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Alberta

Never again! Preston Manning review recommends Emergency Management Agency co-ordinate response to future province-wide public emergencies.

Published

12 months ago

9 minute read

Emergency Review Panel Releases Final COVID-19 Report and Recommendations for the Alberta Government

The Public Health Emergencies Governance Review Panel, led by Preston Manning, delivered its final report to the Government of Alberta, which includes over 90 recommendations for consideration. 

The Panel was tasked by Premier Danielle Smith with undertaking a detailed review of the legislation and governance employed during the COVID-19 crisis, and to recommend changes and additional legislation to better prepare the province to meet future public emergencies. The mandate of the Panel was not to conduct an overall inquiry into the government’s response to COVID-19, but strictly to review the statutes that provided the legal basis for the government’s response to COVID-19.

Drawing upon the expertise and research of advisors and contractors commissioned for the study, the Panel arrived at a series of conclusions and recommendations for the Alberta Government to consider.

The recommendations of the Panel fall into three main categories, and included:

  1. Improving the focus and performance of the administrative and regulatory framework used to respond to provincewide public emergencies, including:
    • Strengthen the Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) through legislative amendments and budgetary provisions to make it the lead government agency responding to and coordinating the response of the Alberta government to future provincewide public emergencies, including health emergencies.
    • Develop and maintain a broadly-based Inventory of Scientific Advice and Scientific Advisors that can be drawn upon in the event of a public emergency.
    • Mandate by legislation that preliminary, interim and post-emergency impact assessments be conducted in response to any future provincewide public emergencies.
    • Reject provincewide school closures as a policy option in responding to a provincewide public emergency, except in the most exceptional of circumstances, and then only for the shortest possible period of time.
  1. Balancing the protection of Albertans from the harms caused by public emergencies with the protection of their basic rights and freedoms during an emergency period, including:
    • Amend the Alberta Bill of Rights and Alberta’s Employment Standards Code and Health Professions Act to protect the rights and freedoms of all Albertans, including workers and healthcare professionals, and the freedom of expression during public emergencies.
  1. Increasing the overall capacity of Alberta’s healthcare system to respond to surges in demand caused by a public health emergency. Here, the Panel recognized that the government has already taken numerous incremental steps to increase the overall capacity of the healthcare system. The Panel commends those initiatives and recommends additional incremental steps, all compatible with the principles of universality and the Canada Health Act, including:
    • Expanding the use of nurse practitioners and licensed practical nurses.
    • Reducing or eliminating barriers to labour mobility for healthcare workers.
    • Exploring options for attracting more healthcare providers into medical training
    • Incentivizing medical graduates to serve in the most needed areas.
    • Utilizing pharmacists to their full scope of practice.
    • Expanding and improving the organization of home care services.
    • Expanding the capacity of the Alberta healthcare system to deal with mental health.
    • Expanding and supporting the use of virtual medicine and telemedicine.
    • Streamlining system administration.

The panelists include Michel Kelly-Gagnon (President Emeritus of the Montréal Economic Institute), The Honourable John C. (Jack) Major CC KC (Former Supreme Court of Canada Justice), Preston Manning, PC CC AOE (former MP for Calgary Southwest and Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons), Dr. Jack Mintz (president’s fellow of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary and a distinguished senior fellow of the MacDonald-Laurier Institute), Dr. Martha Fulford (Infectious Disease Specialist and Retired Chief of Medicine, McMaster University), and Dr. Robert Tanguay, Psychiatrist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Surgery at the Cumming School of Medicine).

Quotes

“The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting global turmoil was unprecedented. Alberta, like the rest of the world, had to make decisions quickly and with limited, changing and even conflicting information. It is my hope that by adopting these recommendations, the Government will be better equipped to cope with future emergencies, and that the impacts on Albertans – their personal livelihoods, civil liberties, and mental health can be mitigated to the greatest extent possible.” – Preston Manning, Chair

“For the credibility of the study and our final recommendations, I felt it was important to select panelists and advisors with varied areas of expertise and perspectives on the key issues. For that reason, while there were certainly differences of opinion, I am thrilled that we were ultimately able to arrive at a consensus on the recommendations put forward.” – Preston Manning, Chair

Read the full report here.

