To the Editor,
I’m a city kid, and always have been. My roots, however, are rural. My mother was born in Cherhill, and went to high school in Barrhead. In my late teens and early twenties, I spent many summers with my aunt and uncle (former mayor Milton Lawrence) who owned the town laundromat. I would run the shop for them while they went on holidays, and I also worked part-time at the Burger Baron only three doors down the street.
Suffice to say that Barrhead has been on my radar ever since, and my ears perk up when I run across news from that corner of Alberta. This week I ran across an article by Emma Graney and Janet French at the Edmonton Journal, who delved deeply into where revenues for Alberta’s carbon tax has gone. I knew some of the big-ticket items; the rebates going out twice annually to low-income Albertans, funding LRT expansion in Edmonton and Calgary, a 1% cut in the small business tax... but I had no idea that over 2000 projects have been funded, in more than 300 communities across the Province. So now I learn that not only did Barrhead install solar panels on the roof of the aquatic centre (is that the same building where I swam hundreds of lengths in the early 80s?) but also worked with local agricultural societies to install solar panels and ramp up energy efficiency on working farms.
I learned many years ago that small is beautiful, and I think it’s pretty cool that hundreds of Towns and Villages in Alberta, including Barrhead, have been making good use of the carbon tax revenues with little projects that all add up to making a big difference. Here’s a tip of the hat, from one impressed Calgarian who has fond memories of your northern Alberta Town.
Sincerely yours,
Roger Gagne
Calgary
