Emissions cap is not an energy cap

Despite an 85 per cent vote at the municipal level opposing the UCP government’s ban on vote tabulating machines in Alberta, Premier Smith is standing with those who live in the alternate reality of chem trails and other conspiracies. 

Now, the UCP’s Alberta Government has gone big-time into fake news creation with two full-page ads in many newspapers, calling the federal government’s emissions-cap legislation “energy-cap legislation”. This $7,000,000 advertising campaign, while a boon to newspapers, illustrates how far our UCP government has strayed from a standard code of conduct that we should be able to expect from our leaders. Though the Alberta Government’s operation is guided by the values of respect, accountability, integrity and excellence there appears to be no such parallel values within the United Conservative Party’s vision and bylaws. A synonym of integrity is honesty and calling an emissions cap an energy cap is dishonest. 

I resent my tax dollars being spent on false narratives. There is a difference between an energy cap and an emissions cap. The moratorium on renewable energy last year in Alberta was an energy cap! The renewable energy moratorium resulted in job losses, capital leaving Alberta and in losses in productivity levels. 

If our UCP government spent the time and money on innovation for emissions reduction that they spend in opposing emissions reduction, not only would Alberta be a world leader in emissions technology, but would ensure a sustainable petroleum industry for the future.

 Barb Goertzen, Coaldale