John Clark
14815 - 123 Ave
Edmonton, AB T5L 2Y7
john Clark@cyberclark@shaw.ca
September 30, 2004


Honorable Ralph Klein,
Room 307
Legislative Building,
Edmonton, AB T4K 2C6
Ralph KleinE-mail Address(es): premier@gov.ab.ca

The Honorable Patricia Nelson, MLA
224 Legislature Building
10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton,AB T5K 2B6
Phone: 780 427-8809
Fax: 780 428-1341

Patricia NelsonE-mail Address(es): patricia.nelson@gov.ab.ca


Dear Ministers:

Three times I have asked you, does your announced budget of 358 million dollars power subsidy money for Albertans apply to power transmission as well as power price increases.

I have seen announcements of 100 billion dollars (half of Canada’s national debt) in Transmission Lines, Generating Facilities, Railroads and pipelines.

I have seen absolutely nothing about how you expect to pay for this! Incredible!

You legislated a difference between power supply (increased supplies coming on should mean lower power prices) and electrical transmission (these prices will be astronomical)!

The question is simple enough for honest people.

Does your “budget for power charges to protect Albertans” extend to the separate billing of power transmission charges? If so, will transmission charges be frozen for us at today’s rates?

John Clark
http://ralphsworld.blogspot.com/

John Clark
14815 - 123 Ave
Edmonton, AB T5L 2Y7
cyberclark@shaw.ca
September 30, 2004
Honorable Ralph Klein,
Room 307
Legislative Building,
Edmonton, AB T4K 2C6

Re:- Hands Off! Protect 20 Billion in oil profits going to stock market rather than royalties!

Dear Premier:

Why does Hands Off not apply to you too? You do not speak of our cash and oil, you speak of the massive windfall profits going to the stock market! You and your oil royalty polices, the lowest in the world, have been ripping off Albertans for the duration of your administration! With oil above 50 dollars a barrel and the revenue returned to Albertan’s remains only 25% you are allowing multi billions of dollars of what should be Albertans’ money to go into oil company windfall profits and then the stock market.

This year alone, I would estimate greater than 20 billions of dollars lost to Albertans out of the Tar Sands this year alone! Plus the lost royalties on conventional sources and we have enough to pay the National Debt!

The conventional supplies of oil have less than 6 years of production left and this production comes at a high price to our potable water! You have already squandered away this resource. National gas is almost gone, residual to be used by the tar sands for heat extraction. Do we get paid for the latter or, is it given freely to the oil extraction companies? It seems to me we are getting hit from all directions and there appears to be no hope for change under your administration.

I see the Suncor/Elzinga marriage as a farce. High priced spin doctoring to protect share dividends!

If you will not get Albertans a fair return on their resource it must be left up to Ottawa to do so!

John Clark

Color .pdf copy of map available at cyberclark@shaw.ca

ALBERTA SUSTAINABLE RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Office, of the Minister
RM-6532
September 27, 2004
John Clark
Edmonton, Alberta
email mmcardinal@assembly.ab.ca

Dear Mr. Clark:
Thank you for your September 9, 2004 letter regarding the Farm Holdings Consolidation Program. I appreciate the opportunity to provide the following information.

Leaseholders have, and have always had, the choice to request a sale of their leased land or to continue leasing. They are not required to make any of their leased land available for sale. The only change is to the sale process. Leaseholders will now have the opportunity to match the highest bid on up to one section (640 acres) of leased land, if the land is approved for sale.

It is important for Albertans to know there are about 100 million acres of public land in the province. Only five percent of these are leased for agricultural purposes. I draw your attention to this because there is some misunderstanding about the scope of this program, which involves a small amount of land in the White Area (settled area) only. As applications are received, Sustainable Resource Development will consult with other resource management agencies to determine if the land is suitable for sale. As always, land will not be sold if it is needed for conservation or other Alberta government programs. Green Area (forested area) land will not be sold (enclosed is a map of the Green Area).

