The reply to this letter was a copy to 6 Ministers
with a speical note to Finance "How much is
this going to cost"
 
 
 
Honorable Ralph Klein,               August 26, 2003
Room 307
Legislative Building,
Edmonton, AB T4K 2C6
 
Re:- The occupation of Alberta by Ralph Klein.
 
Dear Premier:
 
The compelling information you have regarding climate change is near catastrophic and puts Alberta on the course of a climate very similar to Southern Iraq or Turkey more probably on the short term rather than the long.  Extremes in weather and unpredictable weather are parts of the scenario.  Ongoing drought and forest fires are going to be the norm rather than the exception. Forest fires and unprecedented pestilence are but symptoms of the climate change rapidly coming upon us.   Lakes will become mud holes and rivers will dry up.
 
The extending drought has already caused the earth to move away from house foundations around Alberta causing them to crack.   I would think any one who has built in the last 6 years has recourse on the Government because of a lack of proper building standards to account for these known changes.
 
When your Environment department confirmed the above they also said studies were being made on how to use the unusable (un-potable) rivers of water from the Viking aquifer.  Considering the oil companies have been accessing this “bad” water for years further studies would only be for the purpose of stalling for time. Oil companies site only the added expense, by comparison to surface water, as being the only real draw back!
 
I recall people in Parkland County complaining their water wells went dry after seismic went through their region.  They speculated the seismic had damaged the upper water aquifer.  Your response was less than caring, "prove it".
 
Knowing what you know about the weather change and dwindling water resource it is irresponsible for you to allow oil companies to use any drinkable water for injection into the wells for oil recovery!   Your water plan amounts to a charge on Alberta residences for the water taken by oil companies and pumped down hole.
 
When do the oil companies start paying for the damages they have done and the water they have already ruined or wasted?   Is seems to be your  plan to stall  full public disclosure of information on climate change until the oil is gone, the drinking water is gone and the oil companies have moved on?
 
Why are the Oil companies not made to pay for the water used and, the water they have already used? They are largely responsible for the havoc and contamination sludge in the lakes caused by the drafting of water by trucks.
 
An optimistic view of conventional oil and gas supplies runs at 15 years until we are dry. Other views run as low as 6 years.  By then you hope to have the methane tapped from coal reserves, always  draining fresh water supplies.  As usual it is the average family in Alberta financing the oil companies and now the power companies!
 
You have sold off all the cheap and accessible oil and gas leaving Albertans to pay premium prices for this same resource while looking forward to even higher costs for British Columbia and Mackenzie Delta gas. 
 
Having already ravaged the water tables you are planning a horrific operation on methane recovery from coal seams.   Soon enough; no gas, no oil and no water, living in a desert; Oil companies gone leaving their damages behind them or in shell “management” companies.
 
I have also received a note from the Minister in charge of power transmission who gave me some hand outs telling me “ALBERTAN’S HAVE ALWAYS PAID FOR THE TRANMISSION OF THEIR POWER.”  Albertans have never had to pay for exporting electricity!   There is no plan where individual rate payers will receive a direct refund on the power lines you are asking them to pay for when these same power lines are used to export electricity to the US!  
 
Again it is the individuals of Alberta financing the power companies.  Returns to so called General Revenues are not acceptable.  Direct and full refunds to power bills and on going profit sharing on power bills is only just acceptable.
 
The oil and gas is all but gone.  All sold out from under us leaving no advantages at all.  You are looking for gas supply now in British Columbia, the Fort St. John area (down some 7000 feet) and twisting arms tying to get the finance in place to move gas from the Mackenzie Delta.  You have moved Albertan’s from access to inexpensive self sustained gas to the highest utility in Canada with promises of going still higher.
 
I don’t by your BS on NAFTA stopping energy rebates.  NAFTA concerns its self with industries.  A rebate program would be seen as a “district” issue and not of interest to them.  I also don’t agree with your multi billion dollar fund set aside to get you elected again although you may consider that an emergency.  But then again I don’t agree with your creeping taxation on drink containers and access fees which goes directly to lunch boxes and families, hitting every person in this province to get millions in funds to put into your “surplus.”
 
Wreck the water supplies, plunder the gas and oil utility.  Sell off the citizen owned electrical power at pennies on the dollar; exploit the people further by making them pay the highest rates in Canada for the use of the utility you gave away.  Further, tax them to finance the building of the power lines for the same people who took over the utilities for nothing in the first place. 
 
Your policy has long been Oil or nothing.  We end up with nothing.  Kill any industry that may lean upon the oil companies, use police to entrap or coerce to this end regardless of the toll on families and health. The oil is gone and we have nothing.  As I write this letter every province in Canada is exporting up scale manufactured items ranging from pharmaceuticals to hardware to packaging.  Your mega government is “thinking maybe microbiology as an industry”
 
The world has moved on but this province is still mired and dying in your private sunshine.
 
I wrote you regarding the gas burning studies which are in place showing the toxic nature of regular gas and sour gas give off high levels of ferons and bi phenols as well as a long list of noxious gases because of improper burns. I gave you the doctor’s name that did one of the more recent studies asking when you were going to release this information to the public.  You sent it forward to Environment and, they have never answered.
 
It is good to see your on going support of insurance companies is coming back to haunt you, big time.  Millions spent in developing hail controls – all turned over to the insurance companies to administer. 
 
They invested their accident “reserves” into stock and dot coms which crashed. This according to conversation with the insurance bureau early 02.

If we have to bankroll their business investment losses as least all insurance should be a tax deductible!   The harsh and unreasonable premiums have every thing to do with investment and little or nothing to do with driving records!  I have been told that conversations regarding turning photo radar clips over to the insurance companies as a means to increase their revenues has enjoyed more time than it should.
 
You continue to drag this province into oblivion.
 
 
John Clark
 
Cc;/various.net. pdf