The low point of my summer (and there were many with this UCP government) came on Aug 3 when Danielle Smith announced a 7 month moratorium on wind and solar renewable energy projects—a decision that paralyses more than 100 projects valued at $33 billion—ostensibly to address policy concerns that could have been addressed without imposing the moratorium in the first place.
This decision appears to be driven by the UCP’s ideological devotion to fossil fuels (in this case natural gas powered electricity) which trumps the UCP’s ideological belief in the free market (wind and solar energy generation became a profitable business without any help from the government whatsoever).
And that’s why it’s so disconcerting.
It’s bad enough to be at the mercy of a right wing ideological government; it’s even worse to discover that its ideology is not internally consistent. The free market trumps everything…except when it involves certain renewables in which case we’ll kneecap it. Is there anything else on the kneecapping list investors should be aware of before they come knocking on our doors?
Smith paraded a bunch of excuses for the moratorium which turned out to be overblown. The regulators and the rural municipalities did not ask for a moratorium. The consultation did not include anyone in the wind/solar sector, and not all landowners are dead set against wind/solar projects.
We also learned from business leaders, economists, and other stakeholders that the moratorium is a really, really bad idea because it harms Alberta’s ‘open for business’ reputation by creating regulatory uncertainty, increasing investor risk, and driving investment to other jurisdictions competing with Alberta to attract wind/solar projects.
Perceptions of the best
To get an idea of how Smith’s decision could impact the perception of Alberta as a good place to invest I turned to a recent study conducted by US News and Wharton, an ivy league business school.
The study ranked 87 countries on the following attributes: Adventure, Agility, Cultural Influence, Entrepreneurship, Heritage, Movers, Open for Business, Power, Quality of Life, and Social Purpose.
Canada was ranked the second best country in the world—Switzerland was the best and the US came in at No. 5—scoring high in Agility, Entrepreneurship, Quality of Life, and Social Purpose. Neither Canada, nor the US made it into the top 10 for Open for Business.
It’s interesting to speculate on whether Alberta, which considers itself Canada’s economic driver, would score as well as Canada on these four attributes:
Agility: this is the ability to adapt and respond to obstacles. An agile jurisdiction is efficient in its actions, adopts and accepts modern solutions and is adaptable to change. Screeching to a halt and slapping a 7 month moratorium on a $33 billion industry which could position Alberta as a global leader in the profitable wind/solar energy sector is not adapting to change, it’s dragging the province backward.
Entrepreneurship: the ability to develop industries that can compete globally in the digital age. These jurisdictions are seen as innovative with enterprising citizens. Oops, missed this one too. Instead of creating a thoughtful regulatory environment and providing incentives to promote the wind/solar sector, Smith disrupted the marketplace by creating a barrier to entry (temporarily), and increasing regulatory uncertainty and investor risk. This damages Alberta’s reputation as an innovative, entrepreneurial jurisdiction.
Quality of life: broad access to food, housing, good education, health care and employment. Includes intangibles like job security, political stability, individual freedom and environmental quality. There is much we could say here, but we’ll focus on environmental quality. Alberta had an opportunity to improve environmental quality and contribute to the mitigation of climate change; instead it stamped its tiny foot and said, nope, not happening.
Social purpose: a strong position on human rights, the environment and religious freedom. Being seen as the most progressive, inclusive and committed to social justice. Let’s see: progressive, inclusive, committed to social justice??? I don’t think so.
Capricious and out of sync
Not only is Smith at loggerheads with her own Minister of Affordability and Utilities, Mr Neudorf who admitted this policy review could have happened without imposing the moratorium, she blindsided major corporations like Microsoft, Amazon, Royal Bank, Telus, Cenovus and McCain Foods, who are seeking renewable electrical energy.
One can’t help but feel sorry for McCain Foods who made a big splashy announcement in March 2023 touting McCain’s investment of $600 million, the largest in its corporate history, in its Coaldale plant. This investment would include wind turbines and solar panels, providing 100% renewable electricity to the site. McCain is one of the hundreds of entities who wrote to the AUC questioning the wisdom of the moratorium.
