Today I received an EPCOR bill for half a month; a Fortis line transmission charge for part of a month and a "Alberta Energy Savings LP" the latter being one of thoes contract sellers the Government said better not to buy. (They bought out EPCOR's contracts).

The Alberta Energy Savings bill does not include any Fortis charges yet. I'm told they will show up some day. No one seems sure when the meter was read.

Bottom Line:Thank you Ralph and the Conservatives. My electrical bill so far this month has jumped from 80.00 to 210.00 and I'm told there is still transmission charges to come.
I had predicted power charges would triple under Ralph's plan or lack of it! But as God is my witness, I never expected the legalized rape to take place so soon and so slick!

I guess we have to take up arms.
John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

You have heard Ralph say he didn't believe it when I wrote him on the beatle infestation.
In truth he will ignore all until our fresh water is down-hole, no charge to the oil comanies to reclaim gas or oil.

Because of the current relevance, I have chosen to re-post current. Check our Archives section it is all true and valid. NOTE THE DATE

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 happening more probably on the short term rather than the long. Extremes in weather and unpredictable weather are parts of the scenario. Ongoing drought, floods 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. (Prince George area has massive beetle infestation because the temperatures haven’t dropped to the -40C that is required to kill them off.) All in the last 5 years!

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 year’s 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. (Ralph flippantly said "Prove it." erga; prove the unprovable)

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 source 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. (Consider here; the lowest royalities in the world are being collected!. We get about 1/3 of what we should be getting!)

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 conventional 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

John Clark
14815 – 123 Ave
Edmonton, AB T5L 2Y7
June 20, 2005.
cyberclark@shaw.ca

The Honorable Iris Evans,
Minister of Health,
107 Legislative Building
Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6

iris.evans@assembly.ab.ca

Dear Minister:

Re: - No help for the working poor in Diabetes supply assistance.

I am writing as a disenchanted conservative who has spent much time on the election trail for one conservative candidate or another.

The instruction I received in elections was always the same. “Do not bother to go to walk-up apartment buildings. These people are low income people and statistically proven, this group of people do not vote.”

It was explained to me information like this was garnered from the after-election results and proven time and time again. It seems to me the Diabetes organizations would better spend their time getting the lower income group to show up at the vote!

It follows that because they do not vote you have nothing to worry about by shorting their funding. This is why Alberta receives a D- report in help for Diabetes people.

Also these apartment buildings now house people who are of average or higher incomes and because of the housing situation in Alberta cannot yet move into their own homes. Perhaps you should re think the validity of your statistics.

John Clark


http://www.diabetes.ca/Section_Advocacy/adv_reportcard2001.asp

Heads up friends. Western Opinion Research is phoning people in a survey to collect opinions about Health Care in Alberta.

Many of the questions are obviously biased in favour of supporting a third way (al la Klein), P3s, delisting et cetra. There is no option for the interviewee to opine that the Health Care system is simply underfunded or to suggest that the adaquate funding of Health Care as comtemplated by the Canada Act would be cheaper for all in the long run.

If you get interviewed and listen carefully, you can still assert support for the funding of a public system but it is not easy.Watch for upcoming government (or Fraser Institute) comments and Public Affairs Bureau spin on what REAL Albertans want.

Kevan

John Clark
14815 – 123 Ave
Edmonton, AB T5L 2Y7
June 16, 2005.
cyberclark@shaw.ca

The Honorable Iris Evans,
Minister of Health,
107 Legislative Building
Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6

iris.evans@assembly.ab.ca

Dear Minister:

Your press release and meetings are centered on preventive measures to improve our overall cost on health care.

As I mentioned previously, Ralph’s un-sustainability coupled with loading the capital end of health care costs, new hospitals and machines while curtailing services by staffing budgets is in my mind a scam designed to turn the whole works over to private enterprise of Conservative choice at a one cent on the dollar fire sale.

Diabetes is a totally disabling disease if not treated properly. Alberta is very lacking compared to other jurisdictions in help for this unfortunate group of people. http://www.diabetes.ca/Section_Advocacy/adv_reportcard2001.asp - comparison of jurisdictions.

Notably the working poor drop through the care cracks as far as supplies are concerned. Many of these are parents with children, both parents working; unable to buy diabetes supplies; unable to get onto programs because they make too much money. In many cases unable to feed and care for their children properly because in trying to succeed they put themselves beyond assistance.

Can you not see your way clear to immediately fund the supplies required for all Diabetes patients in Alberta? In missing their injections because of financial predicament they hold the promise of millions being added to the health care costs down the road.

John Clark

http://ralphsworld.blogspot.com/SubjectArchives.htm

http://ralphsworld.blogspot.com/

John Clark
14815 – 123 Ave
Edmonton, AB T5L 2Y7
June 15, 2005.
cyberclark@shaw.ca

The Honorable Iris Evans,
Minister of Health,
107 Legislative Building
Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6

iris.evans@assembly.ab.ca

Dear Minister:
I enjoyed an unusually refreshing read in the Sun this AM having to do with your direction in penalizing or rewarding people for the way they take responsibility for their own health. In this, reference is made to higher premiums for people who do no exercise or indulge in risk taking health, sports or driving habits. On the other hand the article is suggesting you still support deductions for membership payments to Gyms and training facilities.

In this province under the present jurisdiction this can only be called brave and forward thinking and, you are to be congratulated.

I do have problems with the reference to massive health care costs taking over half of the Governments revenues. This I see as a gambit to set the stage for Ralph’s privatization plans.

Your government’s history would indicate you are prepared to spend multi billions of dollars on new hospital facilities and then curtail staffing and there by; utilization. It is the pattern to create line ups in health care sufficient to run the thread of risk but still not put the government under the gavel. The millions come billions of dollars for new facilities will be tagged onto the “health care costs”.

