With the fresh Alberta government turning the province towards viability, and the Canadian election looming in the fall, much is happening. Many things of consequence are being spoken about and much is being written. This leads to discussion, decision and votes.
For the sake of clarity and critical analysis, I would like to speak to three articles from the July 2 edition of the Mountain View Gazette.
First, the article “Trident's demise has far-reaching ramifications” (page 1). (Writer) Lea Smaldon recorded the Reed Ranch School presentation by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) with the Surface Rights Board and the Orphan Well Association (OWA). The first two are agencies of Alberta Government, the later of Industry.
“Trident's demise happened quickly,” said Trevor Gosselin AER director of Closure & Liability, whose job title plays out in the narrative. All seemed good to AER in September 2018, but six months later, in March 2019, not so much?
Two months after that, kaboom! The industry proxy OWA abruptly requested intervention, “for the benefit of the public,” and on the same day, PricewaterhouseCoopers was expediently appointed as receiver.
That is where the narrative stops, and investigation begins. How did all this liability develop so seamlessly? Was there a coordinated effort to disconnect long-standing obligations and download them onto taxpayers and landowners? Who is accountable and responsible? Who is gaining and who is losing?
Second, the commentary “Where there's smoke, there's fire.” (page 25). The writer (Rocky Mountain Outlook) uses the necessary wildfire briefing of Jason Kenney for occasion to claim that our Alberta premier is out of touch with “successive years of record breaking wildfires in Western Canada and (buzzword) climate change.” Mr. Kenney was to connect his repeal of the NDP's carbon tax with the presently burning wildfires. His response, “carbon tax won't stop a forest fire” was portrayed as outrageous.
It should interest the editors and the readers of Great West Newspapers, the Rocky Mountain Outlook and the Mountain View Gazette, that “record-breaking wildfires” are a part of Canadian history.
The 1825 Maramichi Fire in New Brunswick burned one million hectares with up to 500 lives lost. By comparison, the Fort McMurray Fire consumed 589,552 hectares, beginning on May 1, 2016 until it was finally extinguished completely on Aug 2, 2017.
The Great Fire of 1919 burned 2.8 million hectares in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1989, 1,200 fires in Manitoba burned 3.3 million hectares.
This year, we were at 803,393 hectares up till June 24. Some claim this as “record breaking,” since the previous five-year average (including Fort McMurray) was 146,360 hectares per year. We have many citations of a long history of dealing with wildfires.
Third, the commentary “Thoughts on pipelines and energy policy” by Frank Dabbs (page 24) expertly proposed a clear opinion for an oil strategy that is prefaced by an informative history lesson. Opinionated discussion is always fruitful when it is objectively qualified and presented.
My good friend Jeff Watson is seeking the Conservative MP nomination in Battle River-Crowfoot riding. He underscores that “without knowing our history, we are prone to accept any kind of a future.”
The information that we are pressed to rely on for making important decisions, is to say the least lacking. In all cases, we must verify, research and work to arrive at our own conclusions.
Prevalent publications trend toward a particular narrative that urges submission of our thoughts, emotions, families and futures to a processed agenda that is proposed by inadequate reasoning.
We have to end corruption of critical thinking and work to rebuild the integrity in society and our institutions, on the long road ahead.
Fred Van Vliet,
Didsbury
