Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Who here has done that?

Trying to hit your target of 15 strawmen early this week?

General recommendation based on the commentary around this job or that job being paid too much, overpaid, needing to give more, etc.

Weird that you’d take issue with it, though I sense this is just that ugly social awkwardness rearing its head again. It was meant as a relatively innocuous, agreeable comment, not one I expected to offend with so sorry if it did, but I don’t always pay attention to when I’m going to run afoul of terminally online debate perverts and fallacy-mongers with my “15 strawmen a week” lol.

You’re welcome to keep count for me if it gives you purpose, though.

[Looch City]

Man I would quit my job on the spot if I was a teacher and PepsiFree and CliffFletcher were the students.

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by Looch City

Man I would quit my job on the spot if I was a teacher and PepsiFree and CliffFletcher were the students.

That's soft.

Just have them mark each other's homework and kick your feet up on the desk like a real teacher.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Looch City

Man I would quit my job on the spot if I was a teacher and PepsiFree and CliffFletcher were the students.

People like us are why teachers desperately need more support and in-classroom aids.

[woob]

Who here remembers when people would continuosly bang the drum about the impact of pandemic school closures on education outcomes for children.

Surely you'd think those individuals would also take issue with the impact Alberta's current education system breakdown is having on education outcomes for children. Right? Right??

While I think invidiuals who might come on an Internet forum to make bad faith arguments are not analogous to every day people discussing this, I do think theres a good percentage of people who are not well informed on this topic and merely think of it as a simple "teacher be mad about dollars" argument.

It baffles me, that people will debate ad nausem about wages or schools or budget when the very people doing the teaching/adminstration/etc. are all sounding the alarm bells. There's definitely a point to be made here about citizens finding their voices in support of teachers. Whether the government listens, well we all know that answer.

Anyways, random thoughts from very my frustrated brain.

[troutman]

Alberta baby dies from measles

An Alberta baby, born prematurely after its mother contracted measles during pregnancy has died, government officials announced Thursday.

https://apple.news/Aa1AX7PsvSUaWJZlINPOj2Q

The update comes as there are now 1,910 cases of measles in Alberta.

[#-3]

Originally Posted by troutman

Alberta baby dies from measles

An Alberta baby, born prematurely after its mother contracted measles during pregnancy has died, government officials announced Thursday.

https://apple.news/Aa1AX7PsvSUaWJZlINPOj2Q

I don't know if there is a reason the mom wasn't vaccinated, or if there was a breakthrough infections. But sometimes I really wish contact tracing could reveal an unvaxed person in her chain of infection, if she was vaxed, then they could get warrant for their Internet history and formally charge one of the prevayors of misinformation with accessory to manslaughter, the unvaxed masses are victims, we really need a president where people are free to give stupid health advice in public, but are responsible for the results of their misinformation.

[puffnstuff]

Brian Jean got a new mandate letter from busboobs today

Basically its to double oil production by 2035
Build pipelines thru BC and another to Ontario
Fight with Ottawa (i saw at least three mentions of this and overreach)
Coal...but that language in couched as 'rock-based minerals'

https://www.alberta.ca/minister-of-energy-and-minerals
Scroll down and can click to read mandate letter

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by InglewoodFan

In other government labour news, AHS (and none of the other Alberta Health "pillars") out of scope non union folks (managers etc) have been told they have to take two mandatory unpaid days between now and March for cost cutting reasons. Seems like a heck of a way to save <1% on that labour cost at the expense of pissing everyone off.

Meh, that's nothing. Try being on a mandatory 1 day/week reduced work week for 9 months.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by puffnstuff

Brian Jean got a new mandate letter from busboobs today

Basically its to double oil production by 2035
Build pipelines thru BC and another to Ontario
Fight with Ottawa (i saw at least three mentions of this and overreach)
Coal...but that language in couched as 'rock-based minerals'

https://www.alberta.ca/minister-of-energy-and-minerals
Scroll down and can click to read mandate letter

In coordination with the Premier’s federal negotiating team and industry, secure agreement and approval from the federal government for the construction of a new bitumen pipeline to the northwest coast of British Columbia,

This is final boss level stuff here.


It also means almost doubling our pipeline export capacity. In 9 years. With zero industry proposed pipeline plans.


Have they been drinking again?

