Editor: Re: Notley’s first 90 days questionable staff picks.
The NDP premier’s accusation of “mud slinging” for Wildrose revelations about the radicalism of Environment Minister Shannon Phillips is an attempt to hide the fact that the Notley government is appointing people with questionable pasts.
Phillips claims her role on “An Action a Day Keeps Global Capitalism Away” was minimal, but the book’s author writes otherwise in the document itself. Maybe Phillips’ role was also minimal as a policy analyst at the Alberta Federation of Labor when they were fined $50,000 by the CRTC for 2012 election robocalls.
Further embarrassment for Minister Phillips is her chief of staff, Brent Michael Dancey. Court records show that Dancey is a convicted violent criminal from Manitoba. How can a person with Dancey’s criminal record be the lead in a department responsible for the status of women, which is Phillips’ other role?
The chief of staff for Alberta’s Ministry of Energy, Graham Mitchell, was the executive director of an anti-oilsands group called LeadNow. Even after being appointed (from out of Alberta) Mitchell was a registered lobbyist leading a team of 14 registered lobbyists at Leadnow.
How can the energy ministry possibly be run fairly or efficiently by an anti-energy activist?
Tony Clark, chief of staff for the NDP minister of human services, Irfan Sabir, is also a registered lobbyist (for the Alberta Federation of Labour). Clark is registered to lobby for the ministry he runs.
Instead of increasing the Alberta minimum wage as one of his first jobs, he should have taken a run at reducing the numbers in and the wages of the Alberta bureaucracy – both the highest in the country.
Art McMullen,
Canmore
