Smith’s trip to Middle East draws criticism amid back-to-school mandate

The same day Alberta’s government invoked the notwithstanding clause to bring teachers back to work, Premier Danielle Smith boarded a plane.

The premier was absent when her government tabled Bill 2, the Back to School Act, at the Alberta legislature on Monday afternoon. According to a media release sent out just after 3:30 p.m., Smith was heading to the Middle East for a work trip. She’s scheduled to be in Saudi Arabia, then the United Arab Emirates (UAE), until Nov. 5 for energy and technology investment discussions.

She’ll then join the province’s jobs minister Joseph Schow and a delegation of Alberta companies in the UAE for the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, where she will announce Alberta’s new trade office in Abu Dhabi.

The trip comes on the heels of the legislature’s first session back on Monday.

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NDP opposition leader Naheed Nenshi told a press conference on Tuesday the trip was in poor timing, adding she’s a “coward” who’s “scared of debate.”

“The premier’s sense of entitlement is extraordinary,” he said. “She’s been to the Middle East so many times, second only to her trips to Mar-a-Lago. And what has she accomplished?”

“Does she understand that they are our competitors in the global energy markets, and that they set the prices that have ruined her own budget? I’m not sure she gets that yet,” he added.

Duane Bratt, a political science professor from Mount Royal University, doesn’t necessarily agree the trip is unimportant.

“She should be going to Saudi Arabia. In the UAE, there is a lot of commonality around oil and gas that we share,” he told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday. “But this is really bad timing.”

He found out Smith had left the Alberta legislature to board a plane through a photo of her in an airport.

“If this is such a big emergency, so much so that they had to use the notwithstanding clause for the first time in Alberta’s history … maybe this is not the time to be taking an international trip,” he said.

Bratt reacted to that photo in a tweet, where he compared it to Don Getty on the golf course during the Principal Group collapse or Jason Kenney at the Sky Palace during COVID-19.

“The argument back to me was that, unlike those two, she is working … I’m not sure if that’s going to make a big difference in the minds of the public,” Bratt said.

In a statement to CTV News Edmonton, the premier’s press secretary Sam Blackett said Smith’s trip had been in the works for well over a year, and dates finalized ahead of strike action by the teachers’ association.

“If she knew when this trip was organized, maybe they should have recalled the legislature a bit sooner,” Bratt argued. “What happens tomorrow when teachers do go back? How does that play itself out?”

Blackett said the purpose of the premier’s trip was to “diversify trade relationships and to attract billions in new investment capital to create jobs in Alberta.”

He added the Alberta NDP was “all too content” to sacrifice trading relationships to score “cheap political points.”

Just before 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Smith tweeted a response about the passing of Bill 2. According to her public itinerary, she’s on her way to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“As premier, I have a duty to act when the well-being of Alberta’s children is at risk,” part of her quote read. “Thank you parents for your patience, your strength, and your unwavering support for your children during this difficult time.”

By Wednesday, Smith is scheduled to meet with Saudi Aramco oil and gas executives, visit the Shaybah oil production facility and then travel to Abu Dhabi, UAE. It’s also when students and teachers are expected to return to the classroom.