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“Excessive Risk Aversion” Red Deer South MLA calls for less fear and more freedom and hope in the battle against COVID19

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A message from Red Deer South MLA Jason Stephan

This week I stood in the Alberta Legislature making a Member Statement sharing the sentiments of many constituents in Red Deer which I share.

Lockdowns and shutdowns destroy livelihoods, undermining long term mental and emotional health. Young adults and our children, generally at lower risk from COVID, can be particularly vulnerable, and need to see less fear and excessive risk aversion and more freedom and hope.

The statement:

Please find attached the full text of the Member Statement with the references to the Speaker removed. The video of the member statement is available here:

I am blessed to be the father of two adult sons and a teenage daughter who I love.

Like many parents, I am concerned about the impact health orders are having on the mental health of our children.

I feel job watching my sons become independent of their parents, to seek happiness as the individually see fit.

Yet, like many parents, I see the work and effort of young adults threatened by calls for lockdowns with devastating economic consequences.

This ought not to be.  Some of the loudest voices calling for lockdowns, will not lose a penny of pay, while those impacted may lose it all.

COVID should be respected; but children are low risk – not a single school age child has died from COVID in Alberta.  Yet, there is excessive risk aversion – a single positive COVID case in a high school should not result in 118 other students sent home to isolate, just because they were in the same class, notwithstanding physical distancing is respected, with good health and no symptoms.

School sports, colleges and universities are too shut down.

There is excessive risk aversion and fear – with negative long-term health impacts for children and young adults at low risk from COVID.

There needs to be a principled vision of hope.

The WHO defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Orders, lockdowns and shutdowns are not healthy – imposing long term physical, mental and social health costs, especially on our children.

Click this link to see this statement as it was made in the Alberta Legislature: https://www.facebook.com/JasonStephanMLA/videos/137607104371116/

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Alberta

Owner sells gas for 80 cents per litre to show Albertans how low prices ‘could’ be

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Undoubtedly some of the motorists driving past The Whistle Stop Cafe at Mirror on Tuesday morning thought it was an April Fools prank.  It wasn’t.

Chris Scott, owner of the gas station at The Whistle Stop Cafe offered a one day promotion on April 1st. Scott sold 8000 litres of regular gasoline for $0.80/ litre.

The promotion was funded by Scott and the Alberta Prosperity Project.  In this video posted to his social media, Chris Scott explains why they did it.

www.albertaprosperityproject.com

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Alberta

The beauty of economic corridors: Inside Alberta’s work to link products with new markets

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From the Canadian Energy Centre

Q&A with Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Transport and Economic Corridors

Devin Dreeshen, Alberta’s Minister of Transportation
and Economic Corridors.

CEC: How have recent developments impacted Alberta’s ability to expand trade routes and access new markets for energy and natural resources?

Dreeshen: With the U.S. trade dispute going on right now, it’s great to see that other provinces and the federal government are taking an interest in our east, west and northern trade routes, something that we in Alberta have been advocating for a long time.

We signed agreements with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to have an economic corridor to stretch across the prairies, as well as a recent agreement with the Northwest Territories to go north. With the leadership of Premier Danielle Smith, she’s been working on a BC, prairie and three northern territories economic corridor agreement with pretty much the entire western and northern block of Canada.

There has been a tremendous amount of work trying to get Alberta products to market and to make sure we can build big projects in Canada again.

CEC: Which infrastructure projects, whether pipeline, rail or port expansions, do you see as the most viable for improving Alberta’s global market access?

Dreeshen: We look at everything. Obviously, pipelines are the safest way to transport oil and gas, but also rail is part of the mix of getting over four million barrels per day to markets around the world.

The beauty of economic corridors is that it’s a swath of land that can have any type of utility in it, whether it be a roadway, railway, pipeline or a utility line. When you have all the environmental permits that are approved in a timely manner, and you have that designated swath of land, it politically de-risks any type of project.

CEC: A key focus of your ministry has been expanding trade corridors, including an agreement with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to explore access to Hudson’s Bay. Is there any interest from industry in developing this corridor further?

Dreeshen: There’s been lots of talk [about] Hudson Bay, a trade corridor with rail and port access. We’ve seen some improvements to go to Churchill, but also an interest in the Nelson River.

We’re starting to see more confidence in the private sector and industry wanting to build these projects. It’s great that governments can get together and work on a common goal to build things here in Canada.

CEC: What is your vision for Alberta’s future as a leader in global trade, and how do economic corridors fit into that strategy?

Dreeshen: Premier Smith has talked about C-69 being repealed by the federal government [and] the reversal of the West Coast tanker ban, which targets Alberta energy going west out of the Pacific.

There’s a lot of work that needs to be done on the federal side. Alberta has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to economic corridors.

We’ve asked the federal government if they could develop an economic corridor agency. We want to make sure that the federal government can come to the table, work with provinces [and] work with First Nations across this country to make sure that we can see these projects being built again here in Canada.

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