Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Harper following Stelmach's election book.

Conservatives no show the last two elections in Alberta the Alberta PC party did not field candidates to public debates.

At a total fear of answering the hard questions put forward on Alberta the Details and other blogs many conservatives resigned not wishing to run while others rightly assumed any dumb ass with a Conservative banners would get elected.

As it turns out the latter were correct. I wonder if this holds true for Harper?

Remember the reason they won was because the people who did not agree with them did not go out to vote!

Don't make the same mistake with Harper.
Consider his plagiarism speech. He took this from the Prime Minister in Australia one of the most aggressive slash and burn Conservatives on the map.
He knew very well what he was saying. He obviously though he could get away with this.

The Green Shift is not the NEP!

Mel Knight reduced the oil royalty to 19% from from 25% at the same time changing the trade from US dollars to Canadian Dollars! The production is running at 1.6 million barrels a day.

That extrapolates to 4.6 billion dollars a year lost to Alberta Taxpayers! That is half the provincial budget gone back to the oil companies!

Economies to scale shows us the probability that Albertans own more than a small fraction of the oil stocks. Most stocks by default are foreign owned.

Alberta is not loosing anything in this Green Shift! Had the Alberta Conservatives not reduced the royalty to below rock bottom there would be no room for anyone to plunk a tax on the stuff.

The NEP came into effect at a time when the royalty was much much higher, and the production was 1/1000th what it is now. The NEP did bite into Alberta's revenue. The Green Shift doesn't.

On the darker side, this Government will put every extra cent received from other business, every income tax dollar back into the goal of reducing royalty further! Something to think about when this crew tells you they don't have the money for it.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Your Alberta water bill depends on how you vote!

For those of you who have asked why I am so quite on this election will say that I have had a lot of my time taken up on the CBC sparring with the multitudes.
There are some real stars on the Harper crew, well stated and good reading. I will muse about some of the exchanges.

A letter from Iris Evans has been posted which explains the Government plans on 4 billion dollars spent in carbon sequestration, transportation and education. Nowhere in that letter does she say how she is going to pay for it.

The Conservatives reduced our royalty rate from 25% to 19% before the last election and lied about it throughout the election. This is coincidentally 4.6 billions of dollars lost to the taxpayer or, the nebulous General Revenues where this Government plunks all the money so it can’t be followed.

Does this mean the oil companies are going to pay these 4.6 billion dollars into the sequestration project?
Not likely.

Iris’s letter also touches on the money making aspect of Carbon Sequestration. Not dissimilar from the power lines the plan lines up now that Alberta Taxpayers are going to pay for all the start up costs and the construction costs of the program now estimated at 80 billion dollars in total (10 years revenue for the province) and the oil companies will pocket any monies that come in from the actual pumping of the carbon dioxide down hole.

More and more of the same old stuff but, this time handled by their million dollar PR company also paid for by our tax dollar.

For my part, I endorse the program. More than that I say “it must succeed” but, I want who pays and how broken out.

Alberta’s privatized water is not getting as much work out as I would like to see. Remember, they changed the rules of the water management group in the St. Mary’s system to limit who could vote on items. A brief search of the Alberta Gazette turned up the names of international food producing agencies as the new owners of land in that area and on the east slope of the Rockies where the water aquifer starts.
Consider Calgary does not have any aquifer water allotments and most the water is owned by Dasani water (Coca Cola) and the Calgary Malting company; that takes care of all the Alberta water. Remember the farmer at the Conservative Convention in Banff who was told he did not own the water in his dug out? Much more of that is going to be around!

If Harper gets in with his Majority there will be a huge increase in your water bills. The Government is asking if you want them involved. They should have asked that before they soiled the landscape.

The Fraser Institute presented studies on how much revenue was being lost because bulk water exports were not allowed under the Liberals. Then, the Conservative party of Canada made representation to the Privy Council hearings dealing with the legality of exporting bulk water under NAFTA and , the answer was a resounding NO NOT ALLOWED!.

The Conservatives acknowledged the decision saying they would take it up with a civil court but, I haven’t heard anything since.

Whether Harper gets his majority or not, NAFTA will be renegotiated to include items that Mexico and the US wants. Harper’s hidden agenda becomes more apparent and, Albertan’s are going to take a real shit kicking on their water if he does get elected. See details here

Albertans will be asked to pay “market price” for their drinking and domestic water. That would again be California prices just like the Electricity.

If there was a time for Albertans to vote other than Conservative this would be it!
And for those of you who did not vote last time, do so this time! Don't be a second class citizen.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Alberta Bedding failing Conservatives across the globe.

