Foothills MP John Barlow has been up north in Redwater as part of the Conservatives jobs task force.

He was checking out an oil upgrader site where there are 6,000 people working to build it and get it online over the next year.

But Barlow says there's still a lot of people worried and upset about their futures.

"Alberta's going through one of the worst times we have in decades and the Liberals response is 'Go get E-I and here's a carbon tax'," Barlow says. "We're looking for more support not more policy that's going to further cripple this industry."

He says it's affecting more than just those in the oil industry with one in five jobs in agriculture disappearing as well.

"You know we've lost 20 per cent of our jobs in agriculture and this federal carbon tax that's been announced, my farmers and ranchers in the riding, one of them in particular said, 'My fuel prices alone are going to go up $25,000 a year'," Barlow says. "That doesn't include his increase in fertilizer costs, that doesn't include what he's going to pay to the trucking company to haul his grain, all those prices are all going to go up."

He says one local municipality he didn't want to name has said the carbon tax will cost it $500,000 a year, a cost that they'll have to recoup through higher user fees or by raising taxes so taxpayers, who will be paying more for food, fuel and other costs will also get hit again by their local municipality.

Barlow says the government has to understand it all comes from the same people.