Page 12 - OCtOBer 13, 2016 - martensville messenger
Wall Can’t Just Rant At Trudeau
What Liberal Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau plans to impose on
Saskatchewan is not fair. His carbon price
plan - $10 a tonne by 2018, rising to $50
a tonne by 2022 - does disproportionally
hurt a coal and oil-producing province
like Saskatchewan. And one strongly
suspects he imposed it knowing full
well that it does him little political harm
in Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes
where the Liberal votes. (Although it
should be noted that the environment
minister from Nova Scotia - along with
the Newfoundland and Labrador’s and
Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe - were the
environment ministers who walked out
of their national gathering upon hearing
Trudeau’s announcement.)
One might even accept Premier
Brad Wall’s calculations that Trudeau’s
carbon tax will cost an average
Saskatchewan family $1,250 a year
and “will siphon over $2.5 billion from
Saskatchewan’s economy when fully
implemented” by 2022.
“As I have said many times
before, we are having the wrong
conversation in Canada,” Wall said in
prepared written statement minutes after
Trudeau’s announcement.
Wall’s statement went on to
insist carbon pricing “holds the lowest
potential for reducing emissions, while
potentially doing the greatest harm to the
Canadian economy.”
But let us also accept a couple
other realities that may not necessarily be
easy to swallow.
The first is that - left to his
own devices - Wall would choose to do
virtually nothing to address greenhouse
gas emissions. Yes, Wall has made costly
carbon capture and storage the centrepiece
of the government’s response.
But if we are now being taxed
on carbon output, what Trudeau’s carbon
tax (and we are well within our right to
call it that) will mostly do is demonstrate
that our carbon capture and sequestration
efforts haven’t really worked.
This takes us to the second
uncomfortable reality for many - we
are living in a world where we are
experiencing the impact of manmade
climate change and are conveniently
ignoring that reality.
mla report From
nancy Heppner
It was rather interesting
that Wall concluded his statement
by saying he would “investigate all
options to mitigate the impact of one
of the largest national tax increases in
Canadian history.”
Had he put as much effort into
providing a made-in-Saskatchewan
climate strategy response, he would
be in a far better position to respond
to a federal taxiing scheme that none
of us are going to much like. Really,
it has been this inaction that has paved
the way for Trudeau’s carbon-pricing
plan.
Wall’s government still finds
it difficult to make anything other than
grudgingly admissions that manmade
climate change is real. That invasive
species like zebra mussels have
taken up more of the Saskatchewan
environment minister’s time than
climate change says all too much.
By using language like
“stunning disrespect” and “betrayal” to
describe Trudeau’s plan, Wall is playing
the all-too-common notion in today’s
world that politics is a sports event
Word search answers
Provincial
Politics
where
i t ’ s
okay to
blindly
with
cheer
Murray Mandryk
for the
home side.
This is not a ‘Rider game’ and the
problem here isn’t cheating referees or the
opponents using dirty tactics. Climate change is
real and we all need to have a say in addressing
it.
Admittedly, this doesn’t mean that
what Trudeau is imposing is anything close to
the right answer. Wall is right to call him on it.
It might very well be exactly as
Wall described - the wrong solution that
dis proportionally impacts Saskatchewan’s coal
and oil industry.
Personally, one wonders why this
federal government and others choose not to
address this issue at the tailpipe of a vehicle
(which Trudeau wouldn’t do, because that would
hammer voters in Ontario and Quebec). But if he
and Saskatchewan are going to take on Trudeau
on this carbon tax, Wall better have a strategy in
his back pocket.
Ranting at Trudeau and the federal
government is not good enough.
Crossword Puzzle answers
Prime minister trudeau’s new Carbon tax Will
Hurt saskatchewan’s economy
Saskatchewan’s economy – already hurting from a downturn
in commodity prices - will be one of the hardest hit by a new
federal carbon tax because of our trade-exposed resource
ABOVE: MLA Nancy Hepner
industries. Saskatchewan families will feel the impact too.
The carbon tax will cost the average Saskatchewan family thousands more per
year and farm families will be among the hardest hit as this new tax will impede continuing
efforts to export Saskatchewan’s high quality food products to global customers.
When fully implemented, Ottawa’s carbon tax will put Canada at a competitive
disadvantage, hurting agricultural, mining and energy-producing provinces like ours the
most while failing to achieve any real progress on carbon emissions globally.
A forced federal carbon tax is a broken promise by a Prime Minister who
campaigned on collaboration with the provinces on a plan that works for everyone
and every province. A collaborative approach holds the highest potential for reducing
emissions that will not cause harm to the Canadian economy.
Canada produces less than two percent of global GHG emissions. Whatever
impact the federal carbon tax will have on Canada’s emissions, global GHG emissions
will continue to rise. Instead we should focus on ways that have proven to reduce CO2
emissions, like our world-leading carbon capture technology developed right here in
Saskatchewan.
saskatchewan Population Continues to grow, Hitting an all-time High
Saskatchewan’s population recently hit one more milestone, reaching another all-time
high, with population growth of 5,314 people in the second quarter of 2016.
According to Statistics Canada, this is the largest quarterly increase since the
second quarter of 2013, and brings the population of Saskatchewan to 1,150,632 as of July
1st.
For over 10 years now Saskatchewan’s economy has grown in every quarter,
making it one of the best decades for population increases in our province’s history.
Letter to the Editor
The Martensville Messenger welcomes letters to the editor for publication. Letters
must be signed and a phone number and/or email address included so the writer’s
identity can be verified. ALL letters are the opinion of the writer and NOT the
Martensville Messenger. We reserve the right to edit letters for length, clarity
or compliance with the current standards of public taste. Submit your letter to
[email protected] or [email protected] or
drop by the Martensville Messenger office at Bay #7 - 301 Centennial Drive North.
Business &
Professional
Directory
Computers
CALL
306-668-1093
or email
[email protected]
Meats & Deli
Martensville Computers Inc.
Hours
Monday to Friday
12-6pm
Ken Marchand
421 Centennial Drive North
Martensville
306-249-2220
[email protected]
Virus Removal - System Clean-up $74
604 2nd St. N
306-955-9791
Monuments
To place your Business Card here
contact our Sales Representative
at 306-281-5776
or email: advertising@
martensvillemessenger.ca
Phone: 306-931-1949
Graveside Memorial Co. Ltd.
Locally owned by the Ottenbreit family since 1963