Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Alberta -- Going for Broke!

Alberta rural roads are getting an unusual amount of attention; Stelmach has let paving contracts to every local construction type in the rural ridings. There is more fresh pavement laid on rural roads “to control dust” than any of the major centers!

Yet highways that are collecting bodies over the years such as highway 19 are on the back burner. More votes to be had by paving driveways than highways.

What is the downside? We are going broke. After the fall election Stelmach is going to put the brakes on spending and ask us by way of higher taxes or higher utilities to make up the debit he caused getting re elected. There are tough times ahead!

There will be no move on getting our rightful share of resource revenue!

These people are shameless.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Monday, July 23, 2007

Fall Election a sure thing!

Fall Election a sure thing!

My trip around Alberta this weekend showed me crops that are in abundance and well on their way to becoming full and ripe in most parts of the province.

Stelmach knows the farmers and farm communities will be politically docile when harvesting a promising crop!

They will not worry about these guys running off with the Heritage Trust fund or the continued turn over of our resource and infrastructure to private friends though the closed bidding process and the guise that it is best for Alberta to do this in secret.

The unsettled extreme weather of global warming could still put sand in his Vaseline! Wet fall weather could prevent the crops from coming off.

cyberclark@shaw.ca
John Clark

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Some work for my journalistic freinds.

Some work for my journalistic friends:

Just how arms length is Mazankowski and Great West Life removed from the AON Corporation that Alberta though the health care package to?

Why will the Government not allow viewing of the agreement between the people of Alberta and AON.

The minister sites “information on revenues” as the reason.

Hummmmm.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Conservatives wasting Alberta away!

As citizens of Alberta trapped under this Conservative Government our chances of getting any meaningful changes to the royalty structures for natural resources in this province are next to nothing.

The oil companies keep raising the bar for what they will pay for the shrinking labour and professional market. They are estimating the costs to go as high as 50.00 per barrel US for oil sands projects!

That would mean on a 85.00 barrel of oil 35.00 would be considered clear after production costs and we would get 8.75 royalty for the dwindling resource.

Under the present scheme there is little or no audit of what they call expenses. There are absolutely no controls over what and how much money they spend on something. There is no consolation even though the money they spend comes direct out of Alberta’s royalty portion.

Or, could it be the costs are jacked up in order to capture more revenue for the oil companies? Even though they are essentially spending our money, they claim huge success for “all the good” they have done by spending our money.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Monday, July 16, 2007

Further electricity gouging-Pay market price by 2010

Alberta to pay “market price” by 2010.

Ed Stelmach has said Alberta Electricity consumers will pay full market price for their electricity by 2010. That is 2 years from now! Electricity cost will increase rapidly in that period.

“Market price” is the cost of electricity in California which, is the highest in the world!

This Government has taken the single advantage Alberta had and with a total disregard of what the voters in this province want, gave away out power lines which in turn will increase in proportion to the power.

Oil concerns need the power and, any power they use at any price at all adds to the price of construction or the price of producing. So, we take a hit on both ends! I call it padding the books!

This in turn firmly slams the door on any manufacturing opportunities opening in this province and you can expect still more companies to move east to a better business climate. High Electricity, High Heating Cost, the high cost of labor, the lack of skilled workers coupled with the improved highways east bound means the Calgary warehouses are becoming redundent. Property values will depreciate.

The population is also moving east. People born and raised in this province can no longer afford to live here thanks to the extreme policies of this Government. However this is all okay with Ed Stelmach and company, it saves putting people on busses.

Many pensioners are moving east to Saskatchewan and Manitoba. This does not bode well for these provinces as the people have very low spending power and will not be able to contribute a great deal to their economy.

Fat and fast union settlements to avoid pressure at the next election are burning dollars like nothing else and, further putting the heat onto the labor market.

This, as I said, makes Ed Stelmach a happy camper.

If a government could be labeled as social psychotic, this Government would be it.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Friday, July 13, 2007

Our rip off electricity options or lack of them.

An interesting call from Direct Energy

The price of electricity has gone up 32% since 2004.
Does it cost more to generate? NO!

An interesting call from EPCOR
If the price of electricity posted on the AESO web is .08 per kwh, EPCORE will figure the cost at .16 per kwh and, that is what they will charge you if you choose the “open market option”

As with most things with this Conservative Government the open market option is hype. The way it is administered leaves no choices for the consumer but to go to one of the “electrical supply companies” invented by the Conservatives.

A huge rip off and, with this Government in place there is nothing you can do about it.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Friday, July 06, 2007

New RCMP head-Shades of Mulroney


Shades of Mulroney!

Conservatives by their nature and conviction have an inherent mistrust of the Government Bureaucracy and feel a direct, hands on operation by the ruling (as opposed to elected) government is the cure all for everything. Fundamental to Conservatives is the mantra that Buisiness should run the country, Government should make rules to enable this.

Following the Conservative conviction he put his ADM’s (Assistant Deputy Ministers) directly in charge of the daily workings of various departments very often shorting and/or discarding input by seasoned bureaucrats putting the Conservative stamp on the program.

William Elliott is the named commissioner. In 1989, Elliott worked as an executive assistant to the office of the deputy prime minister. One year later, he became chief of staff in the same office.

Harper has gone one better. He has put his ADM type directly in charge of the RCMP. I suspect we can look forward to hearing the RCMP pension fund is privatized as a “step forward”
By extension Harper is setting himself up in the likeness of Bush, a dictator want to be.
A harsh thought is with the Government in charge of the national police, we are in a police state wheter or not it is intended that way.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Elecricity rebates come to an end.

The Conservatives are under the gun from the suits to speed up their privatization schemes and open up the free market doors. Chopping all power subsidies will be the next thing they will do.

In Alberta we pay for all the power lines on export and oil sands power line generation. This means that the consumers in this province pay unfairly for all aspects of their power.

The price of electricity the US is willing to pay has gone up and will continue to go up as they fall short on generation by 7000 mw over the next year or so. The Conservatives want to fill this need and have you pay for the overhead.

They have allowed the price of electricity to jump by 30% over the weekend. They have grouped the consumers of Alberta into the nebulous electrical market discounting the fact that we are paying unfairly for large portions of the costs.

Now, they are about the cancel or adjust to non existence the brief protection we had as the electrical industry strives for market prices.

Democracy Watch chided Alberta by saying at one point the province was the closest state in Canada to being free enterprise. That is they clarified the state in Canada that is most like the USA! But, they continued the rush to the US state was slowed down under the Ralph Kline era. Stelmach is after brownie points trying to pick up the pace.

Everything that is filth in politics can be found in Alberta’s Conservative Government.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Every body loves chocolate and its good for you?

Every body loves chocolate. Now, the German studies have shown that 6 grams of dark chocolate per day will reduce blood pressure and is being touted as a good thing. This is a nice trick in allowing you to go crazy over chocolate, this time for your good health.

Dark chocolate contains large amounts of l’arginine a nitrate. This “smoothes” out the blood vessels, relaxing them somewhat in turn, the blood pressure drops.

They don’t talk of the dark side of l’arginine! If you have a herpes virus including a cold sore and you drink chocolate milk, you will find the infection spreads rapidly with no indication of clearing up. The l’arginine in the chocolate is exciting the herpes virus!

If you have a slightly cancerous spot in your body, the l’arginine will also excite that!

Do what ever you want to do, just take a moment to know what you are doing.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca
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