Hello Chestermere! I wanted to talk this week about the Federal Minister of the Environment Minister McKenna and the outrageous mistruths that are being perpetuated by our federal government. We need to have a conversation, a real one, about whether or not so called “green” policies would actually add to economic growth.
For starters, “green” policies almost invariably require subsidies-your tax dollars. What happens when we subsidize these industries? Well, the immediate result is that electricity prices go up. The interesting thing is that we talk about large hydro projects all the time as well, while forgetting that large dams require the flooding of forests.
Is this not damaging to the environment? See this piece by Philip Cross of the MacDonald-Laurier Institute in the December 19, 2018 Financial Post: https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/philip-cross-statcan-just-exposed-how-worthless-green-industries-are-to-canadas-economy . Remember that all these costs are passed on to you. I do not want to pretend that building infrastructure is not important, it is, and as tax payers the bill is ours to pay. However, we should be asking why we are doing these projects, pretending to be environmental, when in reality that is is the farthest thing from the truth.
The one main problem always comes down to the fact that we live in a country that requires us to use energy to live in this cold and often hostile environment. Just think back to this last Saturday and the big spring storm we encountered. We were without power for only 2 hours, and it got cold in our house fast! I am very grateful that we have natural gas fireplaces. Natural gas is cheap and in great supply. We are so fortunate to have this resource, and I can tell you that even though I have 40 solar panels on my house, I was very grateful this winter to have natural gas to keep me warm on those days when my solar was not producing any power. The term “renewable destruction” has been coined to describe the job losses and damage to our economy created by misguided “green” subsidies.
Capital investment in our oil and gas industry since 2014 has gone down by 50%, that is $41 billion in lost job-creating private sector dollars. How do we remain competitive? Canada’s imports for our energy needs have risen in the last 5 years and those imports come from Saudi Arabia. We have seen an increase of 66% since 2014. It accounts for about 10% of our consumption.
Please checkout this February 28 CBC story: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/saudi-oil-imports-rise-canada-diplomacy-1.5096887 which explains the numbers I have described. I would think that the government of Canada–the feminist Prime Minister, would care about the gross human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, and be obsessed with building our own pipelines that would transport our incredible resources to our own refineries, creating jobs in Canada, and standing up for global human rights, especially those of women. Isn’t bill C-69 supposed to take gender into consideration?
Well how does the Prime Minister justify bringing in oil from countries with severe human rights violations? It is time to stand proud Alberta! It is time to let our domestic producers compete. The cancelled Energy East pipeline is a necessary build for our prosperity, but maybe the electric car will come to our rescue sooner than expected.
I would love to know what type of energy will fuel those, as I guess wind and solar will be enough. That is what Tim Gray from Environmental Defense thinks. I wonder who funds his activism? I personally would suggest that this pipeline is necessary to our way of life. Lets connect our incredible resources to Eastern Canada, that benefits all of us. Lets work to build our nation, not tear it apart.
Lets embrace our incredible industry and lets be open for business. We will stand up for our resources. We will not apologize any more. As always we love to hear from you.
