I’ve been away, and I’m a little jetlagged, but it seems to me that we’ve just seen the first use of the Alberta Sovereignty Act. By the government of Saskatchewan. Today, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe announced that the provincial gas utility SaskEnergy won’t collect or submit the federal carbon tax on natural gas used to heat homes starting on January 1.
Assuming it gets that far, it'll be interesting to see what happens when a crown corporation is directed, by a servant/subject of the crown (Scott Moe, the guy who took an oath of office that included stuff about loyalty to y'know, the crown), to break the law of the crown (collecting the federal carbon tax).
Apparently it's much more expensive to heat a home with heating oil than with natural gas. The people blathering about fairness need to self-reflect more. Our local situation is different from Atlantic Canada's.
Good point about "fairness." There's really no being fair with conservatives anyway because they're simply not "fair-minded" so I think what Trudeau is doing here is pulling rank, dividing and conquering.....as with child care, health care, and climate policies, all of you provinces who accept that Canada is indeed a federation esteemed worldwide that you're lucky to be part of AND that the dangers of climate change are real AND who share Canadian/liberal values around the vital importance of children, their education AND their mothers right to WORK, AND are proud of our system of public health care? Have we got a deal for you; all you have to do is sign up. And we'll even wait until you're ready because we're genuinely here to make life better for more people, so I see another part of Trudeau's strategy as giving the party of NO enough rope to hang themselves.
And seriously, at this most critical point in time, what exactly are the conservative "values" again? Tradition and small government in ever more difficult times, freedumb, yeah right. Stupid. None hold a candle to the enduring liberal ones; there's a reason we never talk about a "conservative democracy."
Liberals/progressives are inarguably the natural governing party of any democracy because they're the truly fair-minded, the visionaries, the generous and humane. But because it's consistently a 60/40 split, conservatives have become ever more devious, pulling every trick in the book to topple us and drag us down, even if our hard-won democracy comes with it.
I am astounded how many people jump on the BS conservative/Boilievre bandwagon where every single problem is Trudeau's fault, despite how childish, nasty and ridiculous that is, not to mention flat out wrong. So now when horror of horrors, he has the temerity to temporarily tweak a policy in one of the many unique parts of this vast country that mainly supports his aforementioned values in order to secure their votes, everyone jumps on him for being "political" as if all political parties aren't political for gawd's sake!
But the most astonishing thing is how all the pundits, etc. on this dumb bandwagon somehow ignore the overarching reality-- that the Liberal Party is the ONLY one seized with our quintessential, existential problem---climate change.
So conservatives could actually kill us all. We could all go down with democracy.
Yeah, but the point of Carbon taxes is explicitly to disadvantage inefficient energy sources. They should have kept the tax and worked with the province on a program to replace legacy heating oil systems
They have a program to help people get heat pumps instead of furnaces, and I think it is popular in Atlantic Canada. The sooner people there get heat pumps, the better for them as they save money on heating and reduce emissions.
I wish Premier Smith would get off her butt and work with the federal government to reduce emissions, but instead she is deliberately making them worse. She is working to destroy Alberta's clean energy idustry and refusing to make the oil industry clean up its act.
Alberta is going to be poor and polluted because of her. And if she attains her goal of making us separate from Canada, we will be even poorer and more polluted.
Scott Moe, and the Saskatchewan Party have done more than enough damage in Saskatchewan, like Danielle Smith and the UCP have done in Alberta, so they need a source of detraction.
"Direct revenues, it noted, would rise to C$8.27 billion in 2022-23, with the carbon price increasing to C$50 per tonne." Reuters on the Canadian Federal Carbon Tax.
Former Premier Jason Kenney blew $1.5billion on the Keystone pipeline to nowhere.
Its seems to be of the moment for provincial Con pols to stoke fears and poke at scabby Fed-Prov resentments to bolster their otherwise creepy derelict policies and performance. I'd love to see Moe trip all over his shoelaces directing a crown corporation to ignore the law. Can I get extra butter on my popcorn? What a show! Provincial premier petty blackmailers against the Feds and the Courts! Hmmm - Won't go to the first bell - Justin might surprise all and sundry and show some spine!
It doesn't help matters to have a bit of cynical realpolitik enunciated by a Liberal minister - what was she thinking?? But give it a second - she's right. Imagine if Albertans were as transactionally promiscuous with their federal vote? 34 seats up to the highest bidder. No party has a lock on 'em. If the Cons actually had to deliver the goods instead of just tucking these Alberta seats into their rare majorities where they are all but ignored? Imagine the consternation of a Liberal or NDP majority/minority govt at a block of seats from the Alberta showing up with a "show us the regional goodies, cabinet posts and committee plums" or we walk across over to other guys?
