Province eyes debt financing
Infrastructure funding could impact Okotoks
By Laurel Nadon
Staff reporter
Okotoks can expect a piece of the pie if the province decides to go into
debt to reduce the infrastructure backlog, says Highwood MLA George Groeneveld.
Premier Ralph Klein confirmed Tuesday, July 26 that the government will
discuss going $7.2 billion into debt.
Groeneveld said that while it isn’t a done deal, he’s already
eyeing three or four overpasses, in his constituency alone, which need
to be built.
“The Okotoks area certainly has a right to some of this money,”
Groeneveld said. “We’re well behind in our infrastructure.
We expect some of this money will be flowing into this constituency to
help us.”
Groeneveld said that going back into debt is just an idea at this point
and was only presented to caucus July 26.
“We’ve always had this infrastructure debt that we knew we’d
have to take care of. There’s good debt and bad debt. You would
classify this as good debt,” Groeneveld said. “I have mixed
emotions on it. The truth of the matter is we’re behind on infrastructure.
Sometimes, government needs to have a little bit of debt. It makes you
more cognizant of where you have to go.”
He said the issue won’t be decided until the August or September
caucus or until the legislature reconvenes in the fall.
Alberta became Canada’s only debt-free province last year, using
record energy royalties to pay off $23 billion in debt in little more
than a decade.
Concentrating on paying off the debt may have led to the current situation.
Within the $7.2 billion infrastructure backlog is $3.3 billion for deferred
maintenance projects over five years, $3.6 billion for proposed projects
and $334 million for approved projects. Now the province may look at debt-financing
options proposed by Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Lyle Oberg,
including selling bonds or borrowing from the Heritage Fund.
Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft demanded, in a news conference July
26, that the legislature be recalled to allow MLAs to discuss the topic
before the province considers going back into the red.
“Albertans are strongly opposed to taking on more debt and running
deficits. Lyle Oberg cannot be permitted to push his plan through without
a public debate,” Taft said. “Last summer the premier held
a mortgage burning party during the Calgary Stampede. This year, Lyle
Oberg wants another mortgage for $7.2 billion.”
Groeneveld said he feels there’s no sense in recalling the legislature
as the issue can wait until the fall.
“I don’t see what the point of that (recalling the legislature)
would be at all,” Groeneveld said. “If Mr. Taft has a concern,
we should ask Albertans.”
Groeneveld said financing through the Heritage Fund is the only way he’d
consider going back into debt.
“This is strictly with the proviso that the money will go back to
the Heritage Fund,” Groeneveld said, adding that his guess is the
money would be paid back within two to three years.
The Heritage Fund contains $12 to $14 billion from surpluses, which were
put away as a rainy day fund.
Okotoks - No relief for local flood victim
By Pamela Roth
Staff Reporter
While most southern Alberta residents wait for their share of the province’s
disaster relief dollars, one Okotoks man seems to have fallen through
the cracks.
Property owner Ryan Mulder is still wondering how he’ll recoup damages
to his local rental property, which sustained structural damage as a result
of June’s floods.
Insurance won’t cover the damages and, as of right now, neither
will the provincial government.
Continued on page 5
“I’m mad,” said Mulder, who is frustrated that the flooding
was caused by town infrastructure. “I don’t even want to think
about how much it’s going to cost me. The town has helped me a little
bit, but nothing to get the houses back up and running.”
With current numbers hovering near the $90-million mark for flood damage
to property and infrastructure in Alberta, it’s already being labeled
as the largest natural disaster the province has ever experienced.
So far the provincial government has received more than 9,000 applications
from businesses and homeowners for the 2005 Southern Alberta Disaster
Recovery Program and is expecting at least another 500 more.
Although the program is designed to provide relief to those affected by
natural disasters such as flooding, there are a few cracks in the system
that some property owners can fall through.
Mulder owns five properties on Poplar Avenue in Okotoks that were severely
damaged when the storm sewer line backed up, leaving one and a half feet
of water flowing down the streets.
In total, Mulder estimates $100,000 damage was done to four of his basement
suite rental properties, which had to be completely gutted.
Luckily, insurance will cover the repairs to the four properties, but
it isn’t the same story for his fifth rental property – a
house on Poplar Avenue , which Mulder fears has suffered structural damage
and isn’t covered by insurance.
Mulder also has three garages in the area that also suffered damage and
aren’t covered by insurance either.
As a result, Mulder turned to the Southern Alberta Disaster Recovery Program
for help, but won’t be receiving any assistance from the government.
That’s because landlords are given as much leniency as possible,
said Barry Giffen, program coordinator for disaster recovery programs,
but are out of luck if it’s not their major source of income.
Giffen visited town council last Monday in an effort to answer any questions
that councillors had about obtaining relief.
To put things into perspective, Giffen noted that the government received
3,700 applications for the program in 2002 when heavy rains pounded southern
Alberta, and 5,400 applications for the 1987 Edmonton tornado, which caused
more than $330 million in property damage.
