Alberta WikiLeaked on $16 Billion Corporate Giveaway

6 posts / 0 new

Tue, 2011-05-31 00:39

Noah_Scape

http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/05/26/WikileaksAlbertaElectricity/

WikiLeaks did it again!! And this time closer to home - cables between the Alberta government and the US Ambassador Celluci say that "Alberta will produce electricity to sell to the USA, and the government will build a new transmission line to do it on, at taxpayer's expense"

But the Alberta government told Albertans the transmission line was for them, not for exporting electricity.

A much smaller line would do for Aberta's needs, and it would cost a lot less. This is a giveaway from the Ab Govt to private industry, again. The $16 billion contract to build it goes to SNC Lavalin, and Trans Alta gets the wires to sell electricity on - good gravy!!

Plus, the Ab govt quietly passed legistlation removing terms such as "public needs assessment" from laws about how government money is spent ["that public good gets to me, I think I have an allergy"]

Also distastefull is the fact that this "excess power" will come from Tar Sands operations because they have huge power plants and they use 1/3rd of Alberta's natural gas production to fire the burners in those power plants, so they want to run it all full bore all the time and sell the excess. Barf!! This is no way to scale down the Tar Sands!! [not that they would, just sayin']

Some people say that this kind of thing is going on all the time in government/corporate dealings. BC rail deal, etc etc. Do we need to have some sort of Uprising? Other options to stop the plundering of tax dollars for Elite wealth people?

--ps:

Andrew Niciforuk got the story out... on the Tyee - Are there any Albertans here to tell us if the story got into Alberta's newspapers? I will google around and see...

Tue, 2011-05-31 19:05

voice of the damned

Well, The Edmonton Sun covered it. They're the more right-wing of Edmonton's two dailies(and the sister paper to the Toronto Sun). I'd imagine it was covered by the Journal as well.

[url=http://www.edmontonsun.com/2011/05/17/docs-prove-plan-to-export-energy-t...

Tue, 2011-05-31 21:59

Noah_Scape

Ok, thanks for checking, vd. I eventually found it in the Calgary Herald online too, so it is not being censored in Alberta. Just checking, allways suspicious, lol.

It seems like a pretty high crime, this $16B thing, like treason...it is obvious that the government members are ripping the taxpayers off to buy corporate friends.

However, it seems Albertans are okay with it. Their natural resources are being plundered and they get very little in return, and $16 Billion of their tax dollars are going to Montreal and all they get is a big power line, but litte is being said. Same thing in BC when we hear of these things, BC Rail - Maybe we don't have a clue about how to protest. We could take lessons from Arabs I suppose.

Tue, 2011-05-31 22:28

N.Beltov

You, Me and the SPP points out that little Norway has hundreds of billions in its "Heritage" Fund while Alberta, with the same amount of oil rescources, has a mere 15 billion or so. The people of Alberta, the FNs, have been ripped off by their own despicable (Conservative) regime.

Tue, 2011-05-31 23:39

milo204

this reminds me of the situation in manitoba where the choice is to build the export line through one of the largest remaining intact boreal forests in the world, or spend more and build it through what is mostly farmland and areas where there are already roads and development...

which brings up the interesting debate of, why are we destroying our lakes and rivers, forests and first nations and ultimately our future so some huge company (crown or private) can make huge profits in the short term? i guess that's really a rhetorical question, but it pains me more people don't see the stupidity in this.

Tue, 2011-06-07 03:04

Noah_Scape

Ya, that is the nuts of it Milo. "Government for the corporations" is not a plan that is serving the people very well, just the Elites and their littler brown-nosed minions such as corporate executives.

Beltov points out Norway's example, and that is damning evidence that Alberta has given away it's valuable resources to corporate culture instead of getting that value to "the people", to whom the oil and all resources belonged to in the first place.