I recently had the opportunity to sit down one-on-one with the leader of the United Conservative Party.
Despite the relentless snow that seemingly without end kept coming down on Friday, March 2, Jason Kenney — accompanied by the Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre riding’s own MLA Jason Nixon — managed to safely navigate the treacherous roads to arrive in Sundre after stops in Rocky Mountain House and Caroline.
We met at Mr. Nixon’s constituency office, and although I’d been offered about 10 minutes, I figured considering the circumstances, what with weather delays, that I would be lucky to even get a few. After all, my humble musings do not command quite the same reach in readership as for example the CBC, CTV, Global News, or the big-city dailies, and the entourage did have other places to go before the day was over.
So I was surprised to end up actually getting to chat with Mr. Kenney for 15 minutes.
While there were plenty of questions that might easily have consumed hours, we nevertheless packed quite a bit of conversation into that relatively brief period of time. Among the issues we dove into were abandoned oil wells in Alberta, and the potential cleanup cost racking up tens of billions of dollars on the taxpayers’ tab.
"Let’s face it, there’s no silver bullet to solve the problem of cleaning up abandoned wells, many of which were drilled by companies that no longer exist,” he said.
In the future, Mr. Kenney said that part of the answer would be to ensure proper bonding of companies that intend to drill wells. However, regardless of whether such rules should in the past have been in place, "there’s no point in crying over spilled milk.”
That statement struck me as dismissive of a serious issue facing this province. Abandoned wells and the monumentally mammoth cleanup tab is a much bigger deal than spilled milk, which costs nothing and almost no time to wipe up from the kitchen table.
Of course he’s not wrong to suggest companies that in the future wish to drill must be bonded. Still, I cannot wrap my head around how there were apparently no stipulations in past contracts that held companies responsible for the cost of cleanup, instead conveniently selling out the interests of Albertans who are left flapping in the wind holding onto a bill we cannot afford to pay.
Although he did not seem particularly receptive to a proposal of reforming the carbon tax to iron out the problems — his motto might as well basically be "repeal or bust!” — Mr. Kenney nevertheless seemed open minded to certain clean energy alternatives, provided the technology is economically feasible.
When asked about the potential to convert suitably located abandoned wells into geothermal stations that generate free, clean power, he confessed not being familiar with such a proposal, "but if there is a technology that works economically, I’m sure an entrepreneur will find a way to do that, and I would support that.”
So while it’s encouraging that the UCP leader expressed support for green energy such as geothermal, provided of course there is an economical case, I still cannot help but to disagree with his position on the carbon tax — which for the record certainly has room for improvement, especially in terms of accommodating non-profit organizations.
"Punishing consumers is not an environmental strategy,” he said.
Unfortunately, if history has taught us anything, it is that the only way to help the environment and reduce wanton, unbridled waste in a convenience-trumps-all consumer culture is actually precisely to do just that. People would have never, on average, adopted recycling habits had deposits not been imposed on beverage bottles.
We did not get into LGBTQ students and gay-straight alliances, right to choice of education and taxpayer dollars funding private and religious schools, impending legalization of recreational cannabis, or how claims that the NDP government is killing Alberta’s economy reconcile with stats that show a province leading the country in economic growth.
Seeing what his party’s outreach to Alberta’s grassroots will yield in terms of proposed policy positions when the fledgling conservative party presents Albertans with an alternative to the NDP platform should be interesting.
But please, everyone — whatever happens, let us not elect the UCP solely on the issue of repealing the carbon tax.
There must be more substance. This trend of casting votes on a single issue or out of spite against one party rather than through inspiration for another must end.
My concern with politics is that parties — and sadly all too often supporters on either side — seem more preoccupied with tearing one another down as opposed to working collectively to help us all rise together.
Most lifestyle differences among people do not personally affect or even so much as remotely harm one another and should therefore have no bearing on political discourse. From who a person chooses to love, which deity someone else desires to worship, to another who perhaps would gladly pay to watch Hollywood-glorified violence, none of these should be issues.
So long as a person is not causing someone else direct distress, who even cares?
What we should be focused on are the commonalities that connect us, including quality health care, education, the environment, functional infrastructure and effective emergency response services — all of which impact every last Albertan, regardless of background.
— Ducatel is the editor of the Sundre Round Up, a Great West newspaper
