Well, maybe not in so many words, but Jack Layton DID promise yesterday that he would scrap a tax-incentive program for companies to mine the Alberta Oil Sands.
While not the be-all and end-all of Alberta’s economy, the Oil Sands do represent a significant portion of this province’s economy.
“We’re going to have a legacy for the next generation that’s too toxic to clean up and Mr. Harper’s responsible because he’s giving away the store to big oil companies,” he said, after flying over the oilsands to look, “What you’re seeing here is being subsidized and paid for by the Canadian taxpayer, that has got to stop.”
His beef is the impact the development has on the environment; but once again, like the myopic leftie he is, he fails to realize that the owners of “big oil” (as he calls it) are shareholders; and most are “average joes” like you and me. They have homes, cars, and kids who will inherit the earth from them. Most resource-based companies, in the name of good advertising and publicity, make a point of cleaning up after themselves once finished. They spend millions on returning the environment back to the way it was before they arrived.
Layton simply wants to gut the industry, ruin one of Canada’s largest market sectors, and put Canada back into Third World status. But that’s the way of a left-wingnut – beat up on the “successful” or “the rich” simply becuase they happen to have more “stuff” than someone else.
No thanks, Jack.