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The committee also suggested studying alternatives to the RCMP and looking more carefully at the costs, efficiencies and levels of service.

Many of the recommendations were not followed through, including establishing an Alberta office in Ottawa, an idea that also appears under the mandate of Premier Jason Kenney’s Fair Deal Panel announced Saturday, along with potential provincial arms for policing, pension, and income tax proposals.

“There are things that could be done in strengthening the link with other Canadians that haven’t been done,” he said.

McClelland said he was not optimistic that the fair deal panel would lead to constructive policy decisions.

“I’m 100 per cent confident that they’re going to absorb a lot of steam being blown off, and I don’t think they’re going to come up with one damn thing.”

The structural imbalance of power between the west and Ontario and Quebec remains the underlying problem. MPs in Ottawa don’t understand the concerns of Albertans, and these proposed changes will do nothing to alter that, he said.

“The problem has to do with our ability to be represented in parliament.”

While Kenney argued on Saturday that isolation — especially from trade deals like the USMCA — would not benefit Alberta, the panel cannot risk stirring up a conversation about separatism, McClelland said.

“His only danger is in letting people encourage themselves into a position which cannot be fulfilled.”