Our Simple Premier

Governments wasting our money.
I can sympathize with Henning, of the Taxpayers Federation, for his questioning of a city website to measure our carbon footprint. (article follows).
I am astounded to find that my dollars are paying for Premier Stelmach’s “One Simple Act,” also known as his climate change plan. Don’t stop reading, this gets even better.
You and I are not only paying for a website that doesn’t really have much in the way of significant information, we are also paying for a team of people to travel around the province finding people who do do (oops), “One Simple Act!”
Oh my, the website has even been updated since Friday! On Friday we had a running total telling us that we had saved about 14 garbage truckloads…..The website has now been redesigned and the running total is now replaced by pictures from “Flickr.” I am betting that our ‘brain trust’ in the Edmonton Legislature found a way to pay someone for taking the video, posting the video, or just putting it on “Flickr.” We Albertans can now proudly say that that we have now saved 104 garbage truck loads from the dump (as of the updated statistics since Friday) since this one simple idea for one simple act was implemented by our one simple premier since his big announcement on June 2! I’m not quite sure how we got from 14 garbage trucks to 104, …and got a redesigned website in a few days…but hey, if the budget is unlimited you can waste money anywhere! This busy, busy team, who you can bet are getting paid, are selling the “One Simple Act” around the province with 2 public appearances in July 2008, 3 in August and 1 in September.
Henning, let us start looking at the real waste and corruption.
Web reference: http://alberta.ca/acn/200806/236584A0625CE-B234-7A78-7FBBEDDD2D4F8696.html

Mon, August 4, 2008
Green website a waste
Taxpayers federation says city's carbon footprint calculator way too expensive
By ALYSSA NOEL, SUN MEDIA
The city's new carbon- footprint calculator doesn't add up as an advantage for Edmontonians, charges a taxpayer watchdog.

Officials recently unveiled the online tool as part of an initiative to make Edmonton a more environmentally friendly city.

It allows citizens to figure out their carbon and ecological footprint.

However, dozens of similar tools are available for free online, argues Scott Hennig, Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

"The issue isn't whether or not the city should be providing people information on their carbon footprint, the real issue is they could've picked one of a dozen websites to link to," he said.

"It'd be no different than the City of Edmonton spending money to create its own search engine. Google is already doing it for free, or Yahoo or a hundred other ones."

The website, http://edmonton.zerofootprint.net, cost $40,000 to launch and it's estimated it will cost $5,000 a year to maintain.

Hennig is also opposed to the city doling out prizes for people who, after calculating their footprint, promise to reduce their emissions.

"One of the (prizes) is a one-year lease for a hybrid vehicle," he said.

"I don't think most people are going to be opposed to the government being more environmentally friendly, but here you just give your name and say you're going to do something and you can win a prize.

"Handing out prizes doesn't normally sound like the role of government."

But Coun. Don Iveson, whose portfolio includes environment issues, argued the calculator offers residents a unique service while providing the city with useful data at the same time.

"A big advantage of the system we've partnered with is first of all it's more detailed than the free calculator sites out there," he explained.

"When we're partnered with the supplier, we have access to the data ...

"It's not just about giving citizens a tool, it also allows us, in general terms, to look at trends and decisions citizens want to make."

Municipal governments play a huge role in combating global warming, he added.

"Globally, more than half the world's population lives in cities and it's much higher in Canada," he said.

"From what I've read, about 75% of the world's energy consumption takes place in cities ... Cities definitely have a part to play if we're going to actually reduce emissions.

"Federal and provincial governments have the resources and the legislative power, but the place where most of the changes will happen is the cities."
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2008/08/04/6347311-sun.html