Ahhh, how the bureaucrats would howl if someone said that their budgets would be cut by 15% due to implementing Kyoto!
Posted on 09/13/2002 3:27:23 PM PDT by Clive
Premier Ralph Klein and Finance Minister Pat Nelson were in a trance-like state earlier this week. I don't know whether it was the two solid days of visioning and blue-skying at the annual Tory caucus retreat at Government House or whether it was just the nice weather.
But it was clear that their feet weren't actually touching the ground when they began whimsically talking about building up a $2.5-billion stability fund to ease Albertans through the times of plunging resource revenues and unbalanced budgets.
It's going to be a wonderful and perfect world, this new Alberta, where governments will be allowed to run up deficits on the promise that they will pay all the money back to the stability fund when the good times roll again.
Luckily, it appears there are at least a few fiscal conservatives left in the PC party these days.
Nelson's original plan was to begin tapping the capital in the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund. But when MLAs hit the rodeo and barbecue circuit the message they overwhelmingly heard from Albertans was that the concept being promoted by Revenue Minister Greg Melchin was not only dangerous, but stupid.
Still, Melchin won't take no for an answer and he's about to embark on yet another public "consultation" process, asking Albertans what to do with the fund.
Finally, Klein came back to earth and admitted the Nelson plan to make the province's roller coaster budgeting go away and amass billions in a new superfund is based on one premise.
"This is sans Kyoto," Klein said.
And if Prime Minister Jean Chretien does what he said he was going to do during his Green Jean tour of South Africa last week - and ram through the detested Kyoto greenhouse gas-emission reduction treaty by Christmas - then any thought of having massive amounts of surplus energy cash lying around to subsidize the budget is crazy.
"We think it's going to have a significant negative impact on the economy," Klein said.
This was confirmed by none other than the premier following a brief phone chat he had with Chretien yesterday where the PM reportedly dug in his heels and said the Kyoto accord will have "only" a 15% negative impact on "industry."
However Chretien came up with the math - and there's every reason to believe he's low-balling it - that's an astounding admission. A 15% hit on "industry" would have a corresponding hit on all Canadians.
Are Canadians - especially the Liberal voters in central Canada - willing to see the price of their homes drop 15%? Or the cost of motor fuel rise 15%? Or their way of life diminish 15%?
Of course the punishment will be far greater in Alberta, where the Ottawa Liberals' cynical tax grab will be felt the most.
The problem is, the Klein government appears unwilling or unable to take on the Liberals in a political battle.
Last week Klein promised to reveal his new media strategy to beat Kyoto. Well, Monday came and went. And it was Thursday before the environment PR machine kicked something out. And they needn't have bothered.
Instead of an in-your-face explanation to ordinary Albertans - and, more importantly, central Canadians - of what implementation will cost them, there's going to be an "Internet-based" consultation on Alberta's climate-change plan. Now that's really going to throw a scare into Chretien.
At least it's better than the last time the Environment Department tried to galvanize public opinion by leaking a poll that said 72% of Albertans love Kyoto and want it ratified. And all we have to do to make it possible is to install programmable thermostats and triple-glazed windows in our houses. Nothing about losing our jobs and our houses and our dignity when the oilpatch shuts down.
Someone should have been fired. Or maybe it's already happened, after the government put out a cryptic press release earlier this week announcing the deputy minister of environment is being shuffled into health.
Meanwhile, Alberta's most committed Kyoto enemy (next to Chretien and Environment Minister David Anderson), Manitoba Premier Gary Doer is scheduled to speak at the Alberta New Democrats annual meeting tomorrow. Hopefully Doer will explain how Manitobans will accept Chretien's 15% hit.
Ahhh, how the bureaucrats would howl if someone said that their budgets would be cut by 15% due to implementing Kyoto!
Oh sure. Next you will tell Canadians that the cost of the Canadian gun registry will be $120million (CDN$).
[Its already at $339million, and counting!!!]
Heck...remember the great budget debate of 1995? The liberals/bureaucrats cried because they thought that a 15% INCREASE (which they called a "cut") was inhumane and intolerable. These leftists are as phoney as plastic bananas.
"The prime minister said the Western world "is getting too rich in relation to the poor world.""
The Chretien crowd, leftists, hate you and your countrymen, Clive. They enjoy seeing you lose out in their fantasy world human zoo where some other poor souls "win."
The alliance of these rich leftists is the alleged "enemy" - the Globalist corporate elite. Here's what the President of Boeing said recently:
And the United States has no divine right to our standard of living," Mulally added, defending Boeing's overseas parts production.
Mulally: Global Boeing must share
Chretien's statement about 9/11 being about rich and poor, when Osama was nothing about that, is part of the denial of 9/11 and the spin to redefine the "root causes" to assuage liberal guilt, and further stoke Globalism. Chretien is all for globalism and harming the Canadian people.
You were saying. ??
Oh my.. yes, you do have a lot to live down, don't you, almost as much as we do. :-}
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