Abandoned and orphaned wells a difficult problem
By Letter to the Editor on February 3, 2020.
Alberta is facing a crisis. One that has been quietly percolating for years, and now that we have run out of time, something must be done about the abandoned and orphaned gas and oil wells doting our landscape. We have a conundrum, as no one knows where the estimated billions of dollars to pay for the clean up should come from. The UCP government, at the moment, and like governments before them seems to have no plan. They could resort to their usual strategy or “us” against “them” by blaming, Trudeau and Notley, or the public service unions with the plan to cut wages and have union members pay. So far, with Kenney’s comment “you can’t wring blood from a stone,” it seems the strategy is not to make the corporations responsible, resulting in a brewing fight with rural municipalities by laying the responsibility on them. Does anyone know exactly what is happening with the Alberta Energy Regulator? I propose an actual plan. A plan that has it roots in liberal democracy, wherein people work together to solve problems. Delay the corporate tax cut for at least one year. The cut hasn’t delivered the promised economic resurgence and jobs as promised, and the revenue generated by this move would go exclusively to the clean up. At the same time, Alberta would negotiate with our federal government to dedicate a percentage of the Carbon Tax Rebate to help with the process. Every Albertan would have a helping hand. This would mean that the UCP would have to acknowledge and embrace the carbon tax, at least to a certain extent, and we could add the money from dropping any improbable legal action against the federal government concerning said tax. The most significant aspect of this proposal is that it would actually increase employment. Jim Schmid Medicine Hat 7-6
Those of us who desperately tried to put a stop to what Ralph Klein was doing to us, and I include Klein’s father Phil and his daughter Angie in that group, can only say “We told you so”. Having known him since the early 1960s I knew he couldn’t be trusted. He was a high school drop out, arrogant bully, with a major drinking problem and many Alberta seniors made him their hero. He was no hero. According to them he could do no wrong and they called us all sorts of names for trying to put a stop to what he was doing. It was a huge mistake. During my 32 years in the world of finance he was in fact the best con-artist I ever knew and I encountered many of them. He knew exactly what to say and when to say it and these ignorant seniors bought it hook, line and sinker, like he knew they would. He always loved to make people look really stupid.
His actions, which were continued by the Stelmach and Redford governments have completely destroyed our children’s future and I don’t see any solution to fixing the mess that’s been created, yet we still have these mindless seniors singing their praises and believing every lie Jason Kenney feeds them as he continues on where Klein left off looking after himself and his rich friends, promising to make the lives of these seniors a living hell, and they aren’t smart enough to understand it.
There is no question that Albertans have been treated like Village Idiots and have allowed it to happen. Blaming it on Notley and Trudeau just makes us look a lot dumber to the rest of Canada, people aren’t that stupid.They know what blindly supporting these Reformers has done to us and they made certain in the last election it didn’t happen to all of Canada. They haven’t forgotten what Reformer Harper did to us.
Jim says Alberta is facing a crisis, and that’s the game these Reformers have been playing all along. Even during the boom years Albertans were always fed the lie that we were in a crisis situation and we need to tighten our belts. Yet they were the ones creating the crisis by giving away our oil and tax wealth, while Alaska and Norway were building up huge savings accounts for their children’s future and our oil corporations were bragging about their record profits. Some of these profits were legally owed to Albertans but never collected. Looking after their rich friends was far more important to them. Our Auditor General Fred Dunn pointed out was going on , on several occasions but was ignored.
Maybe these seniors that got us into this mess had better start explaining how they intent to get us out of it because my friends and I don’t have an answer. Kenney certainly has no intention of helping you protect what little money some of you might have left. Lining up at the food banks might be where we find you in the future.