Omnibus Alberta Thread
Thanos @ Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:12 pm
Gonna do this to avoid creating too many new threads because there's just too much going on right now that's badly damaging our already in-distress province. And also because no one ever really goes into CKA's voluminous number of sub-thread and sub-sub-threads to look to see what's new in the region/province subsections. 
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Hey AB kids! We took another big loss today, all thanks to the UCP picking yet another fight it had absolutely no hope of winning!
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/a ... d=msedgntp
$1:
EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says he hopes the Supreme Court decision upholding Ottawa’s right to levy a carbon tax on provinces doesn’t open the door to federal overreach in other areas.
“While we are disappointed with this decision, we have to respect that it’s a majority decision of the Supreme Court of Canada,” Kenney told a news conference Thursday.
“The best we can hope for is that the Supreme Court has invented a one-time-only carbon pricing exception to the Constitutional order.
“We’ll continue to fight to defend our exclusive provincial power to regulate our resource industries.”
Kenney said his government will now consider its options, but the guiding principle will be to impose the least cost and hardship on consumers and Alberta industries.
Asked if Alberta will resurrect a provincial carbon tax, Kenney said, “We are going to consult with Albertans and also talk to our allied provinces to determine the best way forward to protect jobs and the economy in Alberta, (and) to minimize the costs of any future policies on this province.”
The high court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled that climate change is a critical threat to the globe and that Canada cannot effectively combat it if each province can go its own way on greenhouse gas emissions.
It was responding to lower court challenges of the tax by Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.
The dispute revolved around the right of the federal government to legislate on matters of national interest versus provincial rights to develop and manage their natural resources.
Kenney’s United Conservative government campaigned and won the 2019 election around a centrepiece promise to scrap the Alberta NDP consumer carbon tax, which brought in $2 billion a year, most of it returned in rebates with the rest used for green initiatives.
Kenney labelled the NDP tax expensive, ineffective, and unfairly imposed on Albertans without prior notification.
His first bill as premier was to scrap the NDP tax, prompting Ottawa to impose its own fee at the start of 2020.
The federal levy is at $30 a tonne, heading up to $40 a tonne this year and then $50 a tonne by 2022, delivering at that time a projected $2.2 billion from Albertans. About 90 per cent of that levy goes back to Albertans in rebates.
Instead, the Alberta government has focused on taxing heavy emitters to produce revenue to further develop green technologies, calling that a fairer system than charging consumers who need to heat their homes or gas up their cars.
University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe said the court decision can work for both Alberta and the nation.
A cross-Canada consumer tax, he said, would allow Canada to meet its climate targets while ensuring heavy emitters, such as Alberta’s fossil fuel industries, are not saddled with the lion’s share of the fees.
Tombe said a more level playing field would ease trade friction among provinces by reducing incentives for businesses to leave one jurisdiction to shop for a better green deal in another.
“That matters economically because differences in policy can distort economic activity, shift where businesses are located and that can potentially lower Canada’s productivity."
Political scientist Duane Bratt said the court decision is another setback on the energy file for a premier who won in 2019 on a promise to “fight back” against those who would impede Alberta’s foundational oil and gas business.
Kenney has since put $1.3 billion into the Keystone XL oil pipeline expansion, only to see it cancelled by the U.S. government.
He created a “war room” called the Canadian Energy Centre to challenge false reports on the industry only to see it get caught up in controversies such as a Tweet-fight with the New York Times and more recently a petition campaign against a children’s Bigfoot cartoon.
Kenney also launched a public inquiry into foreign funding of those seeking to discredit oil and gas.
That inquiry, led by forensic accountant Steve Allan, has gone over time and over budget while being criticized for soliciting reports said to rely on junk climate science and conspiracy theories.
“Since (the 2019 Alberta election) I can’t identify a moment where they (the UCP) have won,” said Bratt, with Mount Royal University in Calgary.
Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley, who brought in the original Alberta carbon tax as premier, said Kenney’s “fight back” strategy has been a smoke-and-mirrors show to find scapegoats and divert attention from the fact he can’t adapt to the new energy economy.
“There’s been a lot of hot air from this premier before he was elected and since he was elected,” said Notley. “More and more the hot air is clearing and there is little of substance to see behind it.”
“While we are disappointed with this decision, we have to respect that it’s a majority decision of the Supreme Court of Canada,” Kenney told a news conference Thursday.
“The best we can hope for is that the Supreme Court has invented a one-time-only carbon pricing exception to the Constitutional order.
“We’ll continue to fight to defend our exclusive provincial power to regulate our resource industries.”
Kenney said his government will now consider its options, but the guiding principle will be to impose the least cost and hardship on consumers and Alberta industries.
Asked if Alberta will resurrect a provincial carbon tax, Kenney said, “We are going to consult with Albertans and also talk to our allied provinces to determine the best way forward to protect jobs and the economy in Alberta, (and) to minimize the costs of any future policies on this province.”
The high court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled that climate change is a critical threat to the globe and that Canada cannot effectively combat it if each province can go its own way on greenhouse gas emissions.
