The Calgary Herald - The Conservative Ink Pot

Calgary Herald - The Conservative Ink Barrel
The Calgary Herald recently decided to take an excursion into allowing comment on their articles to appear on their web site. This came about when the Government was accused of not posting news items in media which allowed comments. It lasted no more than a month.

Now, if you criticize the Government by citing oil royalty, spending or mismanagement in general (there is lots of that)the comment stays up at best for an hour or so but more often does not make it past the moderator. Never to see publication.

Likewise the Edmonton Journal regular addition. The digital publication seems to be more forgiving. The CBC on the other hand is wide open and spirited.

Carbon Sequester- Who pays and how?

Alberta Carbon Sequester program has been taking a lot of flack in the media these days, for all the wrong reasons. It has the potential to be the power line "who pays" issue all over again.

On the plus side carbon dioxide treated in this manner can be measured unlike the cap and trade thing that is so popular in shifting cash around the world.

Carbon must first be collected! This means coal burning generation plants will have to be re built or, significantly revamped! This is going to cost over a billion dollars and one has to ask who is going to pay and how much are we going to be asked to pay.

The act of collection requires a large containment. Nitrogen and air is pumped out of the container. Coal is heated in the containment, giving off methane and hydrogen. Oxygen is introduced into the container and a flash fire is created. Because it is an oxygen burn, nearly pure carbon dioxide is given off. There are variations in the mechanics of the process.
The heat generated is used to heat steam to power the generators. The carbon dioxide is collected and put into temporary storage awaiting shipment down line which brings us to the pipelines needed.

Pipelines are going to be needed to move the collected carbon dioxide from the coal burning plants to where it is to be used or disposed of. Yes, there is a difference. There is probably more than a billion dollars needed for pipelines when it is over. Who pays? How do we pay?

Much carbon dioxide will be pumped down hole into existing older oil strata where it will be used as a solvent to free up oil moving it to the surface. The carbon dioxide will not stay down hole in most cases but will come up to the surface again either with the oil or separately. This is what is happening at Weyburn, Saskatchewan. Putting carbon dioxide down hole is not the same as sequestering!

Deep below the Viking formation (where the old oil is to be found) is a saline water aquifer. It is unpotable, never to be used for human or animal consumption. It is loaded with mineral salts and generally very toxic substance. This aquifer is encased both top and bottom with bedrock. The oil companies have rejected the use of this aquifer for their drilling water citing it as being too expensive.

This saline aquifer (and others similar) is where the anticipated sequestering is to take place. At this depth carbon dioxide is super critical. It is a liquid which will blend with the underground saline water and will stay there presumably until it is absorbed into the bedrock again.

Crown Assets to go at fire sale prices

This financial disaster we are working through is a Godsend to the ruling Conservatives. No bad days for these boys! Sell off crown assets below bargain basement prices all in the name of creating financial diversity. Sell them to insiders who are looking for safe haven for their money in these troubled times.

In the conservative mind any building or chattel owned by the government is a direct rip off from private industry. It ‘s the Conservative sworn duty to set this abolition right.
In the Conservative plan "selling an asset to a private-sector entity may generate more economic activity and deliver greater value to taxpayers." Is all they need to cut and slash this country to nothing.

As the game unfolds it could lead to the sale or privatization of several well-known Crown corporations, including Canada Post, Via Rail, the Royal Canadian Mint and the agency that oversees security at Canada's airports Finance, Indian and Northern Affairs, Natural Resources and Transport and Infrastructure. Not to mention the Canada Pension Fund.

Some of the Crown corporations that fall under the authority of those departments have been known to be on the block for some time, such as Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd more because the Conservatives find them troublesome than any intrinsic value they may hold.
UNDER REVIEW
Crown corporations under the authority of departments under review:
Finance
- Bank of Canada
- Canada Deposit Insurance Corp.
- Canada Development Investment Corp.
- Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
- PPP Canada Inc.*
Indian and Northern Affairs
- First Nations Statistical Institute**
Natural Resources
- Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.
- Cape Breton Development Corp.
Transport
- Atlantic Pilotage Authority
- Blue Water Bridge Authority
- Canada Lands Company Ltd.
- Canada Post Corp.
- Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
- The Federal Bridge Corporation Ltd.
- Great Lakes Pilotage Authority
- Laurentian Pilotage Authority
- Marine Atlantic Inc.
- National Capital Commission
- Old Port of Montreal Corporation Inc.*
- Pacific Pilotage Authority
- Parc Downsview Park Inc.*
- Ridley Terminals Inc.
- Royal Canadian Mint
- Via Rail Canada Inc.
Source: Annual report to Parliament on Crown corporations.
*Wholly owned subsidiaries of Canada Lands.
** Non-operational as of July 31, 2008.

