October Issue 108
by Leela Sharon Aheer
Hello Newsy
Neighbour readers! As I am writing this article, I am as always shocked by what
our Provincial Government has in store for us. I found it interesting that our
Premier was in New York selling the Government’s Climate Action Plan
internationally when here on the ground in Alberta, the Premier is having
trouble selling this idea to the people it will affect as of January 1, 2017. Then
again, Albertans are forced to pay it so perhaps she feels a foreign audience
would be friendlier. The Premier managed to evade all questions surrounding the
potential Federal Carbon Tax, and provincially she would not answer questions
regarding the 12 billion dollars plus that could be spent between stranded
assets and accelerated phase-out from coal to some undefined renewable program.
The Government will have to subsidize this transition using Albertans’ tax
dollars. The Government owes us an honest explanation.
Will
Albertans be forced to choose between heat and food? Between property taxes and
food? Between heat and school supplies? You get the picture. The Carbon tax is
a tax on everything paid by everybody. The charities and organizations that
have been created to help people during times of need are going to be paying increased
taxes as they are not exempt. Schools and municipal governments, hospitals and
ambulances are not exempted either. Does the Government not realize that these
are not just abstract numbers? These are real people who are affected!
The
Provincial Government believes that they can bring investment into the Province
due to “social license” of this Climate Action Plan, but yet does nothing to
address loss of jobs and our drowning economy. We are the most stringently
regulated and environmentally sensitive petroleum producing jurisdiction in the
world. How is this carbon tax bending behaviour? Our Provincial Minister for
Economic Trade and Development has on your behalf created a task force to
recommend where to spend your carbon tax dollars. He did not specify how much
of those tax dollars are dedicated to renewable and green technology. This
advisory group is going to outline and tell us how to invest your tax dollars,
some towards innovation, and then some to explain as to whether or not the plan
is succeeding. The study is not intended to be public. We will keep a close eye
on this advisory group.
It seems
like the Government, instead of creating an economically attractive environment
for innovation and technology for investment and talent to come forward by
those interested in investing in these technologies, has instead deemed that it
is their responsibility to invest your dollars into these experiments. We
believe that there is always room for improvement especially when we are
talking about our earth, air and water and of course we want to excel in
protecting them. I have a hard time believing that any Albertan would want
anything different for themselves and their families. Clean air, water and
earth is the right of all human beings and I find it appalling that our
Government, instead of sharing Albertans’ pride in our incredible resources and
our great track record of responsible development, chooses to demonize one of
the pillars of our prosperity. Her hand-picked co-chair of her Oil Sands
Advisory Group, anti-oil activist Tzeporah Berman, recently stated she didn’t
think we needed new pipelines. This fall we will be treated to the spectacle of
the Government suing itself and Alberta taxpayers over the Power Purchase
Agreements. Perhaps the government should think about Albertans first before
they make our industries uncompetitive with their ideology-driven policies.
I hope to
see many of you out and about in the constituency in the next month. I want
your ideas on how we can make things better. I’m proud to say that in the
Wildrose we are “Putting Albertans First”. On Tuesday, October 11 Wildrose
Leader Brian Jean will be hosting a Town Hall at the Chestermere Regional
Recreational Centre MPP room from 6 PM until 9 PM. Meet Brian, myself, and
other special guests and give us your input. Admission is FREE but arrive early
as space is limited. We’d love to see you there.
No comments:
Post a Comment