Medicine Hat MLA Rob Renner has been rewarded (or punished?) for all his years of hard work by reclaiming his post as Alberta Environment minister - Now I should mention that I am about the furthest thing from a “tree hugger” environmentalist that there is, I still use incandescent light bulbs (gasp!) and struggle to recycle my newspapers. Yet even non tree huggers like me are starting to be a little concerned with the environmental impact of our provincial tar sands business.

Alberta sometimes likes to buck the trends of the rest of the country. Western Democracy’s of late seem really concerned about global warming and the environment - Federal party’s are trying to paint themselves greener than their rivals and in the US - American voters are insisting government policy reflect voter concern for the environment. Yet until this past week the Provincial Conservatives have tended to duck most of the tough environmental questions (Har!)

(FYI - Did you know Alberta has its own embassy in Washington to promote our energy sector? Alberta’s image in Washington is big business) For some time now Rob Renner and the Provincial conservatives have tried to pitch to Americans that Alberta is vigilant in its protection for the environment. They go though a lot of effort to tell this to Americans, Canadians and even Albertans. The problem is that it just isn’t true.

This week hundreds of ducks were killed in a chemical lagoon in Fort McMurray, hundreds more may have been contaminated and flown away - but in spite of the Alberta governments claims of environmental stewardship it has long been known that the Oil Sands developments are coming at a tremendous price to the environment. The World Wild Fund & others have reported that:

Alberta currently has 10 open pit tar sands operating. Of those:

only 1 has an independently accredited environmental management system. The other 9 work on the honor system. Alberta has some strict environmental policies on the books, but has virtually no oversight to actually check on or enforce these policies.

The tar sands in Alberta burn as much natural gas during the extraction process in one year as to heat every single home in Canada. (worse they can do it another way, but natural gas is so cheap so they don’t bother…and Medicine Hat is running out)

Despite over 40 years of mining, not a single hectare of land has been certified as reclaimed under those tough but toothless Alberta guidelines. - Whole books have been written on these shortfalls - this list is really quite small - and far from exhaustive….and they want to double production by 2013.

Despite a long and near hopeless track record on environmental protection the Alberta government is trying to portray an image of environmental concern. Odd because until the recent leadership change they didn’t even really pretend. Ralph Klein was pretty unapologetic about the environmental impact of the tar sands developments and the policies today still aren’t much different than under Ralph Klein. Klein (just before the last election)- when asked about the environmental destruction going on in Alberta told us all not to worry because there are really smart people in University who will find solutions to our environmental problems later.(CBC radio January 2008) To me that answer sounded a lot like “let them eat cake”

It seems to me that Rob Renner has inherited a near impossible portfolio to manage. It must be difficult to stand firm and portray an image of environmental concern while all this news coverage lays bare our obvious environmental short comings. The part I don’t understand is why Rob Renner and our provincial government wastes so much time pretending to be protectors of the environment when they could actually protect it.

Lets not be naive - we all know that the western economy needs the oil in Alberta. It is coming out of the ground - and there seems to be no limit to how much the economy is willing to pay for oil. Why cant the province put strict environmental protections and policies in place? Why do they let the industry pretty much police themselves? Have some faith in the innovative private sector. When there are BILLIONS of dollars in profits on the line company’s will be very resourceful. I believe oil companies could develop technologies that produce the oil while safe guarding the Alberta landscape, water and natural gas - but the sad fact is they don’t really have to and so they don’t.

There is one Medicine Hatter who has a tremendous opportunity to influence and change that. Its an awesome responsibility, will he do whats right? Enough trying to spin Alberta’s policies as environmentally sound …why not just actually make them so?

Like many people in the community my family has been affected by drunk driving, when I was young we lost a family member to an impaired driver. So I was quite relieved to hear the news from Canada’s Supreme Court yesterday when they ruled in a 7-2 ruling that the so called “two beer” defense was no longer admissible in impaired driving cases.
A 7-2 majority said Thursday that allowing defense experts to estimate the amount of alcohol an accused person had in his or her system when arrested is an unreliable exercise that depends on too many variables.

Essentially the defense relies on expert testimony that an accused, based on general factors such as body weight and the amount of alcohol consumed, may have been under the legal limit, thus supposedly raising the prospect of reasonable doubt. Critics call this the “two beer” defense - I jokingly call it the “I drink so much that I am not as drunk” defense. That line of thinking is no more, the Supreme Court has ruled that judges can give no weight to this testimony effectively ending the defense.

“To admit such a defense would obviously fly in the face,” of Parliament’s desire to bring drinking and driving under control, Madam Justice Louise Charron said, writing on behalf of three other majority judges.

To bring this ruling closer to home, I recall a local and high profile impaired driving case where this exact defense was used to spare alderman John Hamill any punishment for his actions on Dec 21, 2000. In John Hamill’s case he was pulled over and administered a road side Breathalyzer test which he failed. A fail indicates that 100 milligrams of alcohol or more is present in 100 milliliters of blood. During his trial John Hamill’s lawyer called Dr. Gary Malicky, an expert on the absorption and elimination of alcohol in the body, to testify: (something no longer relevant in impaired driving cases today)

Malicky said he tested Hamill on Tuesday and found he breaks down 18.5 milligrams of alcohol per cent while most people break down 10 to 20 milligrams per cent.
“I’ve probably tested more people than anyone in the world,” he said.
Malicky said with the rate at which Hamill breaks down alcohol, he’s 64 years old and weighs about 235 pounds, his blood alcohol level at the time of the checkstop would have been between zero milligrams per cent and 40.04 milligrams per cent.
Judge Brian Hogan dismissed Hamill of the charges stating that Crown prosecutor Brian Graff failed to prove the Crown’s case against Hamill beyond a reasonable doubt

– Medicine Hat News 2001

In my mind impaired driving is a preventable crime with serious and dangerous consequences. It is interesting to note that the Supreme Court completely rejects John Hamill’s defense today and that were he in court in 2008 to defend his actions he would be convicted on the strength of the Breathalyzer evidence, be disqualified for his public office and potentially face over 5 years of prison time. The Supreme Court ruling has justified our public outrage to that court case.

Many jurisdictions have trials on hold awaiting this supreme court ruling, I wonder what the statute of limitations are for Crown appeals on impaired driving cases, and just how many people escaped punishment using this absurd defense over the years.

The old guard at city hall was largely replaced last October, but much of their handy work remains on the books to this day.

A local business is advertising that some male erotic dancers are coming to Medicine Hat this month, and it makes me wonder - under our bylaws, how can that be legal?

If allowed, and I have no reason to think it isn’t - Is the message from the Adult bylaw that its only womens bodies that are dirty and shameful and thus in need of city hall regulation? Is that not a huge double standard that allows for one but not the other? It could be argued that male dance shows go much further - audience members even touch male erotic dancers.

To me it just illustrates why city hall shouldn’t be involved in the “regulation of business activity” in the first place. The result is ambiguous, arbitrary and illogical bylaws.

On the one hand, “adult” businesses seem like a target not worth defending, after all - is our city any poorer for diminishing the number of strippers in town? - not in my view. Then again, our bylaws don’t stop there either - does the business community need to be told where they can sell lingerie in a commercial district? Our city seems to think so. It seems absurd to me that adult men and women cant decide by voting with their wallet if a lingerie store is appropriate or not to shop in. In much the same way that a special interest group tried to limit the sale of Cosmo and Maxim under the banner of “pornography” - many businesses that the community supports and tolerates were effected under the broad banner of attacking “adult” businesses- only that fight was a clear victory for the special interest group who passed all this ambiguous foolishness virtually unopposed.

The issue here is simply one of city hall interference and the naked hypocrisy that is laid bare whenever bylaws are written to appease an ambiguous moral agenda instead of a transparent business minded one. Perhaps its time our city council undid some of these bylaws and took city hall out of the business of imposing a moral agenda.

KJ alerted me to this news story. An interesting video on Medican’s new development called "Cimmaron".

Do we really need another low cost housing project in Medicine Hat? Is their that much of a demand? With all the construction that CCL homes is doing, isn’t the area of "affordable housing" going to become saturated. I’m not sold on this idea.

Video:

After skating off the Ice Saturday night to the standing ovation in Vancouver’s GM place, saluting the fans…shaking hands with the opposition Calgary Flames, all signs point to Linden retiring as a pro hockey player.

Maybe there will be a banner raised to the Arena rafters this fall afterall. Will Trevor Linden’s Jersey join Lanny in the rafters in the arena as the second jersey retired by the Medicine Hat Tigers?

I think he is an obvious candidate and that would be a cool party. Even though he played for the Canucks, (he was drafted by them, he had no choice ) he had a great career and is one of Medicine Hat’s most famous people! Congratulations Mr Linden!

1986-87 Medicine Hat Tigers WHL 72 14 22 36 59
1987-88 Medicine Hat Tigers WHL 67 46 64 110 76

and most importantly if you look up in the rafters down at the local arena there a couple of big team achievements hanging from the rafters as well back when the Tigers won back to back Memorial Cups.

