Who does the UCP want to help? Oil companies or Albertans?
By Lethbridge Herald on April 27, 2022.
Editor:
The province just moved to help people paying high fuel prices by lowering gas taxes. Checking on gas prices this weekend, it seems none of this tax break was going to Albertans. After a few days of lower prices, gas stations are right back to the same high cost per litre and the ongoing tax break is lining oil companies’ pockets.
Better methods of helping people deal with high fuel costs are needed. The government should consider giving rebates to people who purchase more fuel-efficient cars or trucks, especially hybrids or fully electric vehicles, like other provinces do. Having a vehicle that uses half the gas, or even no gas, would really help our wallets. A provincial rebate, combined with the federal rebate, has been proven to assist many more drivers adopt efficient vehicles in provinces that have this policy.
In addition to saving on fuel, electric vehicles have less emissions, even if they use the dirtiest type of electrical grid. They have a total cost of ownership that’s cheaper than a similar size of ICE vehicle.
The question is, who does the Alberta provincial government really want to help? Fossil fuel companies or Albertans?
Tom Moffatt
Lethbridge
8-7
Reformers never help the people they are only interested in looking after themselves and their rich friends. Taking off the caps the Notley government put in place to protect the people proves it. Some of our senior friends are seeing huge power and gas bills, along with a 32% to 38% increase in auto insurance, all thanks to Reformer Jason Kenney.
Agreed. The ‘oil and gas’ section here, covers much:
http://www.standuptokenney.ca/kenneys_cuts_tracker
It appears that many Albertans, by their voting intentions, have realized the dismal governing record of the Kenney UCP, and are giving the AB NDP their support. And no wonder, The AB NDP more closely resembles the centralist, more progressive, Lougheed-style conservatism than the neo-liberal, authoritarian Kenney UCP ever will, along with positive social democrat characteristics.
Notley campaigned in 2015, here in Edmonton, on the merits of what Peter Lougheed had done for Albertans and promised to gradually increase corporate taxes and oil royalties back up to the Lougheed levels and that’s what she was doing.
The day after she was elected my senior friends, over coffee said that she would never get elected in the next election because Albertans would expect her to fix in only 4 years what these clowns starting with Ralph Klein had created in 25 and that’s exactly what happened.
Kenney convince these stupid fools she was out to destroy all of us even though she wasn’t. She increased corporate taxes by 2% as a first step, and had planned to start increasing oil royalties in 2021. Along comes, another Liberal turned Reformer, just like Klein in Kenney and look at the mess he has created with the help of these ignorant seniors hurling their sarcastic comments at anyone who isn’t as dumb as them, and you know who I mean.
They don’t care what is happening to us and our children’s future, they don’t care that Reformers destroy jobs they don’t create them, they don’t care how he has created a nightmare for our doctors, nurses, teachers and students, and we will be lucky if we have any doctors left by the time he is done. Why should any of them stay in Alberta and accept this stupidity when the can work where ever they want as our retired doctor friends point out? . . .
in post-lougheed alberta, it is clear that ab govts have always allowed oil to bubble well atop the people, and the environment. can anyone say “tailings ponds?” now there is a wonderful euphemism for enviro-toxic-disaster. how about “orphaned” wells? sounds almost like a great actor-director, but in fact they are a massive series of enviro-toxins that have been allowed to fester by the oil barons, with the people of alberta left to deal with the toxic fallout and/or the heavy financial costs.
Agreed, biff. Instead of reducing corporate taxes, add a surtax to cover the $250 billion liabilities for cleaning up the mess.
What is monetary wealth when you destroy natural wealth to get it? Roooosebuuuud …
haha! and, excellent point and solution.
When I was involved with helping a company clean up Orphan Wells by providing them with operating loans the oil corporations were responsible for paying for the clean up, along comes Liberal Ralph Klein and in true Reform Party fashion , changes Lougheed’s regulations to benefit his rich friends and now Ottawa is providing the clean up, because Kenney has made certain Alberta can’t by slashing $9.4 billion off our corporate taxes to help his rich friends, using taxpayers money to try to buy votes.
Why should Canadians be forced to foot the bill for something Albertans allowed Reformers to create in Alberta? You can bet if the Reformer Pierre Poilievre wins in Ottawa not only will it be dumped back into the laps of Albertans he will destroy our Public Health Care system. Reformers have been promising for years to privatize health care and education and I bet they will if we are dumb enough to give them that chance. We know how dumb Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba are they have been trying to do it for years.
Poilievre has already been promising to destroy thousands of jobs for young Canadians by scraping the CBC., hasn’t he and has been getting standing ovations from ignorant seniors for promising to do so, why?
And it was these Reformers who allowed it to happen. Lougheed had regulations in place that forced the oil corporations to clean up their own mess.
excellent entries, fed up.
speaking of rosebud, and with regard to the environmental destruction oil cos have been allowed – cannot imagine the fines and jail time were a regular folk citizen caught doing a mere fraction of the damage – here is a link to a serious issue that affected the hamlet of rosebud, ab., the result of friggin’ fracking. i am sure a number of you will recall this debacle and miscarriage not only of the environment, but also of justice.
https://www.ernstversusencana.ca/us-epa-releases-final-frac-report-rosebud-alberta-drinking-water-aquifers-fracd-resulting-in-water-wells-contaminated-with-gas/
About 10years ago a friend had a farm in the Fort Assinibone area of Alberta and after an oil company began Fracking in their area her and her neighbors began experiencing gas in their water. Although she had two wells and the one for her house was determined to be fine, the one she used for her cattle was determined to contain some gas but was still safe for her to use, however it created a situation where they all had to pay to get their wells tested every six months to make certain it wasn’t increasing making the situation dangerous. Instead she sold out and moved to Stoney Plain.