Alberta's Financial Abyss . . . .

[ajl]

Alberta prospered when Klien was premier, and lost its way after. I have voted WR since then. Not sure I am a Kenny fan but Notely must go. As far as leaving is concerned, where are you going to go? If I was younger, I would be trying to go to the US, but not going happen now. I feel sorry for younger Canuckistanians. They don't know what they are in for.

[sawfly1]

conservatives drove the car off the cliff .
then hand the wheel to the NDP.
there was no nice way out.

same as sask under conservative , leave no assets unsold and debt for all.

[Hopalong]

Tell us more about the Northwest Refinery.
For several years, have been hearing about lack of refinery capacity in western Canada.
Seems like incentive should help all of us.

[SASKFARMER3]

Wow sawfly you have no idea.

Sask was the Mississippi of Canada under the NDP they basically ran Saskatchewan since the great (tongue in cheek) saviour saint tommy Douglas.

It sucked here. The Conservatives got in and ran for a brief time but NDP s blame every thing on Devine.

Then we had the bullshit we’re going broke period from Roy and Lorne. Good bullshit gig even if Manitoba had twice our debt and less than a 1/4 of our natural resources yet no problems.

Then we got Brad and hate him if you like but he turned our shitty attitude around and we did good. Then some union shit for brains leaders are trying to destroy us again with union dues paying for massive advertising.

Let’s look at that our tax dollars used to pay civil servants and then dues paid from their wage o run he opposition.

Yea he NDP are so Great.

Again you have to be real special to think the NDP represents Any one but them selves.

[sawfly1]

not to worry guys , the same bunch will be back in after the next election.
all they had to do was change their name, took a lesson from sask. on that.

good thing for conservatives that most of their voters , can not remember more than a year.
easy to fool. that way.

I said the day they were elected , that the NDP would end up wearing the whole mess in the end.
whether they did it or not.

soon we will be back to the royalty cutting , interprovincial backstabbing , and the
sweetheart business deals. that left the province broke 2 years ago.
and everyone will be happy.
esp the Boyds of this world.

[sawfly1]

wall did not turn anything around.
100$ oil. 1000$ potash , 14 $ canola .
that is what turned things around.

if it is not that then what magic piece of legalization did wall pass to accomplish this miracle.

[ajl]

The North West Refinery is a public private partnership set up mainly as a toll processor. This means that it processes government royalty bitumen into primarily diesel for a fee. So the government is a seller of the resulting diesel and pays NWR for its services. The trouble is that the value of bitumen+the cost of toll processing > the rack price of diesel and other products produced by NWR. So it is an on going money loser for the government. The governments partners make practically a guaranteed return since it is set up as a toll processor. One of those partners is a Canadian Natural and it also supplies some bitumen. Right now the value of bitumen is actually $0 without the NWR operating, (due to reduced shipping on the Keystone) so you can see that the taxpayer is on the hook to subsidize the whole business. Effectively the value of Alberta's royalties are a lot less than what is showing on the books.

[Horse]

It will be interesting to see how the ND haters pin the problems with the northwest refinery on the ND, when will the con supporters own up to the fact we had the poorest gov possible for the last 20yr,they blew more money than is imanagable.
As for Ralph he paid the debt mostly from $14 gas and $140 oil who put us in debt prior if not the cons and we were going right back into debt before the last election no matter who won, his only claim to fame was rolling back wages for civil service, now that is used as an bartending chip.to get more in new contracts,

[chuckChuck]

Critics Slam Alberta's New Royalty Review as Policy Disaster

https://thetyee.ca/News/2016/02/02/Alberta-Royalty-Review-Disaster/

"In another submission, the economist Mark Anielski reported how the province would have benefited if it had kept Lougheed's approach to a robust and healthy royalty regime.

"Had Alberta maintained a 30 per cent royalty rate on the share of the value of the oil and gas produced between 1971 to 2014, Albertans would have generated $471.4 billion in oil and gas royalties. Had 50 per cent of these royalties been invested in the Alberta Heritage Savings and Trust Fund with annual average return of five per cent per annum we would now have an investment account worth over $481 billion."

The current savings fund holds less than $20 billion." [Tyee]

Alberta's resources have been mismanaged for decades after Lougheed.

[macdon02]

"We are establishing a $5-billion reserve to ensure there’s cash on hand to protect public services against unexpected costs, major natural disasters, or a global credit crunch"

Borrowing while they can not when they have to? I suspect the bond market is a hot topic within gov't at all levels these days. The noose is tightening on borrowing to buy votes.

