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Downloaded costs making life for Albertans more expensive

After slashing funding for provincial parks while showering profitable corporations with huge tax breaks, the provincial government in its infinite wisdom has now slapped Alberta taxpayers with more user fees.

The government’s dubious defense, was the substantial increase in traffic over the past year.

You know, during the pandemic when people couldn’t travel so decided to explore their own province’s backyard.

With more people, of course comes more mess.

Though for some reason, we’re all expected to pay for those who leave that mess, despite us already paying taxes that are supposed to fund departments for this.

Which is interesting, because politicians are often the first to remind us the majority of users are responsible.

So, the government is effectively punishing the majority of responsible users for the reckless actions of the few.

The fees don't even seem to really take into account whether one is heading out on gas-guzzling, mud-eating tire spinning ATVs and side-by-sides, mounted on harbingers of relentless horse flies and pummeler of soft trails, or plain ol' foot.

Don't get me wrong, as riding horses and off-highway vehicles looks like a lot of fun. Stay safe and enjoy yourselves out there, and much respect to those who take pains to minimize their impact on the land.

That being said, people hiking out into the backcountry for a couple of nights, don't usually require much in terms of infrastructure, and typically leave the least imprint on nature of all users. Those who are doing it right, leave just about no trace, without having to tear up and rip through creek and river beds on public lands to enjoy the great outdoors and our shared resource.

Adding insult to injury, these fees are being imposed by the very same government that flushes millions of dollars down the drain on a taxpayer-funded, state-created, industry propaganda machine that mounts embarrassing campaigns against Bigfoot cartoons.

Not to mention the billions given to corporations under the guise of so-called job creation tax cuts that didn’t actually create any jobs, or the failed $1.5-billion KXL gamble that the former US president would get re-elected.

Usually, I would argue governments act in the interest of self preservation with re-election being their primary objective.

But the UCP leaves me with the distinct impression they could not care any less about 2023, since even if voters kick them to the curb at the ballot box, comfortable golden pension parachutes and cozy corporate consulting gigs await them.

So Kenney's government couldn’t care any less about the lower-income Albertans their policies are hurting. Far as the party is concerned, the UCP was crowned with a "majority" mandate to act with impunity for two more years, which are going to feel like an eternity with their leadership at the helm. However, the UCP will never brag, naturally, that this majority they speak of was barely more than half of the province's eligible voting population, of which only 64 per cent actually cast a ballot.

And if one were to judge by the official Twitter accounts of Premier Jason Kenney and his righthand man and Minister of Environment and Parks Jason Nixon, which have exceedingly few supportive comments among a deluge of criticism, many people aren't exactly enthralled by what this government is doing.

Regardless, we can probably expect the UCP to just continue downloading more costs on our shoulders over the next two years as they forge ahead on the path to privatization. Undercut and undermine public services and programs very deliberately, then pretend like they don't work and claim only private, for-profit business can save the day.

There will somehow apparently always be enough money to keep funding the War Room to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, along the way paying handsome six-figure salaries to overpriced propagandists and hearing patronizing platitudes about how we must all do "more with less" because the "shelves are bare" and we must "tighten our belts."

Still, the UCP will find new and creative ways to spin off any new fees as a somehow positive thing for cash-strapped people, as did Nixon when he proudly announced how pleased he was.

Some, indeed what seemed to be most, commenters weren't really having it, though.

The UCP promised to make life more affordable for Albertans and to leave more of their hard earned wages in their pockets after so successfully demonizing the NDP's carbon tax, which was a federal requirement that at least kept the revenue in the province.

Yet the UCP's actions speak loudly and contrary to that pledge, as they leave more and more people behind. Perhaps they're catering to the Albertans poised for a pleasant boom on the anticipated K-shaped economic recovery that will leave many people even farther behind.

But hey, who cares that everything else is becoming more expensive under Kenney, at least there’s no more carbon tax, right? We sure showed Trudeau, eh!

Oh wait... that court battle turned out to be another costly backfire borne at the expense of taxpayers when the Supreme Court decided by a significant 6-3 majority to uphold a national carbon tax.

One can only wonder at this point how the UCP will outdo itself next.

Accessing Alberta's Kananaskis Provincial Park and other public outdoor places is about to come with more fees that amount to another in a long line of costs downloaded onto the taxpayers' shoulders, during a pandemic when many people already struggle to make ends meet. The UCP was essentially elected on the premise they would make life affordable for average Albertans and leave more money in their pockets, primarily by killing the endlessly vilified carbon tax. Yet since coming to power two years ago, the government's actions have shown the opposite.

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