It was responding to lower court challenges of the tax by Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.
The dispute revolved around the right of the federal government to legislate on matters of national interest versus provincial rights to develop and manage their natural resources.
Kenney’s United Conservative government campaigned and won the 2019 election around a centrepiece promise to scrap the Alberta NDP consumer carbon tax, which brought in $2 billion a year, most of it returned in rebates with the rest used for green initiatives.
Kenney labelled the NDP tax expensive, ineffective, and unfairly imposed on Albertans without prior notification.
His first bill as premier was to scrap the NDP tax, prompting Ottawa to impose its own fee at the start of 2020.
The federal levy is at $30 a tonne, heading up to $40 a tonne this year and then $50 a tonne by 2022, delivering at that time a projected $2.2 billion from Albertans. About 90 per cent of that levy goes back to Albertans in rebates.
Instead, the Alberta government has focused on taxing heavy emitters to produce revenue to further develop green technologies, calling that a fairer system than charging consumers who need to heat their homes or gas up their cars.
University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe said the court decision can work for both Alberta and the nation.
A cross-Canada consumer tax, he said, would allow Canada to meet its climate targets while ensuring heavy emitters, such as Alberta’s fossil fuel industries, are not saddled with the lion’s share of the fees.
Tombe said a more level playing field would ease trade friction among provinces by reducing incentives for businesses to leave one jurisdiction to shop for a better green deal in another.
“That matters economically because differences in policy can distort economic activity, shift where businesses are located and that can potentially lower Canada’s productivity."
Political scientist Duane Bratt said the court decision is another setback on the energy file for a premier who won in 2019 on a promise to “fight back” against those who would impede Alberta’s foundational oil and gas business.
Kenney has since put $1.3 billion into the Keystone XL oil pipeline expansion, only to see it cancelled by the U.S. government.
He created a “war room” called the Canadian Energy Centre to challenge false reports on the industry only to see it get caught up in controversies such as a Tweet-fight with the New York Times and more recently a petition campaign against a children’s Bigfoot cartoon.
Kenney also launched a public inquiry into foreign funding of those seeking to discredit oil and gas.
That inquiry, led by forensic accountant Steve Allan, has gone over time and over budget while being criticized for soliciting reports said to rely on junk climate science and conspiracy theories.
“Since (the 2019 Alberta election) I can’t identify a moment where they (the UCP) have won,” said Bratt, with Mount Royal University in Calgary.
Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley, who brought in the original Alberta carbon tax as premier, said Kenney’s “fight back” strategy has been a smoke-and-mirrors show to find scapegoats and divert attention from the fact he can’t adapt to the new energy economy.
“There’s been a lot of hot air from this premier before he was elected and since he was elected,” said Notley. “More and more the hot air is clearing and there is little of substance to see behind it.”
- the UCP was warned by actual constitutional experts that they had no chance at all of winning against the federal carbon levy simply because the federal government's authority in these matters is covered by long-established constitutional law and by endless numbers of other court decisions that confirmed it; Kenney opted to ignore that reality and as a result lost again
- Kenney has lost every major fight he's picked with the feds and at the same time has obstinately refused to co-operate with Ottawa even when the feds are the ones who reach out to offer support or to harmonize programs that would help life AB out of the economic apocalypse we've suffered under since the oil price collapse of 2015
- at this stage Kenney & the UCP have to be seen exactly like the demented British generals of World War One, the same guys who'd charge their soldiers into packed machine-gun and artillery fire and end up losing thousands of lives in only a few hours, just because their entire strategy is nothing but the well-wishing along the lines of "just because we've lost a hundred times in a row doesn't mean it won't work on Try #101"
- this province will be hopelessly lost if this continues; the damage the UCP is causing us, in terms of dollars lost, jobs not made, and embarrassment from endless publicity disasters, is the sort of damage that might not ever be repaired
I'm really mad at these idiots - this crap has to end.
raydan @ Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:18 pm
So do we come here to praise Alberta, or to bury Alberta? 
NOTE: To think I knew that poem by heart many years ago. 
Thanos @ Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:53 pm
Be free to be yourself, Ray. Just stay classier than "people" like the commenters on the CBC website who keep saying such lovely things like "I hope everyone in Alberta goes broke and they all starve to death". And that really isn't too much of an exaggeration about what gets said there either. Those fuckers.
herbie @ Fri Mar 26, 2021 10:50 am
I must have turned comments off somehow on CBC, I never see any. Used to post the odd one 10 years ago but they were so full of malicious crap I ignored reading them after that. Not gonna bother looking to see if there's an ON/OFF they can stay off.
DrCaleb @ Fri Mar 26, 2021 10:58 am
^^
There is a script that runs from 'Viaforum.net' to insert comments when you are on CBC.
I don't let that script run, so I don't see the comments.
Strutz @ Fri Mar 26, 2021 11:17 am
I have never commented on CBC but I do sometimes glance at the comments on some news articles. It's rather annoying to see people treat that section as a forum of sorts and go at each other, and much like what we see in here from time to time, go off topic and get personal. CTV news used to have a comments section but they got rid of it probably because it became a burden to moderate it.
llama66 @ Fri Mar 26, 2021 1:43 pm
raydan raydan:
So do we come here to praise Alberta, or to bury Alberta?