Then there’s Mark Wiseman, the chair of AIMCo, who published an article in the Globe & Mail on Aug 12, nine days after Smith imposed the moratorium.
In Wiseman’s view investment in energy transition is the “inevitable megatrend for investors.” Those who see the future will be rewarded; those who don’t will be left behind.
He described the global transition to a lower-carbon economy as a leap from grey to green to gold.
Sadly, Alberta’s share of this gold will find its way to other jurisdictions because unlike Wiseman who believes an “investment is ultimately an act of faith in the future” Smith’s faith is blinkered by an ideology that puts oil and gas above everything else.
Susan on the Soapbox 
Sent from my iPad
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Sheila: it looks like your machine and my machine are not talking to each other. Perhaps you can try again.
Hi Susan:
Next thing you folks will be hearing is that Danny-girl will be in touch
with Dmitry Medvedev, who is being back by the energy-sector oligarchs
to replace Putin, when Hootin-Tootin Putin dies of stomach cancer.
If Meddie-boy does get the top job, we A LL will be gone….GONE , G O
N E.
Including Danny-girl.
The energy-sector Oligarchs are eyeing Prudhoe Bay and the still
untapped natural gas reserves to the east.
This guy is scary.
Crazy.
But scary.
Dunnnno if you have a Catholic faith, but, EVERYONE needs to get a set
prayer beads and start saying a few “Hail Marys and Our Fathers”…that
Meddie-boy
D O E S N O T get the top job.
Which is why Hootin’-Tootin’ deposed him a few years
ago………Meddie-boy was a loose cannon then and, even looser now.
_https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Medvedev__
_
Gord, thanks for this. There is so much craziness going on right here in our province that we sometimes forget just how precarious things are across the globe.
Hi:
Political correctness is getting worse by the hour.
The latest is the storm-in-a-teapot over gender identification.
Geeez.
Time was you bought a daughter a lovely expensive lace dress, now its
ripped up jeans…..and ear-rings that look like they are for parachute
release.
But, here is a dandy.
In the on-line heritage group, we have a volunteer who son and
daughter-in-law [with family] are teaching, Canadian English, history,
geography &-etc if a very, very
expensive private Japanese school…..they are working on the second
five year contract.
In any event.
Last week, their English classes composed a letter to the Ukrainian
official…there is no formal consulate in Japan, just an office.
Their letter was to complain about the Ukrainians, actually the NATO
press, not the Ukrainians themselves, over the use of the words
“Kamikaze Drones”, and,
“Kamikaze boats”.
They wrote to say that the word “Kamikaze” meant an “honorable death for
the country of Japan”.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Grrrrr.
BTW: Here is another dandy.
Got a letter in our Ma Bell phone bill saying that we H A D
to have our phone changed from the copper-land line to the fiber-land by
Sept. 30th or we would have no phone.
Nice threat.
Made an appointment, and, this kid fresh out trades school
showed up.
Have you guessed ?
Didn’t know how to make the change over.
So we are without a phone by default.
Remarkable.
Can’t get anyone from Ma Bell to tell us what is happening
and when.
So.
Not happy about it, but, we are changing over to the cable
company that serves our condo.
Charming,just charming.
At least we have an email promise to make the changes on
Tuesday next in the afternoon.
This Government has absolutely failed to manage the cleanup mess of abandoned oil and gas development. The Government failed to demand the industry do what it promised to do … clean up their mess. Surely there can be no hope that the Government will get the regulation of solar and wind power sorted.
Dale, well said. I can’t help but wonder whether some of the concerns raised by rural Albertans arise out of the failure of the government to manage this very issue. There’s not much point in legally requiring the O&G sector to clean up their abandoned wells then failing to enforce the law to ensure that they in fact do so. And of course now Smith is piloting the RStar program to incentivize bad actors to do what they’re legally obligated to do. We likve in a bizarro world
I am surprised that anyone is surprised at Smith derailing wind and solar in Alberta. Of course, investment in renewables will flee to other jurisdictions. That is the point of the exercise. Pace yourselves as this is just the beginning. Smith still has health, education and welfare to dismantle.
