Issue a Climate Madness Manifesto – Analysis
Executive Summary
As reported in the National Observer1, just prior to the recent Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Edmonton, there was a meeting of some 300 mayors and councillors who claim to represent half the population of Canada, and who promoted an exotic 5-part “Elbows up for Climate” plan. The ‘plan’ has no cost-benefit analysis, and based on the National Observer report, the mayors are putting forward much dis/misinformation on climate change and wildfire.
The “Elbows Up for Climate” Goals
The “Elbows Up for Climate” manifesto has five policy aims:
• a national clean energy grid in every direction,
• the building of at least 2 million net-zero below-market homes,
• mass retrofits,
• heat pumps and solar installations,
• a national high-speed rail system connected to local electric buses and a
• “national resilience, response and recovery strategy.”
Voters, especially in Edmonton, have been betrayed, as have major industries by the claim of “Elbows Up” mayors that:
“We are asking the federal government to stand with us: to reject fossil fuel projects that divide us, and get to work on practical and popular projects that won’t burn down our country – but build us up, Canada Strong.“
Thousands of people work in oil, gas, and transportation/distribution in the Edmonton region, which is the “Gateway to the North” – only possible with fossil fuels.
Further, the “Elbows Up” mayors are demanding a ‘windfall’ tax on oil and gas companies, which are only benefitting due to geopolitical situations beyond their control. Most of these companies suffered tremendously under the unchecked ENGO activism of the “Tar Sands Campaign” against Alberta’s resource industry. Canadian petroleum companies also suffered from 2015 to 2020 due to the global OPEC-driven price crash in late 2014 and the lack of pipeline which caused Canadian oil price discounts of US$50/bbl. Producers suffered negative rates of returns and wrote down tens of billions in asset values. Those companies did not get government funded relief then; why should they be extorted now, simply because “Elbows Up” mayors have grandiose ideas, but no way to finance them?
This report assesses the “Elbows Up” mayors’ plan, offering a reality check, and illustrating how taxpayers are unwittingly financing climate activism like this, despite it being done without their approval and against the interests of the country, the province, and the cities of the mayors quoted in the National Observer story.
Leave a Reply! Please be courteous and respectful; profanity will not be tolerated.