[Ironhorse]

There are zero industry proposed pipeline plans because no company in their right mind would try to plan or permit one under the current Liberal anti-oil policies. Carney has cheekily said "well there are no proposed pipelines, so I can't approve to accelerate any" (how convenient). So Alberta is doing the planning and front end engineering to get this to a proposed plan stage, and then pushing it in Carney's lap.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

There are zero industry proposed pipeline plans because no company in their right mind would try to plan or permit one under the current Liberal anti-oil policies. Carney has cheekily said "well there are no proposed pipelines, so I can't approve to accelerate any" (how convenient). So Alberta is doing the planning and front end engineering to get this to a proposed plan stage, and then pushing it in Carney's lap.

No company would do it, so might as well blow some tax dollars on it.

Genius really.

[Looch City]

They honestly need to be raked over the coal for this ####.


$14 million on a proposal that's basically already rejected by BC Premier and the Coastal FN.

What the ####.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

No company would do it, so might as well blow some tax dollars on it.

Genius really.

I’ve said this before but given the regulatory and litigation hurdles it makes sense for the government to get these projects on the go if private companies won’t take on the risk. Because these projects will actually see a return for taxpayers on their investment. That being said it would make way more sense to go east since TMX isn’t anywhere near capacity and I think the UCP are just putting this plan out there because they know it’s less likely to get any buy in from Ottawa as a result. It just feels like a taxpayer funded ploy that the UCP will inevitably use to further their Alberta persecution messaging.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

I’ve said this before but given the regulatory and litigation hurdles it makes sense for the government to get these projects on the go if private companies won’t take on the risk. Because these projects will actually see a return for taxpayers on their investment. That being said it would make way more sense to go east since TMX isn’t anywhere near capacity and I think the UCP are just putting this plan out there because they know it’s less likely to get any buy in from Ottawa as a result. It just feels like a taxpayer funded ploy that the UCP will inevitably use to further their Alberta persecution messaging.

Feels like?

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Feels like?

I don’t have the time to embed that simpsons John travolta “yeah, looks like meme” but I think you’re picking up what I’m putting down

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

There are zero industry proposed pipeline plans because no company in their right mind would try to plan or permit one under the current Liberal anti-oil policies. Carney has cheekily said "well there are no proposed pipelines, so I can't approve to accelerate any" (how convenient). So Alberta is doing the planning and front end engineering to get this to a proposed plan stage, and then pushing it in Carney's lap.

Ya, the Liberal pipeline building government is so restrictive on building pipelines right after they built a pipeline. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

The pipeline companies are more likely pushing the risk onto their puppet government patsy because they want more handouts from the suckers who believe this is the key to the future... just like the 1980s!

Why invite $33B in renewable energy investment when we can waste a bunch of money on a pipeline that will probably be built after peak oil.

[GullFoss]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

No company would do it, so might as well blow some tax dollars on it.

Genius really.

It's a pretty clever gambit and they haven't even played their ace yet.

[GullFoss]

Originally Posted by Suave

For comparison average wage for a entry level engineer in Alberta is $79,000 ($90,000 total comp) based on the 2024 APEGA survey.

Right...and an engineering degree is probably the most difficult professional degrees to obtain, so a first year engineer getting 10%-15% more renumeration than a first year teacher doesn't seem unreasonable.

I'm not bemoaning teacher pay here or the profession. I'm saying the current pay for teaching looks entirely reasonable to me. So pay increases the evolve at inflation + 1% also look entirely reasonable when you consider how pay generally evolves in an economy.

The offer to hire 3,000 more teachers also looks reasonable. If someone said the right number for teacher hires was 5,000 instead of 3,000 and the teachers would accept that deal. I'd say "okay that seems reasonable too and its reasonably achievable."

I'm sitting here wondering what exactly the teachers would agree to that makes striking worth while. Because the province seems to have put forward a reasonable deal on the table and I haven't seen anything from the other side of what they're looking for beyond "student caps" which isn't seemingly achievable within a four year timeframe.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

No company would do it, so might as well blow some tax dollars on it.

Genius really.

This isn’t accurate companies attempted 5 - Line 3, TMX, Gateway, and Keystone. 1 got built, 3 got killed in regulatory due to PC and US issues, 1 canceled for economic reasons.

So I don’t think it’s accurate to say that no company would do it. It’s accurate to say no company would take on the regulatory risk given previous failures. If the goal of Carney is truly to fast track projects of national interest through the regulatory environment then a Pipeline project is actually a good one.

If you can get regulatory certainty these are viable projects.

Though I think that Smith should be trying to partner with Kinew looking at Churchill feasibility as part of this project.