Red Deer City Councillors urged to focus on economic development

Editorial submitted by former candidate for City Council, Chad Krahn

Where is the focus?

“What gets measured, gets managed.”

As the father of management theory once said, the challenge is focus – where your time and attention go is where results will happen.

When it comes to Red Deer City Council, there has been little focus – and as a consequence even less results – on economic development.

In the last year a lot of focus has gone into social issues, like the location of the homeless shelter, and fair enough, we need a location for the shelter. But when virtually no attention has been paid to the economic health of the city, it’s no wonder that the lack of progress on this file speaks for itself.

In the last year and a half, there have only been two large private sector announcements. The first was the gondola across the Red Deer River, which has since been put on hold, and the second was the downtown casino’s move into the newly minted Red Deer Resort and Casino (formerly the Cambridge Hotel).

That certainly doesn’t speak to a vibrant, growing sector.

The Red Deer Economic Development Strategy was written in 2013 – making it over a decade old. Remember 2013? It was when CFL light bulbs were all the rage. So much has changed in the last ten years, and in the case of Red Deer, not for the better.

Since the Economic Development Strategy was written, the number of businesses in Red Deer has steadily declined from 4,040 in 2013 to 3,534 in 2022. While the number of businesses isn’t a perfect indicator of economic development, it is actually the metric chosen by Council as part of their strategic plan. Clearly, there is some work to do.

There are some things that Council can do and can prioritize right away to improve this situation.

The City tracks building permits, and those too have declined significantly in the last decade. In 2013, the City issued 2,068 building permits and that number has declined every year, so much so that, in 2022, only 903 building permits were issued. The City must work on modernizing the entire permitting system if they want to bolster this number – and make Red Deer more economically attractive.

There must be a guaranteed turnaround time on permits. Council must embrace automation to streamline the process where they can. If the City likes to use the number of permits as a benchmark for development, they can’t continue to be stuck in the status quo when it comes to getting them approved.

Taxes remain a sticking point and, while still competitive in comparison to other municipalities, Red Deerian’s taxes have gone up in the last decade. Even before this year’s new City budget and new tax rate come into effect, the commercial tax rate for Red Deer in 2022 was 14.8% – up from 12.23% in 2013.

Council has an opportunity to create new committees around its priorities. Currently, the City has committees for housing and homelessness, the library, public art, Gaetz Lake, and municipal planning, among others. Why not take the opportunity to create a new committee for Red Tape Reduction? Surely there are old bylaws on the books that could be revamped. Unfortunately, in government, it is always easier to add new laws rather than to take away old, defunct rules, but that’s no reason not to do it!

A committee on economic development is also needed, to begin the work of a new Economic Development Strategy. This committee would work to bring all the partners and economic drivers of the city and region together, and to find a way to present a clear vision of what this city has to offer in terms of economic opportunity. The economic advantages to those of us who live here are plain as day, but the message doesn’t seem to be resonating with those outside. Council needs to identify these advantages and work to convey them to potential investors, entrepreneurs, and would-be residents.

The City brands itself as an entrepreneurial one, and with a little more focus we could be the business testing grounds for Alberta. The city’s size and central location makes this an ideal site. Our city could be the launch pad for businesses for the whole country. Imagine how many more made-in-Red Deer success stories we could have.

We can be so much more – all we need is a little focus.

Chad Krahn is a former candidate for Red Deer City Council.

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Ottawa Is Still Dodging The China Interference Threat

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Ottawa Is Still Dodging The China Interference Threat

Published on December 30, 2025

Todayville

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Lee Harding

Alarming claims out of P.E.I. point to deep foreign interference, and the federal government keeps stalling. Why?

Explosive new allegations of Chinese interference in Prince Edward Island show Canada’s institutions may already be compromised and Ottawa has been slow to respond.

The revelations came out in August in a book entitled “Canada Under Siege: How PEI Became a Forward Operating Base for the Chinese Communist Party.” It was co-authored by former national director of the RCMP’s proceeds of crime program Garry Clement, who conducted an investigation with CSIS intelligence officer Michel Juneau-Katsuya.

In a press conference in Ottawa on Oct. 8, Clement referred to millions of dollars in cash transactions, suspicious land transfers and a network of corporations that resembled organized crime structures. Taken together, these details point to a vulnerability in Canada’s immigration and financial systems that appears far deeper than most Canadians have been told.

P.E.I.’s Provincial Nominee Program allows provinces to recommend immigrants for permanent residence based on local economic needs. It seems the program was exploited by wealthy applicants linked to Beijing to gain permanent residence in exchange for investments that often never materialized. It was all part of “money laundering, corruption, and elite capture at the highest levels.”

