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Chamber of Commerce announces new honours in the Business of the Year Awards

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Submitted by Red Deer & District Chamber of Commerce

2022 Business of the Year finalists announced

The Red Deer & District Chamber of Commerce announced the 2022 Business of the Year finalistsĀ today for central Albertaā€™s most prestigious business awards. An independent adjudicationĀ committee comprised of local business leaders selected 18 finalists from more than 74 nominees inĀ this annual celebration of business excellence.

ā€œThe last two years have demonstrated that businesses in Red Deer & District are resilient, boldĀ and driven to succeedā€ says Scott Robinson, CEO, Red Deer & District Chamber of Commerce. Ā ā€œWe are so proud of all the over 70 nominees for this yearā€™s Business of the Year awardsĀ presented by connectFirst Credit Union and excited to present the following 18 businesses as theĀ finalists for this yearā€™s awardsā€

In the Small Business of the Year category, the finalists are ā€“ Juiced Audio, Sweet CaponesĀ Bakery & CafĆ©, and The Red Deer Mechanic

For the Business of the Year category the finalists are ā€“ Abbey Master Builder, Central AlbertaĀ Co-op and Prime Boiler

In the New Business of the Year the finalists are ā€“ Creekside Creative Academy, Hello BeautifulĀ Bridal Boutique, and Mint Smartwash

For the Emerging Business of the Year category, the finalists are ā€“ Custom Furniture of Canada,Ā Masterpiece Salon & Spa and Recovery Lab

In the Business Leader of the Year the finalists are ā€“ Carl Sauve ā€“ KCB Cabinets, Donna PurcellĀ ā€“ Donna Purcell QC Law and Doug Anderson ā€“ Peavey Industries

In the Non-Profit Award finalists are ā€“ Alberta Sports Hall of Fame, Central Alberta HumaneĀ Society and Central Alberta Pride Society.

Businesses are nominated by the public and all completed nominee packages are given to aĀ judging committee. The committee then conducts a comprehensive evaluation to determine theĀ finalists. As an outcome of this process, the winners are also determined, however the results areĀ sealed and embargoed until the awards ceremony.

Winners of the 2022 Business of the Year Awards will be announced at an annual ceremony, to beĀ held at the Red Deer Polytechnic Arts Centre, Wednesday, October 19, 2022.

This yearā€™s title sponsor, connectFirst Credit Union is one of the largest and most successful creditĀ unions in Canada, connectFirst is a full-service financial institution with over $6 billion in assetsĀ under administration. connectFirst employs 750 Albertans who provide a range of financialĀ products and advice in more than 40 communities across central and southern Alberta. It servesĀ over 125,000 members through a community-focused approach to banking.

Tickets for this exciting event are available online at www.reddeerchamber.com or at the ChamberĀ office, 3017 Gaetz Avenue.

The Red Deer & District Chamber of Commerce is a collaborative leader in building a vibrantĀ community and fosters an environment where businesses can lead, be innovative, sustainable, andĀ grow.

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Mark Carneyā€™s Misleading Actions and Non-Disclosure Should Disqualify Him as Canadaā€™s Next Truly ā€œElectedā€ Prime Minister ā€“ Jim Warren

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From EnergyNow.Ca

By Jim Warren

If Mark Carney simply told the truth, he wouldnā€™t have to remember if what he says in Quebec matches what he says in Western Canada.

When speaking in Kelowna on February 12, Mark Carney left the impression heā€™d been converted from environmental zealot to missionary for an Energy East pipeline.

Carney said he would ā€œuse all of the powers of the federal government, including the emergency powers of the federal government, to accelerate the major projects that we need in order to build this economy and take on the Americans.ā€

Five days later Carney told CBC those emergency powers wouldnā€™t apply to Quebec. The government of Quebec would have veto power over any pipeline to the east coast. To clear up any possible confusion he repeated his pipeline veto pledge to Quebec at the French debate for the Liberal Leadership.