Ralph’s sticking around because he still has “things to do”. After the new facilities are in like power grids, your government is ready to turn them over the private firms like Dinning’s company. Like power lines, these will be transferred over at a one dollar sale price for every 1000 dollars of value. Not unlike the power debacle.

To give me comfort, I will need to hear from the Government (preferably in legislation) that the infrastructure will remain the property off the taxpayer.

The power generating capacities have not all been sold. Albertans received nothing for them and they were whisked away into a Government created company thereby making them “private”, “definitely not the property of taxpayers.”

Your views in this area would be appreciated. I do again thank you for a positive start.

John Clark.

http://ralphsworld.blogspot.com/SubjectArchives.htm

http://ralphsworld.blogspot.com/

FFWD Weekly - June 9, 2005: "Premier Klein will be trashed by all for the mess he's created in Alberta"

An interesting perspective on the Reign of Ralph in the Calgary FFWD Weekly paper.

John Clark
14815 - 123 Ave.,
Edmonton, AB T5L 2Y7
June 10, 2005.
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Honorable Ralph Klein,
Room 307
Legislative Building,
Edmonton, AB T4K 2C6
premier@gov.ab.ca

Dear Premier:
Off and running again!
You seem to have one plan to execute over and over again. Destabilize, cause a crisis; put in your own personal fix. You can hardly wait for the flood figures to come in so you can make a natural disaster more appealing to the public and the media than your self made disasters.

When you checked into Rockyview Hospital with your last bout of whatever, you were whisked past a dozen people who had been waiting hours, going to your own room for immediate attention. Health Care must look good from your experience.

I would think a duration at the “Unheard Of” with still more libations would have served as well.

Health Care:
You made available to the University of Alberta 2 MRI machines. These cost 13-millions of dollars on the Health Care tab. Then, you restricted budgets so these same 2 machines could only run 8 hours a day on one machine and some infrequent days on the second machine. Limited service by short staffing! Presently, these machines are operating from 6:30 AM to 10:00 PM which is a 65% duty cycle!

Neat! Load the health care tab with large capital expense on one hand and limit access to the same machines to create lineup, desperation and overall dissatisfaction. Now, take the public airways and say private MRI is the only way to fly! Investigate and have removed any Journalist that will have the audacity to investigate your schemes. (Reference here Dan Hill – CBC Wild Rose program).

Really no different than your phony electrical program and the privatization of camp grounds! Rather than what is best for Albertans and the Alberta Advantage, you moved it to the level of “all the market can bear; Move it to the realm of political pay off.”

As of now, the University Hospital has 1 CT scan machine available 24 hours for hospital confined patients and 2 other CT machines available for out patient. These would operate between 6AM and 8PM for out patients. 58% utilization.

Line ups continue to grow but not long enough to put you in court again or fund staff.

At this point 1 CT is not in service because of water damage but, the second machine is still on its 58% duty cycle.

I have to wonder where you got the water from.

Your plan as I have come to see it is to further burden the health care system with expenses while curtailing services.

I suspect you will do this by up grading some of the prototypical hospitals; cash drain and building some new hospitals, Lougheed style. Then explain why it was necessary for you to turn this capital over to Jim Dinning, other “friends” or their holdings for operation on a lease basis, probably with an option to buy a 1 cent on the dollar like our power lines.

I’m sorry Ralph but your track record is there. How can we expect any different?

John Clark

http://ralphsworld.blogspot.com/SubjectArchives.htm

http://ralphsworld.blogspot.com/

John Clark
14815 - 123 Ave.,
Edmonton, AB T5L 2Y7
June 9, 2005.
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Honorable Ralph Klein,
Room 307
Legislative Building,
Edmonton, AB T4K 2C6
premier@gov.ab.ca

On April 13th I wrote the quote captioned below. You responded in the media you would have a plan in a month’s time. I had predicted to respondents that I did not think you were capable of a plan let alone a new one!

As I travel around this province I am told by failing industries that their warehouses are full of product and no market to sell into. Full warehouses and diminished account base is expensive and strangling the all but non existent business base that does not directly serve the oil industry!

A second response of sorts came when the call was put out by your Government is 14 million dollars enough to attract new industry?

You have compounded one screw up onto another and the worst is still to come. Within six months this province will be unrecognizable except for the oil and your close circle of friends.

I hold a well informed view the only way new industry will come to this province is dependent on the Conservatives resigning the Government and turn it over to a fresh group with new ideas. Only then will industry know the fix in Alberta is not working against them.

Quote:
When the container artificial operation tanked the rates out of Alberta, many trucking companies closed their doors many more just ignored Alberta leaving the low priced US freight sit instead, going to Saskatchewan, BC and MB for their loads into the US.

Market parameters for Alberta Companies shrunk and continue to shrink; many companies will fail!

Add to this the higher prices of power paid by Albertans and you have the mix for recession in every part of the economy except the oil patch.

Ralph's oil or nothing policy is coming home to roost. Years of mismanagement is taking its toll. This is a provincial government misadventure; not a transportation industry problem!

The recent closure of Sunland Biscuits (400 jobs lost) in Edmonton is only the tip of the iceberg. Higher electrical costs were a contributor but the market place wanted to do away with trans-fats in their product. This means re printing the packages. They were beat in the market place by .60 a case!

The conservatives can subsidize oil and gas with railroads free gas and free power lines but they could find no way to save the only bakery west of Ontario!

Unquote.


I’m told you are the biggest fan of “Welcome to Ralph’s World”. We are pleased to be able to assist.

John Clark.