In the last 10 years, the province has endured 16 natural disasters.
“This is by far and away the biggest natural disaster Alberta has
ever recorded,” Giffen said of June’s floods. “The program
that we are in the middle of implementing is the largest of its kind ever
in Alberta.”
According to Giffen, the program is primarily designed to help individuals
and small businesses, although the largest amount of money is being allotted
to municipalities in order to help repair damaged infrastructure.
So far the province has received 170 applications for assistance from
the Okotoks area, but has only managed to complete 19 of those applications
due to the massive backlog.
Giffen said those individuals who applied for assistance would have to
wait up to 30 days for an evaluator to come to their property. Once the
application is completed and sent back to headquarters, payment should
be received within three to four days.
Recreational vehicles are also not eligible to receive assistance from
the disaster recovery program since they are all insurable for overland
flooding.
“The government isn’t there to protect everyone,” said
Giffen. “It’s there to help individuals maintain their livelihood
or put a roof over their head. We don’t try to make anyone ineligible,
but we do have rules and we do have to stick by them.”
Several councillors questioned Giffen about Mulder’s position, in
which Giffen said he would look further into the matter to see if anything
could be done to help the Okotoks resident.
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Dancing to an old beat
A young dancer takes the floor during
the Tsuu T’ina Pow Wow and Rodeo last weekend near Bragg Creek.
Hundreds gathered for the annual event which featured dozens of craft
booths, dancing and many other festivities. photo by Ryan Laverty
Telus workers want new deal
By Laurel Nadon
Staff reporter
A contract dispute has left Telus employees off the
job and customers receiving reduced service.
Between 10,000 and 11,000 Telus workers are locked out across Alberta
and B.C. as of Thursday, July 21 in protest of a labour contract that
wasn’t negotiated.
The main issues for the union members are job security and a plan
by Telus to contract out janitorial services and other non-core jobs.
About seven employees work out of the Okotoks and High River area,
with many more Okotoks residents working for Telus in Calgary. Local
employees have been picketing on Centre Avenue in Okotoks.
“This is an unprecedented move by Telus,” said Tracy Spackman,
an Okotoks resident and member of the Telecommunications Workers Union
(TWU). “It’s never been done in Canada, as far as I know,
that they’re imposing an unnegotiated contract.”
He stressed that a lock-out is different from a strike. In a strike,
union members vote to turn down a contract and then take a strike
vote.
In a lock-out a contract, which hasn’t been bargained, is imposed
on union members.
“I hope they get back to the table, we can get back to work
and the customers can start getting the service they deserve,”
Spackman said, noting that Telus has walked away from the bargaining
table.
Spackman, who’s been a Telus employee for 30 years, said the
only other time he’s picketed was for a weekend strike when
the company was owned by AGT.
He said Telus used to be a family-oriented company and it’s
not anymore. He’s concerned because the company has diminished
employee’s time with their families and enforced mandatory overtime.
Employees can also be temporarily or permanently transferred to a
new area and a new line of work.
Half of the 2,800 Calgary bargaining unit employees have already crossed
picket lines as of last week, a move which Spackman described as upsetting
for those still on the picket line.
“I realize everyone has a point where they can’t afford
anything. This is totally disrupting everyone’s life,”
he said, noting that many of the employees who crossed the picket
line are single mothers or staff with only a year left before retirement.
Spackman said it’s too soon to say what kind of impact the lock-out
will have on customers. When Aliant employees went on strike in the
Maritimes for five months in 2004, the company lost $54 million and
45 per cent of its customers, he noted.
“(Telus) will never be the same company again. Customers will
make their own decisions, they have different companies to choose
from,” Spackman said.
Michael Brown, an Okotoks resident and member of the TWU, said customers
are already starting to feel the effects of the strike.
A friend of his mother’s called Telus to let them know her phone
wasn’t working last week and was instructed to use a neighbour’s
phone.
Brown said they knew the lock-out was coming, as the two sides have
been trying to reach a new collective agreement since the Telus merger
with BC Tel almost five years ago. Last year, the employees gave the
union a second strike mandate, after their first vote expired.
Both Spackman and Brown had put money aside to prepare for the possibility
of a strike or lock-out. Employees aren’t paid for the first
32 hours of picketing and after that are paid approximately $240 for
every 16 hours of picketing.
Both say if the lock-out continues for an extended period they will
have to look at cutting household bills. Telus employees received
their last raise in 2000, but both Spackman and Brown said that the
lock-out isn’t about money.
Telus says the company will try to make sure customers aren’t
affected by any job action taken by the union. Its priorities during
the dispute are maintaining 911 service, and continuing to install
and repair phone lines.
Telus is the second-largest telecommunications company in Canada.
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In this issue...
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Lights delayed -
Deadly highway intersection still waiting for controls
See News
NHL passes on local
Merkley not picked at
league entry draft
• See Sports
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