I know this has been discussed a lot lately, but not so much here yet. I can’t believe someone went through the time and money to send this to everyone in Medicine Hat. I am glad the community is sticking up for our Police Force (and so they should).

Download the PDF

Join the Facebook group Citizens Against Citizens Against Medicine Hat Police Force Terrorism.

Click the link below to see the letter.
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A long time reader and contributor to the blog ask me if I could post his opinion piece. I think it is an interesting topic, and one that should spark some interesting debate:

This is the scenario. Someone you love has been charged in the U.S. with a crime that will see them spend the rest of their lives in prison without the possibility of parole. Now if the crime was committed in Canada (which is impossible as there is no law in Canada for this apparent crime), their punishment would be a small simple fine, and a year of parole. Do you believe that the Canadian government should be actively trying to extradite them to the U.S.? Or would you expect your government to stand up and protect them from this outrageous punishment, one that is worse than what is possible in Canada for murder?

Now let’s say that the crime that they are being charged with was for the business that they were running, one that they held a business license for, paid taxes for, and were recommend for their services by a Canadian government agency.

What would your feeling be toward your Canadian government if you were in this situation? Would you feel like they are letting you down as a Canadian? Would you do what ever you could to stop this from happening?

Well believe it or not this exact situation is happening right now in Canada. Now I should mention that I have no personal or business relationship with any of the people involved in this situation. My reason for writing this opinion piece is simply to try and open people’s eyes to a situation that is bad for all Canadians.

Read the rest of this entry »

During our “Sabbatical” there were a couple of great blog stories that we neglected - this was one of them. Feedback from Ted Clugston, local Alderman - in his own words. Thanks for the contribution Ted, hope you and others will give us more in the coming months!

The lack of controversial headlines may seem like this new council isn’t doing much. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have been very busy solving the myriad of problems left to us by the previous council, some going back a few years some more than 15 years. Let me give you a few examples.

Fire Department-the previous council spent two years trying to recruit a new chief from outside the department. They had little success. Finally Gary Mauch (former chief) put his foot down and set December 11 as his last day. Public Service Commission (Ald. White, Friesen, and myself) quickly with the help of Albert Bizio and Mr. Mauch worked through the list of candidates within the Medicine Hat department and hired Ron Robinson a local firefighter for the job. This is extremely important to the local firefighters to know that we have hired within and there is some sort of succession. Why this took two years I don’t know.

There was also the issue of the firefighters scrubbing graffiti in their spare time. This had been another hot issue for two years. Ald. White and myself quickly squashed this for obvious reasons.

Utilities-what the public sees on Cable Ten seems like this wasn’t much of an issue. Not true, this was the culmination of hours of debate and many meetings with the gas, and electric departments as well as various stakeholders. We have discussed rates everyday for the last 60 days. These are some of the most difficult decisions. We need to be honest. When your city council can set your utility rates it is another form of taxation. We can keep property taxes low, and raise utility rates and vice versa. Most councils don’t have this option. A good example of this is the Esplanade; the whole bit about it being mortgage free is hogwash. Nothing is free. It cost money and that money had to come from somewhere. I am not sure everyone on the previous council understood this. There is no free lunch.

Net result we have lowered the gas rates, and kept electric to a minimum. Especially the Industrial electric rates as a great many jobs depend on these rates.

Pandering to the Camera-when you watch cable ten and see Alderman asking questions. Most of the time the answers are already in front of us in our 200-page information packet. Usually they are asking a question they already know the answer too so they can get some camera time, and if they don’t know the answer it is because they didn’t do the proper preparation.

Lawsuits-unfortunately I can’t discuss, just let me assure you I am not involved in the E.R. suit, however there are a great deal more than this one pending. The new council is trying to right the wrongs of the past. The attitude appeared to be, “Let them sue us, they will eventually go broke before they ever see a dime”. This is cowardly and lacked vision. Making lawyers rich and irreparably harming good and decent citizens.

Meadowlands R5s-this disaster was left by the previous council. Thankfully now solved to everyone’s satisfaction, I think.

Openness and Transparency-probably not much progress made on this in my opinion. However we are working on an Internet feed straight to the cities website. This shouldn’t be as hard as it is turning out to be.

Transit-changes are coming. “I know you’ve heard this before but really they are!”

If I could sum things up, the new attitude seems to be let’s get it done, less talking, and unless you can give us a dam good reason why not, let’s just do it. We don’t need to be big brother. Let the citizens go about their lives. Less time spent moralizing, more time spent on the business of running the city.

I could go on, however no one likes a to read a long blog. I’ll save that for the next 60 days. Please feel free to ask me questions on anything else.

