Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 30, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights a 11 w Winnipeg f ree p Ressa n d b e y o n d s unday uly 30, 2006 fro the w est c Algary you know the old saying about All that glitters not being Gold some people have found Gold in Calgary yes crazily booming Economy but most Are discovering the glitter is pretty evanescent. There Are soccer moms driving hummers around the streets of Calgary yes sprawling Pleasantville subdivisions just because they can. But there Are also people camping in trailers and tents on the Cit yes outskirts. They have jobs they just cant afford a place to go Home to after work. People Are not getting the truth before they come to Calgary that you need four jobs to be Able to pay for housing says Dermot Baldwin executive director of the Calgary drop in Centre a shelter that is crammed nightly with 1,100 people. The other Day Baldwin compared notes with inn from the cold another shelter Agency. They re beside themselves he says. Hasim Mohamed 40 and newly arrived from Toronto was also beside himself one recent noon hour frantically accosting commuters at Down towns sixth Street let station. His accent was so thick none of us could make out much of what he said but he brandished a scrap of paper with an address where he had an interview for a machinists Job. Not understanding the directions one person gave him he would move along the platform to someone else. Where was he staying last night head slept under the let Bridge at the Eastern Edge of downtown but people were doing drugs there. Tonight i dont know he said hurrying to jump on a southbound train even though the address he wanted was in the Northeast. You re on the wrong train some of us yelled but he smiled and waved uncomprehending by through the window. In Calgary All roads and train tracks Lead to the Alberta advantage the term that refers to the increasingly illusory blessings of Oil wealth. The average Price of a single family Home is $ 400,000 up by $ 12,000 from a month ago and a 51 per cent increase Over last year. An 800 Square foot two bedroom Bungalow teetering on the verge of being a Handyman special was listed a few weeks ago at $ 525,000. Its in the desirable mount pleasant area equivalent to Winnipeg Gas South River Heights. It probably sold for More than $ 600,000. In Calgary yes manic Market bidding wars Start within minutes of the for Sale sign going up on the Lawn. The average Condo Price too has jumped 49 per cent since last year to $ 276,000, according to the Calgary real estate Board. If the streets Are paved with Gold and you have to pay for More Gold thatus not Quality of life. Its lies being advertised under the Guise of Success and Progress Baldwin says. People come Here not knowing they have to choose Between housing and eating. Renters also have it rough. A smallish three bedroom Bungalow in Brentwood a Northwest neighbourhood comparable to West Kildonan rents for $ 2,000 a month. Try scraping together the damage Deposit first and last months rent with a minimum wage salary in the service or retail sector. The vacancy rate is 1.5 per cent and dropping like a barometer ahead of Stormy weather. Meanwhile More than 2,000 people languish on the waiting list for subsidized Low income housing. Rent control is anathema to the free Enterprise Loving tory government so naturally tenants Are getting ripped off. Baldwin has heard of rent soaring overnight from $ 800 to $ 1,500 for a two bedroom apartment. All of this is happening for no other reason than greed he says. I know of a Case where the landlords agent is taking $ 1,000 bribes to move you up the waiting list for an apartment. A lot of people Are being Hurt. The Gap Between the haves and the have not be wider or Cruelle. Ive heard affluent Cal Arians grumble that the drop in Centre nicknamed the homeless Hilton is too Nice. One woman i know pouts that the homeless in other provinces will hear How Nice the shelter is and move Here. I dont want them living off my tax Money. Doctors Are scarce too. Most family physicians wont see new patients. The Alberta College of physicians and surgeons has a list of available doctors but scrolling through it reveals Many Are Picky about who take no primary care of Well children no older adolescents or currently accepting patients but will probably Stop fairly soon. In april there was a shortage of oncology Beds at the Alberta childrens Hospital not enough spaces for kids with cancer whose families have moved to Calgary to Chase the dream. Calgary transit spokesman Ron Collins talks of a capacity problem for the buses and let. People complain its crowded Collins says. Weave got 40 train cars on order at a Cost of $ 130 million. And were putting another 42 buses on the roads. Daily train ridership is 248,000, a jump of 18,000 Over a few months ago. Although everyone fumes about How bad the traffic congestion is most people Are Loath to leave their cars at Home and take transit. Calgary yes still a Nice place to visit. Just dont try to live there until things Cool off. Former Winnipeg Ger Naomi Lakritz is a columnist with the Calgary Herald. E Edmonton the Alberta government is Rich. But you knew that. Albertas wealth from Oil and natural Gas is hardly news. But to get an idea of just How stinking Rich it is consider this in the time it has taken you to read to this Point in my Little column the Alberta government has made $ 5,000. Roughly. Oops make that $ 6,000. More than $ 1,000 a second. Every second. Its like a heartbeat relentlessly pumping out the Money. Or put another Way