Perpetuating Lies under Stelmach!

Mike Cardinal did a large scale land sale on the east slope of the Rocky Mountains. This is where Alberta’s underground drinking water originates. The Agri-Food industry bought up most of his offer. There as been no clear answer from the Conservative Government as to who owns the water rights after these transactions.

Remember, first in line; first in time is the foundation of who owns the actual water.
Also remember Ralph’s TV rant “I will fix things so you guy’s will never be able to change them!”

There is coverage of Calgary’s outstanding thrift in water conservation. What is not said is the City of Calgary only has surface water rights which are tied to the Bow and Elbow rivers. They hold no water allotment for underground or aquifer water. Most this is held by Coca Cola or a subsidiary of Coke the Dasani Water Company and the Calgary Malting Company. Combined, they have more water allotment than does the City of Calgary.

The Calgary surface water is dependent on glacial melt and, the Glaciers are receding fast. Many creditable estimates put the actual use of these rivers for drinking water at 10 years maximum! As the glaciers recede, the run off patters change. The rivers become un-potable or unsafe As they silt there is a build up of pathogens. The water in the river becomes stagnant long before it becomes a dry bed.

Water's economic value assessed

As I have said before, Calgary will be buying its water from Dasani before too long passes. I would be very surprised if they are not already buying some water from them.

Remember the plan to move 2/3 of the water from the Peace River south to southern Alberta? It is still alive and setting a price on the water will be the go button to get it started.

Consider too, the farmer in Peace River who was told he did not own the water in his dug out and he would have to meter the use and pay for it? This came out at the Conservative election meeting in Banff.

Under this long standing plan, water wells will be metered and/or the draw from those private wells will be otherwise estimated and the property owners will be charged for the water.

Not to pass unnoticed is the squeal of the oil companies. Charging them for water on their start up under the present royalty scheme will mean only the oil companies add it to their expenses thus adding it to the tier before the 1% royalty is paid.

I can clearly see the Conservatives not charging the oil companies for water and upping the royalties to cover the water while singing their own praises that they, the Government are in control and, not the oil companies.

This is a very meaning full article which is put forward as a current bright idea not the result and introduction to plans that have been in place since the early 80s!

Do you really want these Conservatives in charge?

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

An election agenda put out over the holidays.

The Government in power has the advantage in an election if they can set the agenda for that election. The opposition parties will try very hard to wrestle the agenda away from the Government party.

You will notice that Mr. Harper who is in trouble on a number of fronts is beating the drums trying to set the agenda on the Canadian presence in Afghanistan.

He feels he can push all his problems to the back burner at election time, far behind our action in Afghanistan. He obviously sees this as his best bet in getting elected again. As his second or backup plan for the agenda his has chosen the tired and weary elected senate debates.

It seems that Jack Layton wants to jump in to Afghanistan which is just dumb in my view. It will be curious to see what the opposition parties settle on for their best case.

You can charge off any political comment over the next months as being election posturing; of little real substance to you and I.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Christmas Carols for the Distressed and the Disburbed. Happy Holidays All.

1. Schizophrenia --- Do You Hear What I Hear?

2. Multiple Personality Disorder --- We Three Kings Disoriented Are

3. Dementia --- I Think I'll be Home for Christmas

4. Narcissistic --- Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me

5. Manic --- Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and.....

6. Paranoid --- Santa Claus is Coming to Town to Get Me

7. Borderline Personality Disorder --- Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire

8. Personality Disorder --- You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell You Why

9. Attention Deficit Disorder --- Silent night, Holy oooh look at the Froggy - can I have a chocolate, why is France so far away?

10. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder --- Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

No Health Help from Harper

December 14, 2006

Conservatives Remain Silent on Wait Time Guarantee

OTTAWA – The minority Conservative Government has shown no leadership on the issue of a national wait times guarantee, and no intention to work with the provinces and territories to help reduce wait times in Canada, Liberal Health Critic Ruby Dhalla said today.

"Downloading responsibility to the provinces and territories to achieve a wait times guarantee without additional funding or resources will not fix the issue,” said Ms. Dhalla.

“It is a sign that the Conservatives care little about preserving public health care."

In the last federal election, Stephen Harper promised to meet the benchmarks, established by the provinces and territories under the 10-year Plan to Strengthen Health Care, by December 2006 – he now has only 17 days to fulfill this promise.

In addition, Harper’s government has indicated that the $41.3 billion invested by the previous Liberal Government will now have to factor in the costs of implementing his wait times guarantee.

As part of the 10-year Plan, negotiated under the previous Liberal government, provinces and territories established wait time benchmarks for five priority areas: cancer treatment, cardiac care, sight restoration, joint replacements and diagnostic imaging.

Ms. Dhalla also urged Mr. Harper’s government to act on the recommendations to reduce wait times put forward by Dr. Brian Postl, the federal wait times advisor. Health Minister Tony Clement received Dr. Postl’s report in June 2006, but has not acted or followed up.

"Minister Clement needs to step up to the plate, show some leadership, put health care back on the list of priorities, and get down to work. Canadians deserve to see some real action from this government,” said Ms. Dhalla.

Says John Clark: Harper has been told by Alberta Conservatives to "Back Off!"

The Third Way is alive and well!

The Third Way is alive and well! The Conservatives are continuing with the original plan unchanged. Remember, the Health Act was changed to accommodate it and, it was never changed back.

Services will continue to be derogated; targeted disciplines will have hours cut; their patients told to look elsewhere. Patients on the other hand will be met with a wall of “I don’t know; it’s really bad!”

As the patients line up, a new market will open for private health care to fix. Those nurses will be offered positions working for a private firm, probably in the same building.

And, there goes your public, universal health care.

Arguably Dentistry is the shining example of private health care. Take a look at it; it is often compared to Britain who has public health care and very down scale dentistry aesthetics. The argument is private is better by this comparison. If you have not bought the personal dentistry insurance you don’t get any work done unless you pay out cash.

Because most dentistry funding comes from private health insurance companies you will note that the health insurance companies only pay a fraction of the repairs, this fraction becoming smaller as days go by. Many items are down below 50% unless you are on the executive plan.

You may also take note that companies are not rushing out to pay the extra premiums demanded to give you a 90% coverage without limitations.

Accidents are a large part of dentistry expense. The Conservatives are again protecting the insurance companies, their private partners, by putting limits on personal damages. An auto accident could easily cause more than 4000 dollars in dental damage alone!

Your health care is changing now!

If you know of specific instances please contact me. Perhaps I can offer you another way? Perhaps together we can slow this thing down until we get a decent government elected.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Health Care de listing program at work.

The Conservatives are screwing with the health care again! Remember they destabilize the system through budget and offer a cure through privatization.

In this case a Dietician working in an Edmonton hospital was rated as a .8. That means she is employed at that hospital 8/10s of a day.

With no explanation she was cut to a .4 or 4/10s of her time is paid. Patients now are forced to see a new doctor (if they can find one) and get a new referral to a new dietician if one happens to be available.

Usually the Conservatives have this planned so that the well is empty at the referral leaving you only the choice of paying for your own services at a private clinic.

Calgary health system did a large work up on programs to be de-listed from Alberta Health care. This is one example.

This is the delisting of health care program in action.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Massive intrusion into Canada by the US!

My friends, Canada urgently needs a Canadian Department of Energy, centered in Ottawa, to protect us from the possibility of the American Department of Energy becoming the determinant of Canadian electric energy policy.

As an result of the power failure that started on August 14, 2003 (by failure of "FIRST ENERGY", an Electric Utility Holding Company in Ohio, to trim trees along one of its right of ways), a group of electric utilities of the USA formed a "club", calling itself the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC for short). This club has persuaded all of the electric utilities of North America to join it.

Early in 2004 this NERC issued its first report:
(1) They expected that North America would need about 70 thousand megawatts of new generation by 2013
(2) They expected that North America probably would have 68.2 thousand megawatts of new generation by 2013.

Early in 2005 the US Department of Energy decided that the USA needed an Electric Reliability Organization, established the framework for this organization, and invited organizations to present proposals to become this ERO. Apparently the NERC applied to become this ERO, and was accepted so now the former NERC has become the ERO of the US Department of Energy and the US Department of Energy has powers, through the ERO, to apply heavy financial sanctions to any electric utility in North America that fails to deliver the energy needed.

