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Stelmach enlists 12-member panel to help plot Alberta’s economic future |
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Written by Dave Mabell
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Thursday, July 02 2009, 9:53 PM |
Premier Ed Stelmach has recruited some high-profile talent in hopes of ensuring Alberta’s long-term prosperity.
Former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge, former Liberal deputy prime minister Anne McLellan and Liberal-turned-Tory David Emerson — until recently, the nation’s minister of foreign affairs — are among 12 members of the Premier’s Council on Economic Strategy, announced Thursday.
Calgary industrialists James Gray and Bob Brawn and the province’s former science and technology minister, Lorne Taylor of Medicine Hat, are the other well-known Albertans in the group, which also includes several British academics from Oxford.
But whether their advice will be followed is hard to predict, says a Lethbridge political scientist. And their final report, not due until 2012, will offer little help to a provincial government that’s spent its way into a financial crisis today.
“Ontario tried this in the 1980s,” said Geoffrey Hale, a political science professor at the University of Lethbridge.
“The premier’s council produced three thick volumes. They had a short-term influence before they went out the window,” as that province fell into recession.
While premiers and political leaders like appointing high-profile panels, Hale said the results Alberta taxpayers could expect might depend on the mandate these councils are given.
“This council’s mandate seems quite diffuse,” Hale said.
As described Thursday by the premier, the council’s task is to determine long-term goals for Alberta and actions government can take to reach those goals.
“I want them to think big and provide an external perspective on our efforts to boost innovation, diversify the economy, enhance our quality of life, and sustain prosperity over the long term,” Stelmach said.
Hale suggested the premier’s decision to name Emerson, with government as well as big-business experience, as the council’s chair could be an indication Stelmach and his cabinet members hope to gain some useful advice.
On the other hand, Hale added, with nine of the 12 living outside the province — some of them in Europe — it’s uncertain whether some of panelists have much knowledge about this part of the world. Will they come up with insights beyond what everyday Albertans already know?
“The jury is out” whether the panel, with just six meetings over three years, is really expected to provide policy direction for the next 40 years.
“Or is this an exercise in political optics?”
Governments are apt to name panels, Hale said, when there’s trouble ahead “and they don’t know how to handle it.”
Stelmach proposed the council during his last election campaign, after announcing there would be “no foot on the brakes” while Alberta’s boom was running out of control. Now, as he’s getting around to naming its members, the province’s economy has slowed considerably.
Alberta’s budgetary process “is a shambles,” Hale said. “This government is having to deal with things on the fly.”
Looking back, he added, it’s difficult to tell whether the Stelmach government has taken lessons from previous Alberta Tory governments’ successes or failures.
“It will be interesting to see if they’ve learned anything from the last 20 years,” Hale said. “Currently, it looks like they’re a little slow on the uptake.”
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