Guy Boutilier

Infobox_Politician
name = Guy C. Boutilier
small

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caption =
birth_date =
birth_place =
residence = Fort McMurray
office = MLA for Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo
term_start = November 22, 2004
term_end =
predecessor = New district
successor =
office1 = MLA for Fort McMurray
term_start1= March 11, 1997
term_end1 = November 22, 2004
predecessor1 = Adam Germain
successor1 = District abolished
office2=Alberta Minister of International, Intergovernmental, and Aboriginal Relations
term_start2=December 15, 2006
term_end2=March 12, 2008
predecessor2=Pearl Calahasen (Aboriginal Affairs)
Gary Mar (International and Intergovernmental Relations)
successor2=Gene Zwozdesky (Aboriginal Affairs)
Ron Stevens (International and Intergovernmental Relations)
office3=Alberta Minister of the Environment
term_start3=November 24, 2004
term_end3=December 15, 2006
predecessor3=Lorne Taylor
successor3=Rob Renner
office4=Alberta Minister of Municipal Affairs
term_start4=March 15, 2001
term_end4=November 24, 2004
predecessor4=Walter Paszkowski
successor4=Rob Renner
office5= Mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo
term_start5= April 1, 1995
term_end5= 1997
predecessor5= New municipality
successor5= Doug Faulkner
office6= Mayor of Fort McMurray
term_start6= October 22, 1992
term_end6= April 1, 1995
predecessor6= E.C. (Betty) Collicott
successor6= City lost its charter
office7= Fort McMurray alderman
term_start7= October 20, 1986
term_end7= October 22, 1992
party = Progressive Conservative
spouse = Gail
alma_mater= St. Francis Xavier University
St. Mary's University
Harvard University

Guy C. Boutilier is a Canadian politician and current member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. He sits as a Progressive Conservative, and has served in several capacities in the Cabinet of Alberta under Premiers Ralph Klein and Ed Stelmach. Before entering provincial politics during the 1997 Alberta election, he was involved in municipal politics, having served two terms on the city council of Fort McMurray before being elected mayor of that city in 1992. When Fort McMurray was amalgamated with the surrounding area to form the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in 1995, Boutilier served as the new municipality's first mayor.

Early life

Guy Boutilier earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from St. Francis Xavier University, a Bachelor of Education from St. Mary's University, and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University.archive.org |url=http://web.archive.org/web/20070409050258/http://www.assembly.ab.ca/net/index.aspx?p=mla_bio&rnumber=54 |title=Guy Boutilier's Legislative Assembly of Alberta biography] He has worked as a financial analyst in the petroleum industry and as a business management instructor at Keyano College. He has also lectured at the University of Alberta's school of business.

Political career

Municipal politics

Boutilier was elected to the Fort McMurray city council on October 20, 1986 to a three year term as alderman. He was re-elected October 16, 1989, and was elected the youngest mayor in the city's history October 22, 1992.cite news |url=http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=f0e870d1-6c6f-44bc-b8ee-59c5e0318f21&k=0 |title=Guy Boutilier's testimony before the AEUB |publisher=Edmonton Journal |date=November 29, 2006 |accessdate=2008-03-25] He served in this capacity until April 1, 1995, when Fort McMurray lost its status as a city and was rolled into the new Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. He was the first mayor of this new municipality, serving until 1997 when he resigned to enter provincial politics.

Provincial politics

Boutilier was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1997 Alberta election, when he ran as the Progressive Conservative candidate in Fort McMurray.cite web |url=http://www.abheritage.ca/abpolitics/process/election_results.html |title=Alberta's past election results |accessdate=2008-03-06] The incumbent Liberal, Adam Germain, was not seeking re-election, and Boutilier won by defeating John Vyboh by more than a thousand votes. As a backbencher, he moved several bills: the "Mines and Minerals Amendment Act" was a 1997 government bill designed to enable the implementation of a generic royalty regime for new development in the Alberta oilsands and streamline the process for land leases to oil and gas companies by moving administrative elements from legislation to regulation.cite web |url=http://www.assembly.ab.ca/pro/bills/s-bill97.htm |title=Bill Status Report for the 24th Legislature - 1st Session (1997) |accessdate=2008-03-14] cite hansard | url=http://www.assembly.ab.ca/ISYS/LADDAR_files%5Cdocs%5Chansards%5Chan%5Clegislature_24%5Csession_1%5C19970513_1330_01_han.pdf | house=Legislative Assembly of Alberta | date=May 13, 1997] The bill passed with Liberal support, but New Democratic leader Pam Barrett opposed the bill out of concerns that it left the legislature out of debates in which it should play a role and provided overly-generous incentives to oil companies without requiring anything from them in return. [cite hansard | url=http://www.assembly.ab.ca/ISYS/LADDAR_files%5Cdocs%5Chansards%5Chan%5Clegislature_24%5Csession_1%5C19970527_1330_01_han.pdf | house=Legislative Assembly of Alberta | date=May 27, 1997] Also in 1997, Boutilier sponsored the "Cost Declaration Accountability Act", a private member's bill that never reached second reading.