Apparently tough measures like the ā€œpeace, order and good governmentā€ clause in the Constitution and the Emergencies Act can be used by Liberals to arrest and seize the bank accounts of truckers who honk horns and cause traffic jams in Ottawa. But they canā€™t be used to build pipelines across Quebec even if it will reduce the impact of US tariffs on Canadaā€™s economy. Like any good Liberal, Carney knows the interests of Maritimers and the West are of little consequence when his party needs to boost its support in Quebec.

Ironically, the second national poll in the past few months shows a majority of Quebecers support the construction of an East/West pipeline through their province. It is the Central Canadian political elite based in the major cities of Ontario and Quebec and excessively zealous environmental activists who oppose pipelines. And the Liberals are, of course, the party which represents that environmentally sanctimonious elite.

You read it here first.

On January 28, EnergyNow ran a column with the headline:Ā Trumpā€™s Wake-up Call to Canada, Politicians & Activistsā€¦ The column outlined how the ā€œpeace, order and good governmentā€™ā€ clause in the Constitution and/or the Emergencies Act could be employed to override regulatory barriers and court injunctions to ensure new pipelines to tidewater are built. The column says the first step in that process will be booting the Liberals from office. That condition still applies, given that Carneyā€™s one-time mention of using ā€œemergency powersā€ in support of a West to East pipeline turned out to be just one more Liberal lie to Western Canada.

Pierre Poilievre has aptly pegged Mark Carney as a hypocrite whose corporate interests and behavior are in substantial conflict with his environmental virtue signaling. At a House of Commons committee hearing in 2021, Poilievre spanked Carney for supporting the cancellation of the Energy East pipeline, while Brookfield Asset Management, the company he chaired, had bought pipelines in Brazil and the United Arab Emirates.

Poilievre admonished Carney, ā€œYou make billions of dollars off foreign pipelines and you shut them down here at home, putting our people out of work.ā€

More recently Carney misled Canadians about the role he played in moving Brookfieldā€™s head office from Canada to the US. Carney claimed he had absolutely nothing to do with the move despite the fact he was company chairman at the time.

No less egregious is the fact Carney has used a loophole in federal legislation to avoid the financial disclosure rules for cabinet ministers including the prime minister. The disclosure rules help Parliament determine when ministers are involved in conflicts of interest. Carney will soon be crowned prime minister by the Liberals and will technically be exempt from the rule.

Carney is technically exempt because heā€™s never been elected as an MP. He will be able to avoid making his financial disclosure until 60 days after he is appointed prime minster. This means there is a good chance Carneyā€™s financial information wonā€™t be available well into the run up to a possible spring election.

Poilievre rang the alarm regarding the loophole and plans to introduce legislation as soon as Parliament reopens to fix the problem. He pointed out that there was nothing preventing Carney from being transparent and voluntarily providing the necessary information to Canadians prior to the Liberal leadership vote.

Poilevre was being too kind. A lack of integrity is whatā€™s holding Carney back.

Carney is on record as a firm believer in carbon taxes. In the book he published in 2023 he wrote, ā€œMeaningful carbon prices are the cornerstone of any effective [environmental] policy framework.ā€

Now, in support of his campaign to become prime minister, Carney promises to get rid of Canadaā€™s unpopular carbon tax. The claim is clearly deceptive. He intends to replace the current tax on consumers with an upstream tax on oil producers and industry.Ā Carney must think Canadians are too dumb to realize the increased upstream tax burden will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices for virtually everything they purchase.

When Carney is pressed to explain his carbon tax 2.0, he mumbles his way through an incomprehensible word salad worthy of Kamala Harris.

Also like Harris, Carney avoids campaign events where non-supporters might show up or media appearances and interviews where he might be asked a tough question. His appearance on US late night talk shows hosted by uber-liberals like Jon Stewart are unlikely to generate hard ball questionsā€”the hosts are ignorant about Canadian politics and wouldnā€™t have a clue about what to ask.