As you are aware, the agricultural industry is going through some difficult times. We need positive initiatives that continue to strengthen and diversify Alberta's agricultural industry in the longer term. Further information is available on the government's website at
http://www3.gov.ab.ca/srd/land/index.html

Public lands with watershed concerns, including the headwaters of rivers, are considered conservation lands and will not be sold. Water rights are generally not sold with public land. If there are existing water rights associated with the land (e.g. for irrigation purposes), these may or may not be sold depending on the circumstances. The allocation of water rights and the management of water licenses is carried out under the Water Act, which is administered by the department of Environment. I have taken the liberty of forwarding a copy of your letter to Honourable Lorne Taylor, Minister of Environment, for his consideration.

I appreciate being made aware of your views on this matter.
Sincerely,
Mike Cardinal Minister
MLA for Athabasca/Wabasca Constituency

Enclosure
cc: Honourable Ralph Klein Premier
Honourable Pat Nelson Minister of Finance
Honourable Lorne Taylor Minister of Environment

1. "It's great to be in Alberta," Pat Nelson, the province's Finance Minister, said of the booming economy. "Where does it get better, folks? Look around. It doesn't get any better than this. We are very, very, very lucky to be living in this province."
   
   
2. Kevin Fong has devised his own bellwether measure for Alberta's economy. The Mercedes-Benz sales consultant believes there is a boom when buyers are driving the luxury vehicles off the lot with little attention paid to their $80,000-to-$150,000 price tags. And then there's the waiter at Divino Wine & Cheese Bistro -- where $600 bottles of wine are regularly uncorked -- who received a 50-per-cent gratuity running into the hundreds of dollars.
   

These are quotes from an article in today's Globe and Mail which talks about the financial bliss that $50/barrel oils brings to this province.

My question for Ms. Nelson is this. Who are the "We" that are "very very very lucky" and how do I become one of them? Do I have to do anything special to get my Mercedes-Benz or is Premier Klein just going to hand them out to us all before the election - just like Oprah did?

An Electrical Engineer with vast experience available to field your questions.

A reliable source for power information, a personal friend; Mr. Dane has been trying to protect us from Klein and Steve West for a number of years. He noted on the onset of the electrical power fiasco that it was a poorly planned, expensive job, brought about by crisis management with the tax payers paying the bills. He would be happy to field your questions, preferably by email.


Allan Dane, M.Sc.(EE)
11234 - 71 Ave. NW
Edmonton, AB, T6G 0A6

adane@ecn.ab.ca

Only public pressure, now, will salvage anything! Get active!

John Clark
14815 – 123 Ave
Edmonton, AB T5L 2Y7
September 23, 2004.
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Office of the Solicitor General
Honourable Heather Forsyth, Solicitor General
heather.forsyth@gov.ab.ca
Phone: (780) 415 9406
Fax: (780) 415 9566

Mr. Cardinal seems reluctant to release information and the R.C.M.P. I understand are awaiting your response as to whether and when they should start and investigation.

I feel very strongly the secrecy surrounding the sales of public lands on the east slope of the Rocky Mountains is dangerous to our water supplies and is very suspect because of the secrecy.

I press you to get answers for me.

John Clark
Copy:http://ralphsworld.blogspot.com/

CBC Calgary: Alcohol for votes alleged in PC nomination meeting in Edmonton Gold Bar:

Touchy situation for Premier Klein here. Doesn't want to pull a Paul Martin and intrude on the democratic process by asking Mr. Randhawa to step down. On the other hand, having the Tory candidate in Edmonton Goldbar essentially elected by a bunch of bussed in drunks doesn't have very good optics either.

Here's a solution Ralph. Tell Mr Randhawa that if he steps down as the PC candidate you'll make him your next ethics councillor. He'd be a perfect fit.

Letter by Canadian Taxpayers Association.

August 11, 2004

Abolish “health care premium” tax for all Albertans

Exempting seniors from having to pay the health care premium tax is a step in the right direction. But this tax should be abolished for all Albertans, because it’s deceitful, regressive and unnecessary.