Her remarks ranks right down there with the then-cabinet minister Ken Kowalski threats of a PC administration "punishing Edmonton" for the Whitemud constituency choosing Liberal Percy Wickman as their MLA over PC Leader Don Getty. Which that PC administration did in spades - Ahhh, I dont' miss those schadenfreude-filled days...
There’s a new race to the bottom going on in the Prairies. Scott Moe is racing Danielle Smith to be the first to the Supreme Court. What’s the legal phrasing of “No, Premier, you can’t do that!”?
Even worse—because they damn well should have known better—the Trudeau Liberals have crippled their carbon tax. They’ve proven they’re more concerned with hanging on to power than with exercising it well. Now the demands for more exceptions will fly thick and fast. In fact, they already are.
I had high hopes for both Justin Trudeau and Rachel Notley (Gawd, what a naif I wuz then). Notley had been captured by the oilpatch even before she won the 2015 election. Her control-the-oilpatch rhetoric was mere Opposition spin. Trudeau might have become an acceptable PM, but he rapidly morphed into another Machine politician. Now he’s an Incumbent politician, desperately trying to be a populist and a business-suckup at the same time.
And Trudeau just blew it. “Atlantic populist” has provoked Prairie populist “Hey whatabout US?” backlash. Now he’ll have to either whittle away the carbon tax to nothing, or destroy his support in the Maritimes by reneging on his exemption promise.
I foresee a federal election next spring, because the damage from this episode will break the term of the supply and maintenance agreement. Jagmeet Singh will have no choice but to withdraw support, thanks to Trudeau’s latest blunder. Result: Prime Minister Poilievre.
Scott Moe, and the Saskatchewan Party have done more than enough damage in Saskatchewan, like Danielle Smith and the UCP have done in Alberta, so they need a source of detraction.
Assuming it gets that far, it'll be interesting to see what happens when a crown corporation is directed, by a servant/subject of the crown (Scott Moe, the guy who took an oath of office that included stuff about loyalty to y'know, the crown), to break the law of the crown (collecting the federal carbon tax).
Apparently it's much more expensive to heat a home with heating oil than with natural gas. The people blathering about fairness need to self-reflect more. Our local situation is different from Atlantic Canada's.
https://nitter.net/rantonstupidity/status/1719098654345019396#m
Based on this, natural gas also costs more in NS than in Sask, but still less than heating oil.
https://www.efficiencyns.ca/tools-resources/guide/heating-comparisons/
Good point about "fairness." There's really no being fair with conservatives anyway because they're simply not "fair-minded" so I think what Trudeau is doing here is pulling rank, dividing and conquering.....as with child care, health care, and climate policies, all of you provinces who accept that Canada is indeed a federation esteemed worldwide that you're lucky to be part of AND that the dangers of climate change are real AND who share Canadian/liberal values around the vital importance of children, their education AND their mothers right to WORK, AND are proud of our system of public health care? Have we got a deal for you; all you have to do is sign up. And we'll even wait until you're ready because we're genuinely here to make life better for more people, so I see another part of Trudeau's strategy as giving the party of NO enough rope to hang themselves.
And seriously, at this most critical point in time, what exactly are the conservative "values" again? Tradition and small government in ever more difficult times, freedumb, yeah right. Stupid. None hold a candle to the enduring liberal ones; there's a reason we never talk about a "conservative democracy."
Liberals/progressives are inarguably the natural governing party of any democracy because they're the truly fair-minded, the visionaries, the generous and humane. But because it's consistently a 60/40 split, conservatives have become ever more devious, pulling every trick in the book to topple us and drag us down, even if our hard-won democracy comes with it.
I am astounded how many people jump on the BS conservative/Boilievre bandwagon where every single problem is Trudeau's fault, despite how childish, nasty and ridiculous that is, not to mention flat out wrong. So now when horror of horrors, he has the temerity to temporarily tweak a policy in one of the many unique parts of this vast country that mainly supports his aforementioned values in order to secure their votes, everyone jumps on him for being "political" as if all political parties aren't political for gawd's sake!
But the most astonishing thing is how all the pundits, etc. on this dumb bandwagon somehow ignore the overarching reality-- that the Liberal Party is the ONLY one seized with our quintessential, existential problem---climate change.
So conservatives could actually kill us all. We could all go down with democracy.
Yeah, but the point of Carbon taxes is explicitly to disadvantage inefficient energy sources. They should have kept the tax and worked with the province on a program to replace legacy heating oil systems
They have a program to help people get heat pumps instead of furnaces, and I think it is popular in Atlantic Canada. The sooner people there get heat pumps, the better for them as they save money on heating and reduce emissions.