I object to the US Department of Energy being able to apply economic sanctions to Canadian utilities without a formal debate having taken place in Canada's Parliament that has authorized the Canadian utilities to become entangled in American politics. The consequences of this entanglement could be the total loss of Canada's independence from the USA in all of our affairs.

To continue:

Late in 2005 this new ERO issued a revised estimate of available generation in North America. A comparison with the previous estimate follows:
Expected need in 2013 Expected available in 2013 Expected need in 2016 Expected available in 2016
thousands of meg. watt thousands of meg. watt thousands of meg. watt thousands of meg. watt
Estimates of 2004 70.0 68.2
Estimates of 2005 141.0 59

You will notice that the ERO expects more than twice as much power to be needed by 2016 than they had expected to be needed just a year earlier yet they had reduced the expected availability of power approximately 15% from their previous estimate. In simpler terms: they were being optimistic in their estimates of probably available power and being optimistic in the need for more power when they issued their estimates in 2004. Probably they were being optimistic in respect of Canada's export of electric energy as well.

I suspect that relatively few Canadians really understand the issues involved.

The Provinces of Quebec and British Columbia smelt huge amounts of aluminum. Each kilogram of aluminum represents about 15 kilowatt-hours of electrical energy.

In 1967 fully half of the aluminum which crossed an international border was ALCAN metal. (Not, by any means, is all of ALCAN's metal produced in Canada, however!)

Canadian British Aluminum also has a smelter in Quebec and I understand that there has been a huge smelter constructed near Quebec City. I succint terms, Canada's ability to smelt aluminum was huge and has grown substantially since 1967.

If the Government of Canada will not protect the livelihoods of Canadian smelter workers, who will? Don't expect the Americans to shed tears when Canadian workers become unemployed.

"Well", you say, "How does it follow that exporting electrical energy to the USA is so bad?"

When Canada declared war on Germany in 1939, Ontario Hydro wanted to curtail export of electric energy to the USA so that it could be diverted to refining aluminum which was desperately needed for airframes of fighters and bombers. American utilities protested to the International Joint Commission which ruled that Ontario Hydro could not curtail the export of electric energy to the USA. Refer to "CANADA: Peacemaker or Powder Monkey" by James M. Minniffee for these details.

The precedent has been established: once you sign on the dotted line you are committed for eternity and it does not matter if you are at war....

The next paper will provide estimates of cost to provide the 141 thousand megawatts of new generation by 2016....

Allan Dane, M.Sc.(EE)
adane@telusplanet.net

Oil Sands off shoring under attack. Oil Hardly a new thing!

Oil sands off shoring under attack. Hardly a new thing!

Consider on top of this Encana shipping Alberta Crude to Chicago for refining. What is required is a Government who will turn the oil industry around to a point it is working for Albertans and Canadians! The Conservatives are not up to the task.

How it works:
The oil company partners up with the transportation company and may even start a new transportation company to adequately cover transactions and avoid huge amounts of taxes plus, buying the goods at rock bottom dollars out of a slave market.

Case in point the transportation company will buy a new boat and all new barges from a place like Korea who may or may not build the units. Then, they buy their component parts, oil rigs, pipe and cable from the same area.

The new parts and pipe which would have been built in Canada are then sailed across the ocean, around the North Slope into the Mackenzie Delta. Probably Tuktoyaktuk Harbor.

Gone are the boat building industries, the transporation industries, the development of our trade skills and the subsequent revenue and taxes.

In another age, a company called Yellowknife Transportation Company Ltd (YTCL) sailed the Arctic looking after Dew and Cam sites. NTCL was operating the Athabasca run with a fleet of house barges. The managers of YT company were busted when they moved a huge bunch of stolen US property off the early warning lines around the slope into Vancouver where the boats were seized by Canadian authorities.

At this point, YTCL was taken over by NTCL then, a crown corporation.

How times have changed. This was worthy of an ENRON movie!

I expect Harper will sleep through this one, its every thing he hopes for in his Globalization program. When he’s out of tax money he will be after you and I.

And, yes Frank, I'm on your case.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Is the proposed re supply viabile?

This front page item shows one part, one idea ofa successful transportation system. There is a greater dark side. I was the man who planned and executed the evacuation of barges and tugs from the Athabasca System into the MacKenzie system when the Athabasca was last shut down

All that portage could handle was a 400 series barge (400 metric tonne loaded to four foot of draft) The water levels would not allow a loaded barge to go through, all had to be lightered, scraped through and reloaded on the other side. Double and triple handling.

This was the biggest barge, the heaviest load that could be undertaken and only with transfer and handling. Most were in the range of 90 or 100 tons cargo. Very small!

Of interest the oil companies rejected the rail system in Canada out of hand as being undependable in every regard. They opted for Korean supply into the Prudhoe Bay area. They sited some of the reasons as being the incredible expense in shipping rail. Not only the cost of transportation and the uncertainty of arrival but the additional cost of fabrication and installation of the rigs as all the pieces had to be made to fit a rail car rather than being made in 40 meter square pieces that could simply be craned together at one-quarter the expense.

The barges used in the Dome Tarsuit rig construction in the arctic were 1500 and 1800 series barges. Those tonnages being taken at 7 foot of draft which often was not available on the river and was too deep to navigate Prudhoe Bay. Typical drafts would be 5 foot.

Of interest we could not get these large barges within 6 miles of the shore line and were often grounded due to shifting channels. And, the US has the Jones law in place designed to stop foreign vessels from going up to New Orleans and discharging directly. (They had to and still have to high us vessels and crews to do this.) This same Jones law prevented a landing at the US Alaska coast.

So, I have to ask. Is this a real possibility or sensationalism used as a threat to intimidate southern routes and trades?

With this information can you imagin what the "Canadian" arctic would be like under the rule of the US Jones law?

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Election time: First off the mark!

December 4, 2006
For immediate release

Media Advisory:
Linda Duncan to take second run at Jaffer

EDMONTON – Environmental law consultant Linda Duncan will announce Thursday her intention to represent the NDP in the next federal election in Edmonton Strathcona.

In the last election, Duncan came closer to beating Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer than any candidate has since Jaffer was first elected.

Date: Thursday December 7th
Time: Noon
Place: 3rd floor
Strathcona Branch, Edmonton Public Library
8331 – 104 Street

The ongoing elections.

The ongoing Elections.

The political climate across North America is changing. South America has rejected out of hand the extreme approach to “Globalization” and “equal and open free trade”. In Alberta the population is struggling to find a centre.

Center under Mr. Stelmach will be far too extreme for most but, he still must be accountable to the extreme right wing of the conservative party now heading for the Alliance party. We can hope this will severely split the right vote for the next election.

Every political party will have to face and respond to this issue of Globalization. Regardless of what they want, they will not be able to simply ignore it. Most parties can find much to talk about in the political theatre thus dodging the tough issues and their direction on them.

We, on the other hand, will have the choice of picking which level of privatization we want. We will not have the choice of none. For my part, essential services such as electrical power, water transport and treatment, highways and bridges should remain under the ownership of Government. Curious how Government can legislate the Nurses as essential services and give away the power generation and transmission in this province.

Things like our Workers’ Compensation, Health care, Water treatment and Canada Pension plans, public parks are seen as artificial subsidy by US and other foreign industries who lobby to turn it all over to them. Stumpage fees and the softwood dispute is part of this war.

Harper and the Fraser Institute can be counted on to go the extreme, hard and fast. Recent changes in the CPP should be a wake up call. China is beating the US in most trade deals. I suggest this is why Harper found it necessary to blunder into China politics.

Mr. Stephen Deon, the new Liberal leader is a fresh face and an excellent track record. He has tap danced his way around Globalization issues by saying “We will do what is necessary to keep us in the world market” or, words to that effect. Mr. Paul Martin his predecessor was all for a private public health care system on it’s way to becoming totally private after an “adjustment” period. No mention of keeping universality.

Understand that Health care as we know it now is sustainable. And, many of the alarmist’s stories are being debunked.

