this is something that should be covered by the country as a necessary service available free to everyone
after 50yrs they cannot afford to keep the service going
during emergencies the cell phones are useless if the towers go down and they do go down,having this option can literally save lives
Just wondering…
Given that Alberta is an oil producer, if Mark Carney seizes this opportunity (like everyone else) to push through green agendas, will Alberta say “we’re out! we are getting a divorce from Ottawa”?
Carney said this (before becoming PM)
I think the world is going to get used to what “what is the delivered carbon in a good or a service” because that’s how it’s going to be measured for trade access and in the end, how we consumers look at this (3:40min mark)
I think this is Good to Know
Activists in Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta say they’ve gathered enough signatures to trigger a referendum question this October on separating from Canada.
Ahead of a May 2 deadline, canvassers passed the threshold of 177,732 signatures needed to add the secession question to a referendum including other matters already scheduled for Oct. 19, an account for the main organizing group known as Stay Free Alberta said on social media late Monday.
Jeffrey Rath, a lawyer helping mobilize the campaign, said “we are well over” the threshold in a message to Bloomberg News.
The provincial agency overseeing the initiative, Elections Alberta, said in an emailed statement that it “does not receive any petition sheets and has no information about the status of the petitions until the petition is received from the proponent.”
The agency said it releases official results after a 21-day verification period, during which it validates signatures to ensure they meet legal requirements.
The petition threshold constitutes 3.5% of Alberta’s population of just over 5 million. To start negotiations with Canada’s federal government over the terms of Alberta’s place in the federation, and a possible exit, the referendum would have to clear a much higher bar: Winning a clear majority in favor of leaving.
That currently looks like a long shot: 70% of Albertans said they preferred to remain part of Canada, according to a March poll from Leger.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she’s working to strengthen Alberta’s provincial powers within Canada, and is negotiating a new accord on key energy regulations with Prime Minister Mark Carney that would bolster carbon prices but also pave the way for new oil pipelines.
Her government last year also lowered the threshold for citizens to trigger plebiscites like this one on independence.
“Our agenda is to do what we can to try to give Albertans hope again, and to try to address some of the very real pressure points that have disaffected so many,” Smith said in a March interview with Bloomberg News. “I’m doing everything I can to make Canada work.”
