FORMERLY THE ROCKY VIEW FIVE VILLAGE WEEKLY
Volume 35, Number 27	OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER FOR THE MD OF ROCKY VIEW #44	Tuesday, July 1, 2008
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Opinion
We’ll be spending a lot more time at home
Glenda Borson

While the price of gas is hard to swallow at the pumps, it is also causing a huge amount of hardship to many Canadian households. Jobs are being lost left and right. GM is closing their plant despite the cries of the union; Air Canada is downsizing by some 2000 positions, not all of which can be accommodated through attrition, and thousands of other jobs across Canada are being reclassified or eliminated.

When gas prices soar, companies must find other ways to cut costs and sometimes employees are more disposable than most of us would care to acknowledge. To add to the burden of lost jobs, everyday prices for goods we need such as food are rising, making a very worrisome situation for many Canadian households.

I wonder how did we ever get to the point that oil, a commodity humans lived without until the last century, became so essential to our everyday lives?

There is virtually nothing in any of our homes or lives that is not connected somehow to oil. So many products are produced from oil and even the few that are not, were manufactured and transported to us with products that began as oil. The oil industry is not a friend to everyone. I suppose though that taming the west with horses, wagon trains and back breaking work was no picnic either.

I sometimes think, more than any other indicator, you can gauge the state of the economy by watching who is worried for their jobs. Especially very hard hit has been tourism. Hopefully there will be a silver lining to the black oil cloud in that many Albertans will holiday at home, thereby making up for a lack of travellers from other places. There is so much to see in Alberta, one could not possibly do it justice in one summer.

While Alberta produces much oil, and the province is rolling in dough, we average Albertans are not immune to the many problems caused by the rising cost of everything touched by oil. It could be worse though. Take B.C. for instance, last week they threw a carrot to each resident with a one time $100 climate action dividend rebate (children got $30 each). The catch though, is a brand new carbon tax, which will hit gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, propane, and home heating fuel. That hundred bucks will not go far when you consider the tax works out to about an extra 2.4 cents on a litre of gasoline at the pumps, gradually increasing to 7.24 cents per litre. British Columbians already pay 3.5 cents per litre to help fund transportation projects. Add on PST and GST, its not hard to see how badly B.C. residents are being gouged by taxes every time they fill up! Somehow this new tax is going to help ‘green up’ B.C. The details of that little green plan somehow escapes me, but at least we can be comforted with the knowledge that it’s only in B.C.....for now.

At least that’s the way I see it.

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