This tax is deceitful because it’s dressed up like an insurance premium, which it is not. These “premiums” of $1,056 per family per year, or $528 per year for individuals must be paid like every other tax. If you fail to pay, the government will place a lien on your property, seize your car, freeze your bank account, garnish your wages, etc. This tax is also deceitful because it gives Albertans a false impression that our health care system costs $44 per month, or $88 per month for families. In fact, the Alberta government spends nine times as much on health care as what it collects from Albertans by way of the health care premium tax.

The Alberta government could take all revenues from personal income tax ($5.1 billion), property tax ($1.2 billion), tobacco tax ($0.7 billion), liquor tax ($0.6 billion), and fuel tax ($0.6 billion), and rename these five taxes “health taxes,” and put the combined total of $8.2 billion into a separate health care account. That would give Albertans a better understanding of how much health care truly costs. But right now, all money collected as “premiums” – $928 million per year – is put into General Revenues like every other tax.

Not only is the health care premium tax deceptive, but it is regressive. A single person earning $16,000 per year at a minimum wage job must pay $528 per year. A family with children earning $35,000 per year must pay $1,056 per year.

In addition to being deceptive and regressive, the health care premium tax is unnecessary. Revenues from this tax make up less than 4% of total revenues; the Alberta government could easily do without the extra $928 million.

Further, it costs $13 million per year to collect this tax – enough money to purchase four MRI machines.

The government’s decision to exempt some Albertans from this tax on the basis of age looks like a cynical pre-election ploy. In regards to their income, seniors are just like 25-year-old and 45-year-old Albertans: some are rich, some are poor, and most are middle-income.

But now the government has created a situation where a well-to-do retired couple – without kids to support or a mortgage to pay off – is exempted from the $1,056-per-year tax. But if this same retired couple has children – in their 30s, raising kids and paying the mortgage – those adult children must pay the full $1,056-per-year tax. How is that fair?

The only valid basis for a tax exemption is an inability to pay, or a low income. Race or ancestry is not a valid basis for a tax exemption, nor is age. There is no reason why wealthy seniors should be exempted from a $1,056-per-year tax while middle-income families must pay the full $1,056 bill. One must remember that low-income seniors have already been exempted from this tax, as have non-seniors with very low incomes.

Hopefully the government’s move to exempt seniors from this tax is the first step towards exempting everyone. But until that happens, a glaring and unfair inequality will remain in place, and Albertans will continue getting gouged by a tax that is deceitful, regressive and unnecessary.

John Clark
14815 – 123 Ave
Edmonton, AB T5L 2Y7
September 14, 2004.
cyberclark@shaw.ca


Honorable Ralph Klein,
Room 307
Legislative Building,
Edmonton, AB T4K 2C6

Mike Cardinal
Minister of Sustainable Resource Development
420 Legislature Building
10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton T5K 2B6

The Honorable Minister Patricia L. Nelson,
224 Legislature Building 10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6

Re:- Massive sales of public lands on east slope of Rocky Mountains.
Further to my letter of September 9, 2004.

Dear Ministers:

Thank you for your confirmation of the above captioned land sales.

Questions remain:
If sales are to the highest bidder, how is the bid conducted?
How can this be done in apparent secrecy and still be considered open?
Exactly how are participants in the bids selected or notified?
Why was the general public omitted?
What is the total revenue you expect to receive on these sales?

Because of the first in line, first in time critique for water allotments and because these lands represent the origins of or drinking water aquifers; is water allotments given with the title or separate to the land title?

Under what process was this land sale authorized?

Do you think it will survive a forensic audit it you are not elected?

John Clark.
copy:- RCMP K Division Edmonton, Investigations.

John Clark
September 13, 2004.
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Honorable Ralph Klein,
Room 307
Legislative Building,
Edmonton, AB T4K 2C6

Dear Premier:-

Alberta being out of debt is an outright lie. Quite the contrary, you have driven us into debt like no other premier in our history! What you have done is directed the debt from the Government to Government initiated and controlled “private companies” and “authorities”. The “companies” do the work that government departments once did. The bills still come to the tax payers while you dodge the responsibilities.

You structure these “companies” to side step questions and criticism and refer quickly to “market prices” and “market pressures” as if they were the design of some one other than your Government! This same scam allows you to misdirect responsibilities to these same “companies” saying to the public you have no control or authority. If ministers are no longer responsible why are they getting the big bucks?

