This being my first column in 2012, gives me cause to look at this February and reflect on how it compared to 2011. Last year continued to be very cold for a long time. This year began much warmer, and we really haven't had winter yet. As we meet each new day, spring doesn't seem so very far away anymore.
Last year, there was turmoil within the provincial government as well. Premier Ed Stelmach announced he would not be seeking re-election in the next term, and as a result would be stepping down as leader in the upcoming fall. Two people and four sitting MLAs including three ministers, announced they would be seeking the position of leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and by default, the position of premier.
We all know how this turned out.We have a new leader, Premier Alison Redford, and a new government. She has rejuvenated the PC Party and our government. The legislature building is full of a lot of new faces and new ideas. Premier Redford is leading our government and Alberta in a fiscally focused direction. The results of this fiscal focus may be seen when we consider other ways of budgeting in the future. Other governments have tried this but have not been able to do what is being contemplated. The process I am talking about is "zero-based" budgeting whereby each department can no longer assume that the previous budget can serve as a baseline for the next budget in the upcoming year. Essentially, when departments (ministries) prepare their next budgets, they will start at zero square one, and build the next budget from scratch, program by program. If a specific program is not performing, it will be reduced, or eliminated. I believe this is a fresh way to look at our budgeting process and curtailing or reducing the increased spending.
I believe that the reason other governments around the world were unable to achieve results with this approach, (this was tried by U.S. President Jimmy Carter when he was in power), is because they attempted this all inclusively with all departments and all in the same year. This government would do this with one-third of the existing departments, each year. For the fourth year, the first one-third will again be doing this exercise again, with evaluations of the decisions of the first year and subsequent next two years as a guide.
On another note, Transportation Minister Ray Danyluk was in Medicine Hat on Tuesday to have a look at the interchange at Dunmore Road and the Trans-Canada Highway. Many groups, including the City of Medicine Hat and the Medicine hat & District Chamber of Commerce have long advocated for an overpass there. I have been advocating for this as well, and when Premier Redford appointed me to parliamentary assistant to the minister of transportation, this gave me an opportunity to be a part of the decision making process to move this project up from among the rather large list of projects that exists throughout all of Alberta. In 2010, Alberta committed to move this project to the planning and initial design stage and this work is nearing completion. When I spoke to the premier last October during her visit to Medicine Hat, she indicated that she felt it was very important to move this project to the next phase as soon as possible. My appointment is now integral to this and all other projects I have been involved in, including Highways #3, #41, #61, and the advocacy for the 24-hour Port of Entry at Wild Horse. These last two projects also fit nicely into the Eastern Alberta Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor, which is moving ahead, albeit slowly, and will improve and provide additional economic activity to southeastern Alberta.
I am very pleased to have been asked by Premier Redford and Minister Danyluk to stay "on top" of this interchange project and take a role in advancing it to and through the next stages. Quite frankly, I along with most of you do look forward to its completion and the ribbon cutting.
Len Mitzel is MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat.