to about 54% of their travel and per diem budgets.

Now onto the graphs.

I graphed total expenses for each council member, total per diem for each council member, number of events attended, both total expenses and total per diem each council member spent per event, per diem per day, and finally 3-year averages per event for travel and per diem, as well as 3-year averages for per diem per day.

Total travel expenses

In this graph, you can see that the mayor, Chris Spearman, claimed the highest in total travel expenses for each year. That makes sense, given that the mayor often attends more events than councillors do (which you’ll see below).

For councillors, Blaine Hyggen was highest in 2017, Belinda Crowson and Rob Miyashiro were more or less tied for highest in 2018, and Hyggen was highest again in 2019, but just barely.

Joe Mauro claimed expenses just in 2018, but he attended only 1 event: IMCL – Making Cities Livable in Ottawa. While it appears as though Ryan Parker claimed no expenses in 2019, his expenses were simply so low, they appear as just a yellow sliver on the chart. He attended 2 events and claimed a total of $72.38 in that year.

Total per diem expenses

Despite having the highest travel expenses, Spearman came in at the lowest for per diem.

Once again, Hyggen comes in the highest. Jeff Carlson comes in second highest, and much higher than the other 6. Mauro claimed per diem only in 2018, and again for the one conference, at about $280 per day.

Other than that, everyone else is more or less around the same amount each year, except for Coffman, who claimed about the same as Spearman.

Number of events

As I mentioned earlier, Spearman, as mayor, attended far more events than the councillors did, an average of 32 per year.

Other than Carlson in 2018, all councillors attended fewer than 10 events per year. As I already pointed out, Mauro attended just one for all 3 years.

Average expenses per event

If we average travel expenses over the number of events city council members attended, we see some interesting numbers.

First, even though he has the highest travel expenses, Spearman’s per event average is the lowest.

Second, Mauro’s average is the highest, but I don’t think we should read too much into it. I’d consider this data point an outlier.

Finally, Mark Campbell has the highest average in 2019. Even though the other two years are middle of the pack, if you average the 3 years together, he claimed about $1,430 per year, the second highest average. The highest three-year average is Miyashiro, at $1,519.

Average per diem per event

Unsurprisingly, Spearman comes in lowest for average per diem per event expenses, given that he claimed the lowest per diems overall and attended the most events.

Also not surprising is Mauro’s placement, given that his per diem is for a single event.

While their averages for 2017 and 2018 were on par with everyone else, it’s interesting that Campbell’s and Parker’s 2019 per diems were significantly higher than the others, as well as their own from the previous two years.

Crowson and Jeff Coffman kept their average per event fairly low for all 3 years.

Average per diem per day

When you calculate the average per diem expenses charged per day, Spearman, once again, ends up the lowest.

Other than Coffman (who was significantly lower than the others) and Miyashiro (who was significantly higher than the others), the average per diem per day in 2017 was around the same for everyone. Well, except Mauro, of course.

In 2018, per day claims climbed, with 7 council members claiming $200 a day or higher. Campbell and Mauro each claimed over $300 a day.

Finally, in 2019, spending dropped, with most everyone hovering around the $200 mark, except for Spearman and Parker, both of whom were below that.

3-year average travel expenses per event

In this chart, I calculated the 3-year, per-event average for each council member’s travel expenses.

Again, it’s not that surprising that Spearman is the lowest. And as I mentioned earlier, Miyashiro and Campbell have the two highest 3-year averages.

Interestingly, even though he attended just one event, Mauro had the third highest 3-year average. Keep in mind, however, that his 3-year cumulative total was $2,778. Other than Parker, whose 3-year total was $3,241, all other councillors had 3-year totals between $10,000 and $22,000.

Speaking of $22,000, even though Hyggen outspent all the other councillors on his 3-year total—by about $9,000–12,000—his 3-year average was the fourth highest, third if you consider Mauro an outlier.

3-year average per diem expenses per event

For the 3-year average on per diem expenses per event, Spearman, of course, comes in the lowest, given that he had the lowest claims every year and attended the most events.

Coffman and Crowson both had 3-year per diem averages significantly lower than the other 6 councillors. But they also had the lowest per event per diem expenses, too, so this isn’t surprising.

Other than Mauro, the remaining councillors spent over $500 per event on average over the last 3 years, with Parker averaging at an even $600.

3-year per day per diem average

Now, if we average the per day per diem expenses for the entire 3-year period, we get another viewpoint.