Alberta still holds option of payments in kind!

The last paragraph is very interesting. A play on words rather than a fact.

Alberta’s original deal on royalty was that it would be taken in US dollars based on NY prices for sweet crude. Collected in US dollars the royalty would be deposited with the exchange on the US dollars into income in the Alberta coffers.

Mel Knight would have us believe the original deal was in Canadian dollars and, it was not! He has changed it so our royalty is taken in Canadian dollars and the oil companies keep the exchange.

I would call that still another lie.

Alberta is looking at the option of “payment in kind” that is, taking crude oil in lieu of cash. The idea is that the crude oil is either going to be “given free and clear” to the upgraders when and if they come on line or “sold at a very reduced price” to the same upgraders.

No matter which way it is done, it means less and less money into Alberta Treasury coffers while this Government remains in power.

Considering the Canadian Dollar take on resources was put in for all our petro chemical products, the Conservatives have shifted upwards from20 billions of dollars into the petroleum pockets away from Alberta’s taxpayers in the past 2 years.

With that kind of slash and burn to the provinces revenues things are not going to be okay it is a shame however they choose to tax the unfortunate and seniors for their shortcomings in business management.

The Economy-why did we crash?

by: Tyler Durden February 10, 2009
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LiveLeak has caught a scary moment of previously undisclosed insight by Paul Kanjorski where he reveals some facts that have not been captured by the media previously.

At 2 minutes and 20 seconds in the video below, Democratic Representative Kanjorski explains how the Federal Reserve told Congress members about a "tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the United States, to the tune of $550 billion dollars." According to Kanjorski, this electronic transfer occurred over the period of an hour or two. And it gets worse.

Kanjorski paraphrases the following disclosure by Bernanke and Paulson (emphasis added):
On Thursday (Sept 18), at 11 in the morning the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the U.S., to the tune of $550 billion was being drawn out in the matter of an hour or two.

The Treasury opened up its window to help and pumped a $105 billion in the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide.

We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn't be further panic out there.If they had not done that, their estimation was that by 2pm that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the U.S., would have collapsed the entire economy of the U.S., and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed... It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it...

We are no better off today than we were 3 months ago because we have a decrease in the equity positions of banks because other assets are going sour by the moment.

Interestingly, Kanjorski, and likely more and more Democrats, are starting to shift to the camp that more time is needed to make a correct decision this time (which may explain Geithner's decision to postpone the "bank-rescue" announcement by one day, to Tuesday), instead of rushing into another half-baked plan.

Very scary stuff.

Alberta to fund oil company mess cleanups

All of a sudden the messes left behind by oil drilling become an infrastructure problem?
Alberta to fund oil company mess cleanups.
On Thursday nights local CTV news, Mel Knight said: we will pay oil-rig workers to switch-out their duties and focus on cleaning-up (the thousands of) toxic well sites.

THERE IT IS... After years of denying there were toxic well sites, This government is paying for the clean-up costs.

John Clark

Barcelo and Skyservice Huatulco, Take care!

This story is building.
Waiting to hear from Skyservice

Alberta Shock Doctrine is under way!

“As in the Klein days we have to come to terms with the 38.00 barrel of oil” says Stelmach.

In Klein’s days, Alberta would have collected 25% US $ in royalty.
Thanks to Stelmach we collect only 19% in Canadian Funds.
This is a full 50% reduction in our take on royalty, thanks to Stelmach and Knight!
The figures; today’s exchange at .80 cents.
Under Stelmach:
38.00 US oil pays Alberta at 19% or 5.78 Canadian.
Under Klein:
38.00 US oil pays Alberta at 25% or 9.50 US which is 11.88 Canadian.
And as I said earlier, you as citizens of this province are going to be asked to make up the difference.

