No matter that Canada’s contribution to global warming is negligible.
No matter that China, India and the USA are the culprits, not Canada.
No matter the consequences, the carbon tax is going to happen in Alberta.
On January 1, the carbon tax will bump up the cost of gasoline by 4.5 cents a litre, diesel by 5.4 cents a litre, home heating costs by $1 a gigajoule. In winter, my 2,100 sq. ft. home burns eight to 10 gigajoules of natural gas per month.
The carbon tax will add to most of your purchases. Municipalities will pass on carbon taxes in higher property taxes. Grocery stores will pass on the added cost of transporting food.
Carbon taxes won’t go away. Those two great world saviors Rachel Notley and Justin Trudeau will keep raising the carbon tax every year for the next six years. By rough calculation, the carbon tax on gasoline will be around 17 cents a litre by 2022.
This tax grab is the equivalent, respected Calgary economist Jack Mintz says, of a 3% provincial sales tax.
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“It smells of grainy and metallic caramel malt, a twinge of earthy yeast, ethereal oily nuts, leafy, herbal, and floral hop bitters. The taste is bready and moderately biscuity caramel malt, a dark orchard fruitiness, earthy yeast notes, and laid-back weedy, herbal, hay-like hoppiness.”
We may not be in Coors country anymore, Toto.
These wondrous if unintelligible words from Brady White of thebeerdiaries.tv are not in praise of a fancy French wine, but are a tribute to Rale Yard Red Ale, a specialty beer brewed by the Olds College brewmaster program. Rale Yard is made in the heart of ranching country, its barley grown on the hard-scrabble prairie.
Beer is the new wine. Different kinds of beer are being “paired” with food at multi-course dinners in better restaurants.
Beer is a new food group, being considered a food flavour unto itself.
In 2003, seven craft breweries were producing beer in Alberta, including Edmonton’s venerable micro-brewery Alley Kat and Calgary& ...
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Too late to turn back.
The Alberta ND government has irrevocably committed the province to a profound change in electricity generation, from coal, natural gas and some wind to no coal, more natural gas, and massive new renewable energy projects – more wind farms, big solar farms, on-site solar and run-of-river hydro. The government’s self-declared goal is to have 30% of Alberta’s power generation coming from renewables by 2030.
This fundamental shift is as expected from a government with a radically different mind-set than the old. The “Alberta Advantage” will no longer be measured in economic terms but in ecological ones.
Under past Conservative governments, Alberta was the lowest-cost province in which to do business. The New Democrats want Alberta to be the cleanest province in which to do business.
So let’s polish up the ol’ crystal ball, and predict best-and-worst-case scenarios of this determined effort that will hit home in January when th ...
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Izakaya Dorinku
10205-82 Avenue
780-988-9760
dorinku.ca
5:30 p.m. to midnight Sunday-Thursday, till 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday
Food: 4 of 5 stars
Ambience: 4 of 5 stars
Service: 3 of 5 stars
Dinner for two (without tip or beverages): Basic, $20; fully loaded, $60
These Izakaya Dorinku people – and there are lots of them — certainly are sociable.
When a customer enters the Japanese-style gastro-pub, the staff gustily shouts out “irasshaimase”! As Izakaya Dorinku is a hit, “irasshaimase” (welcome in Japanese) reverberates throughout the stylish but casual drinking/eating establishment.
The many young, mostly Oriental female servers never stop ensuring everything is fine. Upon leaving the Old Strathcona establishment (in the new Station Condos building east of the tracks), the front-of-house boss walks you to the door, holds it open, then stands outside, waving goodbye.
Izakayas are the gastro pubs of Japan. Found everywhere in that country, izakayas are a vi ...
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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Playing at the Citadel Theatre, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
September 17, 2016 to October 9, 2016
Review by GRAHAM HICKS, Hicksbiz.com
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, at the Citadel Theatre through October 9, 2016, is one of the most interesting, multi-layered and thoughtful plays to have come along in a long, long time.
Ostensibly, it’s about a high-functioning autistic young teenager, Christopher, trying to find out who killed his neighbour’s dog.
Boil down the plot and the swirling collage of scenes and characters: In a compelling sub-text, author Mark Haddon (and, one presumes, stage adapter Simon Stephens) shakes his head at the inability of modern adults to sustain deep, loving life-long relationships, especially in the context of children and their needs.
Curious Incident is a subtle meditation upon (and a magnificent creative illustration of) the emotional effects of parental break-up on c ...
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This business story has so many angles, one scarce knows where to begin.