In 1998, Boutilier sponsored two more bills.cite web |url=http://www.assembly.ab.ca/pro/bills/s-b98_p.htm |title=Bill Status Report for the 24th Legislature - 2nd Session (1998) |accessdate=2008-03-14] The "Railway Act" was a government bill that modernized the rules governing the operation of railways in Alberta.cite hansard | url=http://www.assembly.ab.ca/ISYS/LADDAR_files%5Cdocs%5Chansards%5Chan%5Clegislature_24%5Csession_2%5C19980303_1330_01_han.pdf | house=Legislative Assembly of Alberta | date=March 3, 1998] The Liberals expressed general support for the bill,cite hansard | url=http://www.assembly.ab.ca/ISYS/LADDAR_files%5Cdocs%5Chansards%5Chan%5Clegislature_24%5Csession_2%5C19980310_1330_01_han.pdf | house=Legislative Assembly of Alberta | date=March 10, 1998] but ultimately opposed it on the basis of a clause that allowed cabinet to make regulations on "any matter that the Minister considers is not provided for or is insufficiently provided for" in the Act, which they considered to be dangerously broad. [cite hansard | url=http://www.assembly.ab.ca/ISYS/LADDAR_files%5Cdocs%5Chansards%5Chan%5Clegislature_24%5Csession_2%5C19980421_1330_01_han.pdf | house=Legislative Assembly of Alberta | date=April 21, 1998] The bill passed. The same year, Boutilier sponsored the "Government Accountability Amendment Act", a private member's bill that would have required all government bills to include an associated financial cost to come before the legislature with an estimate of those costs for the ensuing three years. The bill was hoisted for six months on second reading on a motion by Wayne Cao, which, since the legislature was not in session six months later, effectively killed the bill. [cite hansard | url=http://www.assembly.ab.ca/ISYS/LADDAR_files%5Cdocs%5Chansards%5Chan%5Clegislature_24%5Csession_2%5C19980311_1330_01_han.pdf | house=Legislative Assembly of Alberta | date=March 11, 1998]

He was re-elected in the 2001 election with a substantially increased margin over Vyboh. [cite web |url=http://elections.ab.ca/Public_Website/files/2001StatementOfResults/2001_SOR_53.pdf |title=2001 Alberta provincial election results, Fort McMurray |accessdate=2008-03-27] Following the 2001 election, Premier Ralph Klein named Boutilier to his cabinet as the Minister of Municipal Affairs. [cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2001/03/16/smith160301.html |title=Edmonton mayor likes cabinet makeup |publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |date=March 16, 2001 |accessdate=2008-03-27] In this capacity, Boutilier sponsored the "Municipal Government Amendment Act" in 2003. [cite web |url=http://www.assembly.ab.ca/pro/bills/s-bill03.htm |title=Bill Status Report for the 25th Legislature - 3rd Session (2003) |accessdate=2008-03-07] The Act allowed municipalities to charge developers off-site road levies, a practice which had been common but which had recently been successfully challenged in court, and passed largely without controversy. [cite hansard | url=http://www.assembly.ab.ca/ISYS/LADDAR_files%5Cdocs%5Chansards%5Chan%5Clegislature_25%5Csession_3%5C20031127_1330_01_han.pdf | house=Legislative Assembly of Alberta | date=November 27, 2003] [cite hansard | url=http://www.assembly.ab.ca/ISYS/LADDAR_files%5Cdocs%5Chansards%5Chan%5Clegislature_25%5Csession_3%5C20031202_1330_01_han.pdf | house=Legislative Assembly of Alberta | date=December 2, 1998] [cite hansard | url=http://www.assembly.ab.ca/ISYS/LADDAR_files%5Cdocs%5Chansards%5Chan%5Clegislature_25%5Csession_3%5C20031203_2000_01_han.pdf | house=Legislative Assembly of Alberta | date=December 3, 1998] Boutilier kept the municipal affairs until after the 2004 election (in which he was again re-elected handily, this time in the newly-formed Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo riding), [cite web |url=http://elections.ab.ca/Public_Website/files/Statements/54.pdf |title=2004 Alberta provincial election results, Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo |accessdate=2008-03-28] when Klein transferred him to the post of Minister of the Environment. [cite web |url=http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/govrel/news.cfm?story=44980 |title=New cabinet team will be "strong, united and focused," Klein says |date=April 6, 2006 |publisher=University of Alberta, department of External Relations |accessdate=2008-03-27] He held this post in 2005, when a Canadian National Railway train derailed, spilling oil into Wabamun Lake. [cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/08/11/Wabamun-spill-050811.html |title=Province unprepared for Wabamun spill: Klein |publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |date=August 11, 2005 |accessdate=2008-03-26] At the time, Boutilier described himself as "damn well pissed off" about the spill and about the allegation that CN had neglected to report that the spill contained carcinogenic chemical, and pledged "to bring to the full extent of the law anyone who has breached Alberta law." [cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/08/09/cn-oil050809.html |title=Angry Alberta residents await test results |publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |date=August 10, 2005 |accessdate=2008-03-26] CN was eventually charged under federal statutes. [cite news |url=http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=d6d43884-c813-4d76-9d56-0373fc86cf65&k=52483 |first=Hanneke |last=Brooymans |title=Three charges against CN for Wabamun spill |publisher=Edmonton Journal |date=March 18, 2008 |accessdate=2008-03-26] He was also at the forefront of his government's opposition to the Kyoto Protocol, at one point slipping his Québec counterpart Thomas Mulcair a note during a United Nations conference on the subject in Montréal, which Mulcair interpreted as a request that Québec soften its support of Kyoto in exchange for investment in the Montreal Stock Exchange by Alberta industry.cite news |url=http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=9ee2c328-18ad-429a-a7d9-c94a815d2282&k=5990 |title=Kyoto proposal sensationalized, politician says |last=De Souza |first=Mike |publisher=CanWest News Services |date=November 6, 2007 |accessdate=2008-03-26] Boutilier characterized the note as "discussions in terms of what we would want to be able to do in a positive environmental initiative" and denied that he was trying to influence Quebec's position.

