Alberta
“Ontario Can’t do it Alone” – Fairness Alberta Expands with Eastern Canada Campaign
It has been just over four months since the launch of Fairness Alberta, a non-partisan Proudly Canadian, Fiercely Albertan organization, in May 2020. Fairness Alberta promotes education and discussion to combat biased government policies and regulations that restrict Alberta’s economic growth and prosperity. By highlighting Alberta’s $324 billion net contribution to the Canadian economy from 2000 to 2019, FA’s mandate is to “inform Canadians about the magnitude of the contributions Albertans make to Canada, while educating Canadian’s about the damaging fiscal, trade, energy, procurement, and infrastructure policies that chronically undermine Alberta’s – and Canada’s – potential.”
The public response to the organization throughout Alberta and across Canada has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Bill Bewick, Executive Director of Fairness Alberta. “Our factual approach is agreeable,” he says, “and even people who are skeptical of Alberta demanding more from the country are willing to listen and learn.”
On September 21, Fairness Alberta expanded into eastern Canada with the launch of their Fall 2020 Campaign in Ontario. The two-part billboard series in Toronto and Ottawa is designed to illustrate just how much Albertans have helped Ontarians carry the fiscal load in the federation over the last decade. “Many people are surprised by the fiscal contributions of each province given the size difference,” says Bewick, “people assume Ontario makes the biggest contribution, but that’s just not the case.”
From 2007-2018, Ontario contributed $98 billion net and Alberta contributed $240 billion net to the country, while the remainder of the provinces have received a combined total of $370 billion.
As all Canadian provinces face the daunting road to recovery following the destructive economic impacts of COVID-19, the dissemination of accurate information regarding the crucial role of Alberta in the nation’s recovery remains crucial. Arguably even more so since the recent Throne Speech, delivered by Governor General Julie Payette on September 23, has been widely criticized for once again ignoring the contributions and needs of Albertans in favor of new policies that will further restrict productivity in Alberta by targeting natural gas.
Premiere Jason Kenney openly criticized the Throne Speech and the clean-fuel standard, stating, “We got a litany of policies that would strangle investment and jeopardize resource jobs when we most need the industry that generates 20 percent of government revenues in Canada” (1).
Fairness Alberta has responded similarly to developments from the recent Throne Speech, arguing that Alberta’s role in national recovery cannot be overstated or ignored. “Alberta is an engine in the fragile Canadian economy,” says Bewick, “If that productivity is hindered by the new clean fuel standards, no other province will be able to pick up the slack.”
The Ontario campaign is set to continue into the month of November, paired with online advertising that draws targeted audiences to their website, and the remainder of 2020 will see an expansion into British Columbia as Fairness Alberta continues to grow and fight for a fair deal for Alberta within Canada. Bewick believes that “there are millions of fair-minded Canadians out there and showing them the importance of Alberta’s economy is critical right now to ensure the federal government works with Alberta, not against it.”
For more information on Fairness Alberta, visit fairnessalberta.ca.
For more stories, visit Todayville Calgary.
Alberta
Province to stop municipalities overcharging on utility bills
Making utility bills more affordableAlberta’s government is taking action to protect Alberta’s ratepayers by introducing legislation to lower and stabilize local access fees. Affordability is a top priority for Alberta’s government, with the cost of utilities being a large focus. By introducing legislation to help reduce the cost of utility bills, the government is continuing to follow through on its commitment to make life more affordable for Albertans. This is in addition to the new short-term measures to prevent spikes in electricity prices and will help ensure long-term affordability for Albertans’ basic household expenses.
Local access fees are functioning as a regressive municipal tax that consumers pay on their utility bills. It is unacceptable for municipalities to be raking in hundreds of millions in surplus revenue off the backs of Alberta’s ratepayers and cause their utility bills to be unpredictable costs by tying their fees to a variable rate. Calgarians paid $240 in local access fees on average in 2023, compared to the $75 on average in Edmonton, thanks to Calgary’s formula relying on a variable rate. This led to $186 million more in fees being collected by the City of Calgary than expected.