A (potential) $750 million (US) drug development deal; world-leading drug research in Edmonton; a passing-of-the-torch from the now-deceased Edmonton-based drug researcher Dr. Ron Micetich to his drug-business savvy son Chris Micetich; a dizzying series of business manoeuvres involving the promising new drug; disruptive yet promising ways of doing business.
The drug development deal was an under-publicized monster, announced in January of 2015: Swiss drug giant Roche purchased the world-wide (excluding Japan) rights to a promising but unproven antibiotic drug owned by Edmonton’s Fedora Pharmaceuticals, in partnership with Japan’s Meiji Seika Pharma.
If the "beta-lactamase inhibitor" OP0595 passes clinical trials and is approved by regulators, it may be the new super-bacteria bug killer the world is looking for.
If so, Fedora and Meiji Seika will pocket the entire $750 million from Roche, plus sales royalties.
T ...
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Thank God for Alberta Avenue – better known to the non-locals as 118th Avenue.
Alberta Avenue keeps Edmonton’s food scene honest.
You can have your frothy cocktails and fish tacos in Old Strathcona, on 124th Street and now downtown. You can have your craft beers in those fake-rustic gastropubs, served by scruffy hipsters with toques pulled over their eyebrows.
Alberta Avenue harkens back to an earlier, more innocent era. Newly arrived immigrants couldn’t speak English, but mama could cook and papa could figure out how to take orders. The neighbours might be a tad sketchy, but Alberta Avenue offered a rare combo of cheap storefront rents and pedestrian traffic.
To this day, the most interesting, low-cost restaurants in the city are strung along 118th – from NAIT to Northlands, then from 50 Street to 34 Street. It’s a little United Nations, with Asian, European, Central American, South American, African, Filipino and Caribbean food outlets, even a sprinkle of good ol&rs ...
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I am mystified.
The Alberta government’s Economic Dashboard, an up-to-date snapshot of the provincial economy, shows we’re truly in the dumper.
Compared to a year ago, Alberta’s unemployment rate has jumped from 6.1% to 8.4%, the number of jobs has dropped 22.6%, average weekly earnings are down 4.2% and Employment Insurance recipients are up 48%.
The only positive sign is the population has grown 1.8% to 4.2 million.
And yet downtown Edmonton is in the midst of a building boom, the likes of which we haven’t seen in 30 years.
Around the just-opened $480 million Rogers Place downtown arena, zillionaire Oilers owner Darryl Katz and his partners are building four towers – 27, 66, 54 and 50 floors — that will be combinations of residential, office, hotel and retail space.
Outside the arena district, the Provincial Museum, Kelly Ramsey Building, Hyatt Place Hotel plus new MacEwan University and NorQuest College buildings are under construction, as are at least ...
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Have Mercy Southern Table & Bar
8232 Gateway Blvd. (Old Strathcona)
780-760-0203
havemercy.ca
Sunday and Monday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Tuesday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 12 a.m.
Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Food: 4 of 5 stars
Ambience: 4.5 of 5 stars
Service: 4 of 5 stars
Dinner for two (without tip or beverages): Basic, $25; fully loaded, $60
Forget the ICE District and all those downtown eateries for half-a-minute. Turn your gaze across the North Saskatchewan, up the south bank to the less-active Old Strathcona.
Two years ago filmmaker Michael Maxiss, through family circumstances, took over a restaurant-in-the-making on Gateway Boulevard just north of Whyte Avenue.
Fortunately Maxiss was a fast learner. He knew how to create atmosphere, he had a few marketing tricks up his sleeve but he was new to the restaurant trade. After a rocky start in the kitchen, Maxiss brought in chef Lindsay Porter. It’s been smooth sailing ever since.
El Cortez Mexican Kitchen + Tequila B ...
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The Simon & Garfunkel Story
Mayfield Dinner Theatre,
16615 109 Ave. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
780-483-4051
mayfielddinnertheatre.ca
To October 30, 2016
Tickets, including dinner, $85 to $115.
REVIEW BY GRAHAM HICKS
I’m sure the sociologists and neurologists have a field day studying this one, but it’s true.
The pop music surrounding any given generation, from its high school years to the end of college, will become the most fondly remembered and favourite music of that generation for the rest of its days.
Which is why the Mayfield Dinner Theatre – off Mayfield Road and within the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Edmonton West - specializes in nostalgia musical shows.
“The Simon & Garfunkel Story” will more than earn its keep as it plays at the Mayfield Dinner Theatre through October 30, 2016.
Written and performed by Dean Elliott (he plays Paul Simon with fellow Englishman Jonny Muir as Art Garfunkel), Simon & Garfunkel is a lovely trip dow ...
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