Alberta
Province piling on the prizes to push people towards covid vaccination
Win NHL and CFL prizes for getting vaccinated
A new Open for Summer Lottery draw will reward Albertans who have received their first COVID-19 vaccine with prize packages from the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Elks and Calgary Stampeders.
More than 1.6 million Albertans have already entered the Open for Summer Lottery, which currently includes three draws for $1 million, travel prizes from Air Canada and WestJet, and prizes from the Calgary Stampede.
The new draw will give every Albertan with their first dose who registers for the Open for Summer Lottery by July 22 the chance to win season tickets for football, VIP hockey packages and rounds of golf in Kananaskis. Winners will be announced on July 29.
To date, more than 71.7 per cent of eligible Albertans have stepped up for their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, including 38.6 per cent who are now fully vaccinated with two doses.
“We’ve all missed the thrill of watching our favourite teams play to the roar of a cheering crowd. Thanks to Albertans’ hard work at getting vaccinated, we can get back to many of our favourite pastimes and sports as we safely open for summer. These prizes will help welcome fans back to their seats and are yet another incentive to get vaccinated as soon as you can.”
“I encourage Albertans to continue to book their doses if they have not already done so. Getting vaccinated will help Albertans protect themselves and their communities, and provides a chance to win one of these incredible prizes.”
“The Edmonton Oilers Hockey Club is pleased to support this very important effort to get Albertans vaccinated. While we were fortunate to have had the opportunity to play hockey this season, Rogers Place is not the same without our amazing fans. Getting vaccinated is a vital step to welcoming fans back this fall.”
“We all agree that getting vaccinated is a critical step to defeat what has been facing us all. Awareness about being a part of getting vaccinated is also vital and the new Edmonton Elks are pleased to join with our other provincial sports team colleagues to help.”
“Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation is happy to support the Alberta government in encouraging Albertans to get vaccinated. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our lives for more than a year. Getting your shot will help end the pandemic and allow each of us to get back to who and what we love. We can’t wait to welcome you back to McMahon Stadium and the Scotiabank Saddledome. Let’s get back together!”
Edmonton Oilers
- One winner will receive a prize package to host 20 people at an Oilers 2021-22 regular season home game in the food-inclusive Sky Lounge at Rogers Place, with a visit from an Oilers alumnus.
- One winner will receive an Oilers VIP Package, which includes a pair of lower bowl tickets for an Oilers 2021-22 regular season home game, Oilers jerseys, a VIP tour with an Oilers alumnus and dinner at Studio 99.
- One winner will receive four Loge Ledge Tickets to a 2021-22 Battle of Alberta Game at Rogers Place, dinner at Studio 99, Oilers jerseys and a visit from an Oilers alumnus.
Calgary Flames
- One winner will receive a prize package to host 20 people in a Terrace Suite at the Scotiabank Saddledome with food and beverage and a visit from a Flames alumnus.
- One winner will receive a Flames VIP package, which includes a pair of Telus Club seats for a Flames regular season game, dinner at the Telus Club, Flames jerseys and a visit with a Flames alumnus.
- One winner will receive a Battle of Alberta package, which includes four tickets in the Telus Club for Flames versus Oilers, dinner, Flames jerseys and visit with a Flames Alumnus.
Edmonton Elks
- Three winners will receive one pair of Season Seats with merchandise packages.
- One winner will receive one Luxury Suite package for one game in Edmonton for 10 people, with food provided.
Calgary Stampeders
- Three winners will receive one pair of Season Seats with merchandise packages.
- One winner will receive one Luxury Suite package for one game in Calgary for 10 people, with food provided.
Kananaskis Country Golf Course
- One tee time for 18 holes for four people. Valid until Oct. 10.
Book your shot and enter to win
Anyone who has already entered the Open for Summer Lottery does not need to re-register for this new sports prize draw.
More than $3 million in cash and prizes is available through the Open for Summer Lottery. All Albertans aged 18-plus are eligible to register for the remaining lottery draws once they’ve received both doses of their COVID-19 vaccine.
Winners will be required to confirm their immunization status. A complete list of rules is available online at alberta.ca/lottery.
Albertans can book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment through AHS online, participating pharmacies or by calling 811. Select clinic locations across the province continue to offer first doses on a walk-in basis.
Alberta’s government is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic by protecting lives and livelihoods with precise measures to bend the curve, sustain small businesses and protect Alberta’s health-care system.
Quick facts
- Alberta’s Open for Summer Plan safely eases restrictions in three stages as vaccination targets are reached and hospitalizations decline.
- To be eligible for the lottery, you must:
- Opt in by registering at alberta.ca/lottery.
- Reside in Alberta at the time of entry and draw.
- Be 18 years of age and older.
- Be able to provide proof of your immunization status.
- Please visit alberta.ca/lottery for a complete list of rules.
- Any Albertan 18 or older who received approved vaccines out of province is also eligible, provided they have submitted proof of vaccination to AHS and meet all other eligibility criteria.
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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