Alberta
MLA says Trudeau’s “Emergency” underlines the need for a full public inquiry into government handling of covid crisis
This article and video submitted by Red Deer South MLA Jason Stephan
As of Tuesday restrictions are substantially all gone from Alberta. Good. This is more how it should have been all along. We have seen too much top-down, command and control approach by all levels of government. I have and will continue to ask for an independent, comprehensive public inquiry. The better way is for Governments to trust adults to govern themselves and their families in respectful ways. Trudeau’s use of the Emergency Act looks increasingly ridiculous, even dangerous.
Last week the Alberta Government brought forward a motion on the Emergency Act. I stood in the legislature and the following are excerpts of my statement: (video and then written statement)
“Mr. Speaker, about a month ago I attended the Trucker Convoy Rally at Gasoline Alley. It was packed with friends. It was not an angry gathering; it was a positive atmosphere filled with hope. Why? Because men and women and families, had felt voiceless, disenfranchised by Federal and Provincial governments. But now they had a voice in a trucker convoy. That was a cause to celebrate; they did not feel listened to, they felt ignored.
I understand that feeling. I have felt it myself. We have seen a top-down, command and control approach that treated adults as children, not respecting and trusting them to govern themselves and their families in respectful ways.
Mr. Speaker what I have witnessed, offends my core values as a public servant. Mr. Speaker, many Albertans feel the same. In the end the truth will prevail, and history will show, that governments made gross errors, that across-the-board vaccine passports and mandates caused more harm than good, especially to young adults and children. Public health authorities undermined their own authority with biased reporting and using fear and coercion as a tool.
Mr. Speaker I have spoken on this before, and I will be bringing forward a motion in this legislature for there to be a comprehensive, public inquiry into COVID, including a full cost analysis of COVID restrictions, mandates and passports, especially on young adults and children. The truth must prevail. Mr. Speaker, in respect of the trucker convoy, we know what the Prime Minister did, that he went into hiding, and sought to cancel and delegitimize the protestors calling them a fringe minority, labelling them as misogynists and racists.
Now Mr. Speaker, there were a few protestors who did blockade public roads. I do not condone that. I do not believe, like some politicians in this legislature, that the ends justify the means. Even in a cause that is just, it is not right to blockade. It undermines the moral high ground of a just cause. I sorrow that it occurs. The Prime Minister enacted the Emergency Act. While he quickly revoked it, why did he do it in the first place? This was not an emergency. Yes, there were a few breaking the law, and in those isolated cases, the police should have been enforcing the laws.
This is a very serious matter. The Emergency Act must never be used as a political tool, attacking an entire movement of Canadians, including many Albertans, who felt disenfranchised, whose crime was disagreeing with government.
It labelled an entire movement which disagrees with government, as a public danger, an emergency, a voice that must be stomped out and silenced. Mr. Speaker, this is a very bad precedent. What will the government do when there is a real emergency? Will citizens need to look over their shoulders if they support causes that an insecure, unprincipled government feels threatens their power and position? Government is supposed to protect freedoms and support prosperity for its people. In many cases, they have done the opposite. There is cause for concern, turbulence is on the horizon, in some respects it is already upon us. There is an urgency to prepare.”
The truth produces hope. There is healing in the truth. The truth makes us better. In the end, the truth prevails.
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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