Alberta-The lowest royalty for oil in the world!

Multi Billions more given up to the oil companies!

In the latest rush of resource give away, the Conservatives have hit a new low!
They revamped the royalty system on December 16 as follows:

Oil companies will not have to pay their pre-payout of 1% as was the original deal. Instead they pay the 1% on the payout portion until after oil reaches 55.00 per barrel!
And:
The original deal was for 25% to be paid as oil royalty from the time the project was paid for. Under the new deal the 25% will not come in effect until oil again reaches 55.00 per barrel.

This means the royalty being collected now is at 19% and all the royalty posturing is nothing more than lies.

To put the icing on the cake, the tar sands refined crude oil is selling at a discount of near 30% when it is being sold at the price of regular crude.
The bottom lines is this Government has now cut itself off cash flow and will try to make that up off the residences in this province.

There is only 1 cure for this, get rid of this bunch of crooks!

Alberta provides the cheapest oil there is to the US.

“At the same time, the development of these things (tar sands) is pretty important, in our judgment, to North American energy security." Says Obama.

It is time to take a closer look at the tar sands crude output.

Tar sands output is a crude oil that has been heavily refined before going to market as crude. There is none of the sulfur or other impurities in the crude. These have been taken out.

Essentially it is clean, ready to be used. This means the refineries in the US who are intent on doing the final cracking in the US are going to be able to collect big bucks back on Carbon reductions.

Very little needs to be done to the Alberta Crude so, they can claim operational improvements in reducing their carbon foot print. Estimates from industry have put a value of the Alberta Tar Sands oil as being underpriced by as much as 30% because of the state of distillation of the product.

If you add the underpriced base oil to the short shift we got when the Conservatives put the oil to Canadian dollars for figuring out royalty you can see where we are paying the oil companies to take the resource away from Alberta.

Alberta Oil News is no news at all!

The Calgary Harold is the most biased, most useless rag in the province if you are looking for information.

Two Examples today:
One misleading quote: “That might work in normal times, but industry leaders are deeply pessimistic these breaks will encourage much new activity in today's bleak conditions.”

They make no effort to explain exploration is down to zero around the world right now. Instead, they would have you believe it has something to do with the new Energy plan. Also note that the Alberta Government doesn’t release these BS enlightenments in papers that allow public opinion.

And another one:

“Knight, however, argued Alberta isn't in "any danger"of collecting less royalties under the new system as opposed to the old one.”
The controversial royalty plan, which took effect Jan. 1, was announced in the fall of 2007 after a government-appointed expert committee said Albertans weren't receiving "their fair share" of energy development.

In this article they pan the Canadian Dollar royalty like it has been in there forever! Such crap!
The royalty was switched from US to Canadian last September away from the public eye when exchange between the US and Canadian dollars was at par.

How in Knights wildest dreams can he expect a point for point change in royalty percentage to make up for the direct 20% loss in exchange? He can’t! It is still another lie.

They have mismanaged this economy drastically. That exchange slight of hands costs Albertans 8 to 12 billions of dollars per year! Think of that when they start laying off and cutting programs.

Alberta to release the SHOCK DOCTRINE!

This is the perfect financial climate for the Conservatives who want to push their right wing privatization agenda more than they want anything else. Cut Services, Destabilize, under fund. This has been the legacy of this Government. When the programs are ruined the answer is clear; privatize it!

Changing the royalty regime on all of Alberta’s petrochemical resource to Canadian Dollars from US dollars, the standards all other in the petroleum trade business follow has ensured them this province will be short 6 to 8 billion dollars a year in revenue and, they have no intention of pulling that money back.

Taking hugely deficient royalty percentages ensured another shortage of revenue. For years now we have only been collecting 19% royalty on the tar sands. The “new deal, good for everyone” moves that percentage back to 25%, where it was to start with. The 1% taken on product until the plant is paid for by Albertans is an icon in itself!