I think Carney knows how bad the Kamala campaign tactics look. He was clearly taken aback by an incident at a campaign event in Regina. A member of the Liberal party who was somehow identified as a closet Conservative was accosted by two security agents and police who ejected him from the meeting. The guy had done nothing untowardā€”he hadnā€™t so much as raised his voice. It seems Mark Carney is very precious and must be protected from the publicā€“ including Liberal party members who are potentially dangerous because they supported another party in the past.

Where Carney really stands on environmental issues

Mark Carney didnā€™t just drink the climate alarmist Kool-Aid, he helped make it and wants to serve it to you.

ā€œHeā€™s the father of net-zero on a global basis,ā€ according to Catherine Swift, President of the Canadian Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada.

Carney has been a steadfast supporter of the environmental dogma underlying the Liberal assault on the fortunes of the oil and gas industries including the legislation preventing new pipelines. For years now, heā€™s been working on the inside of international organizations dedicated to climate change mitigation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction.

In December 2019, he was appointed as the very first UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance.

Prior to, during and after his time at the UN Carney has found time to hobnob with the billionaires and national leaders who presumably constitute the global elite. Heā€™s been a regular at the annual World Economic Forum conferences in Davos, Switzerland.

As a member of the forumā€™s Foundation Board he is a duly qualified member of the modern day Illuminati. He associates with the international bankers who presume to know whatā€™s best for the little people. His promotion of the radical green agenda dovetails nicely with the environmental virtue signaling of the worldā€™s rich and powerful at Davos. They are dedicated to conquering global warming no matter what it costs the rest of us.

At the COP26 conference in 2021 Carney proudly proclaimed he was part of the same social movement as Greta Thunberg. Carney praised Thunberg as the ā€œcatalystā€ who inspired the youth wing of the environmental movement. I havenā€™t heard if heā€™s gone off Greta and her wing of the movement now that she has announced her support for Hamas.

Don Braid recently wrote an insightful column in the Calgary Herald where he proposes that Carney is too deeply embedded in environmental activism and too publicly committed to climate change mitigation and the anti-oil agenda to run away from it when he becomes prime minister. Braid reports what Carney had to say about the environment and the need to abandon natural gas and petroleum in the 600 page door-stopper book he published in 2021, Value(s): Building a Better World for All.

In 2021, Carney was deluded enough to imagine the worldā€™s virtuous emissions cutters would prevent the planetā€™s average temperature in 2050 from being any higher than 1.5O above what it was in the middle of the 19th century.

Not even serious climate change alarmists like Gwynne Dyer believe thatā€™s remotely possible. The goals of climate zealots like Carney include fanciful, overly ambitious emissions reduction targets. They want change to happen too fast to be affordable for virtually everyone except the sorts of people who hang out at Davos.

In his book, Carney identifies what he believes should happen to the fossil fuel industries. His goals donā€™t bode well for the future of Canadaā€™s petroleum and gas sectors and canā€™t help but harm the countryā€™s economy.

Carney writes,Ā ā€œTo meet the 1.5o C target, more than 80 per cent of current fossil fuel reserves (including three-quarters of coal, half of gas, one-third of oil)ā€ will need to ā€œstay in the ground, stranding these assets.ā€

Steven Guilbeault, Canadaā€™s most infamous and politically dangerous environmental extremist backed Carney in the Liberal leadership contest. Guilbeaultā€™s support is in recognition of Carneyā€™s radical record on environmental issues including climate change mitigation.

Nothing to say about Liberal corruption

One of the most disturbing omissions from Carneyā€™s political platform and media coverage of his campaign is any mention of plans for dealing with runaway Liberal cronyism and corruption.

He hasnā€™t promised to open the books and jail the crooks. He hasnā€™t promised to release the unredacted evidence of Green Slush Fund corruption. He hasnā€™t promised to release that evidence and turn it over to Parliament and the RCMP. He hasnā€™t announced plans for a thorough forensic accounting of Liberal backroom deals. And he hasnā€™t promised investigations into sweetheart contracts and looting in cases like the ArriveCAN scam.

He canā€™t do any of the above because it would implicate a number of Liberal insiders and he needed them to support him in the leadership contest. And how will he be able to work with the government caucus if he suggests he wants to get tough with the hogs at the trough? Given that he wonā€™t release his financial information, it could be he doesnā€™t want to limit his own access to the gravy train.