You have tabled 100 billions of dollars plus of projects in power generation, power transmission water pipelines rail, inter basin transfer resulting in privatization of water and you have no financial plan for payment put forward. In other words, we are some 100 billions of dollars into debt but we are forced to pay it to your organizations rather than our Government as taxes. Cheaper? Not a chance with your cost plus “bids” and guaranteed profit scales!

Oil Companies pay Alberta the lowest royalties in the world. Of this there is no doubt. These same companies have tax dispensations which allow them to write off revenue for “unforeseen future losses”.

According to your figures the top 10 oil companies pulled out 12.6 billions of dollars in profits from the oil sands in the year ending 2003. Cost of production has remained stable while profits soar in 2004. Your projections of 60 dollars per barrel coupled with the fact more companies will move from the 1% realm in royalty to the 25% lowball realm will push oil companies profits for the year ending 2004 to above 25 billions of dollars!

An additional 15% or even 20% royalties would not affect the stock market but would affect the stock dividends on oil which you are going to fight at any cost to Albertans. Even with the additional 20% coming to Albertans, oil shares would be more attractive than almost every other type of stock on the market!

Rather than tax away windfall profits for the benefit of Albertans you position Peter Elzinga into the oil industry to be your Official Spin Doctor. On the other side you have positioned Steve West in to control your ministers and our elected MLAs.

Albertans are going into debt by 100 billions of dollars and you expect every household and business in Alberta to pick up the tab while you guard your share dividends in the oil companies.

I have asked if the 358 millions of dollars in budget for consumer protection on power prices are going to extend to price increases in power transmission. No answer yet so we can assume that it doesn’t. Ralph’s deal is no deal at all! As electrical generation increases the prices usually drop. On the other hand, the billions of dollars going into power transmission lines are being charged to consumers under your “equalization” program.

Even here, the stock dividends are your only focus! Wind power is only functional 30% of the time. This leaves 70% (more billions of dollars) of the power lines built for export to be paid for by Albertans in general.

If your power subsidy of 358 millions is only for power and not for transmission as appears to be the case, Albertans can look for increases of hundreds of dollars per month in their electrical bills. And, it will take more than 358 millions to cover these costs! No help here for people on fixed pensions and wages!

I have asked the Honorable Mike Cardinal about his massive sale of lands on the eastern slope of the Rockies and have no response. As this area being sold off is the origin of our fresh water aquifers I have asked questions regarding water rights. Did you sell off the water allotments on these public lands?

I think Albertans deserve some straight conversation rather than your defensive comment. I would also like to hear you say you will give us another 20% of the oil profits which you have given away!

John Clark

John Clark
14815 – 123 Ave
Edmonton, AB
T5L 2Y7
September 9, 2004
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Honorable Ralph Klein,
Room 307
Legislative Building,
Edmonton, AB T4K 2C6

The Honorable Minister Patricia L. Nelson,
224 Legislature Building
10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6

Mike Cardinal
Minister of Sustainable Resource Development
420 Legislature Building
10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton T5K 2B6

Dear Ministers:

My letter on the massive panic sale of public lands on the eastern slope and foothills of the Rocky Mountains remains unanswered. Selling to the highest bidder causes rise to questions. How does the bid process take place? Who gets invited to the Bid? Will there be a list published other than the Alberta Gazette as to who was successful and at what price? What is the total revenue you plan on receiving for these sales?

I recall you acquired media attention over questionable practice in stocking fish into a lake that was owned or shared by you. I’m not clear if it was raising water levels in the lake or just the stocking of fish. Perhaps you would clear that up for me?

The point here being, I see no room for questionable practice in a land sale project this massive and must ask for a public process with public disclosure.

Because this land is also the origin of our potable drinking water aquifers I am concerned of the water resource being brought under foreign controls. I ask again, does the water rights go with the property and if so the amount of water in the package?

Answers please!

John Clark

John Clark
14815 – 123 Ave
Edmonton, AB T5L 2Y7
September 9, 2004.


