Friends of the Lubicon
PO Box 444 Stn D,
Etobicoke ON M9A 4X4
Tel: (416) 763-7500
Email: fol (at) tao (dot) ca
www.lubicon.ca
July 19, 2006
Attached please find an article in which Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft speaks out on the Lubicon issue.
Taft says "Those people deserve a land settlement. We need the stability that a settlement brings for the economic development of that region. We need to be pushing Ottawa to return to the table and address that."
Peace River Record Gazette
July 18, 2006
By Mark Rieder
Kevin Taft, Alberta Liberal Party leader, says a more responsible attitude towards budget surpluses has to be used to keep the province’s economy strong.
Taft toured the Peace Country last week, promoting the party’s new policies.
"In the last 25 years, the Alberta government has spent 93 per cent of all the oil and gas revenues it’s received. We’re spending it as fast as it comes in and that sets us up for long term disaster," he said.
He said more of the surplus has to be earmarked to ensure a strong economy in a post-petroleum Alberta.
"Essentially, the largest portion of the surplus under a Liberal government would be saved one way or another into savings accounts. It is absolutely vital for the future of Alberta that we start converting this non-renewable wealth that we’re depending on into something permanent," he said.
And beyond that, new technology has to be promoted to allow the remaining oil and gas reserves to be fully utilized.
"We would look immediately at ways to use carbon-based fuels that doesn’t emit carbon into the atmosphere. We should set a target of making Alberta a global research and innovation centre for sustainable fossil fuel use. Because if we don’t figure it out, somebody else will or somebody else will figure out how to get energy without using fossil fuels and then the biggest single base of our prosperity is gone."
Taft said the Lubicon issue has been put to the side for too long. He said it is in Alberta’s best interest to make sure a settlement is reached with the federal government.
"What I would like to do as Premier of Alberta is re-open that file. Those people deserve a land settlement. We need the stability that a settlement brings for the economic development of that region. We need to be pushing Ottawa to return to the table and address that."
Taft has expressed concern over what he sees as the current government’s lack of transparency and accountability. The Liberal’s have proposed more open freedom of information legislation. He also proposes a whistle-blower protection act.
"Albertans have to have a much stronger voice in their government ... much better access to information, whistle-blower protection, fixed election dates, an Auditor General with real teeth," he said.
That also translates into more openness with the province’s financial statements.
"One of the bills that we fought so hard (against) but the government pushed through was a bill that sealed the results of the government’s internal audit from public view for 15 years. What have they got to hide? Why are they doing that? At a time when corporations and governments in the rest of the country are actually becoming more and more open, the Conservative government of Alberta is just sealing itself off."
Taft said there is a unified concern across the province that people he has spoken with in the Peace Country share.
"They in many ways have the same concerns I’ve been hearing in any area of Alberta towards the huge discrepancy between the immense wealth of the provincial government ... versus the situation that municipalities and school boards find themselves in," he said.
There have been several studies that suggest Alberta is experiencing a widening gap between rich and poor. Taft said a Liberal government would institute policies that will shore up the middle class.
"There are some things that can be done directly through tax cuts. The one tax cut that we’re very committed to is eliminating health care premiums. Premiums affect the lower and middle income earners more than high income earners," he said.
Other policies would include dismantling legislation enacted by the Conservative government.
"Fix things that our government has broken like our electricity system. Just the costs of day to day life ... have really hit people hard because of things like electricity deregulation. So we would return to a regulated electricity system," he said, "Time and time again they hit the middle and lower income people harder and make the gap between the rich and the poor wider. We need to do things that raise the bottom of the scale."
Taft said a Liberal government would strengthen public health care.
"The evidence is just overwhelming and Canadians get this -- Albertans get this. The best way to deliver health care is through a well-run public system. Turning health care over to the marketplace would be a huge mistake."
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