EDMONTON—Session is out, which means it’s time for report cards.

The Star asked some outspoken Albertans to grade Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative government on its legislative performance this fall.

Duane Bratt, political scientist

Mount Royal University political science professor Duane Bratt gives the UCP an “A” for implementing its party platform, saying the party followed through on its election commitments in the fall session.

“Overall, when it comes to implementing what they promised, I would give them an A,” Bratt said.

“But when you separate other aspects, the grade starts to shift.”

Bratt gave top grades to two bills in particular: Bill 202, which introduced penalties for anyone who fails to call police when a child is in harm’s way; and Bill 28, which attached Alberta to a class-action lawsuit to recover public costs of opioid addiction.

But Kenney’s team doesn’t pass every class in Bratt’s books.

Bill 22, which saw the UCP fire Elections Commissioner Lorne Gibson in the middle of an investigation into the party, gets a hard “F” and a trip to the office of student conduct.

“I think it was a travesty of democracy to make those changes,” Bratt said. “I think they gave a cover story about saving money that simply is not holding up. They were clearly firing the person who was investigating them.”

Gil McGowan, union president

Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan gives the government a cheeky “A” grade for “being masters of dishonest and misleading political narratives.”

But when it comes to “doing anything that actually improves things for Albertans or addresses the real issues that are threatening our province and our economy,” he’s marking a big, fat “F.”

He admires Kenney’s success in convincing people that Alberta’s spending was spiralling out of control before he took the helm, and that the province’s economy is mired in recession because of a vast international conspiracy to landlock its oil.

“This is crazy town. I can’t believe that the media and the public have been so willing to lap it up. It’s distracted so much attention from the real issues that our province needs to address,” McGowan said.

He lambasts “devastating, draconian cuts” to public services that he says will tip the economy into a recession.

“Everything that they’ve done in this session attacks and undermines the interests of ordinary Albertans,” McGowan said.

“They’re chasing bogeymen instead of dealing with real issues, they’re hacking and slashing public services and infrastructure that we need to maintain our prosperity during a time of economic stagnation in the oil and gas sector.”

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Franco Terrazzano, taxpayers’ advocate

Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) director Franco Terrazzano says Kenney and co. did well this fall, but they could have done better.

He gives the government a B-minus.

“The rationale is the fall session was really a mixed bag for taxpayers,” Terrazzano said.

Starting with the positives, Terrazzano notes the UCP has gone after “ballooning” compensation costs and made some cuts to big-spending government departments.

On the flip side, the government still increased total spending, and also introduced the dread “bracket creep” into the tax formula — meaning they paused indexing on tax brackets, so anyone who gets bumped into a higher bracket due to inflation will pay more taxes — something Kenney railed against when he was the CTF’s director in the 1990s.

Terrazzano said the government can bring its grade up to an “A” next session, but only if it reduces spending and commits to cancelling all corporate welfare.

“The big one is the petrochemical subsidies,” Terrazzano said.

“When Kenney was the head of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, he actually pushed for the government of the time to outlaw corporate welfare. So if anyone knows the dangers of corporate welfare, it would be Kenney. So now that he’s at the helm, there is no reason why Kenney shouldn’t be cancelling corporate welfare, such as loan guarantees, grants, direct subsidies and boutique tax credits.”

Petra Schulz, harm reduction advocate

Schulz, who advocates for better treatment options and harm reduction for people who use opioids with Moms Stop the Harm, said she gives the government’s last session a solid F grade — “Without hesitation.”

Schulz criticized Associate Mental Health and Addictions Minister Jason Luan’s panel on supervised consumption sites in the province, which is scheduled to table a report by the end of September. The panel is tasked with looking at economic and social impacts the sites have had on their surroundings, but she said it does a disservice by ignoring medical evidence that supports the sites as an effective measure of harm reduction for opioid users.

“They have put harm reduction and supervised consumption at risk,” Schulz said, adding sites still don’t have a clear answer as to whether they will still receive funding from the provincial government past March 2020.

She did praise the government’s funding announcements made to increase treatment beds and access to counselling for those suffering with mental health or addiction issues, but she criticized them for being vague and not inclusive of different types of treatment that can be available to individuals.

Luan’s most recent announcement, made on Friday, is the allocation of $8 million over the next four years to increase access to psychosocial supports for those suffering from addiction. While welcome, Schulz said it is not enough.

“It wouldn’t enable me to give a better mark than F,” Schulz said, and while focus on treatment and counselling is a positive step, she believes the government should not be shifting focus on recovery exclusively without funding harm reduction methods as well.

“We all want recovery, but we first have to keep people alive,” she said.

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