If the Conservatives win the next Federal Election, watch Smith go.
Jaundiced Eye…”surprised” doesn’t begin to describe my reaction. The way I see it, the belief that solar/wind power is a “scam” (as professed by Rob Anderson) trumped the reality that solar/wind power is good for the economy. I really didn’t think the UCP was this far down the rabbit hole, I’d always assumed they’d support anything (coal, oil & gas) if they believed it was good for the economy. Turns out I was wrong.
As usual my first post did not work
I cannot write a comment on this issue because I would probably go to jail over this absurd. People that religiously believe in market forces and spend years criticizing everything else. These people spent the last 4 decades preaching the invisible hand and the inevitability of market forces, then suddenly pick and choose winners and losers in a time when Oil and gas get billions in subsidies while Wind and solar get nothing and are still cheaper to produce and are way less polluting.
Danielle Smith is a sicko she should join Scientology because she has the appropriate lack of character and she can easily shovel all of it down her throat and blindly defend it to death. She is sick and so are those that follow this kind of cultist views of the world.
According to them the market concept was given to them by God. She is capable of putting people out of work for 7 months and interrupt planning and all the associated engineering and construction work, estimated at 33 billion dollars, just to fall in line with her delusions and serve her Oil landlords.
As far as I am concerned there is more than just ideological garbage here. I have no doubts they are being well compensated for being this super brainwashed with Oil and gas.
Carlos: It’s a shame how the UCP are behaving. I’ve heard that we have a very bad E-Coli outbreak, where numerous children in daycares in Alberta are affected, and the UCP is dithering on this.
Dwayne apparently Dodo Danielle offered her thoughts and prayers. As a result of this some children are on dialysis and who knows if they will require kidney transplants. Our CMOH has also been very silent…
Sharon do we even have a CMOH and does it matter? Decisions are all made by Danielle Smith just like it happened during the pandemic when Jason Kenney made Health choices he had no clue about and that he did not believe in. So we got in a vicious circle of dumbing down and it will not stop here in Alberta.
Has the UCP ever not dither? Danielle Smith’s prayers will solve the problem do not worry. What a banana republic we have become.
Danielle Smith is the person who made some interesting comments about level 4 cancer. She probably does not really care much about it. They are all for no regulations so this for them could very well be something they do not like to action on.
Carlos, I agree. For this government “regulations” is simply another word for “red tape” and as we all know in the UCP world “red tape” is bad.
Carlos, you’ve highlighted the very reason I was frustrated by this decision. I’ve never supported unchecked capitalism or the proponents of silly rationalizations like the trickle down theory, but I expected Smith and the UCP to adhere to this belief with every fiber of their being. So when they imposed a moratorium on wind/solar (which is a poster child for projects that succeeded with no or little help from the government) I thought they’d lost their minds.
I take two things from this decision (1) the UCP will protect oil and gas at all costs and (2) the UCP don’t accept that climate change is real, hence there’s no need for wind/solar especially given that it conflicts with #1.
Susan: Welcome back, and thanks for another great blog. Absurdity is never in short supply, with Danielle Smith and the UCP. So many shortsighted policies, and failures. You would have an unlimited supply of topics to write about. Whatever the UCP does, ends up with some sort of financial, or human cost. Whose interests does the UCP have in mind? Certainly not Alberta’s. Danielle Smith doesn’t have what it takes to be the premier of Alberta. I’ve also heard about the children who got sick from E-Coli contamination, at daycares in Alberta. The number of children affected is climbing. Another four more years of the UCP is hard to take. I’ll share some more music. This is Jackson Browne and various musicians, with Playing For Change, and they are doing his song, Doctor My Eyes. I have seen Jackson Browne live, and he is also in my music collection.