Hundreds of thousands of dollars came in crisp hundred-dollar bills on given weekends, amounting to millions over time. A monastery called Blessed Wisdom had set up a network of “corporations, land transfers, land flips, and citizens being paid under the table, cash for residences and property,” as was often done by organized crime.

Clement even called the Chinese government “the largest transnational organized crime group in the history of the world.” If true, the allegation raises an obvious question: how much of this activity has gone unnoticed or unchallenged by Canadian authorities, and why?

Dean Baxendale, CEO of the China Democracy Fund and Optimum Publishing International, published the book after five years of investigations.

“We followed the money, we followed the networks, and we followed the silence,” Baxendale said. “What we found were clear signs of elite capture, failed oversight and infiltration of Canadian institutions and political parties at the municipal, provincial and federal levels by actors aligned with the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, the Ministry of State Security. In some cases, political donations have come from members of organized crime groups in our country and have certainly influenced political decision making over the years.”

For readers unfamiliar with them, the United Front Work Department is a Chinese Communist Party organization responsible for influence operations abroad, while the Ministry of State Security is China’s main civilian intelligence agency. Their involvement underscores the gravity of the allegations.

It is a troubling picture. Perhaps the reason Canada seems less and less like a democracy is that it has been compromised by foreign actors. And that same compromise appears to be hindering concrete actions in response.

One example Baxendale highlighted involved a PEI hotel. “We explore how a PEI hotel housed over 500 Chinese nationals, all allegedly trying to reclaim their $25,000 residency deposits, but who used a single hotel as their home address. The owner was charged by the CBSA, only to have the trial shut down by the federal government itself,” he said. The case became a key test of whether Canadian authorities were willing to pursue foreign interference through the courts.

The press conference came 476 days after Bill C-70 was passed to address foreign interference. The bill included the creation of Canada’s first foreign agent registry. Former MP Kevin Vuong rightly asked why the registry had not been authorized by cabinet. The delay raises doubts about Ottawa’s willingness to confront the problem directly.

“Why? What’s the reason for the delay?” Vuong asked.

Macdonald-Laurier Institute foreign policy director Christopher Coates called the revelations “beyond concerning” and warned, “The failures to adequately address our national security challenges threaten Canada’s relations with allies, impacting economic security and national prosperity.”

Former solicitor general of Canada and Prince Edward Island MP Wayne Easter called for a national inquiry into Beijing’s interference operations.

“There’s only one real way to get to the bottom of what is happening, and that would be a federal public inquiry,” Easter said. “We need a federal public inquiry that can subpoena witnesses, can trace bank accounts, can bring in people internationally, to get to the bottom of this issue.”

Baxendale called for “transparency, national scrutiny, and most of all for Canadians to wake up to the subtle siege under way.” This includes implementing a foreign influence transparency commissioner and a federal registry of beneficial owners.

If corruption runs as deeply as alleged, who will have the political will to properly respond? It will take more whistleblowers, changes in government and an insistent public to bring accountability. Without sustained pressure, the system that allowed these failures may also prevent their correction.

Lee Harding is a research fellow for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

Bruce Dowbiggin

In Contentious Canada Reality Is Still Six Degrees Of Hockey

Published on December 30, 2025

Bruce Dowbiggin

There’s an observation that only two things bind modern Canada. The federal equalization scheme and hockey, The past year illustrated that equalization is on tenuous ground with talk of separation in Quebec, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Hockey, conversely, drew the nation closer at the moment that Donald Trump read the riot act to Canada’s elites. After the mens junior squad bombed out of the Junior Hockey championships for a second straight year, a new crisis emerged. To cover their purging of Justin Trudeau and insertion of Mark Carney as PM. the notorious Mike Myers’ Elbows Up homage to Gordie Howe’s elbows was appropriated by the Liberals (In true Woke wonk fashion, Howe never carried his elbows in Carney’s crash position. He kept them by his sides for greater power.)

In February’s Four Nations Cup, played at the height of tension between the two nations, Americans launched a Shoresy brawl in the first game, won easily by Team USA 3-1. As we wrote at the time, “Despite public calls for mutual respect, the sustained booing of the American national anthem and the Team Canada invocation by MMA legend Georges St. Pierre was answered by the Tkachuck brothers, Matthew and Brady, with a series of fights in the first nine seconds of the game.

Three fights to be exact when former Canuck J.T. Miller squared up with Brandon Hagel. (All three U.S. players have either played on or now play for Canadian NHL teams.) Premeditated and nasty. To say nothing of the vicious mugging of Canada’s legend Sidney Crosby behind the U.S. net moments later by Charlie McEvoy.”

Perhaps the least-appreciated aspect of the tension was the booing of the Star Spangled Banner by Canadians who have many Americans playing in their nation’s NHL squads. Leftist Toronto Star scribbler Bruce Arthur, bristled, “You’re damn right Canadians should boo the anthem.”

