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Where is transparency?

Wetaskiwin MP Blaine Calkins and Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Diane Ablonczy held what was called a “roundtable”

Wetaskiwin MP Blaine Calkins and Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Diane Ablonczy held what was called a “roundtable” in Ponoka last week “with stakeholders” to discuss issues emanating from the use or abuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

The meaning of the term roundtable goes far back to the time of King Arthur of England and his knights, a table around which the participants can talk without reservation and as equals regardless of their rank or position.  In our century, the roundtable is still considered as a gathering where all participants can speak with equal rights and without privileges.

As for stakeholders, the term is broadly defined in the Merriam Webster online dictionary as “one who is involved in or affected by a course of action.”

But when one looks at the list of invitees to that roundtable, it is not possible to see some stakeholders who are seriously affected by the discussion on this topic.

The Ponoka News reporter who wanted to cover this roundtable discussion was ushered out of the meeting on grounds that it was closed to media. According to the observation of the reporter, there was no representative of the Filipino community in that meeting. There is a sizeable Filipino community not only in Ponoka but in several communities throughout the province and the temporary workers are also mostly Filipinos.

One tends to think that there were not representatives of the unemployed people of central Alberta, either.

And Blaine Calkins said at the opening of the meeting: ”I didn’t get elected to watch businesses close.”

Good for Mr. Calkins that he is concerned about the sustenance of businesses in his riding but he is also supposed to be representing the unemployed people of the region as well as those Filipinos who have received their citizenship and the right to vote.  Even if they don’t have the right to vote, Filipinos living and working in this region and in this country pay their taxes and have the right to be heard

And one cannot help asking what Mr. Calkins and Ms. Ablonczy had to hide from the public that they preferred to hold a “closed” roundtable discussion with only selected stakeholders like business owners and municipal leaders.

This is an issue that has become a social problem and the public has the right to know what the government representatives are telling some stakeholders while they are keeping it from the wider public.

But given the practice of governing with “manufactured consent” that Mr. Harper’s government is so devoted to, one should not be surprised that even damage control strategies of the government is targeting businesses rather than voters.

We should all be concerned about the sustenance of businesses in our communities because they are the lifelines of development and growth, but we should also be concerned about the transparency and accountability because these characteristics are indispensable requirements of good governance.

Speaking of transparency, I would really like to know what the explanation would be for the following:

All gas stations in Ponoka raised their prices for regular gas from 120.9 cents to 127.9 cents overnight one week before the start of the Stampede and four days later they all lowered their prices to 125.9  and as of the writing of these lines, the price for regular gas remains 125.9 cents in Ponoka, five cents above the level just before the rise while the price of the same type of gas has not changed by a cent in neighbouring communities like Lacombe, Stettler or Camrose  over the same period.

Let me finish with a dictionary definition just as I started, from Merriam Webster online dictionary, which defines a profiteer as “one who makes what is considered an unreasonable profit especially on the sale of essential goods during times of emergency”.