October 10th, 2024

Promises produce nothing


By Letter to the Editor on July 3, 2021.

Editor:
Answering the apologist for the oil and gas professional lobb, I suspect Mr. Brett Wilson spends more time in the marble halls of government sucking up subsidy dollars than he ever spent mucking around the mud in a drilling field. He certainly doesn\’t talk like any rig man I ever met.
He says he helped finance Canadian energy businesses most of his career (haven’t we all?). He boasts of its “global leadership.”
I am not so willing to accept that outlandish claim unless you want to praise the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada (EPAC) connections to government subsidy with worker’s taxed wages. He displays too easy confidence with the lawyer’s lingo, all the court findings and conclusions on standards of impartiality, in favour of the energy industry.
The average Albertan would like to know why we have to front $30 million to defend the richest set of international corporate shareholders from the public disclosure of their misdemeanors.
Why the fancy grade “A” quality staff in this elegant government set-up has worked behind closed doors for years and produced diddly squat.
Why the government that promised in the last election “jobs, jobs, and more jobs\” from an energy industry of “global leadership” that has laid off hundreds of thousands while getting truckloads of cash – cash to not cleanup abandoned well sites that they refuse to pay their taxes on.
Train loads of money have financed corporate lawyers, corporate think tanks, and creative writers speculating on how the oil and gas business will someday clean up its environmental degradations.
Yet the world has yet to see any significant accomplishment; only more and more devastation snowed over by blizzards of verbiage.
No, this latest pile of promises produces nothing from the government, or its pet industry excusers.
Don Ryane
Lethbridge

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Fedup Conservative

Great comments Don. It shows how easy it’s been to fool Albertans into believing all the lies these Reformers have been feeding them starting with Ralph Klein and while we tried to stop Klein we got called all sorts of names by the ignorant seniors who were believing him. Even his own family members tried to help us stop him.
Jason Kenney got elected on lies and promises and now while many of the senior crowd still believe his lies the young people are admitting listening to seniors was a huge mistake. He should never have been elected.
It’s been a well known fact in the world of finance that slashing royalties and taxes does not produce jobs, it’s just an excuse to make your rich CEOs richer in hopes that it will get you re-elected.
In fact we learned it from oil executives, who were trying to tell Ralph Klein not to destroy what Lougheed had created for us, it was going to make all Albertans rich. Guess what happened as you look to what Norway and Alaska have accomplished with their wealth.
While Albertans were struggling with what Klein had created the oil executives were bragging about record profits. Gee I wonder why.
How many times did we get told that times were tough and we had to tighten our belts while Alaska and Norway were building huge savings account?
Lawyers were telling us that all of it was legal because stupid Albertans kept re-electing them and telling them to keep doing it.

Les Elford

WOW! Don. I sure really like what you are saying. I didn’t have “the pleasure” of reading the comment or article by Mr. Wilson you are referring too. However I have read some of his previous nonsense which was a total and complete waste of time. I sure do like what you have said whatever it was in reference too. Sounds like he was trying to defend the UCP action/inaction again. Well good luck with that. Well done!