[Guest]

The only thing that might save us from another 4 years of that horseshit in sk is that the commies cant get a decent leader to save their ass , anyone even know who the communist leader is in sask ? And it pisses me off that nurses , healthcare professionals , teachers , etc, etc , union dues which they have to pay (no choice in the matter) is used to finance the communist party . No one has ever asked induviduals if its ok to spend millions from union dues to finance the ndp????? You lefties think thats ok ?????

[Guest]

Critics Slam Alberta's New Royalty Review as Policy Disaster

https://thetyee.ca/News/2016/02/02/Alberta-Royalty-Review-Disaster/

"In another submission, the economist Mark Anielski reported how the province would have benefited if it had kept Lougheed's approach to a robust and healthy royalty regime.

"Had Alberta maintained a 30 per cent royalty rate on the share of the value of the oil and gas produced between 1971 to 2014, Albertans would have generated $471.4 billion in oil and gas royalties. Had 50 per cent of these royalties been invested in the Alberta Heritage Savings and Trust Fund with annual average return of five per cent per annum we would now have an investment account worth over $481 billion."

The current savings fund holds less than $20 billion." [Tyee]

Alberta's resources have been mismanaged for decades after Lougheed.

They would of had lots of reserves if quebec wouldnt have taken it all , ffs

[GDR]

It will be interesting to see how the ND haters pin the problems with the northwest refinery on the ND, when will the con supporters own up to the fact we had the poorest gov possible for the last 20yr,they blew more money than is imanagable.
As for Ralph he paid the debt mostly from $14 gas and $140 oil who put us in debt prior if not the cons and we were going right back into debt before the last election no matter who won, his only claim to fame was rolling back wages for civil service, now that is used as an bartending chip.to get more in new contracts,

There is no facts in anything you posted here??? King Ralph was the best politician we've had. Balanced the books and actually asked Albertans by referendum what priorities in spending/ saving were and followed through with the consensus. Klein left office in 2006 which was the start of the oil price rally. I believe at the end it was still $70 or less but most of his time in office he had 30 to 40 dollar oil. Governments don't generally have a revenue issue they have a spending issue, Klein was able to get spending under control. Yes there were cuts but they were needed and they are again. No pain no gain!

The conservative leadership since Klein has been dissapointing as will Kenney be I believe. But they are still miles ahead of any other choice. The NDP have followed their agenda and have not listened to the constituents. They have caused irreparable policy and economic damage in Alberta. They inherited a disaster of falling revenues no question but could have made some tough choices and showed responsibility but instead were blinded by ideology and inexperience.

[LEP]

There is no facts in anything you posted here??? King Ralph was the best politician we've had. Balanced the books and actually asked Albertans by referendum what priorities in spending/ saving were and followed through with the consensus. Klein left office in 2006 which was the start of the oil price rally. I believe at the end it was still $70 or less but most of his time in office he had 30 to 40 dollar oil. Governments don't generally have a revenue issue they have a spending issue, Klein was able to get spending under control. Yes there were cuts but they were needed and they are again. No pain no gain!

The conservative leadership since Klein has been dissapointing as will Kenney be I believe. But they are still miles ahead of any other choice. The NDP have followed their agenda and have not listened to the constituents. They have caused irreparable policy and economic damage in Alberta. They inherited a disaster of falling revenues no question but could have made some tough choices and showed responsibility but instead were blinded by ideology and inexperience.

+1. Good post.

[perfecho]

Well...really don't wallow over here too often..just not worth it, but cannot resist. Ralph is one of the reason's we are in this mess....and I was a big supporter of his at the beginning.
It took too many dollars to catch up to infrastructure at a time when prices were extremely high, putting people back on the payroll when they found out they were needed, after they had been turfed. Ralph "dipped" into Heritage Trust fund to help balance spending to make it look good....royalties and taxes not collected on some favorites...mismanagement of contracts and leases that the public coffers are now paying to clean up...overpaid party loyalists that are now slowly being weeded out. We had 40 years of an amazing run...and if you remember, the election was called to support a deficit budget, leaving nothing for the incoming.....
Just like a roof that needs to be shingled....if you save up until you have the money, the rest of the house will rot and you have to pay to clean up.
I don't like the current deficit, but believe it wouldn't have had to have been there if our resources had properly been managed before...so they are all too blame....IMHO......