the Alberta government is so smelly Rich that Early this year it had enough Loose Cash lying around to give every Man woman and child in Alberta a Cheque for $ 400 at a total Cost to the Treasury of $ 1.3 billion. But you knew that too. Everybody in Canada knows about Ralp Bucks. You also might know that Premier Ralph Klein would like to Issue another round of cheques. What you probably dont know is he will Likely fail. Of the Alberta government certainly has enough Money for another round of Prosperity bonuses As Klein likes to Call them. And he has been pushing the Issue for months. Problem for Klein is that for the first time in his political career members of his caucus Are starting to push Back. For Many of them the rebate cheques were a monumental waste of Money a legacy scheme dreamed up by Klein and rammed through caucus and Cabinet by the sheer Force of the premieres personality and political Power. They wont let him do it again. On the surface Yourd think this has the makings of a political Bloodbath Klein and his loyalists against the dissenters. But these Days even the loyalists have a Streak of dissent. Political times Are changing in Alberta. Back in 1992 Klein was the Young Maverick Premier who Cut and slashed government spending and aided by gradually rising Energy prices balanced the budget. But that was a decade ago. The provincial debt was paid off two years ago. Surplus dollars Are piling up in the Treasury and albertan Are asking of now what Klein does not have an answer. Hers funnelling Money into building new roads and upgrading crumbling schools but As his critics even within his own party Point out roads and schools Are in bad shape because for too Long Klein focused the provinces wealth on debt elimination. It was like using lottery winnings to pay off the mortgage while ignoring the Leaky roof. And Alberta has plenty of Leaky roofs. Cal Arians were furious for example when an elementary school had to be closed in March for fear a creaking roof would collapse under the weight of Snow. Hardly a week goes by that theress not a Story about a school shutting Down a decrepit gym or custodians setting out garbage cans in the hallway to catch water dripping from the ceiling. This in a province with a Premier who could think of nothing better to do with surplus Money than give every 12 year old in the province a Cheque to buy the latest Box. And Klein wants to do it again. He says he wants to share the wealth to have everybody carry a Little of the Alberta advantage in their jeans pockets. It is classic Klein the politicians for whom All politics is retail. Its All about keeping the average albertan Happy the average Guy who worries about the Price of cigarettes the Price of a tank of Gas the Price of a Case of Beer. The kind of Guy Klein would be if he we rent Premier. As Klein likes to Point out the rebate cheques were wildly popular. They certainly were with about 50 per cent of albertan. Among the other 50 per cent were the parents whose kids Are at Home playing with their Box waiting for their school to dry out. Public opinion might be split 50 50 according to polls but it is not an even split politically. Those albertan who think the cheques Are a waste of Money Are More Likely to be better off better educated and More politically Active. They represent the new Alberta and increasingly wonder if Klein represents them. They Are More Likely to vote come election time and they will not look kindly on politicians who fritter away the provinces wealth. Just one More reason Why a growing number of conservative Las Are fighting the notion of More Ralp Bucks. And its a reason Why rebates Are not an Issue in the leadership race to replace Klein. Eager to distance themselves from kleins old school politics not one of the half dozen leadership candidates supports another round of cheques. Klein a snot Given up on the idea though. At least he says he a snot. He wants to discuss it with caucus in september after he has a better idea How Large this years budget surplus will be. But you have to wonder if hers bluffing afraid to admit he has finally lost a political fight. He was going to raise the rebate Issue a few weeks ago at a government caucus meeting in Calgary but he backed Down at the last minute. One government la said afterwards i wish he had raised it so we could have killed it once and for All. Klein might yet raise it in september but thatus the same month he will be handing in his formal retirement letter to the conservative party thereby officially kicking into effect the leadership race. Hell still be Premier until a successor is chosen in late november or Early december but its difficult to imagine a lame Duck politician even one of kleins considerable talents having the dexterity to dance a $ 1.3 billion Quick step through a sceptical caucus. Kleins time is running out. And it does not matter that each second is Worth $ 1,000 As it ticks by. As far As a growing number of government Las Are concerned Albertas wealth is no longer kleins to spend. Graham Thomson is a political columnist with the Calgary Herald. Thomson the journal. Can West. Graham Thomson Naomi Lakritz even those with jobs cant find affordable housing in Calgary Gimme shelter a homeless Man sleeps beside a downtown Calgary Street. A recent report says the number of homeless has increased 30 per cent in the last two years. Below Todd Mackie his wife Diane and their three children Are staying at a Calgary shelter because they cant find a place to rent that they can afford. Photos Canadian press archives Albertas wealth no longer kleins to spend ;