Premier Danielle Smith’s Alberta Next Panel closed out its cross-province tour on a tense note in Calgary on Monday night as the premier heard from residents with grievances directed at Ottawa and her own government.
The slightest whiff of manure hung in the air at the south Calgary event centre, normally used for equestrian events, where 1,100 people drove in for a final chance to speak directly to the panel before it convenes to decide how to move forward.
“There are some issues that I feel like we are getting enough of a consensus that we may be able to move on, some we may reject and others that will have to be put to the people,” Smith said, reiterating a point she made at the most recent town hall in Grande Prairie, Alta.
The panel was created earlier this year after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s federal election win. Smith has pitched the exercise as an opportunity to reassess Alberta’s relationship with Ottawa, with six proposals that include taking greater control over immigration, exiting the Canada Pension Plan to create an Alberta-run plan and creating a provincial police service.
Smith and the panel were welcomed with a standing ovation and, despite several moments of dissent from individuals, the crowd voted overwhelmingly in favour of all six of the government’s proposals. Straw polls at earlier town halls yielded similar results.
The province is also conducting surveys, results of which haven’t been publicly released.
After a telephone town hall Wednesday evening, the panel will convene to assess which proposals will move to a referendum or be implemented without a vote.
Tempers flared on a handful of occasions at the centre.
In one instance, a male high-school student from Calgary took to the microphone to criticize the government after Alberta teachers voted Monday night to reject a tentative agreement with the province. The boy’s microphone was cut off 14 seconds into his question, though he continued to yell at the panel after the sound cut.
“Your parents should turn you over your knee,” said moderator Bruce McAllister.
“That’s rude. That’s rude. No — rude,” the next audience member said to McAllister. “That is disgraceful.”
At points during and after the event, audience members appeared to get into tense arguments with each other.
The sound of chairs rustling marked the beginning of several question-and-answer sections as audience members rushed to get a spot in the lines, which often stretched back 15 people.
Toward the end, the audience broke into a complete rendition of the Canadian national anthem after one person disparaged Alberta separatism. At other points in the night, favourable references to separating from Canada elicited widespread cheers from the crowd.
Panel member Stephen Buffalo, CEO of Indian Resource Council, dismissed notions that Alberta seeking constitutional changes is in service of separatists’ agenda.
“These six items we talked about tonight, I see a path forward, but it takes strong leadership on both sides to go down that alley,” Buffalo said.
“To talk anymore about separation, Alberta walking away, it’s like looking for a Tootsie Roll in a septic tank. It’s just not good work.”
