Before he became minister of the environment and deputy premier, Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre MLA Jason Nixon was quoted in the Jan. 21, 2019 edition of the Mountain View Gazette as saying “the reality is we are not going to accept a fake consultation process that is rushed and not done adequately with the community.”
I asked a series of questions in a letter to the editor of the Mountain View Gazette dated Jan. 27, 2019 such as: Who did Nixon really represent? Real estate developers? Natural resources industries? Those business interests who want to expand their operations into the Bighorn Country?
Well, it seems that the UCP government is going to close down some of our provincial parks and is going to privatize others.
Where were the consultations with the public?
When the United Conservative Party (UCP) was in Opposition, it wanted referenda, but now that it is in power, Mr. Kenney and his government are not likely to allow the public to vote on this matter as well as on cutbacks to public education, cutbacks to public health care, cutbacks to municipalities, cutbacks to public housing (AISH), cutbacks to firefighters’ training, cutting standards for child care services, etc.
However, Mr. Kenney’s government is increasing the funding to private schools to $293.6 million. Charter schools will receive $89.2 million. Home schooling will receive $23. 6 million (Source: [email protected]).
Mr. Kenney has also granted a generous tax cut to corporations and to wealthy individuals, and he has also created a $30-million a year bureaucracy (“the war room”) to protect the energy sector from unknown outsiders (aliens, commies, tree huggers, etc.).
Moreover, he has decided to give $100 million to ex-oil workers to clean up the 5,000-plus orphan wells left by the oil companies. Oh, and he failed to mention that the energy companies hadn’t paid $175 million in taxes to the municipalities.
Plus, he plans to give movie companies money to develop movies in Alberta, and he is planning to create a new bureaucracy which will loan money to First Nations to develop energy resources on their lands.
George Thatcher,
Trochu