In the final analysis, youā€™d have to say Mark Carney is a committed environmental zealot except when it interferes with his business interests or political ambitions.

He appears comfortable giving preference to the environmental extremism of the Davos set over the harm overly zealous climate change policies do to the livelihoods of ordinary Canadians and the countryā€™s economy.

He appears comfortable with hypocrisy and misleading Canadians which clearly qualifies him to lead the Liberal party, but makes for a bad prime minister.

 

 

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Biden Admin Spent A Trillion Taxpayer Dollars To Embed DEI Across Government, Study Says

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Center For Renewing America

Digging for DEI Dollars: Watchdog Report Identifies 460 Programs Across 24 Federal Agencies

The Functional Government Initiative and the Center for Renewing America identify at least a trillion dollarsā€™ worth of divisive, identity-based programs and policies among the federal thicket and make suggestions that could ensure they donā€™t come back.

On his first day back in office, President Trump issued anĀ executive orderĀ to eliminate ā€œradical and wastefulā€ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ā€œprograms and preferencesā€ from the federal government. The Biden administration embraced this ā€œwokeā€ agenda and embedded it across the executive branch. Ensuring these programs do not make a comeback will take a sustained effort.

To help the administration in this task, and to help educate the public on the scope of the problem, the Functional Government Initiative (FGI) and the Center for Renewing America (CRA) have publishedĀ DEI Spending in the Biden Administration.Ā This report traces the Biden administrationā€™s web of DEI programs and influence throughout the government, provides numbers on how much money these programs and initiatives wasted, and offers options for Congress to consider that could root out DEI ideology permanently.

A crucial guide to uncovering the myriad DEI expenditures, both small and large, were the ā€œEquity Action Plansā€ (EAPs) that President Biden demanded across the government. The Biden administration claimed that these plans were designed to identify and remove barriers keeping federal resources from ā€œmarginalizedā€ or ā€œunderservedā€ communities, particularly in areas like procurement, contracting, and grant opportunities. In reality, the systemic focus on DEI poisoned federal governance, contributing to the substantial increase in related spending and diverting resources toward controversial policies, away from agency missions. The Biden administration forcibly inserted the language of DEI into every corner of the executive branch.

The study identified 460 programs across 24 government agencies that diverted resources to DEI initiatives. At leastĀ $1 trillion was infused with DEI principles. Here are some examples taken from various EAPs:

  • The Defense Department planned to ā€œIntegrate environmental/economic justice tools.ā€
  • FEMA found the need to ā€œInstall equity as a foundation of emergency management.ā€
  • The Department of Labor ā€œmust embed equity in a sustainable manner that recognizes the multiple and overlapping identities held by workers.ā€

President Trumpā€™s swift actions and executive orders stopped these efforts. To ensure a future president canā€™t just reverse course upon taking office, Congressional action could banish DEI philosophies for good. Our report includes suggestions for lawmakers to consider for eliminating DEI and other radical ideologiesā€”detailed legislative proposals that could prevent the resurrection of poisonous ideas and practices in our national government.

Wade Miller, Senior Advisor for CRA, issued the following statement:

ā€œDEI is deeply rooted throughout all aspects of the federal government, and it needs to be eliminated completely. Thankfully, the Trump administration has already embarked on a vitally necessary complete audit of each and every government program. We offer, in this report, what we hope are additional resources and tools that the new administration and Congress can use to identify, destroy, and permanently remove DEI from the federal government.ā€

Roderick Law, spokesman for FGI, issued the following statement:

ā€œThe dual study could both expedite the elimination of DEI from the executive branch and show just how quickly pernicious ideologies can spread inside the government. The nature of DEI is both divisive and anti-American, so why force it onto the military, the Commerce Department, or the EPA? After President Biden lavishly funded and pushed these controversial principles into every possible area of government, our hope is that raising these questions and offering Congress and responsible executive branch officials tools and suggestions can keep it from happening again.ā€

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