Taxpayers grade the candidates...

[cowman]

Well obviously people are fairly passionate about this whole subject!
A few points: Healthcare, as we know it, is not sustainable. It really isn't. Ralph tried many times to bring some sanity into the equation and was rebuffed many times...and the overspending goes on? Ralph asked a very important question about 8 years ago..."How much is enough? Is 50% of government revenue enough? 60%? 75%? Where does it end?"
I believe healthcare cost $10.5 billion last year...on a $27 billion budget? Next year all the royalty money in Alberta will not cover the healthcare bill! If you haven't seen it yet, believe me, the oil patch is slowing down in a big way! And not just here in central Alberta, but everywhere except the tarsands! Ask around what the drilling intentions are for the second and third quarters of 2007?
Second point: Replacing the RCMP. What do you think is happening now? Have you seen the "Alberta Sheriffs" cars around? They are now branching out into drug enforcement? Why do you think the province is building a police training center? Many Alberta cities already have their own police forces, including Calgary and Edmonton? Do you think we get the RCMP for free? I believe in the near future Red Deer will move to a municipal police force...due to a lower cost and a more efficient police force!
Last point: Morton won't be able to do all he desires! But at least he will be able to point us in the right direction instead of being on cruise control like we've been for several years? You can't give Ralph all the blame? He was just one man. There was a whole cabinet who has to share in the "do nothing" mode? Alberta is riding high right now but if spending keeps increasing at the rate it has we will be in a deficit position by 2013...and that is "if" our oil patch activity stays the same as 2005!
Alaskans get a dividend check every year...on a lot less oil field activity than Alberta. We get more "studies" and "committees" to see how we'll piss away OUR money! Want more of the same...just keep voting for the likes of Dinning and Stelmach!

[coppertop]

The Sheriff's were initiated by the Solicitor General to aide the RCMP in dealing with traffic violations etc. IF they do find someone in possession of illegal drugs during a routine stop of course they will deal with it. When drug trafficking is in epidemic proportions in this province I, for one want to see every possible means taken to try and bring it under control.

The RCMP are paid for by urban municipalities over a certain popultation but the province pays for policing by RCMP in rural areas. Having said this, there are some rural municipalities that have opted to fund an extra rural constable or perhaps help pay for the cost of one admin support position within their local detatchment.

[coppertop]

Sorry for the second post, but cowman, what do you think will happen with exploration when Morton brings in his new plan for royalties ? I know the royalties need to be reviewed and likely increased but his plan to have them collected on a sliding scale will surely mean a slow down of working over old wells to get them into production etc. Any business within the industry that services the oil patch should be concerned.

[cowman]

I agree that in the short term it will put a damper on some activities, but basically companies will continue to compete...if the projects are feasible? Lets face it oil at $100/bbl makes just about anything feasible...at $50...its another story? Reworking old wells that weren't feasible at $30/bbl, but are at $60/bbl, only makes sense?
Royalties are just the cost of doing business? Just like renting pasture? If the rent doesn't make sense...you just don't do it?
I wonder how it is that Alaska gets about $9/bbl in royalties while Alberta gets $4? On conventional oil? The tarsands...1%...or about 60 cents/bbl! Now I might suggest at 60 cents/bbl that the owners(Alberta citizens) might need a raise?
Morton also came out with an idea of sharing royalty wealth with the municipalities? Is that a good idea? Do you think the municipalities should get some of the royalty income to offset their infrastructure costs? And please don't say this can't be done! Where there is a will, there is a way!
Dinning says "he'll look at the royalty thing"? Is that good enough?
Stelmach was in cabinet for many years...is he advocating a fairer share for the Alberta citizen? Do you think we are getting our fair share?
Morton also says he will change how surface lease and pipelines are paid out? Now you say he can't do that and without a doubt the PC government has done nothing about this since 1980!!!
Do you think this is fair? Do you think, as surface owners, we should have maybe have had a raise?
What was gasoline worth in 1980? How about natural gas? Everyone else on the oil/gas value change got more...but not the guy who owned the land? Is that fair?
Why would we keep electing people who want to keep the status quoe alive and well? Should we expect to keep getting the lowest royalties and surface prices from 1980?
Without a doubt I benifit from servicing the oil field. They probably provide over half of my business...with municipalities, industrial business, farmers, Alberta highways, CPR and CN providing the other half.