Our Health Care system has suffered a series of manipulations designed to stress it to the point of break. Universality is the word to look for in the debate. With DNA testing now fast, cheap and easy it will follow that people with any number of hereditary ailments and immune problems will fall out of coverage unless universality is guarded. Insurance will not be available, private or public. Alberta; the Calgary Health Centre has completed it’s list of what is to be cut, moving forward with it as I pen this note.

It will be interesting to hear from Mr. Stelmach.

All of this in order to Sheppard in totally private systems, conservative style. It is now necessary for people to see lawyers after they talk to Doctors. It is no longer safe for you to deal with insurance companies yourself despite the friendly face they put forward.

The Governments are trying to bring in legislation so the they will not be responsible for failures caused.

At the base of free trade and globalization is rule by industry. The insurance companies want to take over our health insurance, Canada Pension Plan and any other social net that may exist in variance across provinces.

The Agri Food industries want to take over our crops, and our water. The Conservatives pretty much gave all the control of our water to this group already. And, on water; the dwindling resource is a huge market opportunity. Very little of the ground water rights or allotments are owned by municipalities. Under the conservative scheme they are all sold off or given away to the private sector.

Very recently the town of Devon in Alberta gave up much of its water allotment, a fact kept from the citizens of that town. There is no mention of what they got for return or, who got the allotment. My guess would be EPCOR, a private company.

With 10 years left of some glaciers our water and water quality will deteriorate rapidly so the transport of water in pipelines becomes the next great opportunity.

We will face Federal and Provincial elections very soon and, its up to use to get the correct questions to the forum.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

The choices are becoming less and less

Ignatieff's cure for energy conservation is typically Liberal. TAX IT! In his Liberal view taxing everything is a way to cure bad habits like driving. Crap! where do they get these guys?

The sales for SUV's are off the map again! Ten cents a liter was enough to turn off the economy cars.

cyberclark@shaw.ca

Propane in the news too much!

Propane is the most used and possibly least understood heating source for colder climates. Your propane cylinder contains liquid. That liquid expands 270 times to become a gas. The lower flammability limit for this gas is a 2% mixture air/propane.

That means 1 liter of propane will form an explosive gas cloud 270 cubic meters large! One has to wonder why it is kept in basements.

The stench, or Methyl Mercaptan smell you know as propane can be washed out with water. If propane is spilled on snow, the stench will stay at the point of entry to the snow while the propane will run down hill under the snow and create a problem in another area. Example a leaking propane tank on a barbeque on your back deck leaks into the snow. The snow takes out the Mercaptan and the gas being heavier than air sinks into the soil and through your foundation into your basement with no alarm of smell. Link

Of equal importance to people using propane heat in a confined space: When propane burns it gives off water vapor and carbon dioxide.

The water vapor given off by burning propane will make the confined area wet as in wet bedding and clothes. Because of this it is nearly impossible to stay warm. Exhausting (a chimney) the heater will fix this!

The carbon dioxide will kill you by shutting down your breathing. You will feel no discomfort or become alarmed with "oxygen deprivation" symptoms. In fact, you will be entirely comfortable as you pass on. Your body does not sense oxygen, but it monitors carbon dioxide. When your body thinks it has enough carbon dioxide, you stop breathing and die.

cyberclark@shaw.ca
(Formerly The Dangerous Goods Training Centre)

Feds put the CPP at risk!

I told the world you could count on the Harper crew to practice every kind of political theft and mayhem invented. Crooks, thieve and liars; the works! Religious fundamentalists and goose stepping right wing bandits.

In their latest charade Jim Flaherty literally stole the Canada Pension Fund!

He has put the assets of the CPP (Owned by all provinces except Quebec who has their own plan) up against a 480 billion dollar federal debt. He still has to pay 30 billion dollars a year interest payments on the funds. And, he as put the CPP at risk!

Fiscal Skullduggery

The conservatives have long been trying to do away with the CPP. Ted Morton of Alberta and the Fraser Institute have long been toying with how to do this. I say to you, this is the first step!

These crooks are after the political control of the CPP. It’s time to fight them, now!

Beneficiaries and their families should protest a possible move of CPP pensions back into political control.

We have an opportunity to start change!

To Conservatives I say: If Dinning gets the gold ring, that is the end of the Conservative Government in this province.

To Other party members I say: Mark Norris is front and centre as the only Conservative, socially responsible individual running!

Regardless of your political strip it is worth your time to vote!

The first advance poll is on today from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (MST).
Advance polls are open in the following locations for eligible voters ordinarily resident in the respective cities, who are unable to or who for religious reasons cannot vote in their own riding on election day.

Edmonton Advance Poll LocationGrant MacEwan College, City Centre Campus10700-104 AvenueRoom 7-142 (use the south entrance, under the GMCC clock)Calgary Advance Poll LocationConnaught Community School1121-12 Avenue SWMain Gym

For other Alberta advance poll locations click onhttp://www.albertapc.ab.ca/admin/contentx/default.cfm?PageId=4424
Regular Voting Poll Stations, Saturday, November 25, 2006

Up to date poll stations can be found by clicking onhttp://www.albertapc.ab.ca/public/custom/stationsIf you are unsure of your constituency you may click on the following constituency link. All you need is your postal code.http://www.marknorris.ca/Constituency.cfm

Note if a second ballot is required, that advance poll shall occur on Wednesday, November 29, 2006 from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (MST).

Who Can Vote
In accordance with the PCAA Constitution, eligible voters shall be:
1) Canadian citizens;
2) Of the full age of 16 years;
3) Ordinarily resident in Alberta for at least six (6) months immediately prior to the voting date;
4) Members in good standing of a Provincial Progressive Conservative Constituency Association.
Remember, you can buy a membership at the voting station, so if you have a friend or family member who lives in the same riding and who wants to vote for a better Alberta, take them with you to vote.

Upon arrival at the polling station you must present or purchase your membership card and two pieces of identification (one should be photo ID) to establish identity and residency within the constituency.

Examples of identity identification include your driver's license, your passport, citizenship card, firearms card, student ID, etc.
Examples of residence identification include utility bills, insurance pink card, vehicle registration, etc.

Voters whose age eligibility may be in doubt must show identification that also states their age.

Voters whose eligibility as Canadian citizens may be in doubt must show evidence of citizenship.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL THE MARK NORRIS CAMPAIGN, 1-888-481-7205.

Conservative celebration a farce!

Ralph’s tribute is over cooked.

He saved us from the debt? Such crap! The Conservatives deliberately drove us into debt in order to debilitate services and the infrastructure so the stage would be set for privatization, in their minds the only thing that will save us.

Part of this debt was because of their subsidies and hand outs to friends and business interests and the direct give away of infrastructure such as parks of which they had previously put millions of dollars into.

Their construction offers for capital projects are run at a cost plus 10 or 15 percent. There are no bids; no police and no effort to keep the costs down through a proper bid process.

Not only did they run us into debt they spent the Heritage Trust fund and shorted pension funds. Some of the screw ups we are still paying for, like Swan Hills at 600 million a year.

This collection of conservatives has all but debilitated this province.

If any of you find this confusing, just remember that this is the crew that took us into such drastic debt!

Huge spending for infrastructure when the prices are the highest is another way of showing you how much government projects cost. Don’t forget they are trying to get elected again and, when and if that happens, the shoe is going to fall and we as individuals in this province will experience huge financial pain because there is no secondary industry in this province, no diversification.

No more celebrating please! Look at the history and bury them.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Nuclear power in Alberta?

I have been asked to weigh in on the debate of Nuclear power as applied in the Tar Sands scenario.

I think it is a great idea that deserves more study.

Understand first, any tar sands resources such as water and heat used is coming directly from taxpayer pockets!

Either the oil companies move it into their cost of start up (Royalties paid at 1% of gross production sales)

Or, 5% of the net production after all costs of the start up and on going daily costs have been deducted. Yes, you are correct both percentages are pretty much the same number of 1%

Now, consider we are quickly running out of natural gas in this province and the oil companies get first crack at what ever is remaining. For this reason the push was put onto developing the Arctic gas supplies for use in the “south”.

