Our Politics Panel looks at the optics of a NDP cabinet retreat in Banff and prickly cross-border politics between Alberta and Saskatchewan taking a bit of a reprieve, for now.

Battling the optics of a pre-budge cabinet retreat in Banff

Members of Premier Notley’s cabinet are in Banff for a three-day retreat to discuss the upcoming budget.

Finance Minister Joe Ceci says they’ll focus on growing the economy, infrastructure investments and getting more pipelines built. And while he says the government is working to “compassionately tighten the belt”, he’s not worried about the optics of holding the retreat in Banff.

Prickly cross-border relations soften

The licence plate trade war between Alberta and Saskatchewan came to an end in the eleventh hour Monday. Saskatchewan had until midnight to lift its ban, or go to arbitration and potentially face massive financial penalties.

In a Tweet, Premier Brad Wall stated that the plate policy was suspended because of Alberta’s willingness to concede and reverse discriminatory beer pricing policies.

But Deron Bilous, Alberta’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade says it wasn’t a negotiation and that Alberta gave up nothing. Our Politics Panel takes a look at the prickly state of provincial relations.

Our Politics Panel this week includes: Kathy Kerr, freelance writer and editor, longtime Alberta print journalist; Graham Thomson, Edmonton Journal Political Affairs Columnist and Lori Williams, political scientist, Mount Royal University.