I wish Premier Smith would get off her butt and work with the federal government to reduce emissions, but instead she is deliberately making them worse. She is working to destroy Alberta's clean energy idustry and refusing to make the oil industry clean up its act.
Alberta is going to be poor and polluted because of her. And if she attains her goal of making us separate from Canada, we will be even poorer and more polluted.
Well, well:
"Is now a bad time to point out that Alberta has been offering a taxpayer funded subsidy for heating oil and propane for years?"
https://nitter.net/North_Resists/status/1720146799380627774#m
And so does Saskatchewan
https://nitter.net/North_Resists/status/1720147578246053942#m
Scott Moe, and the Saskatchewan Party have done more than enough damage in Saskatchewan, like Danielle Smith and the UCP have done in Alberta, so they need a source of detraction.
All this kerfuffle over peanuts!
"Direct revenues, it noted, would rise to C$8.27 billion in 2022-23, with the carbon price increasing to C$50 per tonne." Reuters on the Canadian Federal Carbon Tax.
Former Premier Jason Kenney blew $1.5billion on the Keystone pipeline to nowhere.
Pietro Wislon: It's actually $7.5 billion, because there are $6 billion in loan guarantees that are still not accounted for.
Jason has a lot to answer for then, in addition to funding the NeoNazi Azovs to fight those Russian speaking Ukrainians.
He's probably done more damage than Madoff or the Sacklers. Can't wait to read Jeremy Appel's bio of him.
More about the cost of heating oil:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/heating-oil-carbon-tax-pei-1.7012855
Meanwhile the PM says there will be no further exemptions. So what will Moe do?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-no-fruther-carbon-tax-exemption-1.7014116
Its seems to be of the moment for provincial Con pols to stoke fears and poke at scabby Fed-Prov resentments to bolster their otherwise creepy derelict policies and performance. I'd love to see Moe trip all over his shoelaces directing a crown corporation to ignore the law. Can I get extra butter on my popcorn? What a show! Provincial premier petty blackmailers against the Feds and the Courts! Hmmm - Won't go to the first bell - Justin might surprise all and sundry and show some spine!
It doesn't help matters to have a bit of cynical realpolitik enunciated by a Liberal minister - what was she thinking?? But give it a second - she's right. Imagine if Albertans were as transactionally promiscuous with their federal vote? 34 seats up to the highest bidder. No party has a lock on 'em. If the Cons actually had to deliver the goods instead of just tucking these Alberta seats into their rare majorities where they are all but ignored? Imagine the consternation of a Liberal or NDP majority/minority govt at a block of seats from the Alberta showing up with a "show us the regional goodies, cabinet posts and committee plums" or we walk across over to other guys?
Her remarks ranks right down there with the then-cabinet minister Ken Kowalski threats of a PC administration "punishing Edmonton" for the Whitemud constituency choosing Liberal Percy Wickman as their MLA over PC Leader Don Getty. Which that PC administration did in spades - Ahhh, I dont' miss those schadenfreude-filled days...
There’s a new race to the bottom going on in the Prairies. Scott Moe is racing Danielle Smith to be the first to the Supreme Court. What’s the legal phrasing of “No, Premier, you can’t do that!”?
Even worse—because they damn well should have known better—the Trudeau Liberals have crippled their carbon tax. They’ve proven they’re more concerned with hanging on to power than with exercising it well. Now the demands for more exceptions will fly thick and fast. In fact, they already are.
I had high hopes for both Justin Trudeau and Rachel Notley (Gawd, what a naif I wuz then). Notley had been captured by the oilpatch even before she won the 2015 election. Her control-the-oilpatch rhetoric was mere Opposition spin. Trudeau might have become an acceptable PM, but he rapidly morphed into another Machine politician. Now he’s an Incumbent politician, desperately trying to be a populist and a business-suckup at the same time.
And Trudeau just blew it. “Atlantic populist” has provoked Prairie populist “Hey whatabout US?” backlash. Now he’ll have to either whittle away the carbon tax to nothing, or destroy his support in the Maritimes by reneging on his exemption promise.
I foresee a federal election next spring, because the damage from this episode will break the term of the supply and maintenance agreement. Jagmeet Singh will have no choice but to withdraw support, thanks to Trudeau’s latest blunder. Result: Prime Minister Poilievre.
God help us all.
Scott Moe, and the Saskatchewan Party have done more than enough damage in Saskatchewan, like Danielle Smith and the UCP have done in Alberta, so they need a source of detraction.