The information I have is suggesting there will be no Arctic gas to come south! The gas will only get as far as the Tar Sands projects. If they take all that gas, we will be switching from Natural Gas to Oil for heat in this province.

Perhaps now is a good time to switch rather than switch later?

One sure way to slow the inevitable would be to put in a nuclear generation plant in the tar sands. It would have to be sufficiently large, in the realm of 4 times our present electrical system just to keep up with Tar Sands demand.

Yes, the price of this facility like the price of the gas and the drain of our water will come out of the taxpayer pocket or cup as the case may be.

I see the very expensive nuclear power as being the only reasonable course to take as renewable energy..

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Manning pushes private health care - Good respone

Hello,

The following column, by Parkland Research Director Diana Gibson, was written in response to an article written last week by Preston Manning and Mark Milke advocating private health insurance. Diana's column appeared in Monday's Edmonton Journal and today's Calgary Herald. We hope you enjoy it....

'Manningcare' failed once, it will fail againCostly private insurance too expensive for some, even with subsidiesby Diana Gibson

Preston Manning identified real problems with Canada's health-care system, but his prescriptions do not hit the mark. Most notably, he, like his father Ernest Manning, favours private health insurance. Ernest Manning already tried private health insurance when he was the premier and it was a dismal failure.

In 1962, the Socreds were desperate to avoid public health insurance, which had emerged in Saskatchewan. As an alternative, premier Manning created a scheme, dubbed "Manningcare," that required individuals to buy their own health insurance, with subsidies for the poor.

A year after Manningcare was introduced, Albertans were paying the highest premiums in the country. Only the elderly, chronically ill, and those with pre-existing conditions were subsidized. But only 40 per cent of those eligible for the subsidy applied because even with the subsidy, the premiums were too high.

So, Preston Manning should be familiar with the failures of private health care. But while he points out some ailments in Canada's system -- relatively few doctors; less access to MRIs and CT scans; waiting lists for some non-emergency procedures -- his prescriptions don't address those problems.

Private health insurance is more expensive. America's private health "system" costs 50 per cent more than Canada's and delivers worse health outcomes for its population. Forty-eight million Americans have no health insurance.

More generally, a study of industrialized countries by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found private health insurance correlates with higher health spending per capita.

The study found that moving to private insurance actually increased costs for the public system in France. When looking at the Australian example, the Canadian Institute for Health Information found that adding a parallel private health insurance scheme did not even reduce public spending on health care; private premiums were so expensive that the government had to subsidize them in order to convince people to enrol.

The evidence is no better on wait lists. OECD studies reveal that shorter wait lists do not correlate with countries that have private health insurance. Creating a parallel private health system siphons doctors out of the public system, worsening wait times (doctors, as skilful as they are, cannot be two places at once). And the wait times for those 48 million Americans are infinitely long.

Manning also proposes "cost sharing" for publicly funded specialists and hospital services. "Cost sharing" is newspeak for user fees, which were shown to reduce access to health care in France and Switzerland. This reduced access results in more cases going to emergency, which adds yet more costs.

He also suggests competition in the hospital sector (code for private hospitals). Yet studies, including one recently published in the Canadian Medical Journal, show that private hospitals have worse outcomes and cost more than public ones. The Workers Compensation Board has to pay Calgary's private Health Resources Group Clinic at least 10 per cent more for the same procedures than a public hospital.

To address the real problems in the health system, we need to move away from ideological agendas like Preston Manning's and instead look to the evidence.

Spending in the most public parts of our mixed health-care system -- hospitals and staff -- has actually fallen as a portion of health spending, and is the same portion of GDP as it was in 1975. The fastest growing costs in health care are the private parts -- pharmaceuticals and for-profit health care, where costs are going through the roof.

If anything, the evidence suggests moving to a more public system, not a more private one. Alberta's public solutions to wait lists are working well. We need to invest more in hospitals, doctors, nurses and health-care staff, and waste less on private profits and shareholder dividends. Patent laws need to be changed to reduce drug costs. A national pharmacare program needs to be introduced.

Canada's public single-payer tax-funded model is the best in the world. It can be improved, but it needs re-investment after the ill-advised cuts of the '90s.

And it needs to be managed with a view to improving outcomes, rather than maximizing profits.

Diana Gibson is the research director for the Parkland Institute and co-author of The Bottom Line: The truth about private health insurance (published by NeWest press and the Parkland Institute)

PARKLAND INSTITUTE
11045 Saskatchewan Drive,
Edmonton, AB. T6G 2E1
Phone: (780) 492-8558 -
Fax:(780)492-8738 Link

email: parkland@ualberta.ca

By John: Preston Manning is one of the leading members of the Fraser Institute; Extreme right wing think tank made up of US business and politial interest and Canadian Conservatives.

20 million announced for housing homeless

Kline announced a program to pump 20 million dollars or so into accommodations for homeless people. Most of this money will be spent in Mc Murray, Edmonton and Calgary. As far as it goes, all is good.

Let’s see how much of this money goes to oil companies to house workers.
Let’s see how much of this money goes to ATCO or who ever to put up barrack type housing.
Let’s see how many insiders get low (no) interest loans or grants they never have to pay back in order to supply temporary accommodations.
Let’s see how many of the Cities chronic unemployed get accommodation.

There is no heart in the Conservative Government, we all know that. And, the right wing news media will not track the inside.

Lots going on; news in the making!

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Oil royality review a promise!!

Mark Norris clearly the best chance to save industry in Alberta. Industries other than oil related are suffering to a point of extinction in Alberta. Mark Norris was first off the spot to publicly acknowledge this. Mark Norris was also was the first to offer to do something about our disastrous oil royalty programs.

In this turmoil remember. If the royalties were doubled, they would still be the lowest in the world and this doubling would return 10 times more to provincial coffers than the present rates. The oil stock would still be the best performing stock. Personally I think doubling is not enough!

Your life times are going to past before you have another opportunity to vote specifically for a premier! Time to get your conservative membership and help shape your future.

Quote from Email from Mark Norris.

Hi John.

‘ Was the first candidate on record to call for a complete review of the Oilsands Tax Regime and am committed to doing so.

All the economics of the original deal have changed, time to review.

Many of my comments can be found on our website under “news”

Thanks
Mark

Ken Chapman: Whopper-mania

Ken Chapman: Whopper-mania

Individual safety sucks in Alberta!

Perhaps we can get our up and coming Conservative leaders to weigh in on law and order in this province. It sucks!

Situation 1:
Young lady is forced off the road onto the sidewalk by the high level bridge very late at night. The vehicle that forced her of was driven by a drunken woman. There was a collision. There was bodily injury. Police were called.

The police investigated and made their reports. Court day came for the drunken lady. She was charged with a much lesser charge, no mention of drinking.

The police after court were asked about this.

Police said there was no mention of drinking on the police reports. The police also said that neither of the hurt girls had said anything about the driver being drunk so, no drunk charges were brought forward. It appears here the victims have to demand police do their jobs.

The point being here; we are moving quickly to a vigilante system, all but encouraged by the courts and the police.

Situation 2:
Media these days is carrying the on going story of 3 youths who beat and stomped an older man to death. They are charged with misdemeanors because the man killed was down on his luck. I have to wonder if they were members of the conservative party.

Reports are also coming out about gang indoctrination being centered around roughing up a person sufficiently to make the papers.

Again it appears that armed seniors are the answer for self protection.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

The Conservatives own Fraser Institute

14815-123 Ave.,
Edmonton, AB
T5L 2Y7
May 20, 2004

Dear Premier;

Yesterday there was a Fraser Institute Public Policy briefing. Ted Morton, our ‘U.S. Republican’ Senator-in-Waiting talked about his Firewall plan for Alberta. Ian McClelland was in attendance along with MP Jason Kenny. I’m sure in my mind these elected conservatives would like to do away with the 49th parallel in order to reach a deep integration with the US System.

There is no doubt at all about ‘emasculating’ Alberta’s wealth/energy/water and they have the full support of the Fraser Institute as well!

Fraser Institute’s Michael Walker asked why Morton had not included health care and immigration in his presentation (which covered Pensions, Personal tax collection and getting rid of equalization payments etc.). Walker thought, ‘if you had a job, you should be allowed to immigrate’. “That should help you with your tar sands projects”, says Walker.


