Don’t blame Breton
I wonder if any news stations will be coming out to interview the Village of Breton staff or the council members about the hate mail and nasty phone calls they have received since the news story about the idiot who has the nazi and confederate flag flying who by the way lives in Brazeau County? I also wonder if our MLA, Mark Smith will reconsider the wording of his post on his Facebook page because I believe it unfairly associates this with the Village of Breton and that is not right.
#1- This guy has no affiliation with the village of Breton whatsoever. I don’t know a single person who would say this guy is their friend.
#2- Our community celebrates the history of African American pioneers that settled here, in fact our museum/historical society has made that one of the top priorities for many years.
#3- The people who felt the need to come and protest across the street from the RCMP detachment were ignorant of our community, had no idea of our town and it’s history. Why didn’t they go protest at the guy’s driveway who has these flags up?
The news stories portrayed our community in a bad light and it sickens me that the only time these “big city” news stations ever have a story about rural/small town Alberta it is about a drug bust, some other criminal activity or some blown up, sensational bullshit like this story. They never tell the whole story.
There are many good things and many good people in our community! I would sure as hell much rather be here in Breton than in the big city. Especially when things get bad. Here in Breton neighbors help each other, we don’t discriminate and we are certainly not racist.
Darren Aldous
Link to story, May 13, 2021 Free Press
More letters below…
The cost of coal mining
Coal! Although the dialogue concerning coal mining in Alberta’s eastern slopes of our beloved Rocky Mountains has cooled off somewhat while a provincial panel assesses the issue, we must not lose sight of what has become an existential issue for all Albertans and many of our prairie neighbours to the east. So many of us have spoken out confirming there is no upside to continuing with coal exploration or mining in this iconic and environmentally sensitive area. It is also obvious that the “Consultation” may very well be politically biased based on the very limited scope of the initial public survey and terms of reference, notwithstanding the attempt by the Energy Minister to subsequently suggest otherwise.
In addition to all the other significant arguments, let us add another perspective: coal is no longer a resource to be exploited. Wikipedia defines “resource” as “a source or supply from which benefit is produced and that has some utility.” I suggest this implies some net benefit and net utility. There is no net benefit or net utility in the mining of coal in the Rockies’ foothills; coal burning, being such a major factor in climate change and with many nations and industries gradually phasing it out, is no longer a resource. So let’s leave it where it is!
Bottom line (and this should be a no-brainer for our politicians): immediately pass legislation banning all current and future exploration and coal mining in the Rocky Mountains and its foothills and end the so-called consultation as it is redundant.
Yes! It really is an obvious decision. But perhaps not for our current Alberta government. Reversing all their recent decisions to assist coal mining in Alberta may come at a cost for them; they would then have to reverse the commitments that they previously made to several Australian coal behemoths and their Canadian acolyte, the Coal Association of Canada.
So how much political pressure will be exerted on this panel to “do the government thing” rather than “the right thing”? It is up to all of us (including municipalities and organizations) who want to ensure that there is no expansion of existing Rocky coal mining, no granting of new leases and the adoption of legislation to forever ban such future coal mines to maintain pressure on the panel, and all our MLAs and MPs. Keep up the submissions, social media, phone calls, letters, emails, sign postings and submit your views to the Alberta Coal Panel at energy.coalpolicy@gov.ab.ca. We can win this battle so that our offspring do not have to wage a much larger war later to restore our environment and fight climate change.
Marty Prentice
More letters below…
Where’s the value
Dear Editor:
Here are a few thoughts about the Rural Municipalities Association (RMA) based on my limited experiences with this organization.
This writer requested time to make a presentation to the RMA concerning Council issues based on several corporate reviews done in my county. The response was negative. One would think that such an organization that purports to be for the citizens would be gracious enough to hear from them.
“ . . . the AAMDC (now RMA) has made it our mission to ensure the interest of Alberta municipalities are effectively represented . . .” Should this not be in the interest of the citizens? It costs Brazeau taxpayers $19000 annually to support this organization. What does the taxpayer receive in return?
Should we not expect that a code of ethics is a part of their policy? The only reference I could find on the RMA website to councillor conduct is that Council have a “code of conduct.”
There is no reference to “code of ethics” that many other organizations have; e.g., teachers, doctors, accountants, etc., including investigation of and penalties for contravention. In other words, if a ratepayer(s) has an issue re councillor actions or behaviour, he/she has nowhere/one to go to for rectification. Why is there no mechanism available for investigation of councillors? The Province is notoriously week In this regard.
Citizens only need to phone the appropriate government agency for any other issue in society such as traffic behaviour, chemical spills, personal threats of one kind or another, but have no recourse to deal with Councillor behaviour/actions. Petitioning and government action is a joke. So much for local government accountability. It appears to this writer that one can have the most incompetent/corrupt Council and not have any recourse.
Does RMA investigate to see if counties follow their public engagement strategy? If not, why not? If so, how? Why have 42 pages of policy if they aren’t used?
At a recent public meeting, the current RMA president stated that the oil and gas industry owes back taxes near $245 million (average $3 million per county province-wide, plus education taxes, prepaid by the county and not collected).
According to my information. “The Supreme Court of Canada has confirmed that the Alberta Municipal Government Act (MGA) does not grant a municipality a special lien for unpaid linear property taxes.” Alberta is the only province that has this loophole. Where is the RMA on this one as this appears to be another serious flaw in the Act? Under their “Values” section on the website, it states “RMA is committed to leading in a proactive, collaborative and accountable manner.” (Again, how has their collaboration benefited the taxpayer in terms of the issues voiced above.)
After reviewing the stated objectives of the RMA, it seems that the only one that may be of value is one that states “strong rural advocacy and connection with other levels of government.”
It seems that the advocacy and connection to other levels of government that the organization purports to espouse does very little for the citizen and taxpayer at the local level.
L. Oberle
