$9M in ads to sell Alberta's climate plan angers Wildrose, Tories

The Wildrose is declaring asecond ad campaign worth $4.5 million to sellthe merits of the government's climate change plan "a total waste of money."

"This is completely unacceptable," said environment critic Todd Loewen in a news release Wednesday.

"I don't know anyone in my riding or across Alberta who asked for a carbon tax and they certainly didn't ask for millions of their dollars to be spent to promote it," he said.

"This is absolutely shameful."

• Climate change ads needed to explain new program, minister says
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Last summer theprovince spent $4.4 million to promotethe province's climate change plan, runningads onTV and radio and intheatres, newpapersand mailouts.

Premier Rachel Notley defended the second campaign Wednesday.

"The climate change plan is probably one of the most ambitious public policy initiatives in the history of the province easily in a decade," she told reporters.

"We are making profound generational change in the province."

Some Albertans will be receiving rebate cheques in the mail in January and it's important they know what the program is about, she said.

The carbontaxcomes into effect Jan. 1 and will be paid byAlbertansthrough home heating bills and at the gas pumps. Lower-incomeAlbertanswill receive rebates.

Albertans also need to understandhow the climate planties in to the province's economic goals and"efforts to getting access to tidewater," Notley said.