Walker also ‘implored’ Morton to drop talk about using Alberta’s great credit rating to borrow at low rates and lend to other provinces at great rates as Lougheed did during the 80s when the bucks were flowing. Alberta could lend at low rates - almost like ‘money laundering’. No doubt Walker, whose mentor was Milton Friedman, was strongly against the idea because ‘shorting’ revenues is known to be conducive to coercing governments to privatize public resources, assets, institutions, and lower labour and regulatory standards and ‘have-not’ provinces are being getting nicely softened up – judging by the activities around Newfoundland and the Maritimes and to a lesser extent Saskatchewan and Manitoba, i.e. Wheat Board focus of ‘free market’ attack, even the Alberta Government threw in $400,000 of taxpayers’ money to advertise their ‘free market’ support!

Conservative columnists in attendance who will help promote this conservative free market message: Lorne Gunter, Nigel Hanneford, Link Byfield.

Firewall MLA Ian McClelland told Morton that McClelland’s committee report would NOT be out before the election. It should be called “Morton’s Plan B” seeing as what he called Plan A “West Wants In” failed to get Canada’s attention! Leveraged extortion works better! Can you arrange for me to get a copy of the committee report? It is apparent you own the media, thank God not the net!

Michael Walker was boasting about the Fraser Institute success after thirty years of well-financed efforts – they are 25 times more likely to be ‘quote’ in the media than the Suzuki Foundation. Of course it helps is your Trustees are ideologues who own the media!


Regards,
John Clark.
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Americans weigh in on former crown corporation.

The Fraser Institute, the right wing “think tank” who’s members are made up largely of US corporate representatives are saying Alberta should sit down and keep quite about our former crown corporation “Encana” saying they are not going to refine crude here; they are going to build in Chicago.

Let market forces sort it out the Fraser says. Why were they so very quite on the soft wood lumber dispute? A billion down the tubes and no blinks from them.

Perhaps we could re direct our army towards Vancouver to defend?

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Compare Candidates

Time to compare some of the Candidates:

Victor Doerkson came out on the TV yesterday saying we should charge for water used which would promote saving. Well if the oil sands pay for their billion upon billion cubic meters they use, they deduct the cost from what the pay the province in royalities.

Agriculture remains the largest user of water in the province. Did he mean to exclude these people? Just weird, that’s all.

Then, to Jim Dinning who remarked to the media at one point the oil could stay in the ground until the oil companies agreed to upgrade the product in Alberta. Okay so far. Then he added something to the effect that the dinosaurs made the oil in the tar-sands. This is another grossly incorrect statement.

As conservatives go, not too bad that places him right in there with Stockwell Day and his 6000 year creationist belief.

Ted Morton wants to disband the RCMP and go for a private police force. Stomp Stomp Salute! Being a long standing member of this Government he must feel the RCMP a threat to his personal wealth. Then he comes up with some somersaults on education to feed the oil patch. You just know he has thought this through!

Lyle Oberg is one of the better balanced candidates. Loans available to every one as students? OK. Forth year university subsidized? OK.

Ed Stelmach is still pushing the Alberta Firewall. How did he get this far? “Tackle growth by investing and implementing” What garbage is this? Create an Alberta Pension plan by cutting down the CPP. Dam, some of these people are just plain scary!

Dave Hancock is trying desperately to be centre of the road. He hasn’t come down for or against anything. Suspect he is not going anywhere.

Alana DeLong is coasting along nice with a warm feeling for all.

Ed Norris has come out strong and knowledgeable on a broad range of issues. He is the only one to endorse what all the Government paid studies have said, Seniors are being mistreated and their funding unreasonably cut.

Ed is saying if he becomes premier he will restore all the items cut from seniors programs. Then, perhaps the door will be open to allow seniors to stay in their own homes longer negating the need for long term care institutions. That would break Dinnings’s heart as in “There goes the farm.”

Link to Inforation

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

A bright star on the Conservative side!

Answer to question put to Mark Norris asking if he had plans for seniors programs. Better line up for your membership and get this guy in!

Quote:
Thanks for your question and I am on record as saying if elected , we will restore all programs that we cut and inflation proof them going forward.I was the first candidate to speak out about Seniors because they built this province and they deserve our respect -Hope this helps

Thank you
Mark
cyberclark@shaw.ca


CAMROSE AND AREA
Meet & Greet
When: Monday October 23, 2006
Time: 5:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Where: Chamber of Commerce
5402 - 48 Ave
Who: All Camrose and Area Committee Members, Supporters, Friends, and Guests
Come and meet Mark, a top contender for the PC Leadership
WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE.
Refreshments will be served.
For more information please contact Gayle Head at 780-481-7205 or
1-888-481-7205 / ghead@MarkNorris.ca
www.MarkNorris.ca

Election time!

I'm told following the Conservative Leadership Election a General Election will be called because the whole province is employed and there is a risk of destabilization because of the over build. They want to hit the happy window.

Bigger than big brother!

Things are getting more intrusive faster than any time in our history.

Two items I mention will offer you the intent and the size of these moves.

First off the new “Passport on a card” that is being prescribed for Canada by the US will enable the card to be tracked by GPS. The Government refers to “travel patterns” in this document.

Another, quieter move is taking place in the private sector where GPS locators are being installed in Cell phones.

Alberta’s medical cards and the information they hold are a one stop identity theft for those inclined.

Time to get real interested people; it is not only the travelers who are targeted!

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Right Wing goose steppers hang togeather!

If any one had any doubts about the extremes of Alberta politics, a glimpse is seen here. I wouldn't be surprised if they field a Taliban candidate so all the fundamentalists can be represented.

cyberclark@shaw.ca

Kline sets the stage for oil company subsidy!

Klein’s last kick at the cat!

Sequence the events:

After pressure from the ‘Net the Conservatives announce they are killing the legislation that gave the oil companies a no tax free ride.

The Auditor General says he is going after the loosey-goosey expenses of the oil companies and the phony classification system of the derived crude which allows oil companies to mark down the value of the product, increasing their profit margin.

Effectively they dictate the price they will pay in royalties.

Jim Dinning announces he has word “oil companies” are planning on refining Alberta crude in the US. Dinning says “Leave it in the ground or refine in Alberta”. Other conservative candidates jump on line with similar plans and voices of outrage.

In order of event, Encana announces they are going to build a multi billion dollar refinery – in Chicago to further refine Alberta Oil. (What comes out of the tar sands is not crude as you know it but a partially refined, very superior product which is under priced at world market price for crude) and why would Encana make this announcement before they had their supply and prices secure?

Encana reports 104% increase in profits

All the Conservative candidates withdraw their positions, a complete turn around!

Ralph Klein says he will have his ministers see if they can make a deal with Encana to build their refinery in Alberta. No leave it in the ground from this guy!

I think the whole thing is a blundered sham! This is a collusion between the oil companies and the Conservatives for the point of hoaxing the Alberta business and public! Klein has found a new way to give the oil companies huge tax breaks or subsidies to offset the losses they are facing because of public pressure.

This is why he was so very cool with the AG notice of the audits.

The only work that remains to be done is to put a proper spin on it so it can be digested by the voters.

An after though: If Alberta held hard to the position of "must refine in Alberta" do you think the US would allow Encana to walk away from the Alberta supply? The answer is No!

John Clark

cyberclark@shaw.ca

Industry and oil moving south

When the Canadian dollar was very low, American Industry found it profitable to set up in what they view as a third world country. One dollar American bought 2 dollars Canadian.

The US suffered job loss as their major companies such as Honeywell took US government subsidies to upgrade plants and invested this money off shore. A double loss for the US! The same manner of business happened in other venues.

The pulp and paper is easier to follow than the food industry. While the Canadian dollar was low a number of the old smoker pulp plants in Wisconsin were closed down, jobs terminated as the pulp and paper companies looked north to Canada.

Provinces heaped cash subsidy onto these plants as they opened up in Saskatchewan and other provinces.

The dollar became stronger and, the Canadian plants were abandoned, the subsidy lost to the Canadian economy and the plants south of the border was re opened.