Alberta 3P builders sinking in Australia so they are giving a cost plus pure profit option in Alberta. These are the people hired by Alberta to build 6 new 3P schools in Alberta. Cut the funding to existing schools so they fail. Then, stick in your private club to save it. I am so very sick of Conservatives!

Quote locked article:
SYDNEY -- Embattled investment and advisory firm Babcock & Brown Ltd. said that Phil Green, its former chief executive, has resigned as a director of the company.
The move comes less than a month after Mr. Green relinquished the top job in a management reshuffle aimed at restoring investor confidence following write-downs, a last-minute profit warning and a share-price rout that forced the company into talks with its bankers earlier this year.
Shares in Babcock & Brown fell 17% Monday to a record low of 1.58 Australian dollars (US$1.30), leading financial-market weakness amid concerns about the future of Lehman Brothers and American International Group Inc.
Babcock & Brown Chairwoman Elizabeth Nosworthy said Mr. Green had decided that remaining a nonexecutive director was "not in the best interests of the company from a corporate-governance perspective or his own personal position."
Babcock & Brown announced a restructuring Aug. 24 as it reported a 30% profit fall and suspended dividends until it reduces its debt. The restructuring is effectively a partial liquidation involving asset sales, staff reductions and a winding back of many of the firm's businesses as it refocuses on infrastructure, real estate and operating leasing, areas it sees as its core competencies.
Babcock shares have slumped 94% since the start of the year amid worries about the sustainability of its model in the wake of the global credit crunch.
—Bill Lindsay and Susan Murdoch contributed to this article.
Write to Rebecca Thurlow at rebecca.thurlow@dowjones.com

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Alberta now finished privitizing all the water in Alberta

"Should a market develop? To what degree should the government be involved in regulating that market? Or should the government be involved at all?"
Alberta major move to privatize and export water is in place.

Mike Cardinal, minister sold large tracks of grazing lands across the east slope of the Rockies to private ownerships. With it went the water rights and, this track of land is over the origin of the water aquifer that serves most of Alberta. There were never any public disclosures of who bought this pristine land or, what they paid for it.

On the St. Mary’s irrigation system the Government first changed the bylaws of the St Mary’s water organization in such a way as to cut down the amount of people that can voice opinions or vote on changes within that origination. Basically only those people who owned property directly adjoining the St. Mary’s canal would be allowed to vote.

Again no public disclosures about who bought what or what were paid; All insider stuff.

While this was going on a large number of lands adjoining the St. Mary’s was sold by Mike Cardinal to the Agra Food industry. Some of the titles that moved through the Alberta Gazette were worthless as farms and perfectly situated for voting rights.

Calgary on the other hand has been quick to repeat time and again they have sufficient water allotments to last them for many years into the future. What they are careful not to explain is their water allotment is only for the Bow and Elbow rivers. Calgary holds no water allotments for the water aquifers.

On the other hand Calgary Malting and Dasani (Coca Cola) own huge water allotments for the water aquifer. – These people will be supplying the water to the City of Calgary.

The rivers are expected to be out of drinking water in less than 10 years as they are glacier fed.

I for one have been fighting over the years for a public owned water resource and you people who would not get off their asses to vote bare the responsibility of the total privatization and marketing of our water resource.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Alberta's electrical generation plans are primarily for export!

The Alberta Government finds it easier to tell outright lies and misrepresent even the simplest of truths than to face a fact and represent it fairly.
Yes power lines are being planned and built andyou are being told to pay for them and power generation facilities that do nothing but export power to the US.

Yes this Government is in charge of the electrical pricing and they will continue to increase the price of your electricity to make new generation and lines appear attractive.

And, yes you will continue to pay unless you get off your tails and vote in a new Government!

When reading this, consider Alberta’s electrical production is close to 12000 MW

There is literally an army of corporations with applications into the Federal Government to export power from Canada to the US. These have been granted and are not restricted to any one province or jurisdiction. Much is expected to come from Alberta. The export terms generally run 3 years with a clear option of renewing.
The US needs more power than we can supply; a perfect market!
“Generation of 350,000 megawatts (MW) of new electricity is necessary to satisfy electricity demand in the U.S.A. in 2030, according to forecasts and predictions of the government. Along the way, a generation increase of 80,000 MW to 90,000 MW will be necessary from 2006 to 2012.”

And:
“If the Government's target of 10% power generation is to be reached using renewable energy by 2010, a total of 10,000 megawatts (MW) will have to be installed at that date.”

John Clark
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