NOTE: To think I knew that poem by heart many years ago.
NOTE: To think I knew that poem by heart many years ago.
Yes.
raydan @ Fri Mar 26, 2021 2:06 pm
I have enough problems with my province, I don't need to go looking for problems in the others.
bootlegga @ Fri Mar 26, 2021 2:31 pm
Thanos Thanos:
I'm really mad at these idiots - this crap has to end.
But it won't because the rubes in High Level, Hanna, Cardston and everywhere in between eat Kenney's BS up like it was bacon.
Unfortunately, the alternative is Notley, who is better but still far from perfect IMHO.
The only thing people in the centre (whether you're centre-rght or centre-left) can hope for is that we get a minority government in 2023 and whoever wins is forced to be moderate.
Honestly though, I'm not holding my breath because I fully expect the rubes to vote in the UCP again.
DrCaleb @ Fri Mar 26, 2021 4:03 pm
bootlegga bootlegga:
Honestly though, I'm not holding my breath because I fully expect the rubes to vote in the UCP again.
Sad, but true. The UCP will tell more lies, loud and often, and the general public's short attention span will make them forget all the bad things they did over the last 4 years.
Thanos @ Fri Mar 26, 2021 4:07 pm
There's endless toxic rage in this province for them to exploit into perpetuity. There's no way they won't win the next election, no matter how many more catastrophic ideological losses they're going to have over the next two years.
DrCaleb @ Fri Mar 26, 2021 5:19 pm
Yes, but it's toxic rage they created. Someone needs to look into that.
Thanos @ Fri Mar 26, 2021 5:21 pm
Just like Publius Quinctilius Varus on the eve of the Teutoburg forest massacre, the UCP were so confident that they'd win in court they didn't bother to prepare any strategy for if they lost:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton ... -1.5965871
$1:
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says his government didn't prepare a fallback plan on implementing a consumer carbon tax because they were hoping to win in the country's top court.
Kenney said the province was buoyed by a lower court win in Alberta, and noted that three of the nine Supreme Court justices had concerns with Thursday's majority decision that the tax is onside with the Constitution.
"It was our hope that we would win," Kenney told reporters Friday.
Kenney said the province was buoyed by a lower court win in Alberta, and noted that three of the nine Supreme Court justices had concerns with Thursday's majority decision that the tax is onside with the Constitution.
"It was our hope that we would win," Kenney told reporters Friday.
I'm guessing that this massive blindspot comes from taking advice only from the likes of the Fraser Institute and the other conservative echo chambers that confuse their desires for actual reality, because every single actual constitutional legal expert in this province had been saying that there was no reason at all to believe they'd emerge with a victory.
At this stage it can only be seen as massive incompetence, made that much worse by the sheer belligerence that propels them ideologically. This will not change in the next two years and things in AB will be even worse by then than they already are right now.
Thanos @ Fri Mar 26, 2021 5:25 pm
DrCaleb DrCaleb:
Yes, but it's toxic rage they created. Someone needs to look into that.
Looking at how UCP policy neatly mirrors the comments sections, the Twitter mob, and the insane likes of absolutely horrible conservative columnists like Rick Bell at the SUN, it becomes more clear that everything they do is designed just to keep the frothing base of rageoholics sated. Very little, if any, of what they do is meant to make AB a better and stronger place to live. It's disastrous incompetence in terms of real-world outcomes but in the dingy maze of their twisted ideological brains they could actually conceive that they're succeeding just from picking the fights, and that the outcome of defeat after defeat really doesn't matter.
DrCaleb @ Sat Mar 27, 2021 6:15 am
Thanos Thanos:
DrCaleb DrCaleb:
Yes, but it's toxic rage they created. Someone needs to look into that.
Looking at how UCP policy neatly mirrors the comments sections, the Twitter mob, and the insane likes of absolutely horrible conservative columnists like Rick Bell at the SUN, it becomes more clear that everything they do is designed just to keep the frothing base of rageoholics sated. Very little, if any, of what they do is meant to make AB a better and stronger place to live. It's disastrous incompetence in terms of real-world outcomes but in the dingy maze of their twisted ideological brains they could actually conceive that they're succeeding just from picking the fights, and that the outcome of defeat after defeat really doesn't matter.
Yup.
Like the story above, Kenney couldn't conceive of losing the case in the Supreme Court. Yet every objective observer said he couldn't win. Same with Keystone XL. All the market signs are pointing toward a low carbon future. So Kenney puts $1.5 billion cash into it, and 8 Billion in guarantees; instead of investing in jobs for the only growth energy sector - renewables.
A few minutes drive from my home are a series of yards full of green pipe meant for oil transport, that now are scrap. It's staggering the money sitting there rusting.
Kenney took days to condemn white supremacists on the steps of the legislature, but goes off on a long rant about a childs cartoon.
Everything he does is by the new conservative playbook - foster anger and resentment, and then be the only solution to those emotions.