Alberta
Mission Update: A behind the scenes look at Alberta’s Army Reservists
Submitted by: Canadian Forces Liaison Council
Join us for an informative webinar on June 23rd with guest speaker Colonel Mike Vernon, CD/Commander of 41 Canadian Brigade Group.
A behind the scenes look at who reservists are, what they do, and how the Alberta Reserve is preparing and training to support our communities and country when we need them most.
Numerous Alberta businesses employ individuals who are members of the Reserve Force. When Alberta faces a disaster – the Covid-19 Pandemic, fires, floods – reservists are asked to respond to the call and assist in the survival and support of our communities. Responding to these calls often pulls reservists away from their regular employment.
Reservists are skilled and talented people who are part-time “citizen soldiers”, sailors and airmen/airwomen. In addition to their military responsibilities, they also work full time in the civilian workforce. They enhance corporate culture, small and large businesses, with the experience they have attained in the military. As a candidate for a position they have a well-earned skill set that goes above and beyond another candidate for the same role. If you already employ a Reservist, you know the benefits they bring to the workplace with both hard and soft skills.
The Canadian Armed Forces provide Reservists with world class training to develop key skills which form not only the foundations of an valuable Reservist but also a highly qualified employee. Employers benefit from their core skills and abilities such as leadership, teamwork, discipline, initiative, determination, problem solving, and the ability to work under pressure.
When you employ a Reservist, they bring their learnings from the military to your organization. In turn, they also contribute their workplace expertise when serving in the military. It’s a win-win for both the organization and the Canadian Armed Forces. Reservists who serve help to provide a safe environment for businesses to thrive and is one of the very reasons many people are proud of our serving members.
The Basics
Reservists are members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) who train and serve with the CAF on a part-time basis. They typically serve on weekday evenings and weekends. From time to time Reservists attend military courses and training that lasts one or two weeks and occasionally longer durations. Reservists have the opportunity to volunteer to serve on domestic and international operations on a full-time basis augmenting the regular component of the CAF. Through floods, fires or ice storms, Reservists are there to help and to keep communities and businesses operating. Their training provides both domestic response and international support – when you employ a Reservist, you in turn, are serving your country.
What is the With Glowing Hearts Initiative?
The With Glowing Hearts – Reservist Support Initiative is an HR program to attract and retain talented employees. The Canadian Armed Forces has trained over 25,000 Reservists who bring exceptional qualifications to an organization or business. Consider the Reserves as a talent pool to source potential employees to support company goals and initiatives. The initiative provides guidance and tools to support both Employers and Reservists and the good work they do together. Employing a Reservist is good for business and it makes your work, and workplace, better – With Glowing Hearts, we stand together supporting our community and country.
How does the program work?
It’s simple – like any other HR initiative, the program becomes an offering to attract employees. For example, a company may already have a maternity leave policy in place, growth programs for leadership, or even policies for internships. The With Glowing Hearts – Reservist Support Initiative creates a “reserve-friendly” culture for an organization to attract, and keep, experienced and valued employees. The turnkey program assets can be used to create awareness through communication channels of choice.
What does the program include?
The program consists of the following elements:
- Reservists 101: What Reservists offer Employers
- “With Glowing Hearts” Reservist support customized certificate for Employers
- “With Glowing Hearts” Employer/Reservist Recognition stickers
- “With Glowing Hearts” Customized employer support icon (online use)
- HR & FAQS: Q&A for employing Reservists
- Military Leave Policy (MLP): Examples of MLP for small and large businesses
What’s next?
- Register for the program or for more information: cflcwithglowinghearts.ca
How can I find out more information for my business?
Employers Supporting Reservists – Canadian Forces Liaison Council
Visit the website: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/benefits-military/supporting-reservists-employers.html
From the Fraser Institute
By Matthew Lau
To understand Ottawa’s negative impact on Alberta’s economy and living standards, juxtapose two recent pieces of data.
First, in July the Trudeau government made three separate “economic development” spending announcements in Alberta, totalling more than $80 million and affecting 37 different projects related to the “green economy,” clean technology and agriculture. And second, as noted in a new essay by Fraser Institute senior fellow Kenneth Green, inflation-adjusted business investment (excluding residential structures) in Canada’s extraction sector (mining, quarrying, oil and gas) fell 51.2 per cent from 2014 to 2022.
The productivity gains that raise living standards and improve economic conditions rely on business investment. But business investment in Canada has declined over the past decade and total economic growth per person (inflation-adjusted) from Q3-2015 through to Q1-2024 has been less than 1 per cent versus robust growth of nearly 16 per cent in the United States over the same period.
For Canada’s extraction sector, as Green documents, federal policies—new fuel regulations, extended review processes on major infrastructure projects, an effective ban on oil shipments on British Columbia’s northern coast, a hard greenhouse gas emissions cap targeting oil and gas, and other regulatory initiatives—are largely to blame for the massive decline in investment.
Meanwhile, as Ottawa impedes private investment, its latest bundle of economic development announcements underscores its strategy to have government take the lead in allocating economic resources, whether for infrastructure and public institutions or for corporate welfare to private companies.
