There is high-quality, independent scientific research establishing that the waters downstream and downwind of the oil sands have been contaminated by toxic chemicals produced by bitumen extraction & upgrading. 1/ #abpoli @abndpcaucus #Alberta @KeepersOfWater @APTNNews Notably, it is not Alberta Govt agencies that have done this research. Events like the one described in this article are not one-offs; they happen continually. "Leaks" and "spills" are the industry's way of releasing pollutants. It's the same in the petro-chemicals sector. 2/

David Olive of @TorontoStar does a great job in this column, explaining why the oil sands producers will not invest their own capital in CCS infrastructure. 1/
#abpoli @NatObserver @EmmaLGraney @s_guilbeault @JustinTrudeau @JonathanWNV @Laurel_BC #cdnpoli
thestar.com/business/opini… Put together the timeline for getting CCS infrastructure up and running, its cost ($70B+), predictions that global demand for oil will peak before 2030, and the economic logic that drives the decisions of the oil sands producers. 2/

Naturally, a guy who sells commercial and office real estate thinks this is great news: "According to businesscouncilab.com’s report Alberta’s Economy: An Overview, real estate has replaced manufacturing as the second largest . . . contributor to the province’s GDP." 1/ #abpoli

https://twitter.com/trentjohnsen/status/1624094743155335169

But should the rest of us be cheering this development as a form of diversification of Alberta's economy? What does it mean for the creation of good, sustainable livelihoods? How stable is this form of economic growth? 2/

The UCP govt announces bursaries for nursing students. They are surely needed. But let's remember why these bursaries are needed. The UCP govt has hugely increased the cost of post-secondary education along with student debt loads. 1/ #abpse #abpoli @edmontonjournal @abndpcaucus I have seen this time and again with conservative govts in AB, since 1991. They come at public services with machetes, wreak havoc, lay waste to programs that took years to build. 2/ @PIAlberta @FriendsMedicare @cafaab @calgaryherald @CBCNews

@AlbertaatNoon show today interviewed a doctor who works on the Blood Reserve in southern #Alberta. She reported that the deaths of Indigenous persons have increased substantially since the safe injection centre was closed in Lethbridge by the UCP govt. 1/ #abpoli @APTNNews Users of addiction and other services are disproportionately Indigenous because of history of trauma and poverty--conditions created & perpetuated by colonialism. 2/

The UCP has shown time and again that it is willing to strip away democratic rights and to criminalize or treat as "treasonous" / unAlbertan anyone supporting a just transition from fossil fuel extraction to a green economy. 1/ Smith's AB Sovereignty Act is also supposed to serve the purpose of protecting oil & gas corporations from federal environmental regulation. As the industry faces more pressure to decarbonize, its petro-politicians take more extreme actions to insulate it. 2/

@s_guilbeault, it's time to stop this game of letting the oil & gas corporations write Canada's GHG reduction regulations. No more delays. No more pretending that emissions intensity reductions will be sufficient. 1/ @350Canada @CANRacCanada @CCPA_BC @yfblanchet @CanadianGreens They've known the urgency of reducing GHG emissions for the past 30 yrs and instead of pivoting towards renewables they chose to obstruct action on the climate crisis in every way possible. That was their corporate strategy. 2/

Why won't the UCP use oil royalty revenue to reinvest in health and education? Because the cuts were never about budget deficits; their purpose was to restructure these sectors--to diminish their functions as universal public goods. 1/ #abpse @PIAlberta @Albertadoctors Fundamentally, the Jason Kenneys and Travis Toews of this world believe that the provision of health and education should be left to the market, with "market failures" being redressed through charity, church, and "family" (i.e., women's) care work. 2/ @UnitedNurses @ABFedLabour

For anyone who hasn't followed Cdn and Albertan climate policy for the past 30 yrs, and who is listening to the raving of the right-wing press and UCP about the appt of @s_guilbeault & proposed caps on oil sands emissions . . . 1/ AB govts, in lock step with oil & gas corporations and their industry associations and big business associations like the Canadian Business Council have been obstructing meaningful action on GHG reduction since the words "Kyoto Protocol" were first pronounced. 2/

A university is not a business. A university is part of the public education system. It does not compete for clients. The role of the PSE system is, firstly, to offer Albertans the educational opportunities they need. 1/ #abpse #abpoli @uasupresident
thegatewayonline.ca/2021/10/editor… When politicians and their board appointees get this into their heads, they will stop increasing tuition fees on the lame grounds that @UAlberta needs to "compete" or that PSEIs should not be government-funded. 2/

