The County of Barrhead is seeking exemption for all municipalities from the federal government’s Oct. 3 carbon pricing ultimatum on a provincial carbon tax.
At their Oct. 4 meeting, councillors voted unanimously on a motion by Coun. Bill Lane to request the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts &Counties (AAMDC) urge the provincial government to provide an exemption to all municipalities from the carbon tax planned by the federal government to be implemented starting in 2017.
“This affects everybody and we decided to bring the matter forward ourselves,” County of Barrhead reeve Bill Lee said, adding the reality is the carbon tax will affect all municipalities.
“Where are we going to get the money to cover it? We’re going to have to raise our mill rates and our residents already pay a carbon tax, so we’re going to make them have to pay twice,” he said, adding it is unfathomable to imagine what it will be like for people of fixed income.
Councillors Dennis Nanninga and Darrell Troock agreed.
“I think this is a great way for the federal government to get an idea of how unhappy the people are with them,” Nanninga said.
“The problem is that these people don’t know what they are doing,” Troock said. “They [federal government] roll out all kinds of laws and then expect us to implement them, hoping that it works. It doesn’t make any sense. It is like telling a person to build their own gallows before they hang themselves. This is nuts.”
Troock said they should put forward a resolution advocating no more crazy people be allowed in parliament.
“I’m so disillusioned by these idiots,” he said. “You’d expect a modicum of common sense from these A—holes, but there isn’t any. This is nothing more than a money grab. We aren’t doing anything for the environment with this. If they wanted us to save it, they should tell us we can only grade once every two months, that would be something, but this is nothing more than a damn money grab.”
Deputy reeve Doug Drozd agreed. “It is our duty to try and manage costs in any way possible and this will come to us regardless, so the only way to cover these costs is going to be in raising our municipal taxes. I say leave us out of it. Municipalities cannot afford any more of these types of taxes and our people can’t afford it either,” he said. Many people already conserve energy and heat, Troock said, but he wondered how the federal government thought people were going to be able to continue doing so with another burdensome tax.
Coun. Bill Lane said more and more people are already living pay-cheque to pay-cheque. “These increases are just going to kill them,” he added.
Troock said he felt this carbon tax ultimatum was a nightmare, especially for the senior lodges, which he is involved with through Barrhead Social Housing.
“I’ve already seen this kind of thing twice already but I can’t imagine how the younger generation is going to get out of this,” he added.
“You’ve got seniors in these lodges who probably did some planning for their retirements but when you have unforeseen expenses on top of already existing costs, how can you expect them to cover this on fixed incomes?” Lee said, adding the federal government is forcing the provinces to have a carbon tax that they must collect themselves and there is no exemption for natural gas, propane, or anyone else, except First Nations. “If you have a chicken barn, a pig or other farming operation, this is going to affect all of us, and it will be in everything, even our food costs,” he added.
“The idiots already shut down the only options we had for cheap energy. Wait until the cities go through rolling blackouts because their solar panels are covered in snow,” Troock said.