To protect Alberta’s ratepayers, the Government of Alberta is introducing the Utilities Affordability Statutes Amendment Act, 2024. If passed, this legislation would promote long-term affordability and predictability for utility bills by prohibiting the use of variable rates when calculating municipalities’ local access fees. Variable rates are highly volatile, which results in wildly fluctuating electricity bills. When municipalities use this rate to calculate their local access fees, it results in higher bills for Albertans and less certainty in families’ budgets. These proposed changes would standardize how municipal fees are calculated across the province, and align with most municipalities’ current formulas.
If passed, the Utilities Affordability Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 would prevent municipalities from attempting to take advantage of Alberta’s ratepayers in the future. It would amend sections of the Electric Utilities Act and Gas Utilities Act to ensure that the Alberta Utilities Commission has stronger regulatory oversight on how these municipal fees are calculated and applied, ensuring Alberta ratepayer’s best interests are protected.
If passed, this legislation would also amend sections of the Alberta Utilities Commission Act, the Electric Utilities Act, Government Organizations Act and the Regulated Rate Option Stability Act to replace the terms “Regulated Rate Option”, “RRO”, and “Regulated Rate Provider” with “Rate of Last Resort” and “Rate of Last Resort Provider” as applicable. Quick facts
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Alberta
Alberta moves to protect Edmonton park from Trudeau government’s ‘diversity’ plan
From LifeSiteNews
If Trudeau’s National Urban Park Initiative is implemented, Alberta could see its parks, including Edmonton’s River Valley, hijacked by the federal government in the name of ‘sustainability, conservation, equity, diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation.’
Edmonton is working to protect its River Valley from the Trudeau government’s “diversity” park plan.
On April 15, Alberta Legislature passed MLA Brandon Lunty’s private members’ Bill 204 to protect the Edmonton River Valley from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s National Urban Park Initiative which would give the federal government power over provincial parks to enforce a variety of quotas related to the “climate” and “diversity.”
“Albertans elected our United Conservative government with a majority mandate to, among other things, protect families and communities from federal overreach and intrusion. That’s exactly what this bill accomplishes,” Lunty said in a press release.
Bill 204, titled the Municipal Government (National Urban Parks) Amendment Act, is a response to the National Urban Park Initiative which would give the Trudeau government jurisdiction over Alberta’s provincial parks.
The Trudeau government’s plan promises to “provide long-lasting benefits to the urban area” by using “sustainability, conservation, equity, diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation.”
If the program is approved, the Edmonton River Valley could be “fully owned by the Federal Government,” which will use the space to advance their values, including addressing the impacts of “climate change” and creating spaces where “diversity is welcomed.”
The plan also promises that equity will be “intentionally advanced” while “respecting indigenous rights” through “reconciliation.”
However, many Edmonton citizens were concerned with the Urban Park Initiative and met with their MLAs to discuss the issue.
Edmonton citizen Sheila Phimester worked with MLA Jackie Lovely to create a petition to prevent the River Valley from becoming federally owned. The petition has received over 5,000 signatures.
“Instead of Edmontonians making decisions about what happens in the park, Ottawa would be making the decisions,” the petition warned.
“Oh, and because it’s the federal government, their ‘priorities’ for these parks are ‘healthier communities’, ‘climate resilience’, ‘reconciliation’, ‘equity’, ‘diversity’, and ‘inclusion,’” it continued.
Already, Trudeau has attempted to assert power over Alberta’s industry by placing “climate” restrictions on their oil and gas production in an attempt to force net-zero regulations on all Canadian provinces, including on electricity generation, by as early as 2035.
However, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has repeatedly vowed to protect the province from Trudeau’s radical “net zero” push.
In December, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith blasted Trudeau’s Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s plan to slash oil and gas emissions by 35 percent to 38 percent below 2019 levels as “unrealistic” and “unconstitutional.”
Trudeau’s current environmental goals are in lockstep with the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and include phasing out coal-fired power plants, reducing fertilizer usage, and curbing natural gas use over the coming decades.
The reduction and eventual elimination of the use of so-called “fossil fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda – an organization in which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.
In November, after announcing she had “enough” of Trudeau’s extreme environmental rules, Smith said her province had no choice but to assert control over its electricity grid to combat federal overreach by enacting its Sovereignty Act. The Sovereignty Act serves to shield Albertans from future power blackouts due to federal government overreach.
Unlike most provinces in Canada, Alberta’s electricity industry is nearly fully deregulated. However, the government still has the ability to take control of it at a moment’s notice.
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