This same game was played in the furniture business where a Calgary furniture plant was tooled up to run 24/7 while the dollar was low, closing down 7 or 8 furniture plants in the US.

The dollar changed; the Calgary plant is now working one shift, just. Some of the plants in the US have opened. Other manufacture has gone off shore.

We now see the same thing happening with ENCANA and oil companies who find no reason to invest in Canada. They see the relative strength in the Canadian dollar and are opting for the US side of the border as producing more profit for them.

Even that turkey Dinning had the correct idea when he said they had to work the crude in Canada or leave it in the ground!

I think Canadians can turn this around if they become a little more active and less complacent about what is happening to them.

Our Governments have to fear the population; that is where the policy will originate.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

V for Vendetta is a good watch!

Oil companies run the Conservative party.

All the Conservative candidates have been pushed aside by the Grey Suits in the oil companies.

None of the Candidates will stand up for a program of upgrading oil in Alberta.

Ship all the jobs to the US as per US instruction.

The US is heading for a massive recession. They are at the same place they were before their incursion into Iraq. Nothing has changed in their economy and they have no massive projects planned that would put their people to work.

Yes there is a crush on Alberta to export jobs south!

cyberclark@shaw.ca

Weather

The weather document has a lot of good, current information in it. I can't let it die.

Bush wasn't the only guy covering up climate change implications! The Government of Canada and more important to us, the Government of Alberta burried climate change by calling any one who complained about the environment a "tree hugger" in the most critical manner.

This document was the first in the public media to map out the implication of climate change.

Google some time after this put in a program to locate and log original source material. They catalogued this letter.

For a year, any time you Googled "Weather" the first page that came up was this letter, posted on Welcome to Ralph's world.

After I left that site, some needed housekeeping was done and directories were changed. This letter was moved or deleted, I'm not sure which and the world wide listing for Google was lost for ever.

Lesson to be learned here!

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

This document is even more important today than when it was first published.

NOTE THE DATE OF THE ORGINAL

Thursday, October 05, 2006
Friday, October 22, 2004

The Occupation of Alberta by Ralph Klein

This is their history! Make them accountable at the poles!
Honorable Ralph Klein,
August 26, 2003
Room 307 Legislative Building,
Edmonton, AB T4K 2C6

Re:- The occupation of Alberta by Ralph Klein.Dear Premier:

The compelling information you have regarding climate change is near catastrophic and puts Alberta on the course of a climate very similar to Southern Iraq or Turkey more probably on the short term rather than the long.

Extremes in weather and unpredictable weather such as storms, hurricanes, drought and flood are parts of the scenario. Ongoing drought and forest fires are going to be the norm rather than the exception. Forest fires and unprecedented pestilence are but symptoms of the climate change rapidly coming upon us.

Lakes will become mud holes and rivers will dry up. (The Prince George area has massive beetle infestation because the temperatures haven’t dropped to the -40 that is required to kill them off; All in the last 5 years!) The extending drought has already caused the earth to move away from house foundations around Alberta causing them to crack. I would think any one who has built in the last 6 years has recourse on the Government because of a lack of proper building standards to account for these known changes.

When your Environment department confirmed the above they also said studies were being made on how to use the unusable (un-potable) rivers of water from the Viking aquifer. Considering the oil companies have been accessing this "bad" water for year’s further studies would only be for the purpose of stalling for time.

Oil companies site only the added expense, by comparison to surface water, as being the only real draw back! I recall people in Parkland County complaining their water wells went dry after seismic went through their region. They speculated the seismic had damaged the upper water aquifer. Your response was less than caring. "Prove it" you said.

Knowing what you know about the weather change and dwindling water resource it is irresponsible for you to allow oil companies to use any drinkable water for injection into the wells for oil recovery! Your water plan amounts to a charge on Alberta residences for the water taken by oil companies and pumped down hole.When do the oil companies start paying for the damages they have done and the water they have already ruined or wasted?

It seems to be your plan to stall full public disclosure of information on climate change until the oil is gone, the drinking water is gone and the oil companies have moved on?

Why are the Oil companies not made to pay for the water used and, the water they have already used? They are largely responsible for the havoc and contamination sludge in the lakes caused by the drafting of water by trucks. An optimistic view of conventional oil and gas supplies runs at 15 years until we are dry. Other views run as low as 6 years.

By then you hope to have the methane tapped from coal reserves always draining fresh water supplies. As usual it is the average family in Alberta financing the oil companies and now the power companies! You have sold off all the cheap and accessible oil and gas leaving Albertans to pay premium prices for this same source while looking forward to even higher costs for British Columbia and Mackenzie Delta gas.

Having already ravaged the water tables you are planning a horrific operation on methane recovery from coal seams. Soon enough; no gas, no oil and no water, living in a desert; Oil companies gone leaving their damages behind them or in shell "management" companies.

I have also received a note from the Minister in charge of power transmission who gave me some hand outs telling me "ALBERTAN’S HAVE ALWAYS PAID FOR THE TRANMISSION OF THEIR POWER." Albertans have never had to pay for exporting electricity! There is no plan where individual rate payers will receive a direct refund on the power lines you are asking them to pay for when these same power lines are used to export electricity to the US!Again it is the individuals of Alberta financing the power companies.

Returns to so called General Revenues are not acceptable. Direct and full refunds to power bills and on going profit sharing on power bills is only just acceptable.

The oil and gas is all but gone. All sold out from under us leaving no advantages at all. You are looking for gas supply now in British Columbia, the Fort St. John area (down some 7000 feet) and twisting arms tying to get the finance in place to move gas from the Mackenzie Delta.

You have moved Albertans from access to inexpensive self sustained gas to the highest utility in Canada with promises of going still higher I don’t accept your BS on NAFTA stopping energy rebates. NAFTA concerns its self with industries. A rebate program would be seen as a "district" issue and not of interest to them. I also don’t agree with your multi billion dollar fund set aside to get you elected again although you may consider that an emergency.

But then again I don’t agree with your creeping taxation on drink containers and access fees which goes directly to lunch boxes and families, hitting every person in this province to get millions in funds to put into your "surplus."Wreck the water supplies, plunder the gas and oil utility. Sell off the citizen owned electrical power at pennies on the dollar; exploit the people further by making them pay the highest rates in Canada for the use of the utility you gave away.

Further, tax them to finance the building of the power lines for the same people who took over the utilities for nothing in the first place.Your policy has long been Oil or nothing. We end up with nothing. Kill any industry that may lean upon the oil companies, stifle any other growth with high costs use police to entrap or coerce to this end regardless of the toll on families and health. The oil is gone and we have nothing.

As I write this letter every province in Canada is exporting up scale manufactured items ranging from pharmaceuticals to hardware to packaging. Your mega government is thinking "maybe microbiology as an industry"

The world has moved on but this province is still mired and dying in your private sunshine.I wrote you regarding the gas burning studies which are in place showing the toxic nature of regular gas and sour gas give off high levels of ferons and bi phenols as well as a long list of noxious gases because of improper burns. I gave you the doctor’s name that did one of the more recent studies asking when you were going to release this information to the public. You sent it forward to Environment and, they have never answered.

It is good to see your on going support of insurance companies is coming back to haunt you, big time. Millions spent in developing hail controls, all turned over to the insurance companies to administer. They invested their accident "reserves" into stock and dot coms which crashed. This, according to conversation with the insurance bureau early 02. If we have to bankroll their business investment losses as least all insurance should be a tax deductible! The harsh and unreasonable premiums have every thing to do with investment and little or nothing to do with driving records!

I have been told that conversations regarding turning photo radar clips over to the insurance companies as a means to increase their revenues has enjoyed more time than it should.You continue to drag this province into oblivion.

John ClarkCc;/various.net. pdf
Posted by: John Clark / 11:24 PM

# posted by John Clark @ 12:35 PM 0 comments

An excellent link for professional summary.

The following is the best, clearest statment of the situation in Alberta today that I have come across!


“For too long, this government has been misleading Albertans into thinking that the health care system is on the verge of collapsing, and have continually attempted to push through privatization reforms with no evidence that this would reduce costs,” says Taft. “Honest, accurate information on health costs would help put an end to the Conservative government spin.”

