NDP won’t work with Smith to fight “Just Transition”

BY JOHN MATHER

Well it would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall as our Premier Danielle Smith met with Justin Trudeau lackey Jonathon Wilkinson, Minister of Just Transition, on Monday in Calgary.

Smith has publicly stated she wouldn’t tolerate Ottawa’s interference into Alberta’’s affairs and along comes Wilkinson to do just that.

Smith said prior to the meeting on June 15, when Wilkinson introduced the Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act which will work its way through parliament as Bill C-50, “…the primary purpose of the proposed ‘Sustainable Jobs Act’ is to form an advisory council that will provide the federal government with recommendations on how to support the Canadian workforce during transition to a ‘net zero economy.’ "

Smith went on to present the case that development of Alberta’s natural resources are provincial in nature.

“As the development of Alberta’s natural resources and the regulation of our energy sector workforce are constitutional rights and the responsibility of Alberta, any recommendations provided by this new federal advisory council must align with Alberta’s Emissions Reduction and Energy Development Plan,” stated Smith

“To be clear, if this new advisory council provides the federal government with recommendations that are inconsistent with Alberta’s Emissions Reduction and Energy Development Plan or otherwise interferes with our province’s constitutional jurisdiction over the development of our natural resources and regulation of our energy workforce, Alberta will not recognize the legitimacy of those recommendations in any manner.”

Meanwhile elsewhere on June 15, a Ukrainian oil firm was asking for Canadian expertise to aid in the further development of Ukrainian oil and gas fields. Obviously the country, at war with the Russians, recognizes there still is a future for oil and gas.

There’s still not too many EV tanks or EV Warplanes on the market.

Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, called this a “good day” because of the seat labour unions will have in the sustainable jobs partnership council after the Just Transition package was announced.

Continued

He boldly hyped about how he had sat on the focus group that had developed the framework of the Act.

“Today, I responded to the federal government's new Sustainable Jobs Act. Our Premier claims the Act attacks the Alberta economy. The truth is just the opposite: it creates a framework to help us prepare for the future.

“It acknowledges that workers, Indigenous people and other members of civil society have an important stake in the outcome of big economic decisions –and it says ordinary citizens deserve to have a say in those decisions,” McGowan crowed.

He said the energy transition is not coming; it’s already here. The bill is about “preparing us for a future that’s going to look different than our past.”

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley said in a press release that the provincial government is missing an opportunity to be at the table to fight for Alberta by picking a fight with Ottawa and going in their own direction.

“Alberta can continue to be a global energy leader for decades to come, but we need the provincial government working with industry and other levels of government in the interests of Albertans,” she said in a statement. “There are billions of dollars in investment looking for decarbonization opportunities; Alberta must create the stability and certainty to capitalize on that investment.”

Now remember a short few weeks ago Notely was stating she wanted to end the divisive, argumentative nonsense going on between

Alberta's two main political parties. Remember when in her concession speech she mentioned this would happen, “had the NDP won.” Well they lost so those words aren't worth the paper they were written on.

McGowan holds a seat on the NDP provincial board. So he and Notley are siding with their supreme leader Jagmeet Singh who is supporting these Liberals long enough to claim his pension, before he loses his seat, deservedly, in the next Federal election.

The provincial NDP don't care about provincial jurisdiction or Albertan workers.

They care about creating wedge issues and using the mainstream media to promote them, while the UCP can see the bigger picture and are looking out for all Albertans.

BY HAZEL ANAKA

Some people will often choose to go on a “no news” diet. Or maybe a better analogy is the smoker who decides to quit cold turkey. The decision to stop reading the daily newspaper and turn off TV news is often abrupt and emotional.

I’m not so sure it’s as easy if your smartphone is your primary news source. No one I know is putting their phone in storage.

I think the prevailing attitude among regular folks is that the news is depressing. That media outlets focus on the sensational, the horrific, the attention grabber; you know, if it bleeds, it leads. In my earlier days, I thought it was a cowardly mistake to willfully choose not to know what’s going on. How could you cope; converse knowledgeably in mixed company; have the macro big picture view of the world and your place in it if you chose to