Doing the math on convoy to Ottawa
By Letter to the Editor on February 22, 2019.
Re: “Convoy passes to great support,” Feb. 15 “Organizers say 100 trucks” including “several dozen heavy trucks and as many pickups” passed through Medicine Hat “on the 3,900-kilometre trek (7,800 km return)to the nation’s capital.” We examine the fuel cost incurred by one diesel pick-up engaged in this ill-conceived adventure. Consumer Reports (09/20/17) rated four diesel pickups whose average fuel consumption was 5 km/L. This truck will use 1,560 litres on the round trip. The average price of diesel in Canada from 11/05/18 to 02/11/19 is $1.23/L (globalpetrolprices.com). This fuel cost for truck will $1,918. Alberta suggests that the carbon levy on diesel will be $0.08/lt. Had the fuel cost for the truck been saved and applied to the future carbon levy, it would have paid the levy on 23,975 litres of diesel. That $1,918 would have soon come in handy. And it does appear that the convoy’s journey will be in vain. University of Alberta constitutional law expert Eric Adams says: “…the realities are that most experts who look at this issue think the federal government very likely does have that constitutional authority (to impose the carbon tax).” Included in the truckers’ litany of lament is that “They (the government) are not listening to us.” But there are a lot, if not a majority, of Canadians to whom they are listening. Fred Lewis Medicine Hat 9-8
To add to what Fred is saying, yesterday at coffee a group of us seniors were talking about how stupid this whole thing has become. Instead of blaming it all on the Liberals and NDP governments maybe they should be looking at the facts. It’s the courts that shut it down. The Liberals and NDP have proven they are all for it and as the former oilmen in the group have been saying you can blame the Klein and Stelmach governments for not making certain that their was a proper system in place for getting all the increase in production to market , that they created with low royalties and taxes . Now we have these oilmen creating traffic nightmares for citizens who support them and wasting money on fuel, and making fools of themselves.
Here in Edmonton, just before Christmas, they found it smart to block our Anthony Henday highway with 1,200 trucks and what they did was make it impossible for parents to get home from work to take their kids to their Christmas concerts at school, or made it impossible for people to get to our airport on time who were flying somewhere for Christmas. In other words they pissed off people who are on their side.What’s smart about that?