Alberta's Financial Abyss . . . .

[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......

[Hamloc]

Perfecho, sad to hear you consider coming on here wallowing, always good to hear from you. By March of 2020 the NDP project the debt will $71 billion or $16473 per person. Ontario the most indebted non sovereign government in the world at present has $21841 of reported debt per person. So in less than 5 years the Alberta NDP will have accumulated roughly 3/4's as much debt per person as Ontario has over its lifetime. Quite an accomplishment(not)! As for how we got in this mess, very simple, using royalties to fund everyday expenses of government. If Albertan's had been willing and in my opinion smart enough to have implemented a sales tax 20 years ago and did a better job of managing spending this problem wouldn't exist today. Having said that the NDP have certainly made a bad situation far worse.

[chuckChuck]

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

Why blame Quebec for Alberta's mismanagement? LOL The equalization program is paid for with federal taxes collected in every province. Federal taxes still have to be paid regardless of how federal programs work. So Your argument is full of shit.

[chuckChuck]

Perfecho, sad to hear you consider coming on here wallowing, always good to hear from you. By March of 2020 the NDP project the debt will $71 billion or $16473 per person. Ontario the most indebted non sovereign government in the world at present has $21841 of reported debt per person. So in less than 5 years the Alberta NDP will have accumulated roughly 3/4's as much debt per person as Ontario has over its lifetime. Quite an accomplishment(not)! As for how we got in this mess, very simple, using royalties to fund everyday expenses of government. If Albertan's had been willing and in my opinion smart enough to have implemented a sales tax 20 years ago and did a better job of managing spending this problem wouldn't exist today. Having said that the NDP have certainly made a bad situation far worse.

Sales tax would have been a good start. It will be interesting to see how Kenney cuts healthcare education and other programs if resource revenues don't improve. Alberta is in trouble and Kenney won't be able to do much about it.

[ajl]

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.

Classic left wing non think here. Reality is that Alberta would have produced much less volume during this period had royalties been kept at 30% because oil sands are relatively expensive to produce. By reducing royalties, oil sands became viable and people went to work and tax revenue followed. Then there is the quebec factor as others have pointed out. The Klein years were the best time in Alberta history. Thank you Ralph.

[Horse]

Classic left wing non think here. Reality is that Alberta would have produced much less volume during this period had royalties been kept at 30% because oil sands are relatively expensive to produce. By reducing royalties, oil sands became viable and people went to work and tax revenue followed. Then there is the quebec factor as others have pointed out. The Klein years were the best time in Alberta history. Thank you Ralph.

The oil sands have a special deal so I don't believe we would have produced less and even if we did we would still have some cheap congenital crude to sell.
IMHO its because of the likes of GDR ,LEP ,Hamloc that we are in this mess if you as good supporters of the cons would have been watching what was going on and held them accountable instead of making excuses for them ,we had one of the most arrogant cons Ken Kowalski , then Steve west ,for his boondoggle of elect deregulation,I could go on forever but I fail to see how the NDs could possibly ****up worse than those assholes did

[perfecho]

Well, back again so soon...;-)
The wallowing refers to some bullying styles that if you don't agree or are in the right party, you are totally stupid...not really my type of conversation, however, Hammy, do find yours at least thought out and not just because of party lines. (Like Harper's budgetary 5.8 billion deficit of 2008-9...totally the fault of the recession, whoever the oil price fall totally Notely's fault...;-0 )
Yes , agreed on the accomplishments, however, had Prentice gotten in, don't think it would be very much different. And had the WR....think we would be little debt, but everyone in the province would be out of work. Agree about the "bad situation made worse", but do believe the ground work was laid...a later comment on oil sands...mismanagement again.....and that is why the wages and cost of business got to be a burden for those outside the oil patch. I remember Ralph's tax concession , another one, to them when his chief of staff, Peter Elzinga, became a lobbyist for Suncor.....racked with nepotism and corruption, but it was OK, because it was Ralph. (And I reiterate, I loved him too...at the beginning, but...) And I will vote for the first party, regardless of who, would bring in a sales tax...one of the fairest types of tax.
And that is why I dislike political parties....its all in or all out...and that doesn't work for me. There is good and bad in all, people and parties...

Anyways, have a great Christmas....I still live where I want to and am able to call life here a blessing...
Merry Christmas!