Alberta Politics Thread

[Fuzz]

The modelling, and policy decisions based on it are my biggest problems with the science. Anyone who has ever built a model knows the numerous areas for flaws, and their limitations. But we act like these climate models are perfectly fine, and their 100 year predictions are of any value. There is a reason their is such a divergence past 10 years between models. There is still so much we don't know about our climate, and variables that are discovered regularly, that the models can only do so good a job.

[Coach]

For me, it's less about projections and more about looking at the historical data, and seeing the sudden spike in global temperature, CO2 and other GHGs since the industrial revolution. Could it be some blip? Yeah I guess. But it's pretty easy to correlate these things when you look at that.

[AltaGuy]

Originally Posted by GaiJin

Blaming this dry spring totally on anthropogenic global warming, is like believing god kills kittens for jerking off, seeing a dead kitten, and blaming yourself for jerking off in the morning.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by MattyC

For me, it's less about projections and more about looking at the historical data, and seeing the sudden spike in global temperature, CO2 and other GHGs since the industrial revolution. Could it be some blip? Yeah I guess. But it's pretty easy to correlate these things when you look at that.

For climate change, of course . But for wildfires?

[Thor]

Originally Posted by peter12

Haven't a lot of scientists quite clearly said that they don't know if it is global warming, but they know for sure that it is El Nino.

Double whammy, hottest year on record and El Nino are a recipe for all kinds of problems.

Sadly 10, 20, 30 years from now these kinds of events will become very commonplace. No matter what you believe about global warming, we are warming every year and its going to suck.

[VladtheImpaler]

Let's just agree climate science is black magic and get back on topic.

[IliketoPuck]

http://boereport.com/2016/05/19/stan...k-budget-debt/



To paraphrase: "We looked at this file in Dec. 2015, and downgraded it at that time. Since then we were surprised to learn that the government could actually make worse fiscal decisions, so we have to downgrade for the second time in five months."

[Locke]

I hope they accounted for this in their budget. Our debt servicing costs are going to go through the roof.

[IliketoPuck]

The wealth re-distribution tax has had its first reading:

http://boereport.com/2016/05/24/albe...t-to-families/

[Slava]

I would love to see some estimates of what this whole thing will cost to implement.

[CaptainCrunch]

I give Notley credit for her work during the Fort McMurray fire, I think she and Brian Jean did a very good job.

But I would bet anything that this carbon tax will become a three way boondoggle from hell.

1) I think they're undershooting their estimate of costs to family to sell this thing, and at the end of the day it will be somewhere between the $400 per year and $1000.00 a year. I just can't see families that are heating their home, driving a car and buying things like groceries etc aren't going to see this huge bump between direct and indirect costs as Alberta companies up their prices to the Consumer. Its more likely that its going to be $400 and $1000.00 a year in direct costs (Heating bills, gas etc) and a big chunk of change out of the pocket due to pricing increases.

2) The fact that these funds are going into general accounting is disturbing, to me that means that it has nothing to do with investing in Green Energy and more likely that the raises to government workers and other stupid stpending will come directly from this. I would get more fully behind this if it was a segregated and audit able program.

3) That this isn't it, though this is a thinly disguised consumer tax, this government will implement a PST on top of that and really put the screws to everyone. So not only will you see increased costs on every one due to the CST, but then you effectively double it or more with a PST.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Slava

I would love to see some estimates of what this whole thing will cost to implement.

Well its certainly helpful to her union backers as they'll need to open a whole new door to get the bureaucrats in to run this thing.

[Resolute 14]

Despite what Notley is trying to claim, nobody comes out ahead when a new tax is introduced.

[IliketoPuck]

My number one issue with the whole carbon levy is that it is going into general revenues, with a "trust us, we'll send it all to green initiatives" verbal promise.

Draft legislation that mandates the use of funds.

The NDP has proven woefully inexperienced with fiscal matters. Why would I trust them to get this right, when they've managed to fumble every single fiscal decision thus far?

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Well its certainly helpful to her union backers as they'll need to open a whole new door to get the bureaucrats in to run this thing.

Hey, somebody has to pay for the union/teacher raises.

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Hey, somebody has to pay for the union/teacher raises.

You mean the 0%, 0%, 2% raises over the past three years?

Canadian Inflation Rates:
2013: 1.25%
2014: 1.80%
2015: 2.15%

An economic pay cut every SINGLE year sounds reasonable. Sign me up.

[Resolute 14]

^ Granted, but balanced out by the fact that teachers were getting 4-6% raises nearly every year for at least a half-decade prior to that.

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

^ Granted, but balanced out by the fact that teachers were getting 4-6% raises nearly every year for at least a half-decade prior to that.

I'm sure private sector salaries increased at a far lower rate than that over the same time period during the post 2008-2009 oil boom.

[Resolute 14]

http://www.policyschool.ucalgary.ca/...age-growth.pdf

In recent years, Alberta’s fiscal stance has shifted from large surpluses to deficits, and a large part of the blame appears to be due to rising public sector salaries. Since 2000, the province’s public sector wage bill has shot up by 119 percent — almost double the rate of growth in the rest of Canada. Wages, previously roughly at par with the rest of the country, are now higher (in many cases very substantially) across all public sector categories, including health care, social services, education and government, consuming 95 percent of the increase in provincial revenues over the past decade. At the same time, the number of public sector employees has grown faster than the overall population; it is difficult to attribute this sharp uptick to a rise in productivity, or the need to compete with private industry for skilled workers.

And:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/private...port-1.2292650

The average public sector employee makes 18 to 37 per cent more than a comparable employee working in the private sector, according to a new report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

The report, which compares employee compensation in the private and public sectors found that, when salaries, benefits and working hours are factored in, a private sector employee makes up to $8,150 less per year, and works up to six hours more each week, compared to someone doing the same job for the government.

If government workers were paid at the same rate as their private sector counterparts, Canadian taxpayers would save up to $20 billion a year, according to the report.

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

I'm sure private sector salaries increased at a far lower rate than that over the same time period during the post 2008-2009 oil boom.

And I'm sure teacher's salaries decreased at a far lower rate that private sector salaries during the post 2014 economic collapse.

Oh wait.

I invite you to talk to my bank manager about my 45% economic pay cut.