For comparison the US, BC and Saskatchewan all take funds in US dollars This is an immediate loss of 20% Their start up percentage is 2%, not 1 as is Alberta. Another 1% loss.

BC and Saskatchewan both take 34% royalty on Tier 3 oil (producing). This is a long way from the 19% and 25% Alberta is taking. A further loss of 9%

In total we are loosing a minimum of 30% of the revenue that rightly belongs to this province!

There is no guarantee the new rates will come into effect. Mel Knights ongoing lies are tantamount in considering his recent comments that “nothing is written in stone” and “we may put off the increases”
So, the stage is set!
Enter now, THE SHOCK DOCTRINE.
In a few short months (perhaps, weeks) Stelmach-Liepert-Knight-Evans-Snelgrove will begin the process of telling (think – warning and leaky press releases) Albertans the following:
Dear Albertans, because of lower than expected revenues...
Less of X
Less of Y
Less of Z
Then:
Pay as you go A
Pay as you go B
Pay as you go C
And, we're holding off on the previously announced initiatives... long list but, a peek did come in Stelmach’s New Year’s speech on CFRN. When asked about the pharmacare package for seniors he said “that will take place probably in 2010 (think here after the next election) and we will be telling you who pays and, who doesn’t.
EVERYTHING will be blamed on the GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS.

The attitude and direction of Stelmach will be, I / we have no choice.
Behind the veil of the GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS, the Stelmach government will take the opportunity to implement M-O-R-E privatization, including the sell-off of more public works and the rural hospitals.
By definition the basis for the Shock Doctrine is to take Full Private Sector Advantage of public disaster (s) be they mother nature (Tsunami - Hurricane) OR mismanaged economic as is about to happen.
Nobody in Alberta can tell me that should oil slip to $25 a drum (until April) the government won't fire-sale everything to their buddies!

38 years of Tory rule, including billions and billions of non-renewable dollars passing through this province and we have NOTHING MORE THAN ANY OTHER CANADIAN PROVINCE TO SHOW FOR IT.

The Tories have run our province into the ground. Unfortunately, too many idiots got their rocks off because a handful of guys got rich in the process. Yes, a handful of folks did get rich, but that didn't translate into a flourishing prosperous society.

CHORUS OF VOICES CALLING ROYALTIES REGIME A RIP-OFF GROW LOUDERN

Vue Magazine out of Edmonton

CHORUS OF VOICES CALLING ROYALTIES REGIME A RIP-OFF GROW LOUDER
Shannon Phillips / shannon@vueweekly.com
Eighty-four per cent of Albertans think the province isn’t collecting enough royalties from our non-renewable resources, according to a May 2006 poll. But the government says their review of the system—which they won’t release to the public—concluded that we’re getting “our fair share” from multinational corporations reaping unprecedented profits.

Alberta energy minister Greg Melchin says his department finished a review of the province’s oil royalties last week, but controversy erupted when Conservative leadership candidates Ted Morton and Ed Stelmach told reporters the review was discussed at neither caucus nor cabinet. Morton told the Canadian Press that the exercise had not even begun, saying his understanding was that the review had been shelved pending the expected election.

The energy ministry did not return repeated requests from Vue for information on the review.

NDP leader Brian Mason has since written to the energy minister requesting the parameters of the review, its timeline and its participants.

“Basically, the government is saying that their dog ate the royalty review,” quipped Mason.

“During the last election, the NDP was out on its own, asking for changes to the royalty system. None of the other parties would touch it, as both the Liberals and the Tories depend so heavily on money from the oil and gas sector.

“But now, there seems to be a growing awareness that we’re not getting a fair return on our resources—that’s why the province agreed to this phantom review. Given all the fog around it, we’re simply renewing our call for a public, transparent process.”

Alberta’s last royalty review was in 1992, but no significant changes were made. 1997 saw some changes for oil sands producers, but conventional oil and natural gas calculations were designed in the mid-1980s, when oil prices dipped to $10/barrel and the undiversified Alberta economy suffered, with thousands of job losses and a mini-recession.Oil and gas royalties are not just another form of corporate tax—they’re less like tax deductions on a paycheque and more like the cash paid to a landlord. Policy wonks call the concept economic rent: by law, non-renewable resources belong to Albertans, not to the companies that exploit them. Economic rent is the difference between the value of the resource and the cost of producing the resource, including an allowance for a normal rate of return on investment (profit).

