| Privacy commissioner to investigate EUB
Alberta’s privacy commissioner Frank Work has launched an investigation into whether the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) contravened the province’s privacy laws when it hired private investigators to spy on the public.
The EUB admitted in June that it had hired private investigators to spy on landowners who are opposed to the construction of a proposed new Altalink power line between Calgary and Edmonton. Landowners claim that the private investigators pretended to be landowners to blend in and that the investigators overhead private conversations between landowners and lawyers.
The EUB is currently holding a public hearing into the proposed Altalink power line route. The EUB closed the hearings to the public citing security concerns. EUB spokesman Davis Sheremata told the media the EUB hired the investigators in order to assess security threats to the EUB board presiding over the hearing.
The privacy commissioner will look into what information EUB private investigators collected and whether their activity contravenes the province’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Feds urged to increase foreign aid
The Alberta Council for Global Cooperation (ACGC) is calling on the federal government to follow through on its commitments to increase foreign aid to 0.7 per cent of Canada’s Gross National Product (GNP). The council is a coalition of non-profit provincial organizations that focus on sustainable human development.
Canada promised to increase foreign aid to 0.7 per cent of its GNP at the United National Millennium Summit in 2000. At the summit, 189 countries adopted the Millennium Development Goals, which provided a framework for the alleviation of global poverty by 2015. Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised in 2006 to increase foreign aid by $425 million over five years and to bring foreign aid spending to average Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) levels. OECD is comprised of the world’s wealthiest countries.
Marc Colbourne, executive director of ACGC, says Canada is currently only contributing 0.32 per cent of GNP to foreign aid, which he says is a decrease from last year.
"We are currently tied for 15th place out of 22 (major donor) countries," he says. "We need to look at the notion of global citizenship. We are in a position in Canada where we can help to redistribute wealth to ensure the majority of the world has their needs met – 0.7 per cent is not a substantial amount of money but it would make a substantial difference."
The ACGC is asking Albertans to lobby the federal government to uphold its previous commitment. The organization is also asking Albertans to try and make a personal difference by becoming informed about the Millennium Development Goals and volunteering their time with organizations doing work in underdeveloped countries. For more information go to www.web.ca/acgc. |
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