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Alberta

Red Deer MLA Jason Stephan repeats request for government inquiry into harms of covid restrictions on Alberta’s young people

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This announcement submitted by Red Deer South MLA Jason Stephan

Today I made a member statement in the legislature, reiterating my requests for a public inquiry,  including a full-cost analysis of the harms of COVID restrictions on children and young adults.  I also asked why, on a per capita basis, does AHS not even produce half of the ICU beds as the lowest of the US states?   Trust would increase if AHS was more honest in acknowledging its own failings.

 My statement was as follows:

The truth is non-partisan.

Since last spring I have asked for an independent, comprehensive public inquiry, including a full-cost analysis of the harms of COVID restrictions on children and young adults. 

 Young Albertans are not “overwhelming our health care system”.

 We spend about $23 billion on this system, among the highest per capita in Canada. 

 Why, with this massive amount of money, can AHS only produce ICU beds, on a per capita basis, that is not even half of the worst of the US states?

 Trust would increase if AHS was more honest in acknowledging its own failings.

 Let’s give Alberta families and individuals a voice!  Where there is a famine of truth; contention fills the void.

 Dividing, labelling, compelling, and coercing others destroys trust.  Seeking to misrepresent others or twist their words is wrong.

 Some make sweeping judgements about others who do not agree with their opinions, framing them as extremists, seeking to vilify them.  This is not how things really are.  The truth about our neighbors is more complex, more nuanced, each of them possessing unique contexts and circumstances, all of which can be valued and respected.

 Mercifully a loving God views all of us, His children, by our eternal possibilities and in our best possible ways.

 Conflict is inevitable, contention is a choice.  Choosing to do what is right makes us happier and better.

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Alberta

Temporary Alberta grid limit unlikely to dampen data centre investment, analyst says

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From the Canadian Energy Centre

By Cody Ciona

‘Alberta has never seen this level and volume of load connection requests’

Billions of investment in new data centres is still expected in Alberta despite the province’s electric system operator placing a temporary limit on new large-load grid connections, said Carson Kearl, lead data centre analyst for Enverus Intelligence Research.

Kearl cited NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s estimate from earlier this year that building a one-gigawatt data centre costs between US$60 billion and US$80 billion.

That implies the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO)’s 1.2 gigawatt temporary limit would still allow for up to C$130 billion of investment.

“It’s got the potential to be extremely impactful to the Alberta power sector and economy,” Kearl said.

Importantly, data centre operators can potentially get around the temporary limit by ‘bringing their own power’ rather than drawing electricity from the existing grid.

In Alberta’s deregulated electricity market – the only one in Canada – large energy consumers like data centres can build the power supply they need by entering project agreements directly with electricity producers.

According to the AESO, there are 30 proposed data centre projects across the province.

The total requested power load for these projects is more than 16 gigawatts, roughly four gigawatts more than Alberta’s demand record in January 2024 during a severe cold snap.

For comparison, Edmonton’s load is around 1.4 gigawatts, the AESO said.

“Alberta has never seen this level and volume of load connection requests,” CEO Aaron Engen said in a statement.

“Because connecting all large loads seeking access would impair grid reliability, we established a limit that preserves system integrity while enabling timely data centre development in Alberta.”

As data centre projects come to the province, so do jobs and other economic benefits.

“You have all of the construction staff associated; electricians, engineers, plumbers, and HVAC people for all the cooling tech that are continuously working on a multi-year time horizon. In the construction phase there’s a lot of spend, and that is just generally good for the ecosystem,” said Kearl.

Investment in local power infrastructure also has long-term job implications for maintenance and upgrades, he said.

“Alberta is a really exciting place when it comes to building data centers,” said Beacon AI CEO Josh Schertzer on a recent ARC Energy Ideas podcast.

“It has really great access to natural gas, it does have some excess grid capacity that can be used in the short term, it’s got a great workforce, and it’s very business-friendly.”

The unaltered reproduction of this content is free of charge with attribution to the Canadian Energy Centre.

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Alberta

Alberta Next: Taxation

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A new video from the Alberta Next panel looks at whether Alberta should stop relying on Ottawa to collect our provincial income taxes. Quebec already does it, and Alberta already collects corporate taxes directly. Doing the same for personal income taxes could mean better tax policy, thousands of new jobs, and less federal interference. But it would take time, cost money, and require building new systems from the ground up.

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