Honorable Ralph Klein,
Room 307
Legislative Building,
Edmonton, AB T4K 2C6

Re:- Projects announced Power and Rail rip offs.

Dear Premier:

Albertans should realize they will have to pay for these so called projects from oil royalties or on their utility bills. Projects built by Alberta Taxpayers, rolled into private companies with no return for Albertans in this century!

By any count, you should call the election tomorrow while there is still a little something left of this province, otherwise stripped to the bone by you and your policies.

The Oilsands Transportaton Project with an under estimate of still another 2.5 billions of dollars is a lesson in double talk and misrepresentation like no other! By what stretch of imagination do you suppose a railroad to McMurray will come in at only 2.5 billions including bridges and depots while a straight forward power line between Edmonton and Calgary is presently under budgeted at 7 billions of dollars?

A mere 300 millions of dollars in tax payer money is going into the rail for “seed funds”.(Near the same amount you have set aside for relief of power, not transmission bills).

According to the same press release, the remaining billions of dollars will be paid for by freight charges to the oil sands. The oil sands can deduct the money paid for freight charges off the precious little royalties they now pay the province! Now, even less royalies.

You are so busy with your schemes you have lost track of the numbers! Or, as has been my experience with you, you don’t have any numbers! Cost plus contracts and oil royalties does away with a lot of unnecessary budget work. Albertan’s have to wake up!

Your comments are always welcome.

John Clark

September 2004 Martha’s Monthly

“Martha is Miffed”

Sometimes Martha wonders what she will pay attention to this month. One thing that really caught her eye this month may not seem that big. It’s just a little medallion for the 100^th Anniversary of Alberta. What has gotten Martha so upset over a little “feel good” project? Is it the medallion picture? The new Alberta song? Not at all. Her issue is the expenditure of some Million and a half dollars in order to give every school child a medallion and every Albertan over 100 a 14K gold medallion (there are expected to be about 600 people over the age of 100 in the year 2005!). (See: CBC story ) Now Martha is neither against school children nor centenarians, but when a government spends over a million bucks on a medallion and cuts out Widows’ Pensions in the same month, Martha gets a little miffed. And Martha gets a little more miffed when she does the math about Widows’ Pension to discover that $1.5 Million would provide an average of $500 to the approximately 2500 widows and widowers receiving pensions. I don’t know about your kids but Martha looks at her little Dick and Jane and can’t imagine that a medallion will make much of an impact in their lives. (And Martha muses “how long until those medallions are showing up at every garage sale, much like those Thigh Masters or the Petro-Canada Olympic glasses?”) But those 2500 widows could sure use $500. It would make an impact in their lives!

Now Premier Klein and Human Resources and Employment Minister Clint Dunford might wish to counter that Widows’ Pension has not been eliminated entirely but is being integrated into Alberta Works, a one-stop income support program that combines Supports for Independence (Welfare), the Skills Development Program and Widows’ Pension. (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped will remain a separate program) However, Alberta Works is a program in which clients need to be “income-tested” in order to receive, for a single person, $402 per month. So our widow has to prove she is unable to work or must actively look for work (an average of three applications a day is recommended), and do it all on $402 a month. If this strikes you as a little harsh, you would not be alone. In fact, Minister Dunford’s own colleagues in the MLA Committee to Review Low Income Programs thought it too hard as well. They made some startling recommendations after hearing from 6000 Albertans, many of whom received welfare. They concluded that welfare rates are too low and the Alberta government should move to a Market Basket Measure to provide welfare based on the REAL costs of living in Alberta. The report stated that most welfare recipients were not able to find housing for $168/month (the shelter allowance) and therefore used their food money to pay rent. Read the Committee’s reports yourself: What we Heard and What we Recommend. To read more on Market Basket Measures and the controversies about how to quantify poverty read: MBM

