This is from a few days ago from 630ched (Edmonton.) Stelmach's handlers don't seem to be briefing him very well by the sound of the first item. The Liberal "green" policy could very well scare a lot of people who worry about such measures hurting the economy. Stelmach may be able to capitalise on that. It may grab some possible NDP or Green voters but that is about all. The policy may be mostly rhetoric just as the Federal Liberal policy on the environment has been historically. Speak loudly and do little or nothing.
Alberta Election: Thursday round-up
Feb, 07 2008 - 8:30 PM
EDMONTON - Conservative Premier Ed Stelmach got more than he bargained for today when he stopped at a Red Deer daycare centre to promise help for families. Campaigning for the March 3 election, Stelmach promised minor improvements to the Family Employment Tax Credit, the creation of 14-thousand new daycare spaces, and recruitment of foreign workers to help staff the expansion. But about a dozen mothers who came to hear him were unimpressed when he couldn't tell them how much money they would save through the tax credit and or why daycare remains so expensive in Canada's richest province. Annick Baldwin says that by her calculations, a family with two kids and 60-thousand dollars income would get absolutely no benefit from the premier's plan. (The Canadian Press) ---------------
A coalition of 15 major health organizations has waded into the Alberta election campaign with a call for a multimillion-dollar foundation aimed at making Albertans the healthiest people in Canada. The group, called HealthVision2020, includes the Canadian Cancer Society, Alberta Medical Association and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta. They're calling on voters in the March 3rd election to question their candidates' commitment to health promotion and disease prevention. The group estimates the proposed health promotion foundation would cost 120 (m) million dollars in the first year, but says that amounts to about one per cent of the health budget, or less than the cost of a major highway interchange. (The Canadian Press) -----------------
Alberta's energy producers are watching the candidates in the March 3rd provincial election for clues on how the province's next premier will deal with what they call the unintended consequences of the new royalty regime. Don Herring, president of the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors, wants the next government to give natural gas drilling companies a break, since they have been suffering the most from the royalty changes. Progressive Conservative Premier Ed Stelmach has said he's sticking by his plan to increase royalties by one-point-four (b) billion dollars in 2009, but will talk with the industry about how to ease some its effects -- like more merger and acquisition activity and declining stock prices. Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft says his party would rework the royalty plan so that natural gas producers -- already suffering from low commodity prices and high production costs -- feel less of a burden. Under the Liberal plan, the province would take more from the ever-expanding oilsands business. New Democrat Leader Brian Mason says he would reopen the royalty debate altogether. (The Canadian Press)
---------------Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft was trying to paint his party as the greenest as he campaigned in Edmonton today. Taft says an Alberta Liberal government would cap all greenhouse gas emissions in five years -- a move Conservative Premier Ed Stelmach says would devastate the oilsands industry and the provincial economy. But Taft says the province must act quickly, in light of melting ice caps, declining water levels and other countries starting to balk at taking energy from so-called environmentally ``dirty' sources such as the oilsands. The Liberals promise to promote cleaner, renewable energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power, improve building code standards to reduce energy consumption and push for more use of public transportation, recycling and composting. The N-D-P wants to increase oilsands royalties to further develop alternative energy resources, while the Tories have promised no oilsands emission reductions for 12 years as part of a plan to gradually cut emissions and prevent catastrophic job losses in the oilpatch. (The Canadian Press) (ccg)
- CP's Lorraine Turchansky
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