Kenney address

[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.

[sumdumguy]

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

Yeh, I wonder how the Quebec “Under the Table” economy is going to get its share of the CV paymments.

[AC man]

Yeh, I wonder how the Quebec “Under the Table” economy is going to get its share of the CV paymments.

No worries 😉 Justine will show the way. He is well experienced with the corrupted dealings with SNC Lavalin!

[dmlfarmer]

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

Would love to hear your explanation of the story yesterday in the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-destroying-food.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-destroying-food.html which reports American farmers are dumping 3.7 million gallons of milk down the drain each day. And tells about Paul Allen working down millions of pounds of beans and cabbage on his farms in Florida and Georgia. And about Shay Meyers burying tens of thousands of pounds of onions on his farm in Idaho. Or and I quote "Each week, the chicken processor Sanderson Farms destroys 750,000 unhatched eggs, or 5.5 percent of its total production, sending them to a rendering plant to be turned into pet food.
Last week, the chief executive of Sanderson Farms, Joe Sanderson, told analysts that company officials had even considered euthanizing chickens to avoid selling them at unprofitable rates, though the company ultimately did not take that step."

They are destroying production instead of incurring even more costs and depressing future market opportunities by forcing supply into a market with no demand. This is what businesses do. Unless you are Alberta oil producers and have a government that encourages you to pay buyers to take your product.

[WiltonRanch]

Would love to hear your explanation of the story yesterday in the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-destroying-food.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-destroying-food.html which reports American farmers are dumping 3.7 million gallons of milk down the drain each day. And tells about Paul Allen working down millions of pounds of beans and cabbage on his farms in Florida and Georgia. And about Shay Meyers burying tens of thousands of pounds of onions on his farm in Idaho. Or and I quote "Each week, the chicken processor Sanderson Farms destroys 750,000 unhatched eggs, or 5.5 percent of its total production, sending them to a rendering plant to be turned into pet food.
Last week, the chief executive of Sanderson Farms, Joe Sanderson, told analysts that company officials had even considered euthanizing chickens to avoid selling them at unprofitable rates, though the company ultimately did not take that step."

They are destroying production instead of incurring even more costs and depressing future market opportunities by forcing supply into a market with no demand. This is what businesses do. Unless you are Alberta oil producers and have a government that encourages you to pay buyers to take your product.

Kinda my thoughts too. What people don’t realize though is lots of oil producers have their prices locked in. This won’t last forever, and definitely some sell on spot as well. The vertically integrated companies will fare better but if joe consumer isn’t buying the end products in full force they will suffer as well. Another thing, these oil sands mines and even the sag d plants can’t just shutter production at once. Some cases it’s more costly to restart than to run at a loss for a while. Kinda dumb but that’s the way big business works.

[dmlfarmer]

Kinda my thoughts too. What people don’t realize though is lots of oil producers have their prices locked in. This won’t last forever, and definitely some sell on spot as well. The vertically integrated companies will fare better but if joe consumer isn’t buying the end products in full force they will suffer as well. Another thing, these oil sands mines and even the sag d plants can’t just shutter production at once. Some cases it’s more costly to restart than to run at a loss for a while. Kinda dumb but that’s the way big business works.

I find it odd that the world is able to come to agreement to reduce oil production 9.7 million barrels a day yet when I say it is stupid for Kenney to suggest oil producers should pay buyers to take Alberta oil I get lectured on the impossibility of Alberta producers to shut down production or that it will cost more to shut down than it will to pay other countries to take Alberta oil. Producing below cost is one thing but to actually negatively price and pay to give away our recourses and assets is assinine.

[farmaholic]

What happened at potash mines in Saskatchewan?

[bucket]

Would love to hear your explanation of the story yesterday in the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-destroying-food.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-destroying-food.html which reports American farmers are dumping 3.7 million gallons of milk down the drain each day. And tells about Paul Allen working down millions of pounds of beans and cabbage on his farms in Florida and Georgia. And about Shay Meyers burying tens of thousands of pounds of onions on his farm in Idaho. Or and I quote "Each week, the chicken processor Sanderson Farms destroys 750,000 unhatched eggs, or 5.5 percent of its total production, sending them to a rendering plant to be turned into pet food.
Last week, the chief executive of Sanderson Farms, Joe Sanderson, told analysts that company officials had even considered euthanizing chickens to avoid selling them at unprofitable rates, though the company ultimately did not take that step."

They are destroying production instead of incurring even more costs and depressing future market opportunities by forcing supply into a market with no demand. This is what businesses do. Unless you are Alberta oil producers and have a government that encourages you to pay buyers to take your product.

I read a lot of stories like that lately.....if true and it sounds like they are...some of it here in Canada as well...why do they get government support????

You can't help food banks or others because profits are to low but are expecting government money for employees and bailouts for lost production...

The very lest they could do is produce it and donate it to the hungry and then the government help makes some sense.

Milk being dumped , food in the field being tilled , eggs being destroyed , animals being buried????


And then a government handout to make them whole? While the population lives on government support....anyone see something wrong with this?

[the big wheel]

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.

Well you answered part of your own question and solved our biggest problems of diversifying.
I ve said it all along we can’t diversify here because our energy costs to do anything produce or move product are way too high.

We should be allowing this 5 dollar oil to be sold at that price at the pumps instead of rhe ridiculous subsidized price. If we did we d have all kinds of businesses flocking here.

We have all this oil which should be directed and sold domestically lower than the world price therefore giving us such an advantage at all times.

If the the world oil supply truly is limited and if renewable energy if a flop such as the oil sector says and I agree to some extent. Aren’t we being stupid by massively getting rid of our reserves for next to nothing on the world stage? Or at any price for that matter? If renewables aren’t going to work what happens when we ourselves run out? The logic is illogical only designed for short term millionaires.

[bucket]

Interesting ....

We could have the lowest cost of living in the world considering the value of our raw exports....

Oil ....sub 20 a barrel
Fuel .....world price

Wheat ....lowest in the world when considering all the other countries subsidies
Bread....price fixed by a wealthy family in Canada

Dairy...highly subsidized
Milk ....dumped down the sewer to maintain prices for a subsidized business?????

Etc etc etc. ...I am sure I am on the bizzarro side.