Are governments truly so clueless as to how modern businesses operate? How slim and fragile the margins are for producers, small and medium size businesses and the like are? Can anyone be this completely clueless? Is it simply malicious? Is it corruption and cronyism? Who benefits and who loses? You be the judge.
Wildrose MLA Nathan Cooper tried to have natural gas used in commercial greenhouses exempted from the NDP’s carbon tax.
This was a smart amendment. We know that purple fuel used by farmers will be exempt from the carbon tax but what about greenhouse producers who use natural gas to heat their greenhouses earlier in the season or late into the fall? This is Alberta. We have a short growing season and the best way for greenhouse producers to offset that unfortunate fact is the use of clean burning natural gas. Cooper’s amendment sought to level the playing field between different types of agricultural producers in Alberta.
The NDP shot Cooper’s amendment down like every other common sense measure that was brought forward to get in between these NDP destroyers and our money.
NDP MLA Thomas Dang offered the latest NDP excuse. He said natural gas is currently cheap so it’s ok to hike this huge operating expense for Alberta greenhouses.
What a remarkably stupid statement. Just because natural gas is cheap today doesn’t mean that it will always remain low nor does it mean that it’s a good idea to raise the cost of it by 50 to 75%. Alberta greenhouse operators carve out a living in a short growing season, dealing with an unforgiving Alberta climate, competing against cheap Mexican labour, longer California growing seasons and lower BC mainland producers who don’t need to use natural gas at all. This added tax will make Alberta greenhouse growers unable to keep their costs and prices low. Alberta food will have a tariff on it that food grown other places will not have.
Greenhouse operators are farmers, too. They’re a different kind of farmer but farmers none the less. They produce that locally grown, sustainable food the NDP says they like to support yet the carbon tax is a direct attack on them.
In actuality, Bill 20, the carbon tax manages to create the same two tiered results in the farming community that Bill 6 did. Some farmers are exempt from some parts of the legislation while others will not be. Bill 20 punishes all farmers, but some more than others.
It’s true, some animals are more equal.
Damn Francis, don’t use so many abreviations that we don’t know! NDP, MLA et all.. Explain who you’re talking about or should we guess? Who is Wildrose? We are in Florida and not too well acquainted with Alberta.. Clue us in..we’re interested.
MA
MA,
The NDP is the current ruling/majority government in Alberta (New Democratic Party) They are hard core socialists – borderline communists. An MLA (Member of the Legislative Assmebly) is a provincial elected rep. In Alberta – Wildrose – is another provincial political party traditionally seen as pro free enterprise and conservative. They were ousted in the last election because of corruption and arrogance (hubris is a bitch ain’t it?) and unfortunately the unthinkable happened and Alberta, Canada’s bastion of conservatism and free enterprise, ended up with a far left government. It is unlikely it will happen again but then no one thought it could happen this time either.
Well at least Canadians don’t need as much food as our fatties. And they can hedonically adjust their diets, and eat grass or tar sand.
FM,
Sad that all the idiots and evil doers end up in your gov.
@Francis: Thank you sir and it becomes much clearer now.. I really like Canada – homesteaded in N. Idaho back in the early 70’s and bought all my cedar to finish the inside of the home from a Canadian saw mill – drove up, bought the lumber (had to load it myself) and hauled it back. Just that easy – no crap at the border, nothing but good.
I hope you can keep Canada swept clear of the crap that is engulfing our used to be America from the bottom up.. So to speak..
MA
Assuming this is the same as Bill 20:
Officially called the Climate Leadership Implementation Act, the legislation introduces a levy on all fossil fuels sold in the province, including natural gas, diesel, gasoline and propane.
Starting Jan. 1, the levy will be applied to fuels at a rate of $20 a tonne, jumping to $30 a tonne in 2018.
At the pump, that means you’ll pay 4.49 cent per litre more for gas next year and 6.73 cents more in 2018.
An estimated $6 billion raised by the levy will go into a fund to bankroll investments in technology and innovation in the renewable energy sector.
More taxes for politicians to squander and if you believe the $6 Billion, well you just don’t know politicians.
Francis – Don’t forget about the fact that airline companies also don’t pay the carbon tax unless the flight originates and terminates in Alberta. Everybody else gets away with it – even if they routinely refuel in Calgary or Edmonton. Sheesh what a bunch of idiots!!
But then again – I’m still waiting to hear from my government as to how exactly are they are going to lower the temperature of the earth, with this new found tax money??
Who gets to decide the earths temperature, because I would like to lobby for a couple more degrees in the northeast
At some point the folks in power will do a full clamp down on growing your own food .They will try to control the rights to all water on your property whether it’s in a pond,a creek or run-off from rain water. Cisterns and rain barrels will be outlawed . When this happens I hope the silent types come out…to dispatch the enforcers.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn lamented in the Gulag Archipelago that he wished they had done something to the secret policemen even though all they had were pitch forks and rocks at their disposal . How if the policemen had wondered, as he left his home, whether or not he’d return,perhaps it would have made him re-think his work ? This may be the choice we have to make one day ?
Even more frightening is the precedent set by the court case against David and Collett Stephan.
A complete witch hunt against the parents for not running to the doctor, and instead treating their child at home. We may have free healthcare, but there isn’t any quality to it. You get what you pay for.
And then there’s the government paid for CBC’s
version
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/david-ezekiel-stephan-meningitis-dear-jury-sentencing-1.3558768