UCP needs some serious scrutiny lately
By Lethbridge Herald on November 6, 2025.
Scott Sakatch
Lethbridge Herald Editor
One of the guiding principles of journalism is that, when it comes to government, watch what they do, not what they say.
That old aphorism has been on my mind quite a bit in the last 10 days or so since the UCP government passed Bill 2 to force striking teachers back to work. To do so, they invoked the Notwithstanding Clause because they essentially needed to take away the right of Alberta’s teachers to take job action. You no doubt heard about it, as news outlets covered it pretty extensively and social media trolls have been commenting on how greedy teachers needed to be slapped down and Alberta can’t afford decent education for our kids, yada yada yada. I’m not sure when or why teachers became the enemy in this province, but that’s a topic for another day.
No, the reason I’m writing this has to do with a couple of other things the UCP decided to do this past week that didn’t get nearly as much attention. First, our government decided not to fulfill a funding request for some $13 million from Elections Alberta, giving it $1 million instead. Second, it decided not to renew the current auditor general’s contract and began looking for a new one.
At first glance, you might think “big deal, that’s standard operating procedure for government, isn’t it?” Some of the aforementioned trolls have been saying as much in the comments section of news sites and social media. Nothing to see here, folks, now let’s get back to mindlessly bashing students for wanting smaller classes and the NDP for trying to raise the minimum wage.
But if you take a second to scratch beneath the surface of both those government acts, you’ll catch a whiff of something that doesn’t smell quite right.
First, Elections Alberta. The $13-million request was for resources to deal with new responsibilities that are part of legislation regarding referendum questions and recalls of elected officials. Basically, Elections Alberta needs more bodies and resources-—a lot of them—to verify petitions involved with both of those things, as well as other duties. But the province only gave them $1 million, which clearly isn’t anywhere near what election officials requested.
To hear the trolls tell it, those officials are even greedier than the teachers and asked for too much taxpayer money. After all, the UCP itself created and passed that legislation, so it must be about saving money. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that Forever Alberta just dropped almost a half-million signatures on a petition to add a referendum question about staying in Canada, much to the chagrin of Alberta’s separatist crowd. And of course, the fact that Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides is currently the subject of an active recall effort, with more on their way, has nothing to do with it, either. No, it’s just greedy election officials, much like the greedy teachers. Remember, folks, this is Alberta, where we can’t afford anything to do with government.
Auditor General Doug Wylie, on the other hand, didn’t ask for anything. In fact, he simply offered to serve two more years in the role rather than have the province appoint a successor when his term was up. Why? Possibly because he’s knee-deep in two investigations involving health care in Alberta. The first has to do with the so-called CorruptCare scandal, where some $70 million of taxpayer money just sort of disappeared when Alberta bought useless children’s Tylenol under very questionable circumstances. The other has to do with just how many billions of taxpayer dollars are involved in breaking up Alberta Health Services into a group of entirely new silos, each with its own CEO and bureaucracy, all under the direct auspices of Alberta Health, which is now directly accountable to—you guessed it—the UCP itself.
As a side note, I learned about the search for a new auditor general via the communications person for the UCP caucus, not through official government channels. When I asked said comms person why the news had come from the party—which occasionally sends political screeds to the media about the evil NDP and little else-—I got crickets in response.
So to sum up, the UCP very much wanted you to know that teachers needed to be forced back to work for the good of all Albertans and to save taxpayers money. Meanwhile, they’re extremely tight-lipped about the other two subjects. I cordially invite any UCP MLA who might be reading this column to offer up some insight into those decisions, because I’d definitely like some answers.
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I’d like some answers to this absurdity. Tribe #1 (NDP) doesn’t like what Tribe # 2 (UCP) is doing. Tribe number 2 is duly elected in a democratic vote. Tribe # 1 wants to recall MLA’s and using the legislation created by tribe #2 to do so. The absurdity. Tribe #1 wants to overthrow Tribe #2 (coup) using the money from the many supporters of Tribe #2. Can it get more asinine than that. All the while Tribe #1 shouting democracy. Tribe #1 fund yourself in your attempt at a subversive government overthrow. If you want to preserve your beloved “democracy” wait until election day. You are making a joke of democracy. Who needs a vote when we can have tribal mob absurdity. Remember this will swing both ways at some point.
A very good analogy buckwheat! I agree and have been concerned with the NDP pushing unions to bring down the UCP ‘elected’ government! We didn’t elect unions! All Albertans are not in a union!
The writer has stated that he has worked on political campaigns in Calgary and from NDP bias, any guess which party?
Not much news in this NEWSpaper anymore! It reminds me of some of the small town papers I used to read when I was living in those small towns. Little to no reporting on the recent municipal election even, but it is filled with NDP propaganda against the UCP . . . will the NDP base be enough to keep this paper alive? Time will tell!
Al Beeber is certainly missed, but I applaud his Councilor win which will give him a good retirement boost which he deserves! The pay is probably better as well!