Conservative Minister: Cities Don’t Contribute to the Albertan Economy
The Conservative minister for municipal affairs made a very peculiar response to a question by Laurie Blakeman, Liberal MLA for Edmonton-Centre.
She was posing a question about how the revenues from taxes disproportionately went to rural Alberta. In Alberta some rural jurisdictions receive almost up to $2,000 for each of their citizens and for cities and towns it’s roughly $28 per citizen. Blakeman wanted to know why this was done.
Doug Griffiths, leadership contender for the PCs in 2012 and current minister for municipalities, made the following pointed observation:
It could be asked by rural Albertans why 17 per cent of the population that lives in rural Alberta that has all the oil and gas revenue, does all the work, all the farms, all the agriculture and everything associated with it, goes to support urban Albertans who sit in high-rise condos and don’t necessarily contribute to the grassroots of this economy
Obviously, Mr. Griffiths has never read the 2003 report on the economic impact of cities [PDF] (thanks to Josh Wingrove for tweeting it). Some informative tidbits is the economic driver that cities are, with useful stats such as the following one:
In 1996, for example, the Calgary economy generated 24% of all new jobs in Canada even though the city contains less than 3% of Canada’s population.
For jobs, for the economy, and Albertan prosperity, cities are key. To have cities at the economic forefront, to be properly funded, and to have sensible city charters, urban populations in Alberta need to have better representation in government than this. If the minister for Municipal Affairs can make such comments it ought to shake the confidence of every Albertan that live in cities.
2 Responses to Conservative Minister: Cities Don’t Contribute to the Albertan Economy
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To be fair, the Minister did clarify the statement on his twitter feed, in a interview after question period and reading the entire statement from QP, reflected that he didn’t want the us vs. them mentality of urban vs. rurals and wanted both to work together. How he said it was not great.
This is why I left politics after so many campaigns, the “gotcha” mentality defied logic sometimes.
On the topic itself, it’s crazy to think urbans or rurals don t pull their weight contributing to the economy, both play an important role.
Hello Karl,
It’s a symptom of a greater problem. Calling Naheed Nenshi a peacock that’s puffing up his chest in advance of a civic election, telling one thing to developers and then another to the city of Calgary on charters, and other things, it showcases a demonstrable antagonistic relationship between the minister and urban populations.
This isn’t a “gotcha moment.” It’s a big problem and a problem that has plagued the Conservatives for a very long time.
-VSP