Dear Editor,
I attended Highwood MLA RJ Sigurdson’s Budget 2024 town hall on March 7. I thought it was well organized and Sigurdson was well prepared. The various discussions amongst the 100 attendees were very lively.
While I agree that we all must “live within our means,” I found it a bit disingenuous for Sigurdson to proudly proclaim a balanced budget when, in fact, it includes “the smallest budget surplus since the governing UCP first started projecting balanced budgets in 2022, and relies on additional borrowing of just under $2.4 billion in 2024-25.”
In that same Edmonton Journal report, Finance Minister Nate Horner rejected assertions that the surplus was misleading, but conceded the province would require a $3-billion surplus to avoid further borrowing.
“It’s confusing,” he added. Umm, say what?
I also had a big problem with the government hypocrisy evident on three fronts: More ‘red tape’ and regulations for renewable energy projects as the moratorium has ended but a complete double-standard when it comes to fossil fuel site life-cycle management.
Yes, of course, end-of-life remediation is critical for all energy facilities. It’s clear the government has learned from the debacle of the quarter of a trillion-dollar liability (says the AER) to clean up the thousands of inactive and orphaned oil and gas wells and oilsands operations throughout Alberta – but it must apply the same rules across the board.
Sigurdson agreed with me that taxpayer money should not be used to fund corporate welfare projects like ‘RStar’ to clean up the oil industry’s contracted obligations.
Next up: Budget 2024 is not tied to inflation or increasing population and thus per capita spending on healthcare (and education) is decreasing further. Therefore, I thought that redirecting blame to AHS for continuing EMS issues over the past year when staffing is already a critical issue was unfair and counter-productive, especially when the government is heading into contract negotiations with AHS employees.
Lastly: I was glad to hear the issue of the imminent severe drought brought up, in light of Energy Minister Brian Jean’s unsolicited letter to the AER that forcibly resurrects Northback Holdings’ application for an open pit coal mine at Grassy Mountain. Again, say what?
The UCP government has placed a de facto moratorium on using the term ‘climate change,’ which is absurd on its own, but surely the rest of Premier Danielle Smith’s cabinet sees the dangerous folly in wasting and contaminating our precious water sources on a coal mine the vast majority of Albertans have already firmly rejected.
Gordon Petersen
Okotoks