Spearman is the only member of city council who claimed less than $100 per day on average. Coffman, Mauro, and Parker were the only councillors who claimed under $200 per day.

The remaining 5 councillors all claimed more than $200 per day, with Miyahsiro and Campbell each claiming above $250 per day.

Over-budget spending

Finally, let’s discuss over-budget spending. Even though city council as a whole claimed significantly less every year than they had budgeted for, some members of city council overspent their individual budgets.

In 2017, Campbell went 130% over budget and Crowson went 135% over budget. Keep in mind that they were both elected in the last quarter of 2017, so their budgets were prorated, and each claimed und $1,400.

Hyggen, on the other hand, outspent his 2017 budget by 173%.

In 2018, no one went over budget. Carlson was the highest, at 81%. And 2019 was similar, with the highest spend being Hyggen again, at 89%.

You can find the original data, including the specific events and how much each member spent at each event here:

• 2017: https://buff.ly/38S0May
• 2018: https://buff.ly/38XWG0v
• 2019: https://buff.ly/38ZZWsg

• Mabel Hamilton, board chair – primary producer, Innisfail
• Rodney Bradshaw – primary producer, Red Deer County
• Renata Colic – finance and investor relations, Calgary
• Trevor MacLean – agriculture business consultant, Okotoks
• Chioma Ufodike – forensic accountant, Calgary

Already on the board are Gerald Bouma and Kiren Singh.

The AFSC is a Crown corporation that provides loans, crop insurance, and disaster assistance to Alberta farmers.

Renata Colic is the chief financial officer of Canoe Financial LP, which donated $5,000 in 2017 to the Alberta Advantage Fund, a political action committee which helped fund the formation of the United Conservative Party, as well as the election of Jason Kenney as leader of that party. They also donated $20,000 in 2018 to Shaping Alberta’s Future, another PAC formed to promote the UCP. The board chair for Canoe Financial is Brett Wilson, who himself has donated over $16,000 to conservative parties.

Chioma Ufodike is the manager of trust safety with the Law Society of Alberta. Her spouse, Akolisa Ufodike, is an assistant professor with MacEwan University, and he donated $1,000 to Teresa Woo-Paw’s PC campaign in 2015.

Trevor MacLean is a senior advisor with MNP’s Agriculture team in Lethbridge. His wife, Susan, donated $335 to the NDP party in 2019.

Rodney Bradshaw owns Beck Farms, which specializes in carrot growing.

Gerald Bouma, also known as Jerry, is a partner with Toma & Bouma Management Consultants. He donated $500 to Jim Prentice’s PC leadership campaign in 2014, $375 to the PC party in 2014, and a $375 campaign donation to the PCs during the 2015 election.

Kiren Singh is a chartered financial analyst and corporate director, most recently with Dynamic Risk Assessment Systems, as their finance and risk committee chair. Gibson Energy, where she was vice president of risk management, as well as treasurer, donated over $12,000 to the PC party during her first 3 years there. They donated to the party for 8 years prior to her arrival, too.

Mabel Hamilton runs Belvin Angus Ltd in Innisfail.

Edenbridge provides ongoing supports and services to children and adults with developmental disabilities, support for those who require assistance with their independence, and individuals with mental health challenges. Intriguingly, their mission statement includes this sentence:

Edenbridge Family Services Inc. is dedicated to providing services to those in need regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, income or disability.

But that’s kind of tangential.

Bill C-8, which held its first reading on 9 March 2020, will criminalize the following actions related to conversion therapy, once passed:

• Causing a person to undergo conversion therapy against the person’s will
• Causing a child to undergo conversion therapy
• Doing anything that removes a child from Canada to undergo conversion therapy outside Canada
• Advertising an offer to provide conversion therapy
• Receiving a financial or other material benefit from providing conversion therapy.

Conversion therapy is a collective term that refers to various practices aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including shaming, emotional trauma, and physical pain, by associating those negative experiences with their LGBTQ identities.

Fundamentally, Bill C-8 is about making conversion therapy illegal in Canada, recognizing that it harms LGBTQ people.

Sascha Kramps’s letter opposes the bill, at least from a trans treatment perspective. This isn’t surprising, as Sascha has a history of transphobic comments online.

For example, on 6 January 2020, she commented on a Change.or petition called “Stop RBC from supporting radical sex education in schools”.