Most Important Conclusions/Recommendation Per Chapter

  • Strengthen, through legislative amendments and budgetary provisions, the Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) – whose members are specifically trained in emergency management – to make it the lead government agency for co-ordinating the response of the Alberta government to any and all future provincewide public emergencies. (Chapter 2)
  • Appoint a Senior Science Officer, with multidisciplinary training and experience, to the AEMA, responsible for developing and maintaining a broadly based Inventory of Scientific Advice and Scientific Advisors that can be drawn upon in the event of public emergencies. (Chapter 3)
  • Increase the effectiveness and accountability of the Alberta regulatory framework by increasing its evidence- based decision-making capacity, transparency, consistency, fairness, and self-correctability via feedback. (Chapter 4)
  • Reject provincewide school closures as a policy option in responding to a provincewide public emergency, except in the most exceptional of circumstances and only then for the shortest possible period of time. (Chapter 5)
  • Mandate by legislation the conduct of impact assessments prior to, during and after promulgation of orders and regulations for adoption in response to a declared provincewide public emergency. (Chapter 6)
  • Recognize that public emergencies generate additional and exceptional pressures on governments to limit the exercise of rights and freedoms, and thus amend theAlberta Bill of Rights to specifically strengthen the protection of rights and freedoms under such circumstances. (Chapter 7)
  • Increase the protection of the rights and freedoms of workers and healthcare professionals, during public emergencies, in particular their freedom of expression, through amendments to Alberta’s Employment Standards Code and Health Professions Act. (Chapter 8)
  • Increase the overall capacity of the Alberta healthcare system, thereby increasing its capacity to meet surges in demand caused by public health emergencies, through the incremental measures proposed, while respecting the principle of universality and the provisions of the Canada Health Act. (Chapter 9)
  • On the belief that Alberta can always learn from others, invite representatives from countries having healthcare systems that outperform Canada/Alberta to a Colloquium on 21st Century Healthcare Best Practices to identify the policies, legislation and features of their systems responsible for superior performance. (Chapter 9)
  • The recommendations of this report are based on the general consensus of Panel members as to how best to prepare Alberta to cope with future public emergencies. But “preparing for future public emergencies” is an evolving process, subject to unforeseen factors and considerations. Therefore, alternative perspectives and narratives on how to best cope with future emergencies should also be welcomed, appreciated and examined.

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This is a news release from the Government of Alberta.

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Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest

Published on November 1, 2024

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.

An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.

On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.

“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.

Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.

“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”

After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.

Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.

He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.

In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”

“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.

Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.

Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.

The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.

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Alberta

Heavy-duty truckers welcome new ‘natural gas highway’ in Alberta

Published on October 31, 2024

By

Clean Energy Fuels CEO Andrew Littlefair, Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose, and Mullen Group chairman Murray Mullen attend the opening of a new Clean Energy/Tourmaline compressed natural gas (CNG) fuelling station in Calgary on Oct. 22, 2024. Photo courtesy Tourmaline

From the Canadian Energy Centre

By Deborah Jaremko

New compressed natural gas fueling stations in Grande Prairie and Calgary join new stop in Edmonton

Heavy-duty truckers hauling everything from restaurant supplies to specialized oilfield services along one of Western Canada’s busiest corridors now have more access to a fuel that can help reduce emissions and save costs.

Two new fuelling stations serving compressed natural gas (CNG) rather than diesel in Grande Prairie and Calgary, along with a stop that opened in Edmonton last year, create the first phase of what proponents call a “natural gas highway”.

“Compressed natural gas is viable, it’s competitive and it’s good for the environment,” said Murray Mullen, chair of Mullen Group, which operates more than 4,300 trucks and thousands of pieces of equipment supporting Western Canada’s energy industry.

Right now, the company is running 19 CNG units and plans to deploy another 15 as they become available.

“They’re running the highways right now and they’re performing exceptionally well,” Mullen said on Oct. 22 during the ribbon-cutting ceremony opening the new station on the northern edge of Calgary along Highway 2.

“Our people love them, our customers love them and I think it’s going to be the way for the future to be honest,” he said.

Heavy-duty trucks at Tourmaline and Clean Energy’s new Calgary compressed natural gas fuelling station. Photo courtesy Tourmaline

According to Natural Resources Canada, natural gas burns more cleanly than gasoline or diesel fuel, producing fewer toxic pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

The two new CNG stops are part of a $70 million partnership announced last year between major Canadian natural gas producer Tourmaline and California-based Clean Energy Fuels.

Their deal would see up to 20 new CNG stations built in Western Canada over the next five years, daily filling up to 3,000 natural gas-fueled trucks.

One of North America’s biggest trucking suppliers to businesses including McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Subway and Popeye’s says the new stations will help as it expands its fleet of CNG-powered vehicles across Canada.

Amy Senter, global vice-president of sustainability with Illinois-based Martin Brower, said in a statement that using more CNG is critical to the company achieving its emissions reduction targets.

For Tourmaline, delivering CNG to heavy-duty truckers builds on its multi-year program to displace diesel in its operations, primarily by switching drilling equipment to run on natural gas.

Between 2018 and 2022, the company displaced the equivalent of 36 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of diesel that didn’t get used, or the equivalent emissions of about 58,000 passenger vehicles.

Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose speaks to reporters during the opening of a new Tourmaline/Clean Energy compressed natural gas fuelling station in Calgary on Oct. 22, 2024. Photo courtesy Tourmaline

Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose noted that the trucking sector switching fuel from diesel to natural gas is gaining momentum, notably in Asia.

A “small but growing” share of China’s trucking fleet moving to natural gas helped drive an 11 percent reduction in overall diesel consumption this June compared to the previous year, according to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“China’s talking about 30 percent of the trucks sold going forward are to be CNG trucks, and it’s all about reducing emissions,” Rose said.

“It’s one global atmosphere. We’re going to reduce them here; they’re going to reduce them there and everybody’s a net winner.”

Switching from diesel to CNG is “extremely cost competitive” for trucking fleets, said Clean Energy CEO Andrew Littlefair.

“It will really move the big rigs that we need in Western Canada for the long distance and heavy loads,” he said.

Tourmaline and Clean Energy aim to have seven CNG fuelling stations operating by the end of 2025. Construction is set to begin in Kamloops, B.C., followed by Fort McMurray and Fort St. John.

“You’ll have that Western Canadian corridor, and then we’ll grow it from there,” Littlefair said.

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