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Friday, November 14, 2008
Cancel the New Royalty Framework and C02 sequestration scheme: Wildrose Alliance
The engine of Alberta’s economy is beginning to stall. Declining commodity prices and tight credit markets are hurting the province’s energy sector and putting major capital projects on hold.
Alberta’s Wildrose Alliance party says that compounding the challenges facing the oil and gas sector is Premier Stelmach’s costly New Royalty Framework (NRF) tax grab and C02 sequestration scheme, a billion dollar plan to bury C02.
Wildrose Alliance leader Paul Hinman is calling on Stelmach to cancel the NRF and C02 sequestration scheme: "Clearly now is not the time for the government to throw another wrench into the economy."
Hinman is also urging the Alberta Tory government curb spending: “Alberta is skidding out of control."
Hinman points out that the new royalty scheme has caused a decline in energy revenue due to decreased activity in the energy sector. British Columbia and Saskatchewan, by contrast, have seen an increase in drilling activity.
"The Premier and Minister Knight have refused to acknowledge the province's lost revenue and the business they've driven from the province thanks to their blatantly political desire to buy votes by redistributing tax dollars," said Hinman.
Posted by Matthew Johnston on November 14, 2008 in Canadian Provincial Politics | Permalink
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Comments
Hinman is also urging the Alberta Tory government curb spending: “Alberta is skidding out of control."
What a shame. $40 a barrel oil here we come. How much of the "Heritage Fund" is earmarked to pay to all the immigrants who will soon be unemployed?
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-11-14 6:26:41 PM
Royalties, falling prices, rising expenses...
All these things are temporary. Alberta has much worse problems than these.
Want to know the real reason Sask and BC are seeing increases? Because they still have conventional reserves. Alberta is quickly running out of conventional reserves. It'll soon be over folks. Shallow gas, coalbed methane, all the easily exploited stuff is hardly worth drilling for. Deep gas found in the foothills is expensive to produce. Heavy oil is only viable when prices are up.
We're fast becoming a one trick pony. The oilsands are keeping the dream alive, but the Chinese will eventually own that. At a time when we should have been stepping back and looking for new ways to sustain our economy, some geniuses decided we should try to attract as many immigrants as we could line up at the customs counter. Stig has stated exactly what I've been feeling for about 5 years.
A couple of players, CNRL and Encana, have been really trying to blame the royalty thing for all their problems. They're both full of crap. They just wanted to put their money somewhere else, and needed to divert public opinion away from the fact they don't give a rat's ass about the people who keep them in business.
Posted by: dp | 2008-11-14 11:35:13 PM
A local expression that might suit the Stelmach Royalty grab would be that he "Shot himself in the foot". Oil Co.s simply aren't renewing leases on crown land as they expire. What steadfy Eddy doesn't seem to realize is that they have more money than the province and can wait him out.
And dp, ALL corporations are by definition psychotic and don't give a rat's ass...
Its in the nature of the law they must operate under...if they don't "make money" they aren't allowed to exist.
Posted by: JC | 2008-11-15 6:04:49 AM
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