Winnipeg Free Press

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E DMONTON - Premier Jim Prentice says he and his cabinet ministers will cut their pay by five per cent to set a tone of self- sacrifice as Alberta deals with billions of dollars in lost oil revenue. " This is the kind of leadership that Albertans expect from their elected officials in these challenging times," Prentice told a news conference at the legislature Thursday. Prentice said the reduction will kick in Sunday. With the change, cabinet ministers will now make $ 190,950 a year, down from $ 201,000. Prentice will make almost $ 207,000, down from $ 217,750. The premier said he will ask his whip, George VanderBurg, to bring forward a motion next week to the legislature committee that handles pay to pass a similar measure for government backbenchers and opposition members. If the other MLAs accept the cut, it would reduce their annual pay by $ 6,700 to $ 127,300. If accepted by all 87 legislature members, the savings would total about $ 600,000, Prentice added. He said the five per cent was selected because it was " a reasonable number." Prentice signalled last week reductions were coming from his team as he crafts a financial plan, to be presented next month, he says will fundamentally restructure Alberta's economic model with an eye to getting off the roller- coaster of volatile oil- resource revenues. Oil prices have plunged from more than US$ 100 a barrel last summer to less than $ 50 a barrel today, siphoning billions of dollars from the treasury. Prentice has said many ideas are on the table, including a sales tax and changing the 10 per cent flat tax on income. He has ruled out changing oil royalties, which critics have said are too low. He has also said he will talk to the public- sector unions given they are, on average, the highest paid in Canada. Prentice was asked if Thursday's announcement was to pave the way to asking the unions for a similar five per cent cut. " Discussions with the public service have begun ( but) we have not put specific measures on the table," said Prentice. He said the pay for deputy ministers and other senior civil- service bureaucrats are also in play. " The discussions will involve everyone who is paid by the citizens of Alberta," he said. Wildrose Leader Heather Forsyth said Prentice did not go far enough. " Today's announcement amounts to window dressing. It does not go near far enough to achieve savings or signal a change in culture," Forsyth said in a news release. " MLA wages should also immediately be rolled back by a full eight per cent to where they were before the PCs rewarded themselves with an extra $ 11,000 in the fall of 2012," she said. She said cabinet pay should be cut by 30 per cent and adjusted for inflation to 2008 levels. Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, took to social media to condemn Prentice's announcement as cynical bargaining. " Prentice ( is) setting up for ( an) attack on public- sector wages, even though MLAs have enjoyed far bigger wages and increases than front- line workers," wrote McGowan. The announcement and the financial deliberations are set against a backdrop of an expected spring election. - The Canadian Press WASHINGTON - Long- suffering supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline won a moral victory in the U. S. Congress on Thursday - but that's about all they won. A bill to build the oil pipeline from Canada was approved by the Senate for the first time in the almost seven- year struggle over one of the best- known, most- debated pieces of oil infrastructure in memory. Previous efforts to approve the pipeline crashed into the notoriously high hurdle for getting anything through the U. S. Congress's upper chamber. Thanks to a newly empowered Republican majority, the legislation finally cleared that three- fifths requirement Thursday in a vote of 62- 36. Now the reality check: It's still not a law. It stands almost no chance of becoming one. And that's because it didn't get the 67 votes required to overcome a presidential veto. The indispensability of those final few votes was driven home when a spokesman for U. S. President Barack Obama once again promised a veto. " Our position on the Keystone legislation is well- known," White House spokesman John Earnest said a few hours before the vote. "( If) the legislation that passed the House also passes the Senate, then the president won't sign it." The president's position is Congress has no business deciding what infrastructure gets approved to cross the U. S. border. The White House points out courts have consistently found such decisions belong to the president's cabinet. And the final decision on that should be announced soon. Under the standard regulatory process, federal departments have until Feb. 2 to weigh in, and an announcement could follow quickly. The even worse news for Keystone proponents is the project is now being sucked into a deep partisan wedge - and appears at risk of getting stuck in a Democrat- Republican stalemate. Canadian diplomats have desperately tried to keep it from being pulled into that partisan chasm. At every available opportunity, ambassador Gary Doer has mentioned, or appeared in public with, those very few members of Obama's party who vocally support Keystone. But they couldn't have been too pleased with an email blast from Obama's party headquarters Thursday. The Democratic National Committee sent out a fundraisingtype message with the headline: " Stand Against Keystone XL." It ridiculed Republicans for making Keystone XL their first order of business in the new Congress. Democrats such as progressive populist Elizabeth Warren have heaped scorn on their decision to make a foreign company's pipeline the No. 1 legislative priority after the midterm elections. Republicans defended their decision after the chamber passed the bill - whose official number was S. 1. " For jobs in this country, for energy security, for good trade relationships with our neighbour in Canada," Alaska's Lisa Murkowski told the Senate, right after the vote. " For all the right reasons it was important that we pass this legislation." Republicans have already suggested they'll try again - perhaps by combining a Keystone provision with something dear to Obama, such as infrastructure spending. Otherwise, the seven- year Keystone saga faces two more twists: an inevitable veto announcement in the next few days and a decision on the merits, perhaps a few days later. - The Canadian Press Alberta premier cuts pay for himself, cabinet Keystone XL gets Senate OK, but now comes Obama veto train By Alexander Panetta By Dean Bennett JASON FRANSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS Jim Prentice is cutting cabinet pay as Alberta deals with lost oil revenue. PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Barack Obama maintains he will veto any Keystone pipeline bill presented to him. ' Our position on the Keystone legislation is well- known' - White House spokesman John Earnest A_ 15_ Jan- 30- 15_ FP_ 01. indd A11 1/ 29/ 15 9: 06: 22 PM ;