Official Notice

CANADA - Extreme and wacky weather continues as RECORD LOWS hit parts of Canada. Coast-to-coast, Canadians continue to deal with 'weird and wacky' weather. Freezing rain, severe wind chills and mild temperatures persist across the country, with temperatures dropping in the West and winter storm warnings hitting much of the East. Bitterly cold weather has helped Alberta has set a new record for electricity demand. On Monday around the supper hour, demand peaked at an all-time high of 10,609 megawatts, which beat the previous record set Sunday.
On Wednesday, record lows hit Alberta as arctic air moved east. Edmonton faced a severe wind chill of about -43 C while Calgary expected a chill of -35 C. Bitterly cold air combined with a westerly wind of 15 to 30 km/h will produce wind chill values in the -40 to -49 C range in southern Saskatchewan throughout Wednesday and into Thursday. Winnipeg also got a blast of winter as temperatures were set to hit -36 C. At these extreme values, frostbite on exposed skin can occur in less than 10 minutes. 


This is an excerpt from 
http://globaldisasterwatch.blogspot.com/

This is not the sort of records that I like to see. We are only 1 1/2 hours from Edmonton, and pretty much matched what they saw.

On a more cheerful note, do you realize that spring is only 2 months away? Wahooo!

Bring it on!!!

My Rant of the Month!

For a while now, our electrical supplier has been announcing that our power rates are going to go up. What you say? 1 or 2 %..... No, 50% ! This is on top of the 20% already increased over the last year.

This was kind of expected when our Conservative government privatized the power industry. They said   that no this would never happen.

Now is this greed at its worst in the power companies?

They had a spokesperson on TV the other night that could not answer the question as to why it was going up. He said that it might be because of increased population, or maybe increased industrial demand or several other issues that I was too much in shock to remember. As far as I can tell the Alberta population has not increased by 70%, industry has not grown by that much, nor have the sum totals of all the lame possibilities  that he suggested. Personally, I would have fired the guy!

The issue that he did not mention was the possibility that the user population is paying for a proposed power line expansion.

What does this mean to this retired acreage owner?
First of all, the chickens have to go as we cannot afford to over winter them.
Second, the cost of produce is going to go up again. Have you priced a roast of beef, or a chicken in Alberta lately?
Third, this will definitely cause industry that is thinking of moving here to go elsewhere.
Fourth, it will accelerate inflation
Fifth, it is NOT the thing to do when we are on the verge of recession/depression.

Hint: When any government starts talking privatization, be prepared to come out swinging!

What about you? are you satisfied with  $12+ per gigajoule? Or in other words (English) prepared to take a 70% hike in your electricity cost? $12 is now, $18 is coming.

I would be interested in hearing your comments, as I am going to be writing the various levels of government this week and our new Premier Elect.