[Dion]

Originally Posted by Corral

For a party that has been waiting to govern for a couple years, the UCP is surprisingly slow on imaginative policy and disclosing the party platform on high profile issues. Bringing out the 'tough on crime' stuff seems tired and very uninspiring.

Here's the list so far

Jason Kenney was clear on parts of his conservative vision for Alberta before the UCP even existed — back when he was driving around in that blue truck drumming up support. Those ideas have since firmed up into policies, but Kenney’s promised policy Grassroots Guarantee, upon which he campaigned to win leadership, has evaporated into thin air.

Taxes: The most ingrained UCP policy is killing off the provincial carbon tax, though Albertans will have to wait to hear the party’s environment or greenhouse gas emission reduction plan. So far, Kenney has hinted at some kind of alternative to the carbon tax, such as the former Progressive Conservative government’s levy on major emitters “to support science and technology.”

Kenney has reneged on a UCP-member approved stance to take Alberta back to a flat tax, but said a UCP government would cut corporate taxes to eight per cent from 12 per cent over the next four years. He has said repeatedly Alberta is in for a series of fiscal belt-tightening measures, but hasn’t elaborated on what they might look like. If there’s insufficient movement on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion by fall 2021, Kenney has also promised a referendum on removing equalization from the constitution.

Energy and regulations: A UCP government would set up a $30-million, taxpayer-funded “war room” to defend Alberta’s energy industry here and abroad, setting up satellite offices if need be. It would also appoint a minister of deregulation, tasked with decreasing regulations by one-third across all ministries, establish a $10-million litigation fund for pro-oil development First Nations, push for a series of resource corridors to help with energy project approvals, and launch a public inquiry into foreign-funded efforts to undermine Alberta’s energy industry.

He has also highlighted plans to immediately file a constitutional challenge should Bill C-69 become federal law. On oil, he said the UCP would support the use of Turn off the Taps legislation if there is no substantial work on pipelines. Another UCP tactic to push Ottawa for movement on pipelines would include holding a referendum on removing equalization from the constitution.

Education: Kenney said the UCP would replace Alberta’s School Act with the former Progressive Conservative government’s Education Act. It would eliminate changes the NDP introduced with Bill 24, which requires school principals to immediately grant student requests to form a gay-straight alliance and requires private schools to have publicly available policies to protect LGBTQ students.

The move would return the law to how it read in 2015 after the former PC government passed its Bill 10. Those changes compelled all school principals — public and private — to establish a gay-straight alliance or similar extracurricular club when a student requested one, and said students could choose a respectful club name.

Health care: Kenney is pushing for private options in Alberta’s health-care system, much like the system in B.C. and Quebec. He would also kill the planned superlab project in Edmonton, because he doesn’t think a government should be “rigid and ideological” when it comes to health care. The UCP has also pledged $5 million to sexual assault centres.

Employment: A UCP government would freeze minimum wage increases, repeal rules related to statutory holiday pay and allow young workers to be paid less than their adult colleagues. It would also repeal Bill 6, the Farm Safety Act, and replace it with a Farm Freedom and Safety Act which would allow farmers to choose where they buy workplace insurance for their employees and exempt small farms with three or fewer employees from employment legislation.

Kenney also said a UCP government would quadruple the number of students placed with employers in paid apprenticeships and establish a $1-million trade scholarship fund for high school graduates. He also pledged to expand by $2.5 million provincial funding for Women Building Futures, a non-profit that empowers women to succeed in non-traditional careers, and give $28 million to both NAIT and SAIT to create collegiates in Edmonton and Calgary.

Environment: Kenney plans to auction off around 100,000 acres of public land in Peace Country to the highest bidder, similar to a program under former premier Ed Stelmach, and will consult on expanding the public land sell-off across the province. He has also hinted he will kill Energy Efficiency Alberta and the multitude of carbon tax-funded programs under the agency, leaving the province as the only jurisdiction in North America without an energy efficiency program. Kenney has also pledged to stop the statutory shutdown of coal. Federal regulations passed under Kenney’s former government in Ottawa in 2012 would shutter most of Alberta’s 18 coal-fired plants. The remaining six have to close by 2030 under a deadline set by Alberta’s NDP government. The UCP also has a 13-point conservation plan, including a $30 annual trail fee and 50 per cent increase to the Alberta Land Trust Grant Program
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Kenney has also promised the creation of an Alberta parole board, similar to the processes in place in Quebec and Ontario.

No consultation: What the UCP won’t do is consult with Albertans about its major plans. In October, Kenney told a Calgary Chamber of Commerce luncheon he didn’t want to get “bogged down” with public consultations. Instead, he’s planning “100 Days of Change” to roll back NDP policies. The UCP has already hired former public servants and a transition team to pen legislation so the party can avoid opposition and push through changes “within days” of forming government.

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/pol...we-know-so-far