EDMONTON — Alberta’s municipal affairs minister launched a breakfast boycott Tuesday in an escalating feud with local urban politicians.
In a letter to the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, Doug Griffiths announced no government legislature members will attend a planned Thursday morning breakfast meeting with the association.
Griffiths, in the letter, said he wants an apology for “patently untrue” critical remarks made by AUMA president Linda Sloan over last week’s provincial budget announcement.
Griffiths says Sloan, an Edmonton city councillor, was wrong to publicly suggest last week that the AUMA was never consulted on the budget and that funding for municipalities is based on pork-barrel politics and favouritism rather than transparent, objective criteria.
“Your comments are deliberately inflammatory and erroneous,” said Griffiths in the letter.
However, he added the breakfast boycott could be “remedied if you publicly apologize and retract your erroneous statement.”
Sloan could not be reached for comment.
Sloan told a local newspaper that the funding process was tainted and suggested grants were being handed out in part based on a community’s provincial voting record.
Griffiths’ letter was also sent to Premier Alison Redford. Redford’s chief-of-staff, Stephen Carter, weighed in on Twitter. “Let’s be clear,” Tweeted Carter: “Linda Sloan didn’t just criticize the budget, she lied. Maliciously.”
Political opponents, however, said Sloan was simply speaking the truth.
“This is how they operate,” said Paul Hinman of the Wildrose party. “Either you toe the party line or you stay silent. Criticism is not tolerated.
“After 40 years of PC bullying, it’s time for a new deal for municipalities in this province that doesn’t put their funding at risk.”
Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said while the Tories won’t be at Thursday’s morning meet, she will be.
Alberta Liberal Leader Raj Sherman, who is also an emergency room doctor, delivered his own diagnosis.
“The PCs suffer from a sickness,” he said. “The sickness is arrogance, and the fact that an elected municipal official cannot speak without fear of reprisal shows that this is a very acute case.”
Alberta Party Leader Glenn Taylor said “having served as a vice-president of the AUMA, I am very familiar with the underlying pressure brought to bear on municipalities by the PCs.
“It is time for change, a time to take a stand against bullying behaviour that squashes the voices of Albertans.”