| King Ralph stepping off the throne
Premier Ralph Klein has announced he will be resigning as premier as early as this fall after receiving support from only 55 per cent of Conservative Party delegates at the March 31 convention.
Klein had previously announced he would be staying on as premier until October 2007, but at a press conference on April 4, he said he had changed his mind.
Klein says he’ll send a letter to the Conservative Party in September asking for a leadership race to be called, and when a new leader is chosen, he’ll resign.
"That support was not what I anticipated nor is it strong enough for me to stay on as long as I had intended," says Klein. "Now I find myself in the position where even though Albertans gave the government a resounding majority mandate only 16 months ago, and a large percentage of Albertans continue to support me as their premier… the political reality will make it increasingly difficult to do my job, and will only take away from what the government is trying to achieve."
The premier admitted he was "shocked" and "disappointed" by the vote. He described politics as "a young man’s game and a bloodsport," but says he wouldn’t "lay blame" or "point fingers" at any of the Conservative Party leadership contenders for orchestrating his oustre.
An unofficial leadership campaign has been going on for months in the Conservative Party, with Calgarian Jim Dinning widely considered the frontrunner. Former Reform Party leader Preston Manning has also told the media he may run for the leadership.
Report warns of impending water crisis in Alberta
Alberta’s growing population and rapidly decreasing water supply could lead to a water crisis in the near future warn University of Alberta professors David Schindler and Bill Donahue in a new report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science scientific journal.
The report points out that summer water flows in South Saskatchewan River have gone done by 84 per cent over the last century, flows in the Oldman and Peace Rivers have gone down by between 40 and 60 per cent and flows in the Athabasca River are down 30 per cent. Oilsands projects are currently diverting three to six barrels of water from the Athabasca River for every barrels of oil they produce, says the report, and the demand for water will only increase as more oilsands projects begin production.
Irrigation for agriculture is the biggest source of water withdrawals from southern Alberta rivers.
The report says that temperatures across the prairie provinces have increased by between one and four per cent in the last century and warns that the prairies will likely experience more droughts that last for longer periods in the 21st Century.
The report notes that Alberta will likely face the biggest water crisis of the prairie provinces because of its rapidly growing population and the professors argue that it "may prove wise" to limit population growth "to avoid the water scarcity that has already become a major problem in the southwestern United States."
Klein government to create new provincewide land use framework
The provincial government will consult with Albertans this year on a new provincial land use plan that will attempt to balance the competing demands on the landscape, says Michel Proulx, spokesperson for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.
Proulx says the province’s rapidly growing population is causing "unprecedented demands" on the Alberta landscape and the land use framework will attempt to balance competing demands.
"The main goal of it is to help us do land use planning in a more co-ordinated way and make better informed decisions as they relate to land use," he says.
Seven different provincial ministries will be involved in creating the framework. Proulx says the first step will be consulting Albertans about "the values they have towards the land and how they want the land to be used."
Public consultation sessions haven’t been set yet.
Group fights to decriminalize prostitution
An organization representing women who have worked in the sex trade is calling on the federal government to decriminalize prostitution in order to make life safer on the streets for prostitutes.
Lauren Casey, spokesperson for the Canadian National Coalition of Experiential Women, says the current solicitation law leads sex-trade workers to fear the police instead of considering them a source of protection. In order to avoid getting arrested, she explains, sex trade workers end up in unsafe areas.
"They’re working in really unsafe, unlit, industrial areas in many parts of the country, so the violence escalates," she says. "I can say some of the people who have worked outdoors have had really horrendous experiences."
Casey says the societal stigma around the sex trade also has to change.
"Society and religion have placed this moral view on it, but really it’s never going to go away and it’s work like anything else," says Casey. "Everybody should be treated like a human being."
Casey says that although drug addiction is a problem, not all prostitutes are drug addicts who are working the streets for their next fix.
"A lot of these women are not just doing it for dope. They’re doing it because they need a place to live and the cost of living is atrocious and they don’t have any other supports to turn to," she says.
She adds that there are many barriers preventing women from exiting the sex trade, including lack of affordable housing and difficulty getting into drug treatment programs. |
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