Derek Fildebrandt
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Derek Fildebrandt MLA |
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| Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Strathmore-Brooks | |
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Assumed office May 4, 2015 |
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| Preceded by | Rob Anderson |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
October 18, 1985 Ottawa, Ontario |
| Political party | Wildrose Party |
| Residence | Strathmore, Alberta |
| Occupation | fiscal policy analyst, advocacy |
| Portfolio | Shadow Finance Minister |
| Religion | Christian |
Derek Alexander Gerhard Fildebrandt (born October 18, 1985) is the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Strathmore-Brooks and the Wildrose Party Shadow Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the Legislative Assembly. He was the Alberta Director and National Research Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation from 2009 to 2014, and is considered a staunch fiscal conservative.
Fildebrandt has lived in Alberta, Ontario, British Columbia and Iowa.
In 2009, Fildebrandt was hired as the National Research Director (NRD) of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. As NRD, Fildebrandt published studies on public sector and politician pension reform, federal debt and expenditure reduction programs, and federal balanced budget plans.
Fildebrandt's main accomplishment as NRD was a campaign to reform MP and Senator pensions that was ultimately successful.
In 2012, Fildebrandt was promoted to the post of Alberta Director. In that role, Fildebrandt became a well known and vocal critic of former Alberta Premier Alison Redford's fiscal policies and corruption.
Fildebrandt regularly used Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation to obtain and release documents that were often damaging to the PC government. On several occasions, Fildebrandt released sole-sourced contracts from the Progressive Conservative government to businesses closely related to the party as part of a campaign to reform public-sector procurement and accountability legislation.
In December 2012, Fildebrandt released the expense claims of a majority of cabinet ministers, resulting in the firing of one minister and an overhaul of expense policies. Fildebrandt helped the PC government draft new expense disclosure policies for MLAs and public sector employees, dubbing the new process the "gold-standard" for other jurisdictions to follow.
Fildebrandt campaigned for a so-called 'sunshine list' that would disclose all government employee salaries, severance payments and pension eligibilities. Controversy ensued in October 2013 when the Redford government refused to disclose to the severance payment of $130,000 made to her former Chief of Staff, Stephen Carter in an FOI request made by Fildebrandt. The controversy was used by the CTF to successfully campaign for a government sunshine list months later.
In February 2014, Fildebrandt released the CTF's balanced budget plan calling for $2.4 billion in spending cuts to business subsidies and the bureaucracy. In May 2014 he spoke out about buyout payments to political appointees.
Fildebrandt was a conservative critic of former PC Premier Jim Prentice, calling him a “tax and spend liberal.”
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