Alberta’s leader in a deep hole

Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach is in a struggle for his political life.

Consider this:

• His Progressive Conservative party got relegated to third place in a recent election to fill a vacancy in the provincial legislature.

• Support for his governing party has tumbled to 30 percent from 54 percent three years ago, when he was chosen to succeed Ralph Klein, and his own performance as leader has close to a 60 percent disapproval rating.

• Klein, in what was widely seen as a poison dart, suggested Stelmach would need 70 percent support at the party’s mandatory leadership review on Nov. 7 if Stelmach was to remain at the helm.

• Alberta’s Auditor-General Fred Dunn warned the province could lose C$100 million in royalties this year because it allowed oil sands giants Suncor Energy and Syncrude Canada to pay royalties based on a bitumen price that is half what all other producers pay.

Stelmach’s response, other than suggesting Dunn merely “picked a number out of the air,” was to make a province-wide televised speech on Oct. 14 to defend his government’s economic performance and follow that with word that he will trim 15 percent off his premier’s allowance, while cabinet ministers will take a 10 percent cut, in the process of imposing a two-year wage freeze on civil service managers and asking teachers, nurses, doctors and other public-sector workers to voluntarily accept the same freeze.

Stelmach’s own gesture was scorned by opponents, who asked why he didn’t make the announcement on television, and the government unions rejected any talk of a wage freeze.

In attempting some fence mending with the energy industry, which is still seething over royalty increases introduced this year, Stelmach said he is determined that the sector along with other industries will be globally competitive and able to attract the investment needed to develop Alberta’s resources.

He said that goal is part of a four-point strategy to achieve economic recovery, which means Alberta will not regain a budget surplus for another three years.

Stelmach said the oil sands are tied to the future prosperity of the province and the rest of Canada and, although that requires wise development over the long term, Alberta is leading the way in setting greenhouse gas emission limits and in the promotion of carbon capture and storage technology.

He said the government will complete a competitiveness review by the end of 2009 that will ensure the upstream oil and gas industry can “reduce the cost of doing business in our province and remove barriers to prosperity.”

The review is targeted at improving the working relationship between the Department of Energy, industry and the financial sector to produce a common understanding of Alberta’s competitive standing within the natural gas and conventional oil sectors and to make recommendations for changes.

—Gary Park