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Hall of Fame inductees honoured B4
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CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
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Wildrose raises fiscal cliff spectre
TUESDAY, NOV. 13, 2012
LIFT-OFF
OPPOSITION SAYS TORY DEBT PLAN A SLIPPERY SLOPE BY THE CANADIAN PRESS EDMONTON — Premier Alison Redford’s plan to take on debt puts Alberta on the same slippery slope of budget-busting jiggery-pokery that sent Greece over the fiscal cliff, Wildrose leader Danielle Smith said Monday. “We get $10 billion worth of resource revenue (a year), they (government officials) are blowing through our (multibillion-dollar) savings, and in addition to that they’re taking on debt?” said Smith. “The level of incompetence on the fiscal side is stunning. “They’re marching down the same path that so many jurisdictions around the world have marched down that has gotten them to the brink of insolvency.” Smith was responding to weekend comments from Redford and Finance Minister Doug Horner on the state of the Alberta budget. Redford promised during the February budget and in the April election campaign to balance the province’s books by 2013-14. But at the weekend Progressive Conservative party convention in Calgary, Redford and Horner said the budget will be balanced as promised — but only on the day-to-day operations side. Horner said they will be looking to take on debt or enter into private-sector agreements to pay for big-ticket capital projects such as roads, schools, and hospitals that can’t wait in a growing province. They labelled it sound financial management akin to taking out a mortgage on a house, then budgeting to make the payments. “If everything we do right now is funded fully with cash in the bank, then we are never going to build anything more in this province,” Redford told reporters. Smith said Redford does not have the mandate to take Alberta back into debt, and should take the issue to a referendum. “If (the Tories) told Albertans ’We’re going to buy things today and put the mortgage on our kids and our grandkids, I can assure you they would not have won the election,” she said. Smith said the decision also repudiates the work of former Tory premier Ralph Klein, who along with then treasurer Jim Dinning cut spending and parlayed Alberta’s oil wealth into wiping out the $23-billion net debt. “It’s like Ralph Klein and Jim Dinning never existed for the PCs,” said Smith. “Everyone was so proud of what Ralph Klein did for us going through the sacrifices of the 1990s to make us a debt-free province.” Horner told reporters on the weekend that Klein’s $23-billion paydown was on the operating side, and he said Redford’s government will honour that principle going forward. “The debt that we repaid and celebrated was an operating debt that had been accumulated,” said Horner. “It’s like paying for your groceries with your Visa (card). We are not going to do that.”
Please see DEBT on Page A2
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
With a day off school and work, Tyler Zimmerman and his father, Aaron, enjoy a bright sunny winter day on the sledding hill in Clearview on Monday. Many of the sledding hills around the city were busy with children enjoying the early winter snow getting their first sledding runs in of the season. For the rest of the week, the skies are forecast to be clear, with daytime highs of at or slightly above freezing.
WORLD DIABETES DAY
Diabetic raising awareness about retinopathy BY RANDY FIEDLER ADVOCATE STAFF Diabetes and its resulting blindness were simply challenges to overcome for Kim Skibsted. A diabetic since age three, the 55-year-old lost her sight at 25 to diabetic retinopathy, swelling and leakage from retinal blood vessels caused by elevated blood glucose levels. Blind after seven surgeries over six months, she drew inspiration from a blind Canadian National Institute for the Blind specialist who helped her cope. “I was young and feisty when I lost my sight. You have to figure things out and if you don’t know, ask someone who does. It’s problem solving.” A CNIB vision loss coping program taught her to deal with daily living and she later spent eight years getting two university degrees, which led to her becoming a speech language pathologist, a position she’s held in Red Deer for 21 years. “It’s wonderful for me. I’m working with small children and it’s fun and very rewarding.”
Please see AWARENESS on Page A2
Photo by RANDY FIEDLER/Advocate staff
CNIB volunteer Linda McKay, left, helps Kim Skibsted test her blood sugar levels in Skibsted’s Red Deer apartment Monday.
Vandals, thieves prompt Rocky couple to restrict access to holiday display BY RANDY FIEDLER ADVOCATE STAFF
Advocate file photo
The world of Alfred von Hollen’s Christmas light display in 2011.
PLEASE RECYCLE
Christmas lights will shine a little less brightly at one Rocky Mountain House display this year. Duane Iceton won’t allow public access to the display he and wife, Sheryl, have done for about six years in the McNutt subdivision. “I’m not going to have people walk through this year,” he said, “I have 50,000 lights up already, but it will only be drive through.” Vandals and thieves changed the couple’s sharing attitude last year. Iceton said some visitors damaged displays while others monopolized the inner tubes used to ride the
WEATHER
INDEX
Mainly sunny. High -2. Low -9.
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slide. A few even stole the inner tubes. “I’m a huge Christmas guy, but I was ready to shut it down Boxing Day,” Iceton lamented. “That’s the unfortunate thing: most people are really good, but there’s a few who aren’t. I don’t get it.” Alfred von Hollen, who opens his and wife Cheryl’s yard for their 21st annual Christmas light display on Dec. 1, knows Iceton’s discouragement. “I understand his reluctance. We went through that about five years ago. I’ve had display pieces stolen, things broken, people with cigarettes burn inflatables,” he said.
Please see HOLIDAY on Page A2
LOCAL
ALBERTA
MADD LAUNCHES BRAVERY AWARD FOR CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN MAN Every day, four Canadians on average are killed by an impaired driver. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) launched its annual Christmas campaign in Red Deer on Monday to help change those devastating numbers. C1
A southern Alberta man who saved the lives of four young people by deliberately driving his Hummer into the path of another vehicle has been given an award for bravery. A3