Bell: Danielle Smith’s about-face, the UCP and their side of the story

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“When we make mistakes we own up to them.

“Better to recognize you’re making a mistake and make the adjustment before any damage is done. We don’t double-down and let things drag on out of pride. Instead, we do what’s right for the province.”

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The speaker is Jason Nixon, Premier Danielle Smith’s point man on this low-income transit pass fiasco.

The buck apparently stops with him.

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You see, the provincial government kicks in a little more than $6 million a year to help those most in need get a break on how much they pay for the bus or train in Calgary.

They need the break.

This week, Calgary city hall was told that money would no longer be coming.

There was outrage Tuesday when the city spilled the beans about the cut.

There were many claiming the Smith government was being cruel, including Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

This newshound said the premier was coming down on the poor.

Those voices calling for Smith to reverse course and restore the dollars grew louder as the day wore on.

The province put out a statement late Tuesday not saying a whole lot.

Then Wednesday.

There were rumblings early in the day that the premier would step in and the money would not be taken away.

There were indications of an about-face by the Smith government and this column heard about it even before thinking about what would be written if the premier dug in and held her ground.

If it turned out that way the column would probably have started: Even Ebenezer Scrooge had a change of heart.

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But then it happened.

Right triumphed. The Smith government would find the money to help the poorest transit users. They would admit it was a bad move.

On this day, the poor would not be sacrificed to some bean-counting exercise.

Wednesday afternoon and Nixon is on the phone.

Nixon says he did tell his people programs for low-income transit users could be one area when they were looking for cuts.

His department officials did talk to Calgary city hall. Calgary city hall brass confirm the fact.

After that conversation, reporters and local politicians heard of the cut Tuesday.

The first time it popped up on social media that day Nixon says he asked himself: “What is it we’re actually cutting?”

Nixon says he started asking lots of questions.

“By yesterday I was already questioning whether or not the department was in the right spot but I needed to be able to make sure I understood that before I created more chaos, frankly.”

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Late Tuesday, as mentioned earlier, Nixon put out a pretty limp statement about investing in LRT and helping the homeless and low-income Albertans and not offering an explanation for the cut.

Here’s what Nixon says about that.

“That statement was written in a way that was trying not to commit to the cut yet because, at that point, I was already indicating to the department I had concerns with this area they were looking at.

“The statement doesn’t actually say for sure that the cut will take place or anything along those lines.”

Wow!

Nixon says he spoke with Smith Tuesday night and he and the premier decided to touch base again Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday he says the premier told him it was time “to gut-check” the decision because the province “probably went down the wrong path.”

Nixon says he talked to Gondek Wednesday. He also talked to Amarjeet Sohi, the mayor of Edmonton.

Again here is what Nixon says.

“Once I understood there could be a danger to people receiving low-income transit passes I knew it had to be reversed. It was pretty clear we were going down the wrong road. It was my job to say we were wrong and fix it.”

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Nixon insists “the government’s intention was never ever to see the low-income transit pass go away.”

The Smith government promised to balance the province’s books but, says Nixon, “Of course, we don’t want to do that on the backs of people trying to get low-income transit passes.”

In fact, Nixon says he is “a champion of the poor.”

Nixon says the biggest mistake is the province should have communicated with the cities in a much different way.

If he could do it over again he would have talked to both mayors much earlier.

“We would have understood the potential consequences earlier.”

Nixon adds, to poor people who feared what was going on, “I’m totally sorry if anyone has received any stress as a result of this.”

As for Mayor Gondek, she’s happy the money is back in place and Nixon “stepped up swiftly.”

But Gondek also says this yarn is far from over.

“We still have a $311-million funding gap on all of the other pieces we have picked up that have been offloaded by the province.”

Enough of the nicey-nicey. It’s back to battle stations.

rbell@postmedia.com

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