Hancock extreme is shrill

Hancock who was one of the authors of our present mess is trying to distance himself from it. Lots of Blah, Blah, Blah.

cyberclark@shaw.ca

Oberg going for the Gold and, thats OK!

The conservatives are fielding at least one honest person for leadership. That is fresh! Something in print!

Dr.Lyle Oberg is walking all around the one term I am so hungry to hear; universality.

Dr. Oberg’s Blueprint_for_Prosperity is an interesting read. Up front he is saying that private – public health care is in the agenda.

Australia is screaming for all who will listen, don’t allow the US health care machines into Canada, you will never be able to get rid of them!

Regardless of your political stripe, buying a Conservative member ship for a few dollars and showing up at that convention to vote in a “Social Conservative” seems at this point to be a very good idea. Will see you all there!

Item 3 on Dr. Oberg's list:
"Offering Albertans Choices in how they with to educate their children or access health services, thereby increasing competition, improving quality and enhancing efficiently in delivering public services."

Room for more detail here.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

To the slaughter without a whimper.

In case any of you missed it! Residential gas rebates are gone, finished; no more! The next price hike in heating will be out of your pocket.

The Government said “no more in the future”.

Because they slipped this through when the price of gas dropped below the 5.50 mark it seems to have flown without a challenge.

Are you going to let these crooks get away with it?

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Prince Rupert port is a hard sell!

The Prince Rupert port is a truly great idea and, the people from Prince Rupert are trying to sell it.

If it is such a great idea why does it take a dog and pony show to sell the idea?

Business and industry have been burned and still remain burned by the CNR. These business institutions do not want to be held hostage by the CNR and, that is the only rail in and out of that place.

If you want real pain, talk to some one who is presently dealing CN!

cyberclark@shaw.ca

Do it yourself oil royalty kit

There is an old red neck saying "BS beats Brains" To this end the Alberta Government has put up a figure it out yourself oil web site which, I haven't worked my way through and, it will more than likely take until after the next election before I can!

Do it yourself oil royalty kit

Remember the numbers they are trying to hide as you toil your way through this.
Developing oil sands pay 1 cent only on every dollar of oil they sell until the full price of their plant and construction is paid for.

Now, having reached the point where all their investment is paid back and their profit solidly in place, they pay 25 cents on every dollar of profit, that is after all the operating and political donations are paid.

Another point buried in there someplace is that Albertans own 81% of the oil production. Here, the would be saying that 81% of the oil production profit is paid through stocks and bonds. I have no figures but, I would estimate that 85% is prefered shares, out of reach for most people.

This sight has gone a long way to tell you how badly you are being screwed over. You should take the time to adventure!

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Why a jaundiced eye towards new health incentive.

In explanation of the pattern:

The parks and pick-nick grounds were built up with millions of taxpayer dollars prior to them being turned over to insiders for pennies on the dollar of value.

I say insiders because the process of selling was closed tender with the crown holding the final decision.

The Conservatives took control of all power lines in the province using the county of Leduc as an excuse. Because Leduc had a higher rate base because of power lines and were able to supply their schools way beyond what surrounding districts could do. Pressure was on the Government to provide a more reasonable funding for all the have not schools. The province then professed to seizing these lines to “equalize revenues to all school districts” and was accepted as a good thing through out the province.

Once they had the power lines they put in the student fees which are taken by the school of primary register and cannot be moved should that student go to another school.

This is a first step in the privatizing of shools. Train people to pay for their kids going to a specific school.

Taking all the power lines away from the municipality revenue base they were able to start their sell off of our power lines, our Alberta Heritage.

I have said in the past; this Government is a 1 trick dog and, it is hard to distinguish between them and organized crime except for the fact that crime may be actually organized.

This is why I view the Health program with a jaundiced eye and why I am begging people to get out and vote in the next election.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Cu do for Iris Evans!

Health
Iris Evans gets a cu do from me on her recent announcements for early prevention and intervention into bad health situations that are weighted towards poverty and diet. Thank you Iris Evans.

She mentioned a year ago she was thinking of such a program along with Gym memberships and what amounts to penalties for those people not living health life styles.

I have no problem with any of this.

If only there was a track record leading up to it! I'm thinking that in a year, possibly two we will hear that another 500 millions have been spent in a public health program and is now being sold for a dollar to Dinning or another such person.

cyberclark@shaw.ca

Conservatives a house of intolerance!

The mainstream politic in the Conservative Party is at best terrifying. They have fielded a leadership race of bigotry, Christian fundamentalism and outright chicanery. Not the least of these programs is outlined in the Edmonton Sun today page 22 news. That they are playing to what they perceive is the audience of main stream Albertans means the middle road part of this population have a lot of work to do.

Ed Stelmach in his extreme views is still pushing “Fortress Alberta” He wants to get your Canada Pension into Alberta Coffers because in his view, this fund turned over to private industry to invest would return more to the participants and allow the Provincial Government the ability to borrow what ever amount they want from the fund at what ever rates they decide.

As with most of these Conservative programs the term “all the market will bear” is bandied about. In their case, it is misused, taking on the meaning that “we give the citizen the very least they will accept in order to increase corporate profit” That is their track record!

Mr. Dinning thinks this is a good idea, not a top priority while Mr. Oberg has dodged the bullet by saying it is simply not a priority.

Mazankowski and Great West Life are hungry for this account!

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Dinning's screw ups coming to roost

Dinnings screw ups are coming to roost. He and Ralph started the Alberta Intermodel Services, a scheme to start the inland port at Calgary and Edmonton.

In this scheme Dinning drew up a plan where Alberta would guarantee the CPR 700.00 a container return for every container they could bring into Alberta. Of course, a number of the conservative buddies jumped aboard like Dow Chemical, who paid only 200 dollars a load back to Vancouver. The Alberta Treasury paid the other 500.00 to the CPR. Not really the way the plan was made; it was however how it turned out.

Over 8 years or so, close to one hundred million dollars was paid out to the CPR for their efforts. In the final deal the property and equipment amassed by AIS was sold to the CPR and celebrated as the deal of the century.

None of the “start up costs” of a hundred million or so was ever recovered.
Because of the artificially low container rates trucking companies are talking of abandoning Alberta all together.

Two more years passed and the CPR figured there was more money to be made elsewhere and cut the low revenue runs out of Alberta, leaving Alberta's high and dry facing much increased costs and next to nothing for service.

Take the money and run; the Dinning way.

Now we are faced with the same BS again. This time the oil companies who have forever taken our resources for nothing on a promise of the buddy system are saying the climate is not adequate in Alberta for refining or up grading the crude mined in the tar sands.

So much for Dinning’s friends and Dinning’s super system.

I hope the Conservatives out there can see the light and turf this guy once and for all.

I would say it is in the interests of the still free Alberta regardless of what your party is, to buy a conservative membership and go the convention for the purpose of voting for a candidate other than Dinning.

Make it the biggest turn out in Conservative history!

John Clarkcyberclark@shaw.ca

Water fix in one segment being looked at

Farmers are said to be the original environmentalists and, I don’t disagree. There was however some false starts as farmers generally built their stock yards next to the water supply. The water supply in the form of creeks and springs are generally open sources to the water table or aquifer. Remember Wakerton Ontario?

The Alberta Government has started a program to evaluate where stock yards are in relation to the water table and what are the chances of the migration of bacteria from the stock yard into the water table.

They will advise the farmers where to move their stock compounds to where necessary and, pay for the re-location.

Rural folks with problems in this area should be contacting the Government!

With closer scrutiny on gravel operations (they actually open the water aquifer) and a hard ball set of rules for oil sumps we may yet get a handle on our water. Perhaps we can get a program going for re-cementing oil wells where the plugs are deteriorating. This, while we still have oil companies to pay for the repair.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

119 million liters of water from Red Deer River

Ferus Gas Industries of Calgary received a preliminary water licence for 119 million liters of water per year. This water is to be taken from the Red Deer River for the purpose of building a plant for nitrogen extraction to be used in the oil industry.

This project(go to other stories -Water licence granted to plant ) is moving ahead in a civilized manner. Ferus has avoided the knee jerk reaction of going to the water aquifer for their water. For that they should be commended.

Conversations of not much and moderated use drew my attention.