On August 19, 2004, Statistics Canada released a report on welfare cases in Canada (Stats Can report) that showed welfare cases, in spite of rhetoric to the contrary, are actually down across the country. Some argue this is a result of improved economies. But some anti-poverty activists caution us that it may be more the result of stingier governments that continue to reduce welfare recipient numbers by offering low gain and high pain. Some provinces, like Alberta, have cut their welfare recipient numbers so drastically (by freezing rates at 1993 levels, among other things) that we in Alberta now have the dubious honor of offering the worst place to live in Canada for those who have disabilities and the second worst province to live as a single person on welfare. The National Council of Welfare compared welfare income to the poverty line and showed Alberta’s welfare rates to be staggeringly substandard. A person with a disability will receive from welfare only 39% of the income it would take to bring her to the poverty line. A single woman who is deemed employable would receive only 25% of the income she needs to reach the poverty line. (See: National Council of Welfare)

So when a widow thinks she deserves a Widows’ Pension and not Welfare Martha can see why she might be worried. The Widows’ Pension was created, after all, to provide some assistance to people who lost their spouse, were low-income, and were not old enough to receive federal assistance. There are not many people who fall into that category but here’s what is cause for concern: unattached females in Canada are the most likely to be poor. In fact, in 2002 more than 30% of unattached females under age 65 were low-income earners. (Stats Can on Low Income earners) The Widows’ Pension in Alberta was meant to help with this. Now, in the new system, people who lose their spouse will be asked to prove why they are not able to work in order to receive more than $402/month. (A number we now know places them only a quarter of the way to the Poverty Line).

If you think it is time that the nearly 45,000 welfare recipients in Alberta received a reasonable amount of money, that low-income Widows and Widowers deserve a compassionate program to help with their financial needs, and the Conservative Government needs to start following its own recommendations to increase the welfare rates then please copy the following letter to Mr. Klein. And please send this email on to other concerned Marthas in the province. Our voices are being heard!

For more information about welfare and ways to improve it see the following:

Alberta College of Social Workers

PovNet

Gender and Poverty report (Sept2004)

Centre for Policy Alternatives

Parkland Institute

Edmonton Social Planning Council

Please copy (add your name/address to the bottom) the following letter and email it to premier@gov.ab.ca. CC it to Kevin Taft, Opposition Leader at Edmonton.Riverview@assembly.ab.ca and Brian Mason, NDP leader at Edmonton.highlands@assembly.ab.ca, and back to us at marthasmonthly@yahoo.ca. We welcome your comments, suggestions, and your research on topics. Please keep them coming.

Premier Ralph Klein
Alberta Legislature
September 8, 2004

Dear Premier Klein:

As you may remember, the 8^th of the month is the day you receive a letter from the Marthas of the province who have something to tell you about life here. This month we are glad to see school start again and watch harvest moons. We are not so pleased, though, when we read your Governments press releases about Low Income Programs.

Life in Alberta is very hard on some of our sisters and brothers. It is particularly hard on low-income widows/ers under the age of 65. We are concerned that the Widows' Pension has been subsumed under Alberta Works, a program that requires widows to meet welfare eligibility rules. Life in Alberta is very hard for those people who require welfare as the amount they receive from their government gets them less than half way to the poverty line.

See Mr. Klein, what concerns us most about this is that welfare rates in this province are just too low. That is what your own MLA Committee to Review Low Income Programs stated in their report. By only implementing one recommendation of the Committee, to amalgamate Widows' Pension into the Alberta Works Program, you are punishing those women who have worked hard within their homes to care for their families. Now they face life alone where they are forced to re-enter the workplace, often without adequate training or "work experience," precisely because they were at home caring for their families. Their alternative is to rely upon the dismally low rates of Widows' Pension, and to "prove" their eligibility for this small sum. They know, as we Marthas know, that being unattached in Canada makes you more likely to be poor. We stand with our sisters and say that in a province as rich in resource revenues as ours, adequate funding for the Widows’ Pension, Welfare, and AISH should be your government’s top priority.

Please make welfare a compassionate and livable income by following the recommendations of the MLA Committee and many others who have called on you to increase welfare rates and index them to the cost of living. We ask too that Widows' Pensions be returned to a universal benefit which recognizes women's years of work and contribution to society by caring for their families, that is compassionate toward their loss, and that therefore does not require widows to meet the strict and punitive eligibility standards that are set our by the Alberta Works Program.