Last year, she left a comment on a post called “Letter Sent to PFLAG Vancouver Regarding Their Trans Protest Against Feminist Meghan Murphy: Some LGBT Community Members Support Her Right to Speak” at the transphobic website The Homoarchy. The article has since been removed. Full disclosure: Colin McKenna, the chapter lead of PFLAG Vancouver is a friend of mine, and we went to high school together.

In a comment last May on a Patreon post entitled, “The Transgender Takeover of Female Sports”, she said, “This infuriates me.”

Her letter uses two common myths that transphobic people use to justify their transphobia and oppose initiatives that protect trans rights. As a parent of 3 trans youth—and as a queer man myself—I felt it important to dispel these two myths.

Myth 1: 85% of trans kids choose to be straight after therapy

The problem with desistance research is that it’s terribly flawed.

First, a diagnosis of gender identity disorder was less stringent than that of gender dysphoria in the DSM-V. This means that these desistance studies included large numbers of children who wouldn’t have met the more stringent criteria if they sought diagnosis today.

Second, these desistance studies weren’t studying gender identity. Some of the participants in the studies were children whose parents were worried about their gender expression (boys wearing dresses, for example).

Third, some studies classified all study dropouts as desisters, whether they actually desisted or not.

Finally, the more popular studies cited for desistance statistics never studied desistance, but rather predictors of persistence. Also, those who ended up labelled as desisters were more likely to indicate–when asked if they were a boy or a girl—that they wished they were the “opposite” sex. Those who indicated they were the other sex were less likely to desist.

Take a 2013 study by Thomas Steensma, a researcher and clinician at the Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria in Amsterdam. In this study, Steensma and his team examined 127 adolescents who had displayed various gender dysphoria as children. They found that 80 of the participants had desisted by 16 years old. That works out to 63% of kids who apparently stopped being transgender.

However, 28 of those 80 who had been classified as desisters simply had not sent back their questionnaires. 38 of the original participants didn’t meet all the criteria of an official diagnosis. And the desisters tended, when asked if they were or a boy or girl, to indicate that they wished that they were the “opposite” sex, while the persisters tended to indicate that they actually were the opposite sex.

As well, Steensma’s study was never designed to measure desistance; it was designed to measure persistence, which it did.

Myth 2: Hormone therapy leads to sterility

Sascha Kramps cites Michael Laidlaw—an endocrinologist who is no longer ABIM-certified but is certified with NBPAS—well-known for his own transphobia and his crusade to stop hormone therapy. According to Kramps, Laidlaw claims that hormone therapy leads to sterility.

I mean, that makes sense. If a trans male takes GnRH analogs, for example, then of course his body isn’t going to ovulate. That’s kind of the point. If a trans female is on estrogen therapy, then her testosterone levels will drop, potentially affecting sperm generation.

Like I said, that makes sense. But I anticipate most trans men don’t actually want to have their period every month, let alone get pregnant. Perhaps some do, but I imagine for others, this can accentuate gender dysphoria, which is why they’re using hormone therapy in the first place.

Granted, this seems to be reversible, at least for some people. A 2017 Belgian study, for instance, found that cortical follicle distribution in trans men, even after over a year of testosterone treatment, was normal.

Even so, fertility is not the only outcome of hormone therapy. It also alleviates gender dysphoria and improves psychological functioning (such as body image, global functioning, depression, anxiety, and emotional and behavioural problems). As well, it results in the well-being (social and professional functioning, quality of life, life satisfaction, and happiness) of trans people to be similar to or better than same age people from the general population.

In the second sentence of Kramps’ letter, she states, “Bill C-8, the Conversion Therapy Ban, limits opportunities for children to receive thorough psychological care.”

What Kramps fails to address in her letter is that there is little evidence that conversion therapy provides psychological care, let alone thorough care.

The APA established a task force in 2007 to review all the research to date on conversion therapy’s efficacy. The task force concluded that there was very little methodologically sound research on the effects of conversion therapy, and the scientifically valid research that did exist indicated “that it is unlikely that individuals will be able to reduce same-sex attractions or increase other-sex sexual attractions through” conversion therapy.

On the other hand, not participating in conversion therapy means someone doesn’t have to endure being told that they’re not actually gay, that they can be the sexual orientation their parents assigned to them at birth. It means someone doesn’t have to endure being told that they’re not actually the gender they identify with, that they can be the gender their parents assigned to them at birth. That alone can improve one’s mental health.

I never had to undergo conversion therapy, thankfully. However, I have had, as a queer man, my sexual orientation repressed. All my life, I’ve been told I was straight: by my family, by my church, by the society I live in. I accepted it, and for decades repressed my queerness. I’m only starting to come to terms with it now.