Royalties are calculated in many different ways, so comparisons between different countries, states and provinces are difficult. But the Pembina Institute, an Alberta-based environmental economics think-tank, has demonstrated that Albertans are being grossly shortchanged compared to other jurisdictions.
In 2004, Pembina found that Alaska charged $11.60 per barrel oil royalty, and Norway charged $14.10 per barrel. Alberta charged $4.30 per barrel.

Between 1995 and 2002, Alaska captured almost 100 per cent of the economic rent of the resource, and Norway captured almost 90 per cent. Alberta captured just 50 per cent.Calgary-based EnCana—one of Canada’s most prolific natural gas producers—is one of the few companies that disclose their average royalty rates. In 2003, EnCana paid an average of 12.9 per cent on the Canadian (mostly Alberta) natural gas they produced. They paid 20 per cent on their US-produced gas.Low royalties means that Alberta collects the same amount of money from gambling as we do from conventional crude oil ($1.4 billion). Liquor and tobacco taxes significantly outpace oil sands royalty revenue ($1.3 billion on booze and smokes last year compared to $950 million from the tar sands). Add low royalties to the lowest corporate taxes in Canada (reduced this year by another $365 million) and Alberta is by far the most lucrative place in the hemisphere for American oil and gas companies to do business.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers says increasing royalties discourages investment. But that’s not what has happened in countries that have made recent changes to their royalties. Venezuela’s leftist President Hugo Chavez boosted royalties from one per cent to a whopping 30 per cent over the past two years, even charging back-royalties to make up for years of uncollected rent.

Foreign investments from Asia—particularly China—have increased. Only Texas-based Exxon-Mobil has refused to play ball.

Mason says a thorough public review of royalties would take the oil and gas industry’s disinvestment claims into careful consideration.“If the oil and gas industry is saying we’re not going to invest if you raise royalties, and if you look back and see that they were making investments with a third of the profits they are making now, then we need to scrutinize those claims very closely and decide what’s in the public interest,” says Mason.

Tar sands royalties are an entirely different Pandora’s box of complicated calculations. But the basic concept is simple: oil sands developers pay only one per cent royalty until they recover their capital costs—a scheme developed in the early 1980s and reworked in 1997. The one per cent rule was meant to give oil sands producers a helping hand with big-ticket technology and equipment required to strip mine and refine viscous, sandy tar into a usable final product.As production costs have declined and profits gone skyward, many observers are saying it’s time for a change—including former Premier Peter Lougheed. The man who first negotiated what the Pembina Institute calls a “sweet deal for companies” called for a moratorium on tar sands development and a renegotiation of royalty rates in early July. “[Albertans got] $2.85 from a barrel of oil from the oil sands in 1997. They got $1.74 in 2005,” says Amy Taylor, director of ecological fiscal reform at the Pembina Institute.“Keeping the decade-old royalty regime, designed to jumpstart oil sands production, when [the economy] is overheated, is irresponsible,” says Taylor.“At the end of the day,” concludes Mason, “the most important thing to remember is that Albertans own these resources, not the oil and gas companies. The smartest thing to do would be to capture an appropriate return on our non-renewable resources so that we can build an economy based on renewables.

Gas Prices hit 4 year low!

With the price of oil at 37.67 US Alberta presently keeps 19% Canadian which is 4.87 cents US and the oil companies take 32.80 US.

Based on 2 million barrels per day (tar sands and conventional) means that Alberta will get 9.7 million dollars per day in royalty.

Under our contract before the "new deal fair for all" came in Alberta would have received 7.77 per barrel US dollars.

Mel knight and company have given away nearly 50% of our revenue to the oil companies!

Using present day figures we would have received under our orignal deal 18,835,000 US dollars per day. At these rates that is 4.5 billion dollars per year that should have been in Alberta Treasury that is in the OIl coffers!

The worse is yet to come.

