Kenney address

[wmoebis]

Did any of you guys listen to Kenney's address yesterday? If you haven't find it on net and listen it is well worth it.

[Guest]

then listen to the "moistly" incident or the "water box thingy" speech

[chuckChuck]

Kenney's prediction of 25% unemployment looks grim.

Albertans are going to be dependent on the rest of Canada for support until the demand for oil returns to more normal levels.

Kenney is spending taxpayers dollars on pipelines. And considering asking for import tariffs and production cuts that don't really fit with the Conservative playbook. Desperate times call for government intervention even in Alberta.

[poorboy]

Upon reflection, the only way to make a comparison would be to spend the money putting seed , fert and spray into your crop and then tell the farmer to just leave it in the field, dont harvest it. Would you do that? No. Because even if grain prices tanked like oil has, you would still want to recoup some of your costs while not incurring more costs trying to make fields seedable next year

In most of Agriculture the marginal land gets seeded back to grass or not used when prices of grains drops enough. The low price of oil needs to idle the oil production in the marginal areas. The low prices of oil for the last 5 years has caused a large loss of jobs in Alberta and now the spin off industries like car sales, bars, etc are going to really feel the long tail of pain. I don't see oil ever coming back to its former glory. Going the way of Agriculture.

So what is Alberta going to do to employ all these previous oil patch workers? I have no idea. Hopefully technology jobs can expand.

Canada is also in trouble as the big transfer payments to support much of Canada from this oil money is going to dry up.

Lots of changes coming in the next 10 years. If you have modest amounts of money be prepared for the governments to pick your pockets hard. If you have lots of money, you have already left the country and moved your cash to safer places.

[chuckChuck]

Alberta doesn't make transfer payments to the rest of Canada.

They do however pay a lot of federal tax because of high incomes and a high per capita GDP.

This downturn is going to hurt every Canadian. But Alberta will suffer more because they are so dependent on the oil industry.

Is this the the time for Alberta to get serious about diversifying its economy?

If Kenney wants to pick winners and losers with taxpayers money why doesn't he invest in more food processing and help build agriculture and food related jobs?

Why invest only in the tar sands that are not going to be a good long term investment?

[Guest]

or just start doing most of the business under the table like quebec

[chuckChuck]

There is lots of collusion, corruption and cronyism in the oil patch. But the industry doesn't like to talk about it.

[wmoebis]

There is lots of collusion, corruption and cronyism in the oil patch. But the industry doesn't like to talk about it.

And there isn't in AG? LOL

[blueversi]

And there isn't in AG? LOL

Probably none in the renewable energy sector either.

[Guest]

Probably none in the renewable energy sector either.

There is no renewable energy sector, pipe dream at best

[blackpowder]

No doubt there is everywhere.
But I'd rather try to build something in Calgary than Montreal. No connections= no construction.

[poorboy]

Alberta doesn't make transfer payments to the rest of Canada.

They do however pay a lot of federal tax because of high incomes and a high per capita GDP.

This downturn is going to hurt every Canadian. But Alberta will suffer more because they are so dependent on the oil industry.

Is this the the time for Alberta to get serious about diversifying its economy?

If Kenney wants to pick winners and losers with taxpayers money why doesn't he invest in more food processing and help build agriculture and food related jobs?

Why invest only in the tar sands that are not going to be a good long term investment?

If the oil patch stays slow and unemployment stays high there will be less money to go around for the federal government. Going to hurt all Canadians.

What exactly does Alberta or Canada diversify into? Value added ag has been tried. About the only real success story has been the feedlots. Now if Canada would build more refineries perhaps that would help.

It seems that maybe part of our competitive advantage is lost in the way items are priced. Why is our fuel priced on the cost of fuel on the gulf coast of Texas and then freight costs added back. Canadian refineries use cheap Canadian crude and have minimal freight. Same with fertilizer. It is made here with cheap natural gas. Why do we have the most expensive urea prices in North America? We should have the cheapest. Same with our power and water, etc.

Canada’s resources should provide Canadians with the cheapest cost of living like it used to be. That is what might allow value added to grow.

Perhaps the only way this would happen is with enforcement.

Farmers don’t sell grain or cattle for less money the further we haul it from the farm, but urea, gas, diesel, power all get sold for less the further it gets shipped south and for the most right at the plant. Think about how ****ed up that is.