Two months in Costa Rica

[grassfarmer]

Not a lot to argue with there perfecho.

[Hamloc]

Perfecho good to hear from you.
I think anytime the government tries to pick winners and losers taxpayers lose, Pocklington and the Ghermezian's are good examples of that.
As for your assertion that we got screwed on royalties by Ralph. Jack Mintz wrote a good article on how the NDP actually lowered royalties on conventional oil and gas after their latest royalty review. If that is the case does that make them worse than Ralph?
As for the carbon tax if 66% of Albertan's are being rebated(according to the NDP) the full amount of carbon tax they pay, what incentive is there to change consumption patterns?
As for bill 6, ours is a family operation, the NDP made sure that now all I hire is family.
Minimum wage, the government gave small business a 1% cut in the small business tax rate as compensation for the increase in minimum wage, let's do the math. 10.20 to 15.00 by 2018. 40 hrs/week x 4.3 weeks/month x 12 months x 4.8$ increase per hour=9907.20 per year. Now if that small business did well and made 100000$ taxable income they would save 1000$. This is with only 1 employee. I for one don't believe you can raise a family on a 10 dollar minimum wage, I also don't think think you can increase business costs this much and expect costs not to go up somewhere to consumers!

And yes Grassfarmer I can argue with that. Still good to hear from you Perfecho.

[perfecho]

Hey Hammy, at least a discussion can occur with those thoughts....agree, winners and losers are often picked by governments, for what ever reason, and this government will be similar. do believe on royalty review, many hands were tied, but do respect it was given out to industry leaders to take a look at. Timing was a big issue....the you tube Grassy had a link to was quite enlightening. And, I would have to agree, it is not great, however when the money could have been made, it wasn't. And, many friends got away with not even paying their fair share....
IMO, bill 6 was needed....everyone should be protected in this day and age, however, I only need occasional help, so that is contract stuff and doesn't effect me....although when I did hire, I was always nervous, due to not having coverage...my own fault. A lot of large, corporate holdings got away with too much...using foreign workers and not having coverage. I was disappointed however, that one couldn't use alternative insurance, it has to go through WCB.
The minimum wage....they are following through on an election promise. It can be argued in many ways, both sides, however, it was in her election platform, so it should be followed through on. I think it is does help some of the most vulnerable and even many US states have $15 as a minimum. Have a few friends who certainly were against it in their business, but....they are still heading off down south for the whole winter.
I do believe we are much better off, for a while, with this gov, clean some stuff up and am certainly glad the wild rose didn't get in....think our economy would be really in the tank if they had, but also don't want to see the ND's in for a long time. Although there is lots of spouting off on them, there does seem to be a "silent" portion, that are happy someone is doing something about the environment. Will be interesting....I still wished the Alberta Party could get something together.
Cheers

[oneoff]

My wife would leave me if I ever involved myself in politics, even local ones ( which are a disaster here), so I won't be leading any revolutions.

For others its their friends; or family members.

I feel that is one of the reasons the system has made society ungovernable using the democratic model.

Thanks for summing it up.