MIKE DE SOUZA, CanWest News Service
Published: Monday, April 10, 2006
A new battle is brewing between Quebec and Alberta over the booming oil and gas industry, as provincial and territorial premiers visit Montreal this week to talk about money and transfer payments.
While Quebec is demanding changes that would make Alberta share more of its wealth, the prairie province's new intergovernmental affairs minister suggests his province is already doing enough to help the rest of the country.
"Overall, Canadians should recognize that resource revenues generated here in Alberta already benefit the rest of Canada fairly dramatically," said Gary Mar, who was sworn in last week following a shuffle in Premier Ralph Klein's cabinet.
"Alberta is a very proud part of confederation. We are willing to pay our fair share, and one needs to look at whether or not we're already doing our fair share in this particular matter."
Mar stressed Ottawa collects more taxes generated by oilsands than his own government does. Meanwhile, he said Albertans paid $29 billion in taxes to Ottawa last year, receiving only $17 billion in government services in return.
"It's a tremendous benefit to all of Canada to ensure that the proper exploitation of the resources in Alberta continues."
But recent studies by an environmental policy think tank and the Library of Parliament suggest federal assistance to the oil and gas industry is giving Alberta an unfair advantage.
"It means that Canadians across the country are providing billions of dollars in tax subsidies, tax breaks to the upstream oil and gas industry," said Matthew Bramley, climate change policy director for the Pembina Institute.
The study, released last year, concluded the oil and gas industries had received $8.3 billion in direct or indirect government aid from 1996 to 2002. While some of the programs have since been cancelled, Bramley said they still benefit from hundreds of millions of dollars in government programs.
"We know that a rich province like Alberta is sending money to the rest of Canada through equalization, but what is perhaps less well known is that there's money going the other direction as well, which is what we highlight in our report," he said.
Overall, the oil and gas industry across Canada has received about $66 billion in federal aid from 1970 to 1999, according to a Library of Parliament study released by the Bloc Quebecois.
However, industry officials in Alberta say most of that money was spent on drilling incentives offshore from the Atlantic provinces and in the North.
"You could always find the little things here and there that had some trickle effects (in Alberta)," said Greg Stringham, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
"But as far as a major impact, no, they didn't have (any effect). In fact there was probably a more negative impact from the National Energy Program and from the wealth that's been transferred out of Alberta to other parts of the country than there has been a positive impact from the tax systems to set it all up."
But Quebec isn't satisfied, arguing it's shortchanged under the transfer payment system that redistributes wealth between have and have-not provinces.
Published: Monday, April 10, 2006
A new battle is brewing between Quebec and Alberta over the booming oil and gas industry, as provincial and territorial premiers visit Montreal this week to talk about money and transfer payments.
While Quebec is demanding changes that would make Alberta share more of its wealth, the prairie province's new intergovernmental affairs minister suggests his province is already doing enough to help the rest of the country.
"Overall, Canadians should recognize that resource revenues generated here in Alberta already benefit the rest of Canada fairly dramatically," said Gary Mar, who was sworn in last week following a shuffle in Premier Ralph Klein's cabinet.
"Alberta is a very proud part of confederation. We are willing to pay our fair share, and one needs to look at whether or not we're already doing our fair share in this particular matter."
Mar stressed Ottawa collects more taxes generated by oilsands than his own government does. Meanwhile, he said Albertans paid $29 billion in taxes to Ottawa last year, receiving only $17 billion in government services in return.
"It's a tremendous benefit to all of Canada to ensure that the proper exploitation of the resources in Alberta continues."
But recent studies by an environmental policy think tank and the Library of Parliament suggest federal assistance to the oil and gas industry is giving Alberta an unfair advantage.
"It means that Canadians across the country are providing billions of dollars in tax subsidies, tax breaks to the upstream oil and gas industry," said Matthew Bramley, climate change policy director for the Pembina Institute.
The study, released last year, concluded the oil and gas industries had received $8.3 billion in direct or indirect government aid from 1996 to 2002. While some of the programs have since been cancelled, Bramley said they still benefit from hundreds of millions of dollars in government programs.
"We know that a rich province like Alberta is sending money to the rest of Canada through equalization, but what is perhaps less well known is that there's money going the other direction as well, which is what we highlight in our report," he said.
Overall, the oil and gas industry across Canada has received about $66 billion in federal aid from 1970 to 1999, according to a Library of Parliament study released by the Bloc Quebecois.
However, industry officials in Alberta say most of that money was spent on drilling incentives offshore from the Atlantic provinces and in the North.
"You could always find the little things here and there that had some trickle effects (in Alberta)," said Greg Stringham, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
"But as far as a major impact, no, they didn't have (any effect). In fact there was probably a more negative impact from the National Energy Program and from the wealth that's been transferred out of Alberta to other parts of the country than there has been a positive impact from the tax systems to set it all up."
But Quebec isn't satisfied, arguing it's shortchanged under the transfer payment system that redistributes wealth between have and have-not provinces.
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