They warned me there’d be days like these… Ponoka RCMP deal with a “crazy” day

From Ponoka RCMP

Busy Close to the Weekend for the Ponoka RCMP

Ponoka RCMP dealt with a variety of calls for service which included 4 adults (3 Females and 1 male) who are now facing numerous criminal charges in relation to separate incidents that occurred on Sunday, September 23^rd, 2018.

It began Sunday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. when members of the Ponoka RCMP started receiving complaints from the public that a railway maintenance truck was stolen as it was being fueled up. The truck ripped the gas hose from the pump and sped away almost hitting two vehicles.

At 4:04 p.m. that same evening, a 911 call was received from a rural resident who was reporting that a female had shown up on his property with a railway maintenance truck and that the truck is now stuck. When the property owner approached the female he noticed that a gas station pump hose was hanging from the vehicle. The female got out of the truck and attempted to stab the property owner with a screwdriver but was unsuccessful and she fled the property on foot. As the RCMP members were arriving on scene, they observed the female leaving in a truck that she had stolen from the neighboring property. Assistance was requested from the Maskwacis RCMP, the Ponoka Integrated Traffic Unit, the Wetaskiwin RCMP, and the Wetaskiwin Integrated Traffic Unit and a police pursuit was started. A short time later, the female lost control of the truck and fled from the vehicle on foot. Wetaskiwin Police Dog Services attended the area and was able to successfully locate the female trying to hide up a tree.

The 30-year-old female (of no fixed address) had a bail hearing where she was ordered to remain in custody until her first court appearance in Ponoka Provincial Court on September 28^th, 2018, at 9:30 a.m. She has been charged with:

Fail to Comply with Probation.
Dangerous Operation of a motor vehicle.
2 counts of Theft of a Truck.
Assault with a Weapon.
Mischief Under $5000.
Impaired Operation (by a drug) of a Motor Vehicle.
Fail to Comply with a Physical Coordination Demand
Flight from Police
Driving While Disqualified.

Shortly after midnight, the Ponoka RCMP responded to a call of a disturbance at a residence where a male was assaulting the occupants. When police arrived, the 40-year-old male attempted to fight with police and was arrested with the use of a conducted energy weapon (Taser). Investigation by police revealed that a 38-year-old female in the residence had also assaulted an occupant and this lead to her arrest as well. The female was later released on a Promise to Appear in Ponoka Provincial Court on November 9^th, 2018, at 9:30 a.m.

After a Bail Hearing, the 38-year-old male was ordered to remain in custody until his first appearance in Ponoka court on September 28^th, 2018, at 9:30 a.m. He has been charged with:

Assault.
Uttering Threats.
Assaulting a Police Office.

Approximately one hour after this event, the Ponoka RCMP were dispatched to a white Honda Accord that was reported to be travelling southbound through Ponoka and was swerving all over the road, driving on the curbs, not stopping for stop signs, and driving with no lights on. While police were on their way to this they received another call saying that the vehicle had stopped and the female driver opened the door and fell to the ground. Ponoka RCMP members arrived on scene and picked her up. The 36-year-old female from Airdrie, Alberta, was released on a Promise to Appear in Ponoka court on November 9^th, 2018, at 9:30 a.m. She is charged with:

Impaired Operation (by alcohol) of a Motor Vehicle.
Refuse to Provide a Breath Sample.

Although there are days like these, the Ponoka Detachment advises that data shows that the RCMP Crime Reduction Strategy is working. From January to July of this year, property crimes in all RCMP detachments is down nine percent compared to the same period last year. In rural detachments, it is down 11 percent. That means, as of July this year, 648 fewer cars have been stolen and 366 fewer homes have been broken into.

Duane Rolheiser

After 15 years as a TV reporter with Global and CBC and as news director of RDTV in Red Deer, Duane set out on his own 2008 as a visual storyteller. During this period, he became fascinated with a burgeoning online world and how it could better serve local communities. This fascination led to Todayville, launched in 2016.

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Alberta

Alberta government should eliminate corporate welfare to generate benefits for Albertans

Published on May 2, 2024

Todayville

From the Fraser Institute

By Spencer Gudewill and Tegan Hill

Last November, Premier Danielle Smith announced that her government will give up to $1.8 billion in subsidies to Dow Chemicals, which plans to expand a petrochemical project northeast of Edmonton. In other words, $1.8 billion in corporate welfare.

And this is just one example of corporate welfare paid for by Albertans.

