[Bownesian]

Originally Posted by Slava

^While I somewhat stand corrected, this is a shell game. Some of those things were already included and I'm not sure that they're all new programs? Is the transit funding new for example or is this the green line they were already supposed to fund anyway?

The rebates are what we saw from day one. That is the largest piece of the puzzle that shows that this wealth redistribution masquerading as environmental policy.

And that $645mm piece is probably the 5 year cost to implement and administer this tax and coordinate rebates and things like that. Is that really creating jobs diversifying the energy industry?

It looks to me like much of this money is spent several times over as well, but if I were to break it down:

$6.2 billion will help diversify our energy industry and create new jobs:

Half is for energy, none for what I would call the Energy Industry as it currently stands - this heading is itself misleading. Should read "help grow renewable energy industry," because in Alberta, the Energy Industry is understood to include fossil fuels, which this largely excludes.

• $3.4 billion for large scale renewable energy, bioenergy and technology
  
  NDP appointees picking winners with a third of the take. This is not a recipe for success. This may include some tech investments for plant retrofits maybe.
  
  
• $2.2 billion for green infrastructure like public transit
  
  This is promised general revenue spending (i.e. from their election platform) on NDP priorities as yet unfunded future union jobs.
  
  
• $645 million for Energy Efficiency Alberta, a new provincial agency that will support energy efficiency programs and services for homes and businesses
  
  New unionized bureaucracy and maybe something for furnace/window retrofits or something?
  
  

$3.4 billion will help households, businesses and communities adjust to the carbon levy:

• $2.3 billion for carbon rebates to help low- and middle-income families
  
  Wealth transfer from richer to poorer, an ideological choice in line with NDP priorities.
  
  
• $865 million to pay for a cut in the small business tax rate from 3% to 2%
  
  In effect this is a wealth transfer from more successful companies to less successful ones.
  
  As an aside, I run a company that is in the neighborhood of the small/large business cutoff. This act of making the step between the two tax rates bigger only encourages companies like ours to stay below that line by driving up expenses, rather than investing in expansion with retained income. I'd rather have the step be more gradual, or dare I say progressive.
  
  
• $195 million to assist coal communities, Indigenous communities and others transition to a cleaner economy
  
  Cleaning up the mess they are creating (coal communities) though this dollar amount is off by $1 billion or so, and ideological spending in line with NDP priorities. Noteworthy is that our indigenous brethren don't have to pay any of the direct tax on fuel, perhaps this outlay is to defray their indirect costs on groceries etc.