The "new deal" comes in January 1/2009 The new deal puts the royalty back up to our origianl 25% but the exchange remains Canadian dollars. I'm pretty sure we won't see it!
Mel Knight is making noises in the media about further assistance to the oil companies. In the new year.

At the same time they have legislation in place for the new year to make all dealings on royalty and literally any other business with the oil companies "secret".

This means we will not know of changes until we loose our services or are taxed to oblivian.

Having watched this pack of outright lies unfold, how could you possibly beleive anything that comes from the mouth of this Government? Keep in mind the recent helath care dribble.

To the PC rank and file I ask, "What in hell is the matter with your heads? They have lied to you constantly for 15 years and you just keep on taking the beating!"

Ron Liepert-A rush to the US health care system.

When Mr. Liepert cut the universal drug coverage for seniors he said “Money is not the object”.

It is true; Alberta’s money has never been the object of concern for this Government! They are driven wholly and totally by a narrow view of developing the perfect conservative state. That is, a total user pays system in which there is little or nothing left anywhere as far as Government support. That would be the US system.

The only moral guide they have is how low or not the royalty and the taxes are.

After the major lies in the “new oil regime” how can we possibly believe on word that comes out of their mouths!

Ron Liepert – One man’s view of health care being installed in Alberta. He is putting us on a fast track to the US system whether he says so or not! People with a different view he calls “negative whiners” on the opposition benches.

There is no consideration given to the fact the US system is hugely more expensive than the Canadian public system.

In Mr. Liepert’s view, the only people that are concerned about what he is doing are the media and the opposition. Paying 8000.00 a year for a subscription to the Calgary physicians clinic "is one of the shelf". If you want to pay that, go ahead he says but does not entertain conversations about cue jumping or not.

Mr. Liepert outlines his experience in Los Angeles as a trade representative, described as a standard perk. He explains his son was assessed quickly for a broken arm but no treatment would be forth coming until the hospital was paid 5000.00 (cash?).

Sounds drastic don’t it. The fact overlooked is the Alberta Government would have covered him with premium (some would say unheard of) health care coverage while in the US. All he had to do was show his card.

The article also tells of his enterprise in setting up a day care centre in Calgary and his on going association with Jim Dinning who is involved in private hospitals and senior’s care centre. Between them they will certainly know how to rip taxpayer money out of the system to their own enterprises! Perhaps they are in line to pickup up some of the prototypical hospitals?

The article also dwells on Mr. Liepert’s success in building 18 new 3P schools. The article doesn't say the title of these 3P schools can be transferred to an individual or a company in less time than it takes to write this article. And, with the tax dollar (some of it) travelling with the kids now, you can say comfortably you are looking at the end of the public school system in Alberta.

Alberta Oil Royalty-Lies burried within lies

With lies like this how can any person in their right mind believe Liepert on his measured privatization of Health Care?

How can this crew be believed on any thing they say?

Government outright lies are going to cost you!

With our dollar at 80 cents we are loosing 20% of our royalty in exchange. That is over 6 billion dollars of Albertans monies have gone into oil pockets as a bonus.

Today, Albertans are given a choice of a deficit or, do you want to pay more for gas at the pumps. Some choice!

On another front this same bunch of bandits is saying they will close rural hospitals and turn them into homes for the aging. This, forcing rural people into city hospitals for treatment.

In almost the same breath they say they are going to increase the costs of accommodation in these same buildings as a means to attract investment.

Soon enough you will hear the announcement that the hospitals have been sold to Conservative insiders for a dollar (After you have finished paying for conversations as required). This is still another big leap forward in privatization.

When Mel Knight made his lie public at the last election he put out reams of paper showing there would be increased revenue attributed to his "new deal". The figures put forward to the public includedlies about anticipated revenues from new production from new tar sands installations.

When the crunch came, the new projects were cancelled and his numbers became impossible. So much for the most expensive lie in the Conservative history!

The minster went public saying "errors had been made" In any civilized Government there would be resignations of both Stelmach and Knight but not in Alberta; they own it you know.

Alberta trashes seniors - Again!

Summary: Long term care facilities in Alberta are for the very rich. If you do not quality, find a ditch to retire in!