Ted Clugston

This is the title of an email I received recently.

I feel I owe you, devoted and constant reader, an explanation of the sudden abandonment of this blog and what I plan for the future.

First of all, where the hell did I go? Two things happened that made me lose temporary interest. To explain the first, we need a little background information.

I started this site for fun (definitely not for profit). I knew there would be contentious issues, and I would take some flak for what was said here. I use a pseudonym more to protect the company that I work for than to protect myself. I have thick skin, and I knew what I was getting into from the beginning, there where no illusions (other than I was good at grammar and writing).

I host this blog with a local company that gives me a fantastic rate. This company lost business because of my blog, and that was never my intention.

During the election, the manager of a certain candidate was not happy with how his contender was being portrayed here. This "manager" also thought I had pulled some dirty tricks to bring readers to the site (which I didn’t and I have proof). Immediately after the election was over (and his candidate losing), said manager pulled all of his companies websites that he hosts in protest. The business that offers me a great rate to host this blog, lost money because of my site.

I spoke to the manager of the hosting company, and he was OK with it. I thought they would be upset over this, and they were surpassingly not angry at all. But the principal of it made me very angry and jaded. So in response, I am going to move this site to a different hosting that will not be affected by the blog or what is said on it.  I wish I didn’t have to, for one thing it is going to cost me more.

The second reason for my absence, is my Father had a battle with cancer and passed away recently. My focus was on other things obviously.

But we are back, and you will see some changes and a resurgence in posts. Thanks for sticking with us (those few that did). I will be moving the site, and possibly changing the look of it. Also, Dangermouse will be more of the contact, getting the emails on breaking news and rumours.

I really look forward to jumping back into it again. I never said it wasn’t fun.  Talk to you soon

Skeet

That headline is not a typo! Usually the blog is full of typos I admit, but I meant to say 2008.

At the end of each year – news people and content writers want to spend time with their families over the holidays (who can blame them). To do this they clip out top stories and top headlines throughout the year so they can produce an easy copy and literally mail it in during the last week of the year. This time of year is full of “Top 10” lists and year in review type of stories. I find them cliché, and a little boring.

Plus – I like the idea of scooping all the other forms of media in the new century. So this will be Medicine Hat’s first 2008 year in review – The top stories I hoped to see in 2008.

2008 City Hall – The new council led by Norm Boucher as promised made City Hall the transparent beacon of good government that we all knew it could be. Norm Boucher tipped off this blog as to the Supreme Court ruling on closed meetings (in camera) during the election campaign and in 2008 he insisted on our behalf that all public information be debated in public where it belongs. It’s was hard to change the system, but our new council – forged with strong council members and a mandate of open government from the people changed the system that we saw was too easily abused in the past. – also City Hall started broadcasting their debate and discussion online in archived web cast so all the citizens can check in our leaders from time to time. A big Bloggy Salute for this great accomplishment!

2008 Crime and Punishment – The City was once again inundated with journalists covering the unflinching testimony in the Steinke case – outside of that community strain… it was great to see a year where Medicine Hat became violent crime free – thanks in large part to a strong reinvestment in community resources available to families fighting addiction, mental illness or other hardship – turns out those programs made a big difference.

2008 Sports – In Medicine Hat one sport reigns supreme and the little Tigers that could – did! Led by a host of new comers the Tigers got hot late and rode that momentum into a tidy playoff run. No championship this year, but lots of reason for optimism. Willy turned down the chance to coach the Edmonton Oilers and opted instead for a Tigers Head Coach for life contract. – in thanks the people named him deputy mayor.

2008 World News – Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan helped further rebuild and stabilize the country. The local angle – all our soldiers made it home safe and sound.

2008 Local Economy – remained strong. The housing market cooled a bit, the bidding wars of 2007 seemed to hit a snag. There was healthy growth, but more sanity in the market place. It was great to see all the new businesses and familiar faces thrive as our city grows. It was too bad about the Utility Rate hike…but we all knew it was coming.

2008 Media – Little MedHatBlog kept on stirring the local pot in 2008, brought with it some great local debate and discussion, kept the spotlight focused on our local leaders and help to raise awareness on local issues. Was great to see the growth of a little community activism new century style.

2008 Personal – My daughter learned to walk and sweet goodness I plucked my first silver hair! What was that all about?

Hopefully all of that comes to pass and this pre mature year in review will look like some sound fortune telling, there is a good probability that something on that list will come up short and disappoint us – I hope it’s the silver hair spotting. May God bless Medicine Hat and all her citizens in 2008 – oh and Happy New Year.

Danger Mouse.