"The houses do not provide adequate space for modern teaching, research, or work activities."
False. They were used up until last year.
There are many ideas for their future use.
ualberta.ca/governance/med…
#UAlberta #RinghouseCoalition @RachelNotley #EdmontonHeritage @BFlanaganUofA "The Ring Houses are not public historic
resources." The point of the #RingHouseCoalition, as you know, Mr. Sharman, and Mr. Young, is that #UAlberta should model heritage conservation practices by treating them as such. #EdmontonHeritage @BFlanaganUofA #yegcc @MichaelJanz

We all know that the Allan Inquiry was just a way for the UCP/CAPP govt to reinforce its msg that the interests of the O&G corps and the interests of Albertans are identical. 1/ Hence, whatever frustrates the profit-making projets of Enbridge, TC, Shell, Cenovus, et al. is "anti-Albertan" (could not possibly be in the interests of Albertans). 2/

Why should Albertans care about what the UCP govt is doing to post-secondary education institutions, including the @UAlberta? #Alberta #abpoli #abspe #StopPSEcuts #UAlberta @ryanjespersen @660NEWS @edmontonjournal @GlobalEdmonton @CAUS @cafaab @The_Gateway #Yeg @davideggenAB 2/ UAlberta wasn’t created overnight; it was built into a top 5 Canadian university by decades of public investment. It is the people’s university, and the people have every right to the best educational opportunities available.

This is a good reminder that powerful vested interests don't cede ground without organized, collective action on the part of hundreds of thousands of people.1/n
#MountainsNotMines #WaterNotCoal #JustTransition #GreenNewDealNow Mary Ann Hitt reminds us that 12 yrs ago, climate & env health activists were told that the US would also be reliant on coal for electricity--just as we are told today that demand for oil will continue to grow. 2/n

This is hugely important policy intervention, and one that I support. The Kenney govt and the oil and gas industry are lobbying the Liberal govt for a $30 BILLION subsidy for CCS R&D & implementation. 1/n @JonathanWNV @cafreeland @350Canada @CCPA_BC

https://twitter.com/envirodefence/status/1369668376205877258

For the past 20 years, CCS and technology development, more generally, has been the central pillar of the "climate" policy of AB govts and big business. Why? 2/n

@ryanjespersen asked me today why workers in the post-secondary sector don’t get much sympathy from some Albertans when Conservative governments gut PSE funding. #abpse #abpoli @UAGradStudents @The_Gateway @cafaab @TheAASUA I’m a slow thinker (like slow food), so it took a while for my answer to percolate. Warning: This is a long answer to Ryan’s question! I’ll start with a story. 2/n
@uabpols @NoUofA42morrow @ParklandInst

That the Feb 2021 AB budget sets aside $136m for the "Alberta Jobs Now" program is sadly laughable, given, first, that the sum itself is completely inadequate to the task, and, second, 1/n
#abpoli #ableg #abpse #Alberta according to the budget estimates, the govt is reducing the operating support for post-secondary institutions by $175m over 2020-21, causing hundreds more lay-offs from good jobs. 2/n @UnionNASA @CupeAB @_AUPE_ @ABFedLabour @TheAASUA #UCalgary #UAlberta #Yeg

I am sorry to have to disagree, once again, with our president, but the analogy made here is untenable. 1/n

@BFlanaganUofA @KateChisholm15 @UAlbertaAlumni @UAlberta @The_Gateway @NoUofA42morrow @BFlanaganUofA says "Much as the province can strengthen the economy by diversifying beyond oil and gas, the University of Alberta can increase its resiliency by developing new revenue sources and reducing our reliance on provincial funding." 2/n

Did the UCP ask Albertans if they wanted their post-secondary education institutions (PSEIs), built up over decades with public funding, to be privatized? I, for one, don't remember that being on Jason Kenney's list of campaign promises. 1/n #abpse #abpoli What does privatization mean? Well, at what point does a university education cease to be a public good and become a commodified private service? 2/n

"Governments [sic] role is to provide a business environment that encourages the entrepreneurial spirit of its people." - Finance Minister Travis Toews in the Feb 25 2021 budget address
alberta.ca/release.cfm?xI… And the UCP's supply side economics, that promise to reduce deficits, increase GDP growth, and increase employment, have done precisely the opposite. As they always do. 2/n

#UCP govt says "over the next 3 years, we will spend $1.5 billion to develop key sectors and diversify the economy." They blew that much on one bad investment. We'd have had $4.5 billion to spend on job creation if they hadn't given big corporations a tax holiday.