High-intensity Residential Fires

Mr. Taylor: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Well, another month, another high-intensity residential fire. It was four weeks ago yesterday that I brought this up the last time in this House. Today we’re talking about the big fire in Airdrie, another Alberta classic, where one house catches fire, takes out three other houses with it,
and damages another 14. That isn’t normal anywhere but this province. Since Alberta’s firefighters are as well trained and capable as any on the planet, I wonder if the Minister of Municipal Affairs might be willing to finally fess up that there’s  . . .

Democracy and MLA Representation

Mr. Taylor: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I want to say to you and through you to all members of this House that I have gained a new appreciation in the last week and a half for what an honour it is to be able to represent the constituents of Calgary-Currie in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. I want to thank the members of all
parties and, above all, to thank the staff of the Legislative Assembly Office for the many and varied kinds of assistance and co-operation they’ve given me to aid in my transition from where I was to where I am.

There exists a lot of goodwill in this  . . .

Foreign Investments in the Oil Sands

Mr. Taylor: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Premier. Let me first say that I can still see him from the back of the room. I want the Premier to join me in putting Albertans first, and he can start by assuring all Albertans that the recent information they received on foreign ownership of their resources in the oil sands will not prevent value-added job creation in the province of Alberta.
Will the Premier tell Albertans that the recent developments will have zero adverse effect on the future potential of the oil sands to produce value-added jobs in the area of upgrading, or is he going  . . .

Residential Building Codes

Mr. Taylor: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday the Minister of Municipal Affairs said that he’s not looking at applying building codes retroactively because to do so would be too difficult. Well, it hasn’t been too difficult for Ontario to bring buildings up to code. Ottawa alone has retrofitted over 2,000 of them. In British Columbia it wasn’t too difficult for them to fork over $670 million in interest-free loans over 12 years to fix their leaky condo mess. To the Minister of Municipal Affairs: if it isn’t too difficult for other provinces to protect condo owners from  . . .

Residential Building Codes

Mr. Taylor: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During the 18 months, one and a half years, that this government knew sprinklers should be on balconies, in attics, and crawl spaces in multifamily housing before they did anything about it, over 20,000 housing developments were started in this province. We all know what happened in British Columbia when they had frenzied growth and inadequate building codes: a billion-dollar repair bill to fix leaky condos. To the Minister of Municipal Affairs: given that Alberta was experiencing one of the highest levels of multifamily housing starts in 27 years and  . . .