This letter came to the Bonnyville Nouvelle in the form of an open letter to Premier Jason Kenney.
What is wrong with the picture? Your tax cuts for large companies, of some $4.7 billions did not create jobs, It was a poor plan. Jobs were lost by the thousands, in fact 50,000 jobs since you took office. This makes us number one in Canada for unemployment.
You cut on highway repairs last summer to save money, now our highways are falling apart and dodging potholes is like running an obstacle course. How are we saving money with this plan?
Taking over the well managed teachers’ retirement fund without consultation, resulted in more unemployment and a host of unhappy pensioners who are also electors.
It seems you like to use the word cut, but cuts in Health Care hurt real people, especially our fellow Albertans who are old ,sick, and/or poor.
I fail to see how you, an educated man, can reduce funds for educational services to a growing school population, and transfer the costs, some $1.3 millions, to families of school age children. It is obvious you do not have children in school. Cuts to post- secondary education will certainly not increase employment opportunities for these young adults and finding a job to cover their tuition is very difficult because of the high unemployment rate.
While I feel that culture and museums are important, allocating $ 40,000,000 to the Glenbow Museum, while cutting in health care and education seems to shows a lack of judgement. Building schools and upgrading hospitals would be a better use of our tax dollars at this time, and would also create real jobs.
Shareholders have decided that the Frontier Mine Project is not viable. Would you invest your own money in this project? And how many MLAs would be ready to invest their pension in the same project? Keep in mind that smaller projects have been good for our local and provincial economies. I refer here to Imperial Oil in Cold Lake, Cenovus, CNRL, and other small producers who are keeping our towns alive. Smaller projects may be the way to go.
Retired and still a taxpayer,
René Champagne
