It has been a relatively short time since former premier Ralph Klein sold the people of Alberta a bill of goods labelled The Alberta Advantage.
Today I am looking at my outrageous gas and electrical bills and reading that, thanks to the energy deregulation policies that the Alberta Progressive Conservatives brought in under Klein, Albertans now pay the highest rates in Canada for both electricity and natural gas.
The PCs even had the audacity to introduce this deregulation policy with subsidies paid for by your tax dollars (remember the temporary provincial natural gas subsidies?).
So now Albertans, in Canada’s most energy rich province, pay the highest rates for essential energy products.
This all while unregulated energy-providing corporations can’t rake in the profits fast enough.
It would be a different matter if we could live in this part of the world by doing without electricity or gas but we all know this is not possible.
The inflation rate in Alberta is now the highest in Canada. So I am asking both of our Red Deer and district MLAs to please publicly respond to this letter and explain how people like myself and others who live on a fixed income can benefit from this so called Alberta advantage?
Or are we being sacrificed to the energy corporations and should we just turn off the lights and freeze in the dark if we don’t like it? That is what Klein suggested to our Eastern relatives so few years ago.
For those of you who voted for this political party in previous provincial elections, I have one last question: Is this really the Alberta that you wanted?
Ron Baugh
Red Deer