Alberta Next appointees have donated more than $40K to the UCP
“The real question, to my mind, is what individuals who see themselves as non-partisan are doing on a partisan panel."
This story was originally published at the Progress Report.
Members of the public appointed to Premier Danielle Smith’s Alberta Next panel have given a combined total of more than $44,315 to the ruling UCP, according to an analysis of campaign finance records.
The 16-person panel consists of five UCP elected officials—the premier, Environment and Protected Areas Minister Rebecca Schulz, Leduc-Beaumont MLA Brandon Lunty, Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken and Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Tara Sawyer—and 11 public appointees.
With seven public appointees having donated money to the UCP, this means that three-quarters of panelists are either UCP MLAs and/or donors.
It’s common for candidates to donate to their party—Smith, Schulz and van Dijken have—but their donation numbers are excluded from this analysis to focus squarely on the high proportion of donors among non-government appointees to a panel that has already drawn criticism for pushing the government’s preferred positions.
University of Calgary political scientist Lisa Young told the Progress Report in an email that she’s “not surprised to hear” that the bulk of publicly appointed Alberta Next panelists are UCP donors.
“The panel has, for the most part, been an overtly partisan exercise from the outset. The appointment of several government MLAs but no one from the opposition was a clear signal of this,” Young added.
The panel is travelling the province through September to solicit input on six proposals to enhance Alberta’s independence within Canada—eliminating federal equalization, creating a provincial pension plan, establishing a provincial police force (which is already underway), introducing additional immigration restrictions, reforming the constitution and Alberta collecting its own provincial income taxes.
Tickets to each town hall are being released to UCP members before the general public, creating the appearance of overwhelming support for the government’s proposals, which are presented in a leading way, such as: “Should Alberta take more control of the immigration system to counter Ottawa’s open border policies?”
Just four members of the public appointed to the Alberta Next panel haven’t given any money to the UCP—University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe, Stephen Buffalo of the oil and gas industry-funded Indian Resource Council of Canada, Business Council of Alberta president Adam Legge, and retired Alberta Court of Appeal justice Bruce McDonald.
“The real question, to my mind, is what individuals who see themselves as non-partisan are doing on a partisan panel,” said Young.
Tombe told CBC's Alberta at Noon on July 3 that panelists are receiving “very minor legislated compensation” for their work on the panel, which he said amounts to “dozens of dollars,” in addition to reimbursement for travel expenses.
He added that he sees the panel’s purpose as “providing information around costs and benefits and leaving it to individuals to decide for themselves what they would like to see the government pursue.”
Sam Blackett, the premier's press secretary, told the Progress Report that non-MLA panelists will be compensated in accordance with the Committee Renumeration Order.
Schedule 2, Part B of that order outlines compensation of $82 a day for four hours of committee work or less, $137 for more than four hours and up to eight hours, and $191 for more than eight hours.
"The Alberta Next panel brings together a broad mix of leaders, experts, and community voices to gather input, discuss solutions, and provide feedback to government on how Alberta can better protect its interests, defend its economy, and assert its place in Confederation," wrote Blackett in an email.
The biggest UCP donor appointed to the panel is Fraser Institute board member and Whitecap Resources president Grant Fagerheim, who’s given a total of $18,275 to the ruling party.
Fagerheim donated $4,000 to the party in 2018, $2,100 in 2019, $4,200 in 2020, $1,300in 2021, $3,000 in 2022 and $3,675 in 2023.
Questerre Energy founder and president Michael Binnion, who also chairs the Canada Strong & Free Network (formerly known as the Manning Centre for Building Democracy), has given a total of $14,312.50 to the UCP.
Binnion donated $1,000 to former premier Jason Kenney’s 2017 UCP leadership campaign, as well as $8,500 to Kenney’s PC leadership campaign that same year, in which he ran on a platform of merging the party with the Wildrose to create what became the UCP.
Binnion gave $4,000 to the party in 2019 and in 2020, he donated $812.50 to the UCP’s Calgary-North West constituency association.
Acupuncturist Benny Xu, who was appointed to the UCP government’s mental health and addictions and advisory panel in 2019, has given a combined $8,292.50 to the party.
Xu contributed $1,000 to Kenney’s Calgary-Lougheed by-election campaign in 2017, $1,048.75 to the party in 2018, $2,000 to the Calgary-Foothills constituency association in 2019 and $4,243 to the party in 2020.
Andrew Judson, the Fraser Institute’s vice-chairman for the Prairies, has donated $1,500 to the UCP, consisting of a $1,000 donation to Kenney’s 2017 leadership campaign and a $500 contribution to the party in 2022.
Sumita Anand, VP of business development at Above and Beyond Care Services, gave $760 to the UCP in 2023 and $666 in 2021, totalling $1,426.
Anand served as the president of the UCP Calgary-North East constituency association from 2021 to 2023, during which she was appointed to co-chair the Premier's Council on Multiculturalism.
Dr. Akin Osakuade, an emergency room physician in Didsbury, donated $750 to the party in 2023, when he lived in Airdrie.
At the panel’s first stop in Red Deer on Tuesday, Dr. Osakuade commented that he’s “so grateful to live in Alberta with an awesome premier.”
Rancher and past president of the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce Melody Garner-Skiba gave $425 to the UCP in 2023.
The first years I lived as a child in Alberta it was on the RECEIVING end of the Federal Equalization payments (from BC and Ontario).
Most of the people on this panel.... and those who oppose this equalization weren't born then and are operating on simple self interest just because they live in a province which happens to have petroleum under it.
(Equalization was started in 1955 and Alberta received it until 1960.)
Further, we should remove the dual citizenship option from those who select citizenship status in any province which separates.
(as well as not allowing property sales to non-citizens who are not permanent residents)