It's about time the Premier lowered royalty rates for the oil industry. He shouldn't have touched them in the first place.
Since he raised them couple of years ago, thousands of jobs have been lost, revenues for the government was drastically reduced etc. in turn every sector has suffered. He believed Albertans were not getting "our fair share." (wasn't how I felt btw.) So he went about fixing what wasn't broken. We had lost that Alberta Advantage. Business was going to BC, Saskatchewan and other jurisdictions.
That move I believe was political, to appease the progressives. It didn't turn out so good in the political sense either. Everyone was getting mad at him and he was tanking in the polls. He lost a by-election last fall, a couple PCers have crossed the floor to the Wildrose Alliance. Others have made rumblings.
So I think this latest move of raising the rates is based mainly on political motives as well. I think he felt pressured into doing so.
It's a positive starting point but it will take years to recover from Ed Stelmach's bungling of this file. Heck we're still recovering from the NEP.
I still will not vote for you Premier because you still can't admit you were wrong and I don't know what you're gonna try to fix next the doesn't need fixing.
This whole disaster did not start out as a squabble over royalty rates. It got rolling when it was revealed that the underworked, overpaid, bloated bureaucracy fumbled the ball. They miscalculated the amount of royalties due to the province by some 3 to 4 billion. Everyone was happy with the previous royalty rates, it was just that the geniuses who worked for the government (and probably still do) couldn't count.
ReplyDeleteOnce this hit the news the urban socialists, who still believe that all the oil from the oilsands comes from open pit mines, decided this was a good time to get their grubby paws on some more taxpayer largesse to pay for all those wonderful welfare programs. I wonder how many of these trolls are now willing to stand up and say they were all for raising royalties.
Well, they got what they wanted. I hope they're happy because the unemployed oilpatch workers sure as hell aren't.
Did you see Brian Mason. The NDP leader wanted the royalties to stay the same or increased to raise money for the coffers. Good thing they will never be in power, as the only interest he has is breaking the province on the backs of the taxpayers.
ReplyDeleteErick said...
ReplyDeleteDid you see Brian Mason. The NDP leader wanted the royalties to stay the same or increased to raise money for the coffers. Good thing they will never be in power, as the only interest he has is breaking the province on the backs of the taxpayers
I agree. Thank God the Dippers will never become the government at least not in my life time.