In the 2006 Progressive Conservative leadership contest, Boutilier initially backed Lyle Oberg, [cite web |url=http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/blog/johnsrude.html?pn=60&start=11/1/2006&end=11/30/2006 |title=Dinning in Oilers colours |first=Larry |last=Johnsrude |publisher=Edmonton Journal |date=November 10, 2006 |accessdate=2008-03-27] and switched his support to eventual winner Ed Stelmach after Oberg was eliminated on the first ballot. [cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2006/11/28/tory-endorse.html |title=Alberta politicians pick sides in leadership race |date=November 28, 2006 |accessdate=2008-03-27 |publisher=Canadian broadcasting corporation] When Stelmach succeeded Klein as premier, he named a smaller cabinet than Klein's. [cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2006/12/13/stelmach-cabinet.html |title=Stelmach announces smaller cabinet, royalty review |date=December 13, 2006 |publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |accessdate=2008-03-27] This included a merger of the Aboriginal Affairs portfolio with Intergovernmental and International Relations, and Stelmach gave the expanded portfolio to Boutilier. [cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2006/12/15/cabinet-stelmach.html |title=Stelmach names smaller cabinet |date=December 15, 2006 |publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |accessdate=2008-03-27] Boutilier was re-elected by another expanded margin in the 2008 election, [cite web |url=http://results.elections.ab.ca/54.htm |title=Alberta 2008 provincial election results, Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo |accessdate=2008-03-27] but was not named to Stelmach's new cabinet, making him the only returning member of the pre-election cabinet not to receive a portfolio. [cite news |first=Don |last=Braid |title=Stelmach cabinet snubs Fort McMurray |url=http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/columnists/story.html?id=5473d082-7578-4801-b4a5-9f4dc1e75a5d |publisher=Calgary Herald |date=March 15, 2008 |accessdate=2008-03-27] His demotion was met with protest in his home riding, which contains much of the oilsands activity driving Alberta's economy at the time, and the local Progressive Conservative riding association sent a letter of protest to Stelmach. [cite news |url=http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=213b469f-0d9a-4a65-a7b7-3e7ea8b2a9d1 |title=Fort McMurray dismayed over Boutilier's exclusion |publisher=Edmonton Journal |first=Keith |last=Gerein |date=March 13, 2008 |accessdate=2008-03-26] [cite news |url=http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2008/03/18/5036086-sun.html |title=Dismay grows over benching of Boutilier |publisher=Edmonton Sun |date=March 18, 2008 |accessdate=2008-03-26]

Personal life

Boutilier is married to Gail.

Election results

External links

* [http://www.assembly.ab.ca/net/index.aspx?p=mla_bio&rnumber=54 Legislative Assembly of Alberta biography Guy Boutilier]

References