ECA Review 2021-03-18

4 March 18'21 HANNA/CORONATION/STETTLER, AB. Eca REVIEW
OPINION
The opinions expressed are not necessarily
the opinions of this newspaper.
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EDITORIAL
Highly charged
emotional affair
Brenda Schimke
ECA Review
The province believes it should get
refunded billions of dollars of federal
taxes collected from Albertans
because those dollars were never
returned to the provincial government
in equal proportion through equalization
payments.
Does it then follow that Calgarians,
the wealthiest and largest contributors
to provincial tax revenues, should also
demand a refund whenever more
money is spent on, say, Edmonton hospitals
than theirs?
Kenney is going to use a fall referendum
on
equalization to
“
argue, ‘those
who pay the
most taxes,
should get an
equivalent
return’.
Equalization
payments are
messy and easily
misunderstood.
Former Prime
Minister Harper,
with Jason
Kenney as a
senior federal
minister, didn’t
eliminate equalization
payments
when they had a majority in Ottawa
because they couldn’t. Equalization
payments are enshrined in the
Constitution. The federal government
is mandated to ensure reasonable provincial
parity in health, education and
social services.
Another important fact, it’s individual
Albertans and corporations
who finance the federal budget, yes,
even equalization payments, not the
Alberta government. Over the last 40
years, on average, Albertans have, and
still do, make the most money and, in
turn, pay the most federal taxes.
Similar to Calgarian taxpayers versus
the rest of us.
Some will even go to the polls
believing the Alberta government
writes a big fat cheque every year to
the federal government to dole out ‘our
money’ to other provinces.
So why is Premier Kenney having a
referendum on equalization when it is
a constitutionally-mandated federal
program, and its Canadian taxpayers
that foot the bill, not provincial
governments?
Former Governor General David
Johnston in his book, “Trust, Twenty
Ways to Build a Better Country”,
argues party platforms, election contests
and elected legislatures, albeit
lengthy processes, provide the best filtering
to reach wise decisions, whereas
referenda undermine the complex
interplay of a democracy.
“Referenda are polarizing devices
and are used to not only divide regions
and peoples, but divide families—often
irrevocably”, wrote Johnson. “They
usually focus on a single issue and
they are invariably emotional
affairs—extremely so, which tends to
cloud or distort our individual and collective
thinking.”
Alberta has major troubles. We’ve
spent 40 years subsidizing low tax
rates with resource revenues and
spending like drunken sailors through
each boom, making the bust times
unsustainable.
We want the
solutions to be
easy—privatize
Referenda are
the civil service
and cut someone
polarizing devices and are else’s job—but
unfortunately
used to not only divide our hole is too big
for ‘bust’ policies
regions and peoples, but of the past.
Revenue must
divide families—often
also be on the
table—our own
irrevocably.
revenue, not the
federal government’s
revenue.
- Former Governor General
DAVID JOHNSON
Instead of an
emotional, nonsensical,
non-binding referendum
on equalization, we need an
Alberta government willing to
acknowledge past mistakes made by
successive provincial governments.
We all enjoyed the ride—addicted to
petroleum dollars, ultra-low taxes and
the highest standard of living in
Canada.
We wanted for little, but planned
poorly for the future. Unfortunately,
the future has arrived.
Albertans, including myself, were
like millionaire lottery winners. We
didn’t invest our windfall wisely, we
didn’t plan for our money to run out,
we kept spending as our cash was
depleting (Alberta has run a deficit
budget every year but one since 2008)
and now broke, we’re claiming Ottawa
stole our money.
Offering up a federal responsibility
(equalization) in a provincial referendum
won’t bring financial stability
to Alberta. It will, however, distract
Albertans from the UCP government’s
lackluster performance in handling
Alberta’s revenue problems and its
multi-billion-dollar investment bungles
last year.
But the referendum is money in the
bank for those who want to rile
Albertans into an even higher state of
emotional rage against Ottawa and
further the advancement of their ultimate
goal of separation.
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East Central Alberta
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MAIL BAG
Goes with the flow!
Dear Editor,
Just a comment on editorial titled
“People corrupt power’, March 4, 2021,
pg. 6, calling Joe Biden a “God fearing
man of humility”?
If he truly feared God he would not
be pro-abortion?
I believe he is Roman Catholic and
his position is totally against his
Church’s teachings!
JOYCE WEBSTER
Publisher/Editor
publisher@ECAreview.com
YVONNE THULIEN
Marketing/Digital 403-575-9474
digital@ECAreview.com
Strange to call Trump “amoral, corrupted”
when he is pro-life!
It’s really hard to know where Joe
Biden stands on anything. He goes
“with the flow”.
There are no perfect men or politicians.
If we wait for that, we would
have no one in office!
Margaret Lane
Big Valley, Alta.
Proper research required
to go total ‘Green’
Dear Editor,
“Green” will not go far without the
help of proper research and the help of
what we have now as far as oil and gas
(O&G), nuclear, solar, wind, hydro...
DEF (diesel exhaust fluid) for diesel
trucks: a fluid used to prevent soot and
gasses entering the atmosphere and at
the same time drive up the costs one
engine repairs and pollute landfills
with non-recyclable plastic containers
is turning out to be a DUD!
OR ...
Mining open pits for non-renewable
lithium used in batteries for electric
vehicles that require hydrocarbons
(from oil and gas) for greased bearings
and rubber tires, plastic (O&G) and
metal panels (mining required for raw
materials)!
Plus batteries developed to this day
still do not have the capabilities for
long term storage of electrical power.
By the charging aspect ratio to get the
electric vehicle (EV) charged to use as
an everyday unit costs more per litre of
gas then an ICE (internal combustion
engine)!
Then there is the cost of revamping a
home electrical service that most
homes in a town/city block cannot
handle!
When you purchase an EV from a
dealer, the charger given takes days to
charge. A super charger, which makes
a.car usable daily, almost requires a 70
to 100 amp breaker which by the way
not only adds to double the house
power, it exponentially adds demand to
the block power grid, then exponentially
adds to the whole power grid
which by the way, would crash most
power plants we already have.
What about end of life wind turbine
props that have mass graves in
Wyoming because there is no recycle
plan in place for a unit that also uses
steel (O&G mined and produced) and
grease for bearing (O&G) product.
I am for GREEN without question.
My yard has solar, my neighbours
have turbines....however this last cold
snap in Alberta, they were useless!
Solar in Alberta in the cold and the
now closed solar farm in southern
Alberta below -25°C were crap.
Some so called experts say that solar
charges better in the cold, are telling a
half truth....it takes energy to keep the
batteries at a certain temperature and
snow and cloud cover are blockers.
Turbines ice up so O&G kept my
place warm, as it did with every
Albertan who used natural gas, diesel
or coal to heat their home and used
their ICE units to drive to work and
feed livestock while using natural gas/
coal fired power to light their homes!
Stop the fear mongering and do all
100 per cent of the research to the bitter
end . . . not stop at a point to say ‘this
looks okay’ and invent a cart that goes
in front a horse...
There is a long ways to go yet!
Adam Badzioch
Hanna, Alta.
BRENDA SCHIMKE
Editorial Writer
JUDY WALGENBACH
Marketing 403-740-2492
marketing@ECAreview.com
TERRI HUXLEY
Reporter 587-321-0030
news1@ECAreview.com
NIAOMI DYCK
Circulation
STU SALKELD
LJI Reporter 403-741-2615
reporter@ECAreview.com
LISA MYERS-SORTLAND
Graphic Artist
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