[coppertop]

Surface lease payments are governed by the Surface Rights Board, is Dinning going to start a dictatorship and meddle in the affairs of a quais judicial board ? Somewhat like telling a judge what sort of sentence to give out. But that is the American way isn't it ? Control the judges, and control everything, down to the election of local sheriffs !!!!

Ed announced weeks ago that he will implement a grant for ALL municipalities based on the education tax component, that is, in fact, some resource dollars coming back to the local level of government.

Morton's plan will see the resource base municipalities get far more than ones that have little or now resource asssessment, so he is picking winners and losers based on the resource activity taking place. When he mentioned that at the AAMD C Convention it was not a popular suggestion, not to mention how he plans on doling out funds to urban centres. It scares the heck out of me when preachers are out telling their flock how to vote.....sounds like Alabama all over again !!!!!

[coppertop]

Sorry, I mean is Morton going to control the Surface Rights Board. Funny I got he and Dinning mixed up LOL

[cowman]

Now I may be wrong here but I believe the government appoints the Surface Rights Board? So who appointed the board that gave us absolutely no change for 26 years? Its like the Canadian Wheat Board...you appoint people who don't want change...well what do you get... no change?
See what Chuck Strahl is doing right now? He's getting rid of the status Quo guys and putting in people who want change? It's just that easy!
Now I wonder when Ed was sitting around the cabinet table...was he voting to put in guys who wanted change...or just the status quo? Would he be doing anything different if he was the premier?
Now maybe I read it wrong but I thought the sharing the royalty thing with municipalities was not based on where the physical wells were? But when you really think about it...maybe those municipalities need the extra infrastructure money? Not sure how giving a bigger portion of the education tax to Calgary and Edmonton is going to help out the school in Hanna? Wasn't the reason behind the system we have now is so the outlying areas would have enough to fund their schools...or are we going back to the future?
Do you ever wonder where the "road tax" goes? The tax on deisel and gas that is supposed to fix the roads? How much is collected by Ottawa...and how much comes back and where does it go?

[WildwoodsDoc]

Coppertop, you were not sure if Ed was Roman Catholic or (Ukrainian Orthodox)? He is Greek Catholic which is Ukrainian but of course English is always spoken and writen as well.Orthodox is another religion, not Catholic. About the year 1066 A.D, a group separated from the Catholic faith calling themselves the Orthodox. Religion & Politics are very important issues for ever and ever, and they do inter twine from the beginning of time.

[coppertop]

The ROAD TAX in Alberta is spent on infrastructure, some of which goes to resource road projects. These criteria for these are very clear, the road in question must be used to transport resources, including forest products through a municipality on an existing road.
This gives resource based municipalities assistance that no other municipality receives, most of this money goes to rural municipalities, but some goes to urban centres that have resource products hauled through their streets etc.

Serving on municipal council for years taught me that there was resentment toward resource based municipalities,so handing out royalty funding based on resource assessment will only serve to fractionate rural Alberta further. Providing grants based on a per capita basis is much fairer. Either way, no matter what rural Alberta receives Edmonton, Calgary, GP and Red Deer will howl like wolves for more. Lethbridge, thankfully is a mainly rural based city and really does understand the contribution of the agricultural industry to their economic well being.

[cowman]

Thank you for the information on the Alberta road tax...I wasn't sure about that? I was actually referring to the federal road tax...you know...the ten cents you don't pay on dyed fuel? How much is that and where does it go?
A few years ago Alberta Report said in ten years Alberta had paid $7 billion to Ottawa and got about $160 MILLION back! Well I guess somebody has to build a bridge to PEI and pave all the back roads in Quebec, right???
A common figure being tossed out there is the amount of money that has come out of Alberta in the last thirty years or so, $225 BILLION in equalization payments? Add the $140 BILLION that left the province with the NEP, and the $6.84 BILLION from the excise(road tax)Tax and we see a net loss for the province of $371.84 BILLION? Now if that kind of dough had been going into a trust fund with a decent rate of interest over those years....what kind of province would we have? I would suggest to you we wouldn't be arguing about the cost of education, healthcare, or infrastructure? We'd be busy writing the checks!
Time to START to change the insanity?