Red Deer-South MLA Jason Stephan

By Troy Gillard

STATEMENT DRAWS CRITICISM

Red Deer MLA apologizes for calling other provinces “hostile, parasitic partners”

Jun 9, 2020 | 4:56 PM

The MLA for Red Deer-South has apologized for referring to other Canadian provinces as “hostile, parasitic partners.”

Jason Stephan made the comment in the Alberta Legislature on Monday while delivering a statement on equalization payments.

“I stand to raise a voice of warning – Canada is marching to bankruptcy, taking Alberta down with it,” Jason Stephan said to begin his statement. “Canada is rudderless under the control of individuals out of their depth. The socialist Trudeau-NDP bloc undermine(s) our ability to compete and succeed in the real world.”

After saying Alberta is in a “rigged partnership” with so-called partners who strangle and suffocate Alberta businesses and families, Stephan said, “In the real world, a partnership agreement providing structural welfare payments to hostile, parasitic partners would never survive. That is equalization.”

Stephan then noted Alberta has contributed more than $600 billion into equalization, while Quebec takes more than $476 billion from it, before saying “In the real world Quebec would be kicked out of the partnership.”

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“Alberta must liberate itself from this mess. As a fair deal, asks Alberta, to get from Ottawa and Quebec politicians to act in good faith, a naïve proposition, it is prudent then to develop contingency plans for them persisting in bad faith.”

Stephan concluded his statement by saying, “It is urgent (that) Alberta seek great self-reliance to free ourselves from hostile interference and insulate our families from a one trillion (dollar) debt train wreck. That is in the public interest.”

On Tuesday, Stephan apologized for characterizing the behaviour of provinces that leverage equalization as “parasitic.”

“That language was unparliamentary and I unilaterally made the decision to rectify and apologize for using that word later that day in the legislature,” Stephan told rdnewsNOW. “Perhaps my decision to apologize for my word choice raised the profile of the statement. In any event, when I make a mistake, I try to apologize.”

Stephan says equalization is an important issue in the public interest and is looking forward to the release of the Fair Deal Panel report as a step in the right direction.