EDMONTON – Health Minister Ron Liepert today announced a new strategy for continuing care called “Aging in the Right Place.” The success of that strategy will hinge on the government acknowledging the reality of the seniors population in every community across Alberta.

Unfortunately, the strategy fails to plan for the construction of any new continuing care beds, despite projecting a need for approximately 750 beds per year over the next 20 years. The new strategy suggests this need can be met by increasing home care services and moving some seniors out of long-term care and back into the community.

It is important to provide these options to seniors who are healthy enough to take advantage of them. However, as the 2005 MLA Task Force on Continuing Care noted, the health needs of Alberta’s seniors in continuing care are increasing and becoming more complex. It is unlikely that these needs can be met without the level of professional staff and services available in a continuing care facility.

"Albertans need to ask themselves whether they want such a big leap into private, for-profit senior's care delivery. Senior's will pay more, and long-term services will be in short supply."

While increasing "options" seniors might have in regards to service and accommodation, the strategy is to increase fee structures for senior's accommodation, and to freeze long-term care services at 2008 levels for an unspecified number of years.

Also, the change in fee structure for long-term care and senior's care facilities in the province is unacceptable. "Three years ago the fees for long-term care increased by 40% and this year there was an additional 6% increase. Now the government wants to adjust fees again 'to encourage more investment.' Merry Christmas for private health care providers," said Eggen.


Information provided by:

David Eggen
Executive Director
Friends of Medicare
780 423 4581

Alberta's new energy vision.

Alberta’s new energy booklet “energy vision” released today is like the other new fair for all deals they have come out with. Iris Evans made an announcement on funding the other day. The funding was not nearly has important as the by-line as in “another project paid for out of windfall profits”

After giving away 16% of our revenue to the oil companies in their currency flip it is all they can do to keep this province afloat! And, with personal bankruptcies climbing one has to wonder if it is afloat or not!

No more windfall profits Evans! Try for once to take care of the provinces business. Perhaps the oil guys will give you a week off.

To the subject of the new booklet:
“Changing energy consumption behavior of industry and ordinary Albertans.” It says. And
Strengthening the electrical transmission system by "identifying requirements, technical solutions, timing, and updating of the approval process."

The Conservatives sponsored an Environmental speakeasy in Lethbridge about two years ago and filled the forum with their own people notably one “famous” scientist from the US who said Alberta was on the right track increasing the cost of water and electricity. “It is really the most effective way to change things”

The announcement above is telling us the price of electricity is going to sky rocket in Alberta to a point you cannot afford to use it. And, with the encouragement of the Government. So much for Alberta’s Advantage!

Both Epcor and Enmax are owned by the cities of Calgary and Edmonton. You can't deal with the Government on anything or can you deal the power companies but you can deal with the city councils. Vote them out if need be!

This would suit Alberta’s scheme of things allowing more electricity to be available for export.

This, is a segway into the Bruce Power bid for Nuclear power in Saskatchewan. While the power is a good thing in my mind the plans are not.

Alberta announced a new power line from the connection of the Saskatchewan grid to the Montana border. Because it is on the Alberta side of the line, Alberta taxpayers will be paying for the power line of which Saskatchewan will be the major user.

By this time we all know what huge disdain the Conservatives hold the electorate in this province. You and I simply do not matter!

Perhaps some of you die hard Conservatives that are perhaps a little tired of 14 years of lying by these guys will rethink your ideals as you shiver in the dark.

Alberta looses 6 billion of royalty by mismanagement

I don't think it is a coincidence that Alberta is going to be short 6 billion dollars in oil royalty.
When these turkeys reduced the oil royalty taken by changing the funds from US dollars to Canadian dollars we lost 16% right off the top.

With today's low prices, Oil is 46.79 US per barrel Exchange is at 80 cents.
The oil companies get paid in US dollars. Alberta converts that figure to Canadian dollars to calculate the royalty, currently at 19%

Considering only the cut we took in exchange at these figures Albertans will loose
$6,489,773,000 this year. The same number Iris Evans tells us we are going to be short.

They gave it to the oil companies what in hell do they expect? We will be told projects are cut, funding is cut and layoff is they key word for control.

This is nothing short of gross mismanagement by this Government!