Will Alberta join Norway and ...

[grower99]

Will a change in Ab bring the commies to the doors?

[sawfly]

it is about management, not right or left. it is a little late now to say to say a change will fix 40 years of bad management.

just like Harper's do nothing policy in regards to a functioning western transportation system.

we will just keep paying the ransom to get our goods to market.
when they get around to it.

investment and planing for a functioning system will be years overdue.
before this crowd smartens up.

strange how for folks that thought it was so unfair for the CWB to monopoly market 1 grain.

think it is just fine for a private
co. to control every bulk rail commodity in western canada .

why bother wasting all this time and money on a democracy. if your just gonna let the corporations make the plans anyway.

why go thru all this expense if all the gov. can think to do, is give you a 50$ tax credit on kids sports equipment.

like i said not right or left.
just folks who buy all the corporate con.BS. that they know whats best for you.
and now have nothing to show from 40 great years .

Norway could just as easily have nothing too. if they had a corporate kiss ass govt.like here.

[sumdumguy]

Norway has a plan, to save for the future but if it's true that they have 25% sales tax, their fiscal policies must be geared to price constraint regulated by tax effect. Very different than here, where we are geared to increasing debt just to keep up the show.

[Hamloc]

A few stats on Norway, value added tax 25%,personal tax rate 39% and corporate tax rate 27%. Interesting to note Norway's corporate tax rate has been as high as 50% in the past, even Norway concluded high corporate taxes don't work. In Alberta total corporare tax provincial and federal is 25% so I am confused why this is a huge issue, could it be raised a percent or two, absolutely, would this solve Alberta's financial problems, it would make very little difference.

If Norway is the example to follow in Alberta we need a sales tax and then Albertans can adequately fund our social programs as it is people who use them not corporations.

[riders2010]

For quite a while farmers have had some concerns about what was going on at legumex with the sell off. I see now they cannot collect money owed to them.
Some of the neighbours have had issues with grades and just dealing with some working there. Maybe this explains some stess going on there.

[dmlfarmer]

No question Norway have higher taxes than we do. Possibly a better comparison is tax revenue/GDP. Norway is 43% (9th highest in the world) and Canada is at 32% (40th highest)

but you also have to ask if Norway is providing better service for the tax collected. Norway builds rail lines with tax money each year. When did government of Canada build a new rail line. 75% of Norway roads are paved. How many of our roads are impassible? Norway provides free advanced education. We limit number of students in universities/tech schools.

The other comparison neglected is comparing sovereign wealth of both countries. Norway has a sovereign wealth fund of 882 billion; highest in the world, more than Saudi Arabia or the UAE. Canada only has the Alberta Heritage fund of 17 billion.

I am not saying I agree with everything Norway does but to write off this country because of higher tax rates is only one side of the story. Services provided from taxes and saving are equally important.

[sumdumguy]

Norway definitely has different priorities. Leadership is key.