Sincerely,

John Clark
14815 – 123 Ave
Edmonton, AB
T5L 2Y7

September 5, 2004.
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Honorable Ralph Klein,
Room 307
Legislative Building,
Edmonton, AB T4K 2C6

Mike Cardinal, MLA
Minister of Sustainable Resource Development420 Legislature Building10800 - 97 AvenueEdmonton T5K 2B6
The Honorable Minister Patricia L. Nelson,
224 Legislature Building 10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6

Ladies and Gentlemen:

It has come to my attention that Mr. Cardinal has taken the unprecedented action of selling off immense strips of property to the highest bidder! I refer to the broad tracks of public lands on the east slope of the Rockies! I’m not sure how this was done below the public radar unless tendered only to insider industry and friends.

Patricia Nelson outlined she was not going to attack Albertan’s pensions; she had found another source of revenue. You are prepared to strip this province to the bone before you do the decent thing and collect a reasonable royalty for our oil!

When you people get through with this province there will be nothing left to call our own! Why all of this insanity? Is it necessary to privatize our water and public lands without public consultation in relative secrecy, to appease the US Agri-Beverage industry in order to catch some kind of perverse break on the Mad Cow chrisis?

These properties on the eastern slope are above major fresh water aquifers. Does the water right go with the property sale or do the people of Alberta have some control left over this critical resource?

Some direct answers please!

John Clark

----- Original Message -----
From: John Clark
To: agrivision@myexcel.ca

Sent: Saturday, September 04, 2004 5:33 PM
Subject: Water privitization in the West

It would appear your organization, though being crown presently, is set up for easy privatization!

This brings to the fore front the question of turning water resource into a commodity, then to be governed by NAFTA.

In Alberta our Minister Mike Cardinal is selling off large tracks of land and water rights on the slopes of the Canadian Rockies.

The specter now arises that there will be no resolve to the "Mad Cow" crisis until the structure is in place to sell Canadian Water to the US.

This falls in line with Alberta's privatization of water and active inter basin transfer.

Detailed reply appreciated.
JohnClark

reference http://www.blogger.com
http://www.droughtproofing.com/contact.html

Dear Premier Klein and all Caucus members,

The obvious solution to the health care premiums fiasco continues to elude our government as caucus members were not prepared to eliminate this regressive tax, notwithstanding that surpluses are being enjoyed in the billions.

Caucus members decided they could garner support from a lot of seniors during the upcoming elections by dangling the proverbial carrot - the return of but one of the universal senior support programs they eliminated 10 years ago. All they did was exacerbate a problem and continue with the inequitable treatment of Albertans in this area.

In refusing to eliminate the health-care premiums tax completely, one would have thought our elected officials would have learned something from the federal government's solution during the governance of the Mulroney years when a reasonable indexed threshold figure, eliminating payment of the Old Age Security pension plan was introduced when an individual's taxable income exceeded such threshold figure. Canadians have accepted the threshold figure introduced as they were convinced that when such a threshold figure had been passed, those affected could well continue living comfortably without receiving the old age security pension.

On a number of occasions it was suggested that our government introduce a program using an indexed figure of approximately $50 thousand (similar to the initial federal threshold figure) to apply to all individual's based on their taxable incomes.

Those Albertans, including seniors, whose taxable incomes exceeded such indexed threshold figure would have to pay full health care premiums, whereas all other Albertans whose taxable incomes had not reached that indexed threshold figure would be exempt from paying any premiums.

Albertans and seniors as a whole would have accepted such a program. Our government can still introduce such a program if the will is there by you Mr. Premier and by caucus members to introduce a more equitable solution.

Would you Mr. Premier and caucus members support the suggestion enunciated in this letter or better still, eliminate Health Care Premiums altogether so that it can be recognized that all Albertans will be treated equally instead of a continued perpetuation of a discriminatory system?

Your response Mr. Premier will as this letter be introduced on the Ralphsworld.blogspot.com website.

Yours respectfully,

S.Michael Marlowe,
Edmonton