But in the rematch for the tournament title Canada reversed the tables, winning 3-2 in OT. The rush of nationalistic pride— from people who just weeks before were at each other’s throats over Indigenous claims and pipelines—fed a demographic topsy-turvy that swung Liberals 20 points in the polls, defeating the stunned Conservatives and coming within a few seats of a majority under Carney. Such was the hockey-fed insanity that NDP voters abandoned their far-left mantras to vote for a man who’d only weeks prior was a director of international giant Brookfield Investments.

One other byproduct of the Four Nations was the defrocking of Canadian legend Wayne Gretzky, who’d made a public show of his support for Trumping the 2024 presidential election. He was coldly rebuffed as he shook hands with the Canadian players before the Final game. It was not the finish for Gretz. He was reviled for golfing with The Donald in November, and then mocked for his faceplant appearance at the FIFA 2026 World Cup men’s draw. We wrote, “Gretzy apparently thinks there are countries called “North Mack-a-donia” and “Cur-ack-ow.” Other stabs at geography were almost as tortured.

Bitter Canadians could put up with him sucking up to Trump (he was mentioned as being in the crowd at the DC Xmas tree lighting) but failing geography is unforgivable. The week that started with Gretzky in a photo golfing at POTUS’s Jupiter, Florida, golf course was ending with him pummelled for his abuse of nations with different-sounding names. The Wayne Gretzky Center For Kids Who Want To Talk Good. “

In between the Gretzky episodes, two men who’d shaped modern hockey passed away. In September, on the anniversary of his participation in the 1972 Canada/ USSR series, Ken Dryden died at age 78. “For a generation that watched him develop he was likely the quintessential modern Canadian. Son of a charitable community figure. Educated in the Ivy League. Obtained his law degree. Served as a federal cabinet minister. Author of several definitive hockey books (The Game is perhaps the best sports non-fiction in the English language). Executive of the Toronto Maple Leafs. And more.

“He was on the American telecast of the 1980 U.S. Miracle On Ice at Lake Placid. And the radio broadcast of the 1976 Canada Cup. Ubiquitous media source. Loyal to Canada. And crucially, a son, husband, father and grandfather. If you’d created a model for the citizen of Canada of his times it was Ken.”

A less-loved figure in hockey— but no less significant— died the week after Dryden with the passing of former NHL Players Association director Bob Goodenow, who led the union through three momentous labour fights. Our take: “Tenacious, fearless and bold describes his style. Cuddly and sentimental he was not. The former lawyer and player agent for Brett Hull was not impressed by NHL self-dealing, and he said so. The Harvard product made a bad enemy after he succeeded Alan Eagleson in 1992.

“Today’s players owe him so much for finally giving them self respect. While players in other leagues ate steak, NHL players ate KD. Our book on the topic Money Players is an exhaustive catalogue of dirty dealing and deceit.

“Goodenow convinced hockey players that to earn their worth in the market they had to stick together in negotiations. It would be trying as fans and the media took the owners’ line under new commissioner Gary Bettman when they locked out players in 1994. He didn’t suffer reporters who were NHL echo chambers or old-timers who pined for their good old days of making $1000 a year.

CBA negotiations have never been the same. Player salaries have never been the same. Media covering hockey has never been the same. Eagleson was criminally convicted in the U.S. and Canada for the self dealing revealed by Conway and us. That’s an impressive legacy. RIP the man who reformed pro hockey from within.”

In a hangover story stretching back seven years, the sexual assault trial of the World Junior Hockey gold medalists of 2018 was a field day for narratives in the media and the courtroom. The facts, meanwhile, were stowed away beneath the surface of social media. As we reported in our June 28 column: “Outside diligent reporters such as Katie Strang of The Athletic and Rick Westhead of TSN, the media universe simply assumed guilt in the five players, because. hockey… Social media liberally smeared them as rapists, symbols of women’s degradation.

The five players on trial had been unfairly branded as criminals by Hockey Canada which rushed to condemn them in a quick civil settlement of EM’s charges. HC never consulted them about their side of the story before surrendering the cash. In the end, Ontario Justice Maria Carroccia found EM not “credible or reliable” enough to send the players to jail. While scolding their behaviour she declared the young men not guilty. It was a courageous decision, knowing it would prompt backlash. The Globe&Mail led the charge, declaring “After the Hockey Canada verdict Advocates fear survivors will fall silent”.

As 2026 dawns the outlook for Canadian NHL teams looks bleak. Just two teams would make the postseason today— Edmonton and Montreal— while Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver wallow below the cut line. Which leaves the Elbows Up crowd pining for a replay of the Four Nations as Canada heads to the Olympic tournament. Don’t expect Wayne Gretzky to ride to their rescue.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his 2025 book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed Hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His new poetry collection In Other Words is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca and on Kindle books at https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1069802700