Dwayne, thanks for that musical selection. This line in the lyrics was quite telling: “People go just where they will, I never noticed them until, I got this feeling that it’s later than it seems.”
“It’s later than it seems” is certainly true here in Alberta where each and every day we have to live with the consequences of electing the UCP government. The E Coli outbreak is the most recent example. As the reports come out about the failure of the central kitchen to adhere to basic good health practices, you have to wonder why the government didn’t step sooner.
We are led by an idealogical idiot. Heavy sigh.
Don, exactly!!!
Susan: Here is my next song pick. It is from Three Dog Night, and was written by Russ Ballard. The song is called Liar. It is from 1970.
Dwayne, another great selection. The UCP made so many promises to Albertans, in order to get elected. Those who voted them in must asked themselves what happened? Sure the economy is doing well, but that’s because or rising global oil prices, it has nothing to do with the UCP. We’re losing ground on the multi-billion dollar renewables sector, we’re losing ground on healthcare (remember Dynalife, was that just a few weeks ago?), we’re losing ground on education (classroom are jam packed), the list goes on and on. Like the band we should all be shouting liar, liar, liar.
What a mess. You hit the nail on the head with the “tiny feet” stamping comment. But none of us should be surprised at what idiocies come out of this government. Perhaps there will be a big dust up at the Clown Party AGM in November and who knows what will happen then…
Sharon, good point. From what I’ve read the Take Back Alberta crowd intend to fill the remaining UCP board seats with their acolytes. If they do, the internal party power struggle will intensify.
My first impression was, “Stupid, Duplicitous, Ignorant”. You are a better wordsmith than I though, but covered all the elements of my quip!!
Bruce, thanks. between you and me I used all of those words and a few more when I began writing this post. 🙂
Yes, the hypocrisy of “socialism for me and my friends” and Darwinian free markets for everyone else. The government has acknowledged two things by its actions:
1. Free markets can lead to an allocation of resources that require government intervention (too much money going to renewables at the expense of natural gas); and
2. Free markets can create market failures that require the expenditure of tax dollars to correct (R-Star Program).
If such government interventions are justified for the oil and gas sector, then why are they not justified for healthcare, education, housing, and other sectors? The government should be reminded of this when it returns to its free market rhetoric.
Andrea: excellent, excellent points!
One would hope the opposition will remind the government of this when the House resumes at the end of October.
One would also hope the public reminds the government of this when it comes to the next election.
Thank you.
Denial Smith is all about providing political cover for O&G extracting the last bux from Alberta as fast as possible – maximizing “Investor returns” and all that. She has no vision or plan for Alberta workers and Alberta companies to join the global energy transition. More depressing, she and her cowed party parrot the binary stupidity of its either O&G or nothing…. talk about demonstrating a pigeon-like focus on being only able to have a single thought at a time…. and this is the party of “business”?
We’re on our own folks – sobering thought for sure, but bracing. Knowing we can’t look for the captured UCP to be bothered to stoop to notice, let us ignore the twerps, roll up our sleeves and work in our communities to “get ‘er done”.
Funny nobody has ever told her what inevitably happens to your butt when you keep your head buried in the sand. Lets not remind her OK? Let that blunt blinding “rude awakening” to her and the UCP keister come as a complete surprise!
Lee, I really like the way you put that “we’re on our own folks — sobering thought…but bracing.” I’ve been thinking about that lately. Wondering what we can do as everything seems to be going to hell in a hand basket. I hope to address it in a future blog, very soon. Should be an interesting discussion.
That decision will obviously cause the province a lot of harm.
Alastair: agreed. I hope someone is keeping a list of all of the UCP’s ‘brilliant’ ideas that blew up in their/our faces.
Susan, it happens I tried to keep such a list during Jason Kenney’s reign of stupidity. I gave up, there was just too much.
