Scott Cyr’s Message: August 2nd, 2016

Scott Cyr’s Message is written & provided by Scott Cyr; it has not been altered from the author’s original content. Views & opinions expressed in this article are not those of Lakeland Connect Media Inc, its publications or affiliates. 

It is a cloudy today and as I sit writing this article I look outside it is raining, raining really hard.  We are in a heavy rainfall warnings zone and across Alberta there are tornado and hail warnings.  On days like this I check all around the house to ensure the windows are all closed and that the rain water is not somehow getting into the house.  Like most home owners we want to ensure that our investment is protected and our family is safe.

If water gets into our home this can be very destructive whether it is just the inconvenience of wet floors or leading to something more serious like rot and molds taking hold of your house.  It comes down to prevention and to achieve this we need to strive being proactive.  Many times the warning signs are right in front of us like a dank smell or water stains to list a couple.  We can either ignore the warning signs hoping they don’t get worse or deal with them ourselves.  Sometimes the gravity of the situation requires that we bring in specialists in to fix the problem like carpenters, plumbers and electricians.  Professionals who were trained in what to do and how to get it done safely.

This is where I will move on to what happened in the last week.

The NDP government has entered into a costly lawsuit where the NDP are suing power companies, because they enacted a clause in their contract to terminate their power purchase arrangements (PPA).  For those who do not know what a PPA is, it is an agreement struck where a buyer (power companies) purchases electricity from a power plant and sells it to Albertan consumers (home and business owners).  The returned PPAs will be returned back to the balancing pool, which is wholly funded by residential and commercial electricity consumers which has a projected cost of $2 billion.

Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman admitted last Tuesday that the NDP government wasn’t aware of the “Enron clause” when it drafted its carbon levy legislation. In an interview with Metro Calgary, Hoffman said the government would have taken Enmax to court sooner if they were aware of the clause, which she says was created by the former PC government. Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said the returning of the PPAs was entirely preventable. “At the end of the day the launch of this lawsuit shows the NDP government’s blatant disregard for covenants, business sense, respect for taxpayer dollars, and knowledge of how our electricity system works,” he said.

The NDP needs to take full responsibility for not doing their due diligence and creating this situation where families will soon be paying more for their power.  Either the Deputy Premier wasn’t told all the facts or willfully hid the truth, when she said her government “wasn’t aware” of these consequences.  The NDP government does not get any free passes when it comes to not fully understanding PPAs or their impact on Alberta’s electricity market.  It is the NDP’s responsibility, I’d say every sitting government’s responsibility, to make sure they fully research the consequences of their legislation instead of rushing it through.

FOIP documents (https://gallery.mailchimp.com/dc8b79f336d3436848d081928/files/November.pdf) released by Wildrose last Wednesday show that government officials knew in November 2015 the ramifications of hiking the carbon levy for large emitters, despite Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman’s comments that the government wasn’t aware of the clause when the levy was increased in June. The documents show that the implications of breaching the agreement were clearly understood.

To make matters worse the NDP have engaged in an advertising campaign to deflect responsibility onto others.   In a time of economic downturn, it’s offensive to see the NDP throw good money after bad and launch yet another expensive advertising campaign – this time to sell their bizarre lawsuit against Alberta power companies.

The NDP are driving forward with no regard for the consequences to fulfill their ideological mandate and this is putting average Alberta families at risk.  We expect better management of public resources.  Like our homes, which are the biggest investment for many of us, we are diligently watching for leaks, why isn’t the NDP doing the same?  It appears the NDP removed the government’s roof with the anticipation that it won’t ever rain again and are surprised when it does.

If the NDP didn’t know the impacts of the carbon tax they should have consulted professionals.  However, it appears that they didn’t want to know because it interferes with their goal of attaining a “social license” that most Albertans didn’t sign up for.  This is just another example in a long list of NDP failures.  This failure though will directly cost $2 billion to Alberta families on their power bill and could have been prevented.

Lastly, and the most troubling part, is that the government has taken it upon themselves to start breaking government contracts when it is convenient for them.  This sets a precedence that is troubling.  How can any of us trust that we will be treated fairly by government?  It is this type of irresponsible action that reinforces that we have an unstable government which leads to companies not wanting to invest in Alberta and specifically into our riding.  It is decisions like this one that is directly costing us jobs.  So on top of purposely raising our power rates the NDP are still preventing investment.  This means that it will take longer for those in our riding without work to find a job and that is the true tragedy in this whole situation.

For those who want to watch the Wildrose Official Opposition ask about PPAs and the response from the premier, please follow this link https://www.facebook.com/teamwildrose/videos/1701611820089312/.

Scott Cyr’s Message is written & provided by Scott Cyr; it has not been altered from the author’s original content. Views & opinions expressed in this article are not those of Lakeland Connect Media Inc, its publications or affiliates.