I received a letter from the Energy Minister Shannon Philips. She assured me that the carbon tax was only on the energy consumed and not the service charges.
Then she went on to extol the virtues of all the projects the carbon tax will be funding: green infrastructure like mass transit, and such.
Mass transit is something that is of absolutely no use to people who live outside the densely populated areas. We can’t take the subway to the farm, or to town for that matter. Still, we are doomed to carry a proportionately greater part of that burden because we have to drive more.
They can’t feed themselves without the efforts of agriculture and they can’t heat their homes or drive to the golf course without the services rural people provide. I propose that the carbon levy, as they call it, be set aside for people who live outside major population centres.
They did mention subsidies for low income families. Watching what they have done to the carbon tax rebate, I am not reassured.
The first refund I received was a little over $100. A friend wanted to know what the coming refund would be as she needed it for her property taxes. I phoned and asked what the refund would be. The nice young lady’s word it was $50. She did state that this amount was based on my 2016 income tax. Well…2016 wasn’t much better than 2015.
I was getting the distinct feeling I was being hosed. I went to a webpage. There it stated that this year’s refunds would be $50 and so would next year’s. I haven’t filed my taxes for this year yet.
Speaking of getting hosed, the training for a renal dialysis tech is two semesters for an LPN. Now, Minister Sarah Hoffman didn’t come out and stipulate what she considers to be ‘a long time’ but, according to the South Peace News there are several people in town who don’t consider it an unreasonable investment of their time.
The government has decided they just don’t want to do it – for whatever reason they have chosen to invest their energy in.
Too much politics these days is what I remember seeing. Less is getting done, and the reasons for doing it grow exceedingly bent and twisted. Sort of like the NDP took up where the Conservatives left off. Sort of like Derek Fildebrandt double dipping. He used to be with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, who tore around the countryside attempting to expose political wrongdoing in these matters by politicians big and small.
Fildebrandt should have known better.
Then there are the allegations of the hit and run. This brings to call questions of his judgment.
The UCPs then say that if he “can live up to the expectations he has outlined in his statement to the satisfaction of the UCP caucus” they would consider letting him return to caucus. That sort of calls into question their judgment.

Eva Sartorius,
High Prairie