According to a recent study published by the Fraser Institute, from 2007 to 2021, the latest year of available data, the Alberta government spent $31.0 billion (inflation-adjusted) on subsidies (a.k.a. corporate welfare) to select firms and businesses, purportedly to help Albertans. And this number excludes other forms of government handouts such as loan guarantees, direct investment and regulatory or tax privileges for particular firms and industries. So the total cost of corporate welfare in Alberta is likely much higher.

Why should Albertans care?

First off, there’s little evidence that corporate welfare generates widespread economic growth or jobs. In fact, evidence suggests the contrary—that subsidies result in a net loss to the economy by shifting resources to less productive sectors or locations (what economists call the “substitution effect”) and/or by keeping businesses alive that are otherwise economically unviable (i.e. “zombie companies”). This misallocation of resources leads to a less efficient, less productive and less prosperous Alberta.
And there are other costs to corporate welfare.

For example, between 2007 and 2019 (the latest year of pre-COVID data), every year on average the Alberta government spent 35 cents (out of every dollar of business income tax revenue it collected) on corporate welfare. Given that workers bear the burden of more than half of any business income tax indirectly through lower wages, if the government reduced business income taxes rather than spend money on corporate welfare, workers could benefit.

Moreover, Premier Smith failed in last month’s provincial budget to provide promised personal income tax relief and create a lower tax bracket for incomes below $60,000 to provide $760 in annual savings for Albertans (on average). But in 2019, after adjusting for inflation, the Alberta government spent $2.4 billion on corporate welfare—equivalent to $1,034 per tax filer. Clearly, instead of subsidizing select businesses, the Smith government could have kept its promise to lower personal income taxes.

Finally, there’s the Heritage Fund, which the Alberta government created almost 50 years ago to save a share of the province’s resource wealth for the future.

In her 2024 budget, Premier Smith earmarked $2.0 billion for the Heritage Fund this fiscal year—almost the exact amount spent on corporate welfare each year (on average) between 2007 and 2019. Put another way, the Alberta government could save twice as much in the Heritage Fund in 2024/25 if it ended corporate welfare, which would help Premier Smith keep her promise to build up the Heritage Fund to between $250 billion and $400 billion by 2050.

By eliminating corporate welfare, the Smith government can create fiscal room to reduce personal and business income taxes, or save more in the Heritage Fund. Any of these options will benefit Albertans far more than wasteful billion-dollar subsidies to favoured firms.

Authors:

Spencer Gudewill

Policy Analyst, Fraser Institute

and

Tegan Hill

Associate Director, Alberta Policy, Fraser Institute

Alberta

Official statement from Premier Danielle Smith and Energy Minister Brian Jean on the start-up of the Trans Mountain Pipeline

Published on May 1, 2024

Government of Alberta

Alberta is celebrating an important achievement for the energy industry – the start-up of the twinned Trans Mountain pipeline. It’s great news Albertans and Canadians as this will welcome a new era of prosperity and economic growth. The completion of TMX is monumental for Alberta, since this will significantly increase our province’s output. It will triple the capacity of the original pipeline to now carry 890,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia’s Pacific Coast.

We are excited that Canada’s biggest and newest oil pipeline in more than a decade, can now bring oil from Edmonton to tide water in B.C. This will allow us to get our energy resources to Pacific markets, including Washington State and California, and Asian markets like Japan, South Korea, China, and India. Alberta now has new energy customers and tankers with Alberta oil will be unloading in China and India in the next few months.

For Alberta this is a game-changer, the world needs more reliably and sustainably sourced Alberta energy, not less. World demand for oil and gas resources will continue in the decades ahead and the new pipeline expansion will give us the opportunity to meet global energy demands and increase North American and global energy security and help remove the issues of energy poverty in other parts of the world.

Analysts are predicting the price differential on Canadian crude oil will narrow resulting in many millions of extra government revenues, which will help fund important programs like health, education, and social services – the things Albertans rely on. TMX will also result in billions of dollars of economic prosperity for Albertans, Indigenous communities and Canadians and create well-paying jobs throughout Canada.

Our province wants to congratulate the Trans Mountain Corporation for its tenacity to have completed this long awaited and much needed energy infrastructure, and to thank the more than 30,000 dedicated, skilled workers whose efforts made this extraordinary project a reality. The province also wants to thank the Federal Government for seeing this project through. This is a great example of an area where the provincial and federal government can cooperate and work together for the benefit of Albertans and all Canadians.