As the impoverished masses of oil-rich Venezuela know all too well, you also have to have a stable, predictable, competitive tax and regulatory regime. And right now, Alberta and Canada do not. “When an international investor sees that in Canada a single level of government aided by activist groups can stop a project that has been officially approved after years of regulatory process, they’re going to conclude that Canada is not a stable and reliable place to invest, that its risks are effectively on the same level as those of a Third World country,” says Questfire’s Dahl. “We’re starting to operate like a banana republic, but one that doesn’t even want to sell its bananas.”
[…]
“The provincial government claims their policies are not driving capital away,” says one Calgary entrepreneur. “But it’s a lie.” He notes that in the pre-Internet era, when documents moved by fax or courier, a provincial licence to drill a new oil or gas well was typically issued within seven to 14 days. Today, despite all parties wielding modern information technology, one month is typical and government regulators can take six months to issue certain well licences. In Texas, the same type of permit can be obtained within 24 hours of application.
Another example of regulatory sclerosis: for years Alberta has been tightening its restrictions on “flaring” or burning off unneeded natural gas that often comes up as an uneconomic by-product in an oil well. Flaring remains a common practice elsewhere, but even the world’s tightest flaring rules weren’t enough for Alberta’s NDP government, which now demands that literally any volume of gas be “tied-in”, or brought on production. Because the cost of doing so is prohibitive, the new policy has resulted in uncounted numbers of wells being shut-in and not producing oil (or generating government royalties). Next up are new federal rules requiring the capture of even minute leakages of methane, which will further raise costs at virtually any existing well, pipeline site or processing facility. Originally planned jointly with the U.S. when President Barack Obama was in power, the Trump Administration has dumped the rules, leaving Canada with yet another competitive disadvantage.
Read it all. But first, pour yourself a stiff drink.
Even when the numbers are compelling I will not invest in Canada. ‘Compelling’ does not stand anymore as the ‘new’ political reality has thrown old metrics out the window.
In B.C. I fully expect the 1% investment capital tax will be reintroduced. This is a wealth tax based on straight appropriation and not on any investment returns. If this happens we will be moving from B.C. and maybe Canada.
The irony in Edmonton is called “Refinery Row”.
I could not read the whole thing because I got so disgusted.
Our country and our children’s future are being stolen from us by Liberals and NDP who also accept foreign funded interference in our elections by activists.
People on welfare need to have their voting privileges rescinded while on welfare.
Buying votes with welfare checks has to stop. They could care less about the consequences.
People in prison should also not be able to vote.
A politician not delivering on promises needs to be recalled. A party found to have benefited from international activist funds should be charged with fraud and lose their seat outright.
The really sad thing is these morons really think they are saving the planet.
That’s how stupid they are.
If Trudeau is re-elected we will be leaving Canada.
I have somewhat a first hand knowledge of the crazy costs of preventing minute gas leakage on remote mature already expensive to operate well sites and facilities located in B.C. Millions were invested in retro-fitting and replacing already perfectly safe and functional equipment where the grand total amount of methane leakage saved was miniscule. I couldn’t understand at the time why oil companies (big oil companies) didn’t push back hard on the eco-craziness that’s stealing the remaining economic reserve life of older mature properties. Now the insane regulatory eco-hammer’s arrived in Alberta, the heart of Canada’s hydrocarbon production industry. I have no doubt such insipid regulation will sicken the Canadian energy industry further while our southern competitors dance on our graves. Appeasement never works and I wish the senior management and officers of the energy companies trapped with large Alberta asset holdings would grow some and defend themselves from an intentionally orchestrated regulatory death of a thousand cuts.
bob;
Your just not getting it. People who have absolutely no skills or cred to actually create a business plan let alone carry it out have every right to run government. IMHO it is a reflection of how wealthy this country is that voters gamble their futures so cavalierly.
Ditto.
Since, apparently, I’m ruthlessly exploiting the middle class by working sixteen hour days plus the nights and weekends on call and saving for my own retirement in a Prof Corp, I’m making inquiries to put on my black cape and top hat and start tying damsels to railway tracks in a jurisdiction that wants my skills namely, Saudi Arabia. Justin and Rachel won’t have to worry about my cheating them of tax revenues since, if it works out, I won’t be paying any taxes in Canada at all. And I’ll keep my earnings in a Credit Suisse bank account far from the greedy hands of Justin Hairdo and Bill Moron and their band of merry trust fund babies. Two of my surgical colleagues have already done just that and have no complaints. I’d previously looked at it as an exotic adventure. Now it’s a survival strategy. And I won’t have to queue up for toilet paper.
In a part of 1980 you could count 22 rigs drilling around the area from High river to Stavely, those 22 rigs had the motels/hotels, fuel suppliers, restaurants, bars, NAPAs and the like humming with commerce, Peeair fixed that quickly. Now since stunt daddys gone, Rach, Nothead and Justys idea of commerce flow is tax