119 million liters of water is the same as 997,983 bbls of water.
119 million liters of water is 119,000 cubic meters of water.
119 million liters of water will cover a football field 14.5 meters deep.

The flow of the Red River is 25.5 cubic meters per second. It will take 78 minutes for119 million liters of water to flow past any one point on the Red River! How often have you spent an hour watching the river?

The same people say it is not much more water than it takes to grow alfalfa. This is a major understatement. Thanks to the folks at Alberta Connects, Alfalfa needs between 550 and 650 mm of water in the growing season. That would be 2' deep spread over an acre. A football field is close to 2 acres for reference. That would cover the football field to a depth of 48'

Hardly and apples to apples comparison.

It seems to me Ferus Gas could install a condenser in their plant and a build a nice looking recovery pond, possibly reducing their water use by 80% ! Perhaps, plant a tree?

The city of Red Deer is counting on much of the water being pumped off during the flood season. This would be nice if it were true but, this would entail a lake being built the size of a football field with 3 story tall sides surrounding it. To dig such a lake would cut into the water aquifer.

The bottom line is that industry will need water to grow.

I find it distressing that the oil industry claims more fresh water than we do in our homes and, they get it free.

If they did pay for it, we would give them the money back by way of the royalty schedule that is in place.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca.

One example of how we are getting robbed.

Norway only got into the oil business about 1986 and has amassed 160 billion dollars in the state fund from oil Royalties. (Article is dated) They charge much more than does Alberta and, the oil companies are still there!

Alberta under the conservatives have turned all the revenue back to the oil companies. And if Dinning is elected as leader of the Conservatives there will be still more going in that direction.

As I reported earlier the oil companies had a holiday from taxes due to a deduction for unknown future losses as well as an outright holiday from the Alberta Government.

The 111 million the Conservatives are going to collect now in taxes is nothing short of window dressing and should not have been given away in the first place. What it really represents is billions of mispent taxdollar.

We should be getting billions more!

Norway has managed to diversify it’s economy. Government is run by the state and, not by the oil companies.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

CTV Special on Alberta Tar Sands Start Oct 2

The CTV is starting a coverage of Alberta’s oil sands development and the hardships it is causing in the province. I have no inside information on this show but it promises to be an image feed like none other we have seen.

As far as facts however, it appears to be the oil company’s turn to expound on hardships of their business with the point being made over and over that they may leave because of expense. If not for the tremendous good returns they probably wouldn’t start up.

Keep in mind:
Oil companies pay nothing for their oil sands development. That is paid for by Albertans as a much reduced royalty income.

Even monies paid to fiancé these programs are deductible!

Their expenditures remain largely un audited and, there is no list of not acceptable expenses!

The royalties are the lowest in the world, bar none. These same companies are working in other countries under very harsh and even dangerous conditions and they make no noise about leaving.

If we were to collect 2% rather than our present 1% on developing tar sands and if we were to collect 40% royalties rather than the present 25% we would still be collecting the lowest royalties in the world.

Beyond this the oil companies are the single largest user of fresh water (which they get for nothing) and the largest single user of natural gas which they get for nothing. And, even if they did pay anything it would come directly out of expenses which are paid for by the Alberta Taxpayers.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Now the Water!

Soon enough Canadian will again hate the way they voted!
Cellucci was the negotiator who skinned us in Mulrony's Free Trade. Mulrony's negotiator is Harper's representative to the US on Trade. 2 plus 2 still adds up!

You better get onto your MP right away and let him know what you think about putting bulk water on the trade table for softwood lumber treatment. This is the move Klein was counting on! (not sure how long they will allow this blog up!)

Cellucci wants water on table
Ex U.S. ambassador wants resource included in trade talks
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=055305a1-f4d9-490c-b11e-80bd78fe9653http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/ideas/story.ht
Mike De Souza, CanWest News ServicePublished: Monday, September 18, 2006
OTTAWA - A former American ambassador is pushing for a fresh debate on bulk water exports from Canada to quench the growing thirst of the American south and midwest.

Paul Cellucci, who was replaced by David Wilkins after stepping down as U.S. ambassador to Canada in March 2005, is suggesting water be included in the same category as other natural resources exported as Canadian commodities on the market.

"It wasn't an issue when I was ambassador, but it was one I always found puzzling that it was completely off the table," said Cellucci in an interview.
He argued water is a renewable resource, as opposed to such non-renewable Canadian exports as oil, natural gas, uranium and coal, adding that the two countries will be forced to confront the issue.

But a citizens organization that has fought for more protectionist measures for Canada in free trade agreements warns American officials are quietly laying the groundwork for bulk exports that could deprive Canadians of their resources.
"We live next to a super power," said Maude Barlow, chairperson of the Council of Canadians. "The super power is getting mighty thirsty."

At present, Canadian provinces allow water to be exported in bottles, while there is a ban on bulk exports on boundary waters shared with the United States. However, Barlow said Canada would lose control over the resource under the North American Free Trade Agreement, if any province or territory opens the door to bulk sales of water to U.S. regions facing record droughts.
With Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government developing a national water strategy, Barlow stressed she wasn't suggesting Canada close the door to sharing its resources with countries in need.

But Cellucci said it is an important economic issue since the Canadian and U.S. markets are "inextricably connected." He said a severe drought in southern American states would have a significant impact on the Canadian economy.
Some experts say it's unlikely the U.S. would bully Canada into exporting its water, since that could affect the ecosystems and resources of the northern states.

"There are going to be environmental impacts on both sides of the border if we start mega-scale diversions," said Joseph Rasmussen, the Canada research chair in aquatic ecosystems at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. "They don't want those impacts any more than we do."

Gretchen Hamel, a spokesperson for the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, said the issue is brought up every few years, but there are no negotiations or proposals on the table.

According to federal government estimates, Canada has the third-largest supply of fresh water on its territory behind Brazil and Russia.

More Evidence Alta Link plan is one of Export not domestic.

Electrical engineeer comes out against the published reasons:

Mr. Rolf,

If ALTALink were to adopt your idea we'd be into worse problems than we have had with deregulation because your idea simply would not work!

Firstly the doubling of alternating current in the same or even doubling the crossectional area of conductors in alternating current circuits would not make the voltage drop significantly less. This is because most of the voltage drop in transmission lines is not due to resistance: at heavy currents: it's largely due to "inductive reactance". That is caused by the fact that there is a "flywheel effect": perhaps you have experienced the shock you receive when you touch an electric fence on a farm? Once a current starts to flow it requires an effort to stop it and reverse its direction and that is what electrical engineers refer to as "inductive reactance". While increasing the crossectional area of the conductors will reduce this "inductive reactance" the amount of decrease is really not as significant as you seem to believe.

Secondly, doubling the crossectional area of the conductor, assuming that the percentage of the crossectional area that is steel remains constant, would increase the mass of the conductor by a factor of two. In order to maintain the same ground clearance the tension in the larger conductor would need to be approximately twice as great. That would mean that terminal supporting structures would need to be replaced...that is "guaranteed" and it is quite likely that many of the structures that are in a straight line (we call them tangent structures) would need to be strengthened as well.

While the various supporting structures are being strengthened and the terminal structures are being replaced, the transmission line would need to be out of service i.e. some people would find that they were without electric power.

While I do not have much experience in rebuilding transmission lines, I do have some but it was all a result of force majeure.

By formal education, I am a graduate electrical engineer. By experience, I am an electric conductor engineer which is a specialty in that discipline. I have helped to design transmission lines in many States of the USA, in Quebec, In Iran, in Turkey, and in Saudi Arabia.
You could find my name in the Acknowledgements near the front of "Wind Induced Conductor Motion" which is a textbook published by the Electric Power Research Institute, a corporation established by act of the Congress of the USA to do research for electric utilities. I have seen copies of that textbook in TransAlta and in IREQ, the research arm of Hydro Quebec. Frankly, I don't know why my name appears there. It could have been any one or all of the three authors who suggested that I be acknowledged along with my late friend and co-worker, Ed. Doocy. Yes, I have an American patent and am awaiting a Canadian patent for the same device.

K. Allan Dane, M.Sc.(EE)
adane@telusplanet.net.