From: brewnoserii@gmail.com   
      
   Alberta follows Ontario in big environmental changes . . . and the creation of   
   jobs to accomplish it.   
   _________________________________   
   The Canadian Press  01.02.2016   
      
      
   'Entering a world that is going to be constrained:' Alberta environment   
   minister   
      
   EDMONTON - Climate isn't all that's changing in Alberta.   
      
   The province's NDP government has arguably made bigger moves on global warming   
   in six months than the previous Conservatives made in a generation.    And the   
   changes aren't going to stop.   
      
   The details of the government's new climate change policy — carbon-price   
   rebates and green infrastructure investments, for starters — will be at   
   least partly thrashed out in the coming months as the government readies its   
   spring budget.  But that,    
   says Environment Minister Shannon Phillips, is just the beginning.   
      
   "We are entering a world that is going to be constrained with respect to   
   (carbon)," the minister said recently in an interview with The Canadian Press.   
      
   "Alberta must be carbon-competitive with respect to our energy.  It is also   
   not something that this government created.  It is a fact. Just as the science   
   of climate change is a fact.   
      
   "We have a low price of oil, a scientific consensus on the way the global   
   economy is going.  Within that, one must make careful and deliberate decisions   
   on how we move forward.  The way to do that is not to engage in angry   
   navel-gazing."   
      
   Phillips is clear that Premier Rachel Notley understands that governments must   
   not only lead, they must get people to follow.  That became especially clear   
   after poor communication sparked noisy protests against the government's farm   
   safety legislation.   
      
   Phillips uses the word "conversation" — with Albertans, with communities,   
   with industry — again and again.   
      
   But make no mistake. She is working toward a different province than the one   
   in which she grew up.   
      
   "Climate policy can be — and is — a job creator and community developer   
   and a way that communities can really take ownership over how they develop."   
      
   The boom-and-bust Alberta of go-go oil and gas investment followed by   
   shuddering halt has got to end, she said.   
      
   "I'm not sure that anybody likes $35 a barrel (West Texas Intermediate).  Or a   
   $6-billion deficit due to a drop in royalties.  Or a spike in domestic   
   violence rates.   
   Or a spike in food bank usage.  Or a spike in suicide rates.  Or charitable   
   donations being down.  I'm not sure that anyone's actually comfortable with   
   that.   
      
   "And that's what relying on one commodity to one market at one price delivers   
   to us.  It delivers great wealth when that one commodity is high, but this has   
   been an object lesson, the last six to eight months, in the need to diversify   
   the economy."   
      
   Phillips isn't sure that Albertans need to be taught that lesson.   
      
   "Albertans know (it) very well.  When you talk about the need to diversify,   
   everyone nods their heads."   
      
   Voters not only elected a progressive government last spring, suggested   
   Phillips. They did it in the previous election when the Redford Tories won on   
   a platform that attracted teachers, health-care workers, parents of school-age   
   children and university    
   students.   
      
   "Alberta is much more progressive than most people give it credit for.  We saw   
   that even with the election of the Redford government, and you saw it again on   
   May 5. Albertans did that twice in a row.   
      
   "Albertans are ready for a strong, diversified economy in which we take our   
   environmental responsibilities seriously, in which we are ensuring that we are   
   delivering on our responsibility (for) good health and good air quality."   
      
   That new economy will have some new faces in it, too.   
      
   "What we don't want to do is replicate the social exclusions and the economic   
   inequalities of the old days.  What we want to do is ensure that all Albertans   
   have access to growth and prosperity from these initiatives."   
      
   Despite the farm safety protests, Phillips downplays the likelihood of a   
   backlash. But if there is, bring it on.   
      
   "I'm a New Democrat in Alberta," she said.  "I'm not really afraid of   
   much."    (^ﺪ͟͠^)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)