Consider these federally-subsidized projects.
A gas cloud imaging company received $4.1 million from taxpayers to expand marketing, operations and product development. The Battery Metals Association of Canada received $850,000 to “support growth of the battery metals sector in Western Canada by enhancing collaboration and education stakeholders.” A food manufacturer in Lethbridge received $5.2 million to increase production of plant-based protein products. Ermineskin Cree Nation received nearly $400,000 for a feasibility study for a new solar farm. The Town of Coronation received almost $900,000 to renovate and retrofit two buildings into a business incubator. The Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada received $400,000 for marketing and other support to help boost clean technology product exports. And so on.
When the Trudeau government announced all this corporate welfare and spending, it naturally claimed it create economic growth and good jobs. But corporate welfare doesn’t create growth and good jobs, it only directs resources (including labour) to subsidized sectors and businesses and away from sectors and businesses that must be more heavily taxed to support the subsidies. The effect of government initiatives that reduce private investment and replace it with government spending is a net economic loss.
As 20th-century business and economics journalist Henry Hazlitt put it, the case for government directing investment (instead of the private sector) relies on politicians and bureaucrats—who did not earn the money and to whom the money does not belong—investing that money wisely and with almost perfect foresight. Of course, that’s preposterous.
Alas, this replacement of private-sector investment with public spending is happening not only in Alberta but across Canada today due to the Trudeau government’s fiscal policies. Lower productivity and lower living standards, the data show, are the unhappy results.
Author:
From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
By Ray McGinnis
Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert are on trial for conspiracy to commit murder and firearms charges in relation to the Coutts Blockade into mid-February 2022. In opening her case before a Lethbridge, AB, jury on July 11, Olienick’s lawyer, Marilyn Burns stated “This is a political, criminal trial that is un Canadian.” She told the jury, “You will be shocked, and at the very least, disappointed with how Canada’s own RCMP conducted themselves during and after the Coutts protest,” as she summarized officers’ testimony during presentation of the Crown’s case. Burns also contended that “the conduct of Alberta’s provincial government and Canada’s federal government are entwined with the RCMP.” The arrests of the Coutts Four on the night of February 13 and noon hour of February 14, were key events in a decision by the Clerk of the Privy Council, Janice Charette, and the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, Jody Thomas, to advise Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to invoke the Emergencies Act. Chief Justice Paul Rouleau, in submitting his Public Order Emergency Commission Report to Parliament on February 17, 2023, also cited events at the Coutts Blockade as key to his conclusion that the government was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act.
Justice David Labrenz cautioned attorney Burns regarding her language, after Crown prosecutor Stephen Johnson objected to some of the language in the opening statement of Olienick’s counsel. Futher discussion about the appropriateness of attorney Burns’ statement to the jury is behind a publication ban, as discussions occurred without the jury present.
Justice Labrenz told the jury on July 12, “I would remind you that the presumption of innocence means that both the accused are cloaked with that presumption, unless the Crown proves beyond a reasonable doubt the essential elements of the charge(s).” He further clarified what should result if the jurors were uncertain about which narrative to believe: the account by the Crown, or the account from the accused lawyers. Labrenz stated that such ambivalence must lead to an acquittal; As such a degree of uncertainty regarding which case to trust in does not meet the “beyond a reasonable doubt” threshold for a conviction.”
On July 15, 2024, a Lethbridge jury heard evidence from a former employer of Olienicks’ named Brian Lambert. He stated that he had tasked Olienick run his sandstone quarry and mining business. He was a business partner with Olienick. In that capacity, Olienick made use of what Lambert referred to as “little firecrackers,” to quarry the sandstone and reduce it in size. Reducing the size of the stone renders it manageable to get refined and repurposed so it could be sold to buyers of stone for other uses (building construction, patio stones, etc.) Lambert explained that the “firecrackers” were “explosive devices” packaged within tubing and pipes that could also be used for plumbing. He detailed how “You make them out of ordinary plumbing pipe and use some kind of propellant like shotgun powder…” Lambert explained that the length of the pipe “…depended on how big a hole or how large a piece of stone you were going to crack. The one I saw was about six inches long … maybe an inch in diameter.”
One of Olienick’s charges is “unlawful possession of an explosive device for a dangerous purpose.” The principal evidence offered up by RCMP to the Crown is what the officers depicted as “pipe bombs” which they obtained at the residence of Anthony Olienick in Claresholm, Alberta, about a two-hour drive from Coutts. Officers entered his home after he was arrested the night of February 13, 2022. Lambert’s testimony offers a plausible common use for the “firecrackers” the RCMP referred to as “pipe bombs.” Lambert added, these “firecrackers” have a firecracker fuse, and in the world of “explosive” they are “no big deal.”
Fellow accused, Chris Carbert, is does not face the additional charge of unlawful possession of explosives for a dangerous purpose. This is the first full week of the case for the defence. The trial began on June 6 when the Crown began presenting its case.
Ray McGinnis is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy who recently attended several days of testimony at the Coutts Two trial.
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