Alberta Minute: Oil Prices, Lost Jobs, and a Carbon Tax Hike

Alberta Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Alberta politics.

This Week In Alberta:

• The Legislature is on break this week for Constituency week. Despite what you might have heard, it's not really a holiday for politicians. When the Legislature isn't sitting, politicians spend their time in their own constituencies, working on local issues.
  
  
• Given the Constituency week, there are also no Committee meetings scheduled for this week.
  
  
• Meanwhile, as the oil price war combined with a reduction in economic activity puts Alberta in an especially precarious financial position, the OPEC+ meeting that was originally scheduled for today has been delayed until Thursday. Alberta's Energy Minister is expected to participate by phone, though the outcome of the meeting is far from certain.

Last Week In Alberta:

• On April 1, the federal government raised the Carbon tax from $20 per tonne to $30 per tonne putting even more price pressure on struggling Canadians - 500,000+ of whom have applied for Employment Insurance already.
  
  
• A survey conducted by Restaurants Canada showed that 95,000 restaurant employees in Alberta have lost their job due to COVID-19 layoffs already and that "One in 10 of the restaurants forced to close have already shut down permanently and another 18 per cent will do so if conditions don’t improve in a month."
  
  
• Finally, we reminded everyone that "Socialism has not ever and will not ever be the solution to anything. Yes, even a pandemic."

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