Luckily for me, I’m in a relationship with someone I’m sexually attracted to, so my mental health hasn’t suffered greatly. I can only imagine what it must be like for someone who is completely gay to have to live as straight or someone who is trans having to live as cis.

How anyone could defend the forcing of those scenarios as beneficial, especially someone who herself is lesbian and who thinks “praying the gay away is garbage”, dumbfounds me.

Update (21 April 2020): The Lethbridge Herald removed the letter to the editor from their website. Here is a copy:

Last October, Dreeshen’s ministry cut its budget by almost 10%, eliminating $88 million in spending. By the time the next provincial election arrives in 2023, the ministry will have cut spending by 15% from 2018–19 levels.

Wildfire Alberta itself took on more than a quarter of that cut alone, at $23 million—from about $141 million to $117.6 million. That came at the expense of their entire rappelling team of 63 firefighters, 15 wildfire observers, and an air tanker.

Plus, they eliminated wildfire fighting from their contingency, disaster, and emergency assistance budget, starting in the 2020–21 budget. It had been budgeted at $485 million in the previous budget.

And although they replaced it with a general contingency budget, it’s still $450 million short of what they forecasted to spend in total on disaster and emergency assistance.

The 200 firefighters the province is hiring will be ground support. No increase to air tanker, rappelling, or lookout tower crews.

So, while it’s great that we will have $5 million more in the firefighting budget than we were going to have—we’re still $18 million short, compared to where we were prior to last autumn.

But did you know that’s not the only oil and gas project that the UCP government plans to spend over a billion dollars on?

Last week, Sonya Savage, minister of energy, and Travis Toews, president of the Alberta Treasury Board and the minister of finance, recommended to the lieutenant governor that Toews be authorized to do the following:

• Make advances to or purchase securities of the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission
• Raise money for these advances or securities purchases through issuing and selling
  • Notes
  • Bonds
  • Debentures
  • Interest-bearing treasury bills
  • Non-interest-bearing treasury bills
• Approves the terms and conditions of any securities he issues

The lieutenant government approved the recommendation.

This order was specifically related to the financing of the North West Redwater Sturgeon Refinery and limits Toews’ financing the refinery to a maximum of $1.25 billion (even if indirectly through the commission).

The refinery is located about 45 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, in Sturgeon County, and is operated by North West Redwater Partnership, a 50/50 partnership between North West Refining and Canadian Natural Upgrading, a subsidiary of Canadian Natural Resources.

While the refinery should be fully operational later this year after additional work and testing is complete on their gasifier, the facility has been processing synthetic crude oil into diesel since November 2017.

Once fully operational, the refinery will process bitumen feedstock, 75% of which will come come from the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission.

Ian MacGregor, CEO and chair of North West Refining, is a member of the North West Redwater Partnership executive leadership committee, as well as its management committee. He has been involved in most aspects of the Sturgeon refinery’s design, corporate structure, financing, and construction.

Another area that MacGregor has been involved in is provincial politics, donating thousands of dollars to political parties over the last several years. He donated $1000 to the Calgary-Bow PC constituency association in 2007, $500 to the PC Party in 2008, as well as $2000 to Leah Lawrence’s PC campaign that same year. In 2012, he donated $1000 to Alana DeLong’s PC campaign and $500 to Cecilia Low’s PC campaign. He contributed $1000 to Byron Nelson’s PC campaign in 2015, and then later that year, donated $5,000 to the Alberta NDP during the provincial byelection. He also donated $450 to the NDP in 2018. Last year, he donated $5000, split between the Alberta Party, NDP, and the UCP, including a $1000 campaign contribution to the Alberta Party.

That’s over $16,000 to 4 major parties since 2007.

Canadian Natural Resources is also no stranger to political donations, donating nearly $125,000 to political parties, candidates, and constituency associations between 2004 and 2015. Parties included the PC Party, Wildrose, and the Alberta Liberals. Candidates have included such names as Derek Fildebrandt and Jeff Callaway. Constituency associations included Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater, where the refinery is located, various Calgary ridings, and Grande Prairie-Wapiti, the home riding of Travis Toews.

So, this government has reduced corporate income tax at a cost of $4.7 billion, invested $1.5 billion in Keystone XL (not including the $6 billion loan guarantee), and $1.25 billion in a refinery that is nearly complete.

Meanwhile, they’re cutting healthcare, underfunding K–12 by $2.5 billion, and donating only $5 million to food banks.