Strip mining Alberta's mountains for coal, polluting our waterways, extirpating endangered species, destroying recreational areas . . . All for what? 1/n #abpoli #ableg
The Grassy Mountain project (Riversdale Corp) promises 385 jobs over 23 years. That's fewer than the jobs lost at #UAlberta alone in the past year because of #UCP budget cuts to post-secondary education. Coal mining licenses are NOT about job creation. 2/n
In 2018-19, the coal royalty brought in $10 million in Alberta, and the cannabis tax brought in $30 million. And cannabis won't leave us with irremediably polluted watersheds and devastated landscapes. 3/n
The Kenney govt did not consult Albertans before rescinding the 1976 land use policy that regulated coal mining on the eastern slopes. Not one Albertan I have spoken to believes this is a good idea. 4/n
Questions: Did the Jasons think they could get away with this travesty of democracy, nature, and the public interest by counting on public ignorance of what they were planning? 5/n
Did some Treaty 7 leaders think it was acceptable to agree to the strip mining of coal on the eastern slopes without consulting their members? aptnnews.ca/featured/austr… 6/n
Do Albertans know that the UCP govt also wants to change the rules of water use so that mines and other industries can draw more water from the Oldman River watershed? Apparently they will do anything to give multinational mining cos. what they want. cbc.ca/news/canada/ca… 7/n
Are Albertans aware that the UCP's approach to water regulation is to "allow market forces to drive water use" (as quoted by Drew Anderson in the Dec 2020 CBC news article)? 8/n
Can anyone explain what would drive any govt with even a whiff of concern for the public interest to grant coal mining licenses in the circumstances prevailing in this environment and in 2020? 9/n
Is the UCP govt counting on COVID pandemic restrictions to prevent public protests against coal mining on the eastern slopes? (Remember the Energy Minister's gleeful observation that COVID was good cover for building pipelines?) 10/10
(2) Govt of Alberta Fiscal Plan, 2019-23, p. 71
open.alberta.ca/dataset/3d732c…

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More from @LaurieAdkin

8 Jan
Colton Vessey, who grew up in Okotoks and is doing a Ph.D. in environmental geochemistry, asks the govts of Alberta and Canada to "please do not allow new open pit coal mining operations in the Alberta Rockies or anywhere in Canada." 1/n
@HMcPhersonMP @JonathanWNV @CBCFletch
He writes that "it is extremely likely that toxic contaminants will make their way downstream from Gold Creek into the Crowsnest River and into the Oldman River, which is considered a blue-ribbon fishing watershed, but also is a water resource for many communities." 2/n #abpoli
Vessey is an expert in "contaminant mobility, mainly trace metal(loid)s (such as arsenic, selenium, vanadium)," and cites peer-reviewed research on the coal mine contamination of water with Selenium and nitrate. 3/n
Read 6 tweets
8 Jan
Larry Whan, owner of Trout Wrangler Lodge, a fishing lodge on the Crowsnest river, pleaded today with the Kenney government to withdraw its support for the Grassy Mtn coal strip mine. 1/n
#abpoli #Alberta @JustinTrudeau @RachelNotley
"The short term gain of jobs and money for the province is not worth the loss of our natural environment, pollution of our headwaters and drinking water [and] endangering animal and fish species." 2/n
"[T]hinking of allowing Australian companies to ship our coal to China well into the 2050's and pollute the planet for another 30+ years is beyond comprehension!" 3/n
Read 5 tweets
5 Jan
Flaunting COVID precautions? It's just the tip of the UCP government. #abpoli #ableg @ryanjespersen @RicAcuna
nationalobserver.com/2020/07/10/opi…
Asserting direct govt control over post-secondary education and defunding it to push a privatization agenda:
parklandinstitute.ca/government_tak…
Trying to delist provincial parks and opening up the eastern slopes to new coal mines:
albertaviews.ca/plans-strip-mi…
Read 5 tweets
14 Dec 20
Advanced Education minister, Demetrios Nicolaides, contracted a Calgary firm that specializes in the management of oil & gas companies to produce recommendations for the overhaul of the post-secondary education system. 1/n
@CAUS @cafaab @CAUT_ACPPU #UAlberta @NoUofA42morrow
If the @jkenney government intended to treat the universities like fossil fuel corporations, why did it cut our budgets instead of handing out billions in subsidies? 2/2 @ccpa @globeandmail @HuffPostEdu #abpse #abpoli #ableg @660NEWS @ryanjespersen @UnionNASA @_AUPE_ @RyersonCFE
McKinsey is a US-based multinational, with an office in Calgary. The "winning vendor" for the RfP was reported as McKinsey & Co. Canada at the address of the Calgary office. vendor.purchasingconnection.ca/OpportunityAwa…
Read 5 tweets
12 Dec 20
OK, let me see if I've got this straight. Some #UAlberta BoG members passed a motion today that includes a poorly written paragraph empowering themselves to create “metrics” by which the performance of the UofA’s (yet to be formed) colleges will be evaluated. 1/n @NoUofA42morrow
The President is supposed to report monthly on these performance metrics, which don’t yet exist, but will cover everything from 'clinical outcomes' to financial outcomes to ‘excellence in education’. 2/n
Never mind that none of the public board members is a health professional or an education expert and only one is a professor. 3/n
Read 14 tweets
29 Oct 20
Essentially, the #UCP govt is going to liquidate our parks, watersheds, forests, and other public goods and transfer the proceeds to private interests. Then they'll all leave town. 1/n #abpoli #ableg
Those who are opposing this looting and pillaging of our province--which will leave future generations impoverished in every sense--are labelled "extremist agitators and malcontents" by #UCP flacks 2/n
like the MLA who roused well enough to read a speech in the #ableg today. Mr. "there is no climate crisis" calls for expanding the use of fossil fuels and petrochemicals. Oddly, he stopped short of demanding that #Alberta schools 3/n
Read 6 tweets

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