As a microgenerator who produces most of our electricity needs off our own roof….and charges an electric car with same, I’m not as outraged by the moratorium as some are. I THINK ITS A WAKE UP MOMENT FOR A LOT OF PROGRESSIVES WHO NEED TO COMPLETE THE PROCESS…….we’ve known since the 70’s where continued oil and gas production was going to take us, and I read articles on what solar could do then that convinced me the Sun was capable of running most of what we need on this planet.
But we’ve squandered decades being passively critical of the patch….and doing nothing much to get off our addiction. Now, with Smith coming right out and putting on the breaks for the green transition………we should all give our heads a shake and see clearly where we are.
As to green technologies having no government help, that’s not quite true either. The NDP under Notley, when in government, gave 30% rebates on solar……..we took the opportunity to add to the 4.9 kilowatts we installed in 2009………and got 5.8 kilowatts for less than half what we paid in 2009. We also put 5.11 kw on our daughter’s house…and by that time the rebate was 35%
Truth is, the NDP didn’t advertise it like they should have……likely for reasons any sane Albertan can deduce for themselves. There is a pig headed under educated demographic in Alberta that hates the idea of renewables. It’s responsible for those inane memes like “Did you drive here in a Car’. or “the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow’.
Well,duh………it does too……..somewhere on planet earth, the sun is always shining and the wind….??? Well head down to Crow’s Nest Pass or take a trip across Saskatchewan, if you think there’s any respite to that renewable resource.
In actual fact, since energy is distributed around the earth……..its a better idea to distribute our solar panels and wind turbines……..big centralized establishments are just susecpible to the extreme weather our inaction has already built in to the future.
So LET’S HEAR IT FOR SMITH AND HER REACTIONARIES………she’s shutting down mega projects. For 7 months. Lots of time to put some sun catchers on a lot of rooftops………….and remember the NDP rebates that were at least partly responsible for jumpstarting the solar revolution in Alberta.
More staycations,more micro generation, more EV;s….that’s how to stick it to Danielle and her merry bunch of BS artists.
Ingamarie: these are excellent suggestions, very much in line with what Lee Neville said, “we’re on our own” so let’s run with it. Thanks for outlining the specific things we as individuals can do. And thanks also for clarifying that renewables did receive government help under the NDP. As you said, the NDP subsidies were not well received by many, including the MLAs who took up a lot of air time in the Legislature sneering at the NDP for paying for people to come into your home to put in a shower head or a light bulb.
A bit late for the bus reading some of Susan’s astute blogs over the last couple months. Too busy completing the solar project on our house in Calgary. (4.5 kw.)
But not too late to join the growing microgenerating group of Alberans, bright enough to know that the dirtiest oil on the planet (apparantly so old that a hoard of oil eating microbes got to it first and chewed away on the best parts of it) isn’t going to fuel our future.
Join Solar Alberta and come out and meet a few of your fellow Albertans at the next social. They also have information sessions that are informative and can lead you to the people who’ll know how to do your next Sustainable project.
We are currently getting ready to install a heat pump.
Ingamarie: Thanks! I pulled up the Solar Alberta website. Very informative. Here’s the link for those who would like to check it out.
https://solaralberta.ca/ .
TommyP: your comment brought a smile to my lips. Good on you!!!
Mark Wiseman better watch out for his job. Criticizing Her High and Mightiness, Queen Danielle of Oilberduh, might be a good way to retire involuntarily.
Mike: in March 2023 Wiseman announced he was going to step down from the AIMCo board. This was 5 months after Smith became UCP leader and 2 months before she won the election. Perhaps he could read the writing on the wall. With Smith at the helm it was going to be pure chaos. In any event, that’s exactly what’s happened.
Ah yes, that explains it. If Mr. Wiseman intended to hang around, he’d have kept his fingers off the keyboard. Funny how Con governments interpret the phrase “law and order”–they make the laws, we obey orders.
It has been one lie after another from this Premier sonce the lies she handed us during the debate with Notley before the recent election . It is sad that we who saw the problems ahead with the ucp being elected . The moratorium is a blatant attempt to deceive the uninformed and make the bad decision look as it is a good one , protecting jobs in the O+G . Too bad there seems to be no way to legally fight this ucp gov’t . Four years if incompetence is too much to endure . General Strike !
I wonder what Smith and her good buddy Rob Anderson had to say about Rich “I win” Kruger firing 1500 Suncor workers. Kruger wins, we lose.
As for legal action, could McCain and others sue the government for capriciously changing the rules? I dunno, there ought to be something in the unwritten traditions (yes, we have such things) about not doing something stupidly arbitrary and expensive. Especially not something expensive to Big Business.
Mike, you pose an interesting question. I must admit I’m mystified by the unqualified support conservatives give to the UCP, a party that clearly has the best interests of corporations, not the people who work for them, at heart. Remember when Jason Kenney cut the corporate tax rate in the naive belief that somehow this would lead to higher employment. The layoffs continued as the companies paid off debt, did share buybacks, and increased their dividends. In other words, corporations used the tax savings to take care of their shareholders, not their employees.
Rick Kruger is doing the same thing, taking care of his shareholders by firing 1500 Suncor workers.
As for legal action; corporations recognize they’re at the mercy of governments that change the laws. I suspect their government relations staff have been on the phone to people in the UCP government, but I don’t think this will have much effect. Smith/Anderson have little use for renewables, the moratorium will play well to their base, and they’ll continue to push ahead unless they’re met with a stronger backlash, similar to what happened when they decided to reopen coal mining in the Rockies. They won’t back down unless they think it will seriously undermine their support.
Menno: agreed. I hope everyone who’s been negatively impacted by the moratorium recognize that the Smith government interfered with the marketplace by choosing to protect O&G companies and the jobs they provide (which incidentally are significantly fewer than they were in 2014) at the expense of solar/wind companies and their jobs, while at the same time disrupting the investment plans of major players like McCain Foods.
We are not a banana republic. this was reckless and irresponsible.
Smith and the UCP have also budgetted a lot more money for the war room to advertise and propagandize outside of Alberta; $22 million last year, how much this year?
https://energi.media/energi-notes/dear-canada-more-alberta-energy-war-room-propaganda-is-headed-your-way/
Valerie: thanks for the timely reminder that the War Room, like the zombies in World War Z, will never die. Frankly the big industry players don’t need the War Room, they have their own internal and external PR departments and their own industry organization (CAPP) to advocate on their behalf. They certainly doesn’t need any help from these government-funded wannabes.
This was a Jason Kenney campaign promise to signal that he was here for the oil companies, it’s window dressing, but the UCP will never stop funding it.
And the ‘War Room’ is back! Defending our O&G against those who would dare to suggest alternative energy might be worth exploring & apparently robustly funded to boot. A figure of some $33 million was mentioned….. Meanwhile, the privatization of laboratory testing was abruptly derailed due to the inability of the company contracted to provide services on a timely basis in Southern Alberta. No information as yet as to just how much Dynalife will be paid for the cancelled contract plus the takeover of lab facilities & staff. This apparently includes all facilities/staff in Edmonton, where Dynalife had been successfully providing timely lab services for literal decades. One wonders whether this was the plan all along – who owns Dynalife, are those owners coming up to the time when retirement beckons & if so, were there any possible purchasers of said business waiting in the wings other than our own UCP government? As to the E. coli outbreak, while the focus of the investigation is on the central kitchen that provided meals to the various daycare facilities in question the smoking gun has yet to be located. Meanwhile a class action lawsuit has been launched against said daycares. While no child has yet died of the infection, a number of children have unfortunately developed a condition that has led to their needing dialysis. At least the UCP didn’t shut down the hospitals or succeed in privatizing them – yet.
Correction: I overstated the 2022 War Room budget. It was only $22 million, not $33 million. And our glorious leader Ms. Smith as well as Health Minister Ms. LeGrange both commented on the E.coli outbreak on September 10th. Their ‘thoughts & prayers’ are being sent to the families of the affected – 190 to date as per the media. At least 20 of that number contracted the condition requiring dialysis. And the update on the lawsuit now says the kitchen facility is included in the lawsuit. They still haven’t identified the actual cause of the outbreak.
Linda, you mentioned the class action. I worked in O&G, regulatory and corporate law, but I started in litigation and am very interested to see how this case will unfold. The thought of the suffering endured by these children and their parents is heartbreaking. The inspectors have yet to isolate the cause but as the law prof Lorian Hardcastle said the fact that so many kids from the same facility contracted E Coli is a compelling case for causation. She also wondered about the limits on the daycare’s insurance policy and whether there would be enough funds available to compensate the injured, especially those left with long term health issues.
It certainly causes you to question whether the government knows what it’s doing re: it’s responsibility to enforce public health regulations.
The UCP has never regulated anything that would protect human safety or the the environment so it is pretty rich that they are all so concerned about the renewable industry. And the idea that they are concerned about the environmental impact of site clean-up strains credibility. They would be mining coal all over the Rockies if they could get away with it and they still might.
Their faux indignation about the feds daring to suggest that some workers in AB might need funding and support to transition into other jobs is just a joke. Workers will be the victims here as Suncor and their o and g buddies will continue to cut jobs whenever it pleases them, leaving workers in the dust. It is so sad that Albertans have been subjected to such cruel, disorganized and incompetent government for so long, many just tolerate it….
I am writing this after hearing that over 200 kids and some adults (probably parents) are now in hospital for e coli. Eleven little children are now on dialysis. I don’t know what the full story will be on this tragedy but something has surely gone very wrong with the oversight of the daycares by AHS and the lack of transparency at the moment. I wonder how supportive the government is being in terms of the major health response which is being required in Calgary at the moment. Especially with deficits of doctors and nurses as a result of the mismanagement of COVID. Am I angry? Yes! I just learned that it was only today that Adriana LaGrange and the Danielle Smith sent those very helpful “thoughts and prayers” to families, one week after children started appearing with serious symptoms. Another special recognition for Alberta…the worst outbreak of e coli EVER for children under five. Danielle Smith seems totally blind to this kind of suffering.
Janet, the health reporter in the Globe and Mail pointed out that this mass poisoning illustrates the “eviscerated state of public health in this country” and what happens when governments act on the rhetoric of getting rid of the “gatekeepers.” It never ceases to amaze me how the clever use of language (“gatekeepers”) is used to convince voters to fire the very people who’ve been hired to protect their health, safety and environment.
I’m beginning to think the public has lost the ability to reason, and it’s only when tragedy strikes that they think to ask the fundamental question: how the hell did this happen?
The old rhetoric of governments “wasting” tax payers’ dollars on (red tape) health inspections takes on a whole new meaning when lives are at stake.
Susan: Here is my final song pick. This is for September 11. It was written by Neil Young, and is from 2002. It’s called Let’s Roll.
Dwayne, this was a very intriguing song pick. I’ve read the lyrics a couple of times. Gives you a lot to think about. Thank you.
The World Petroleum Congress will be in Calgary Sept 17-21. There will be a Counter Congress on Sept 17, a rally at City Hall:
https://www.calgaryclimatehub.ca/wpcc_climate_rally?recruiter_id=6275
The link was tweeted by Dr David Swann, who was once fired for doing his job and speaking out as a public health officer.
https://albertapolitics.ca/2022/01/heres-what- happened-when-a-courageous-medical-officer-of-heath-was-fired-by-alberta-conservatives/
Valerie: thanks for the link. I found this sentence particularly chilling: “Rather than stepping up and re-tooling to become the energy leaders of the next century Big Oil has for the most part just doubled down to suck up every last drop of profit they can,” This is accurate and reflects something a director of an oil company once said to me. His point was why should the company stop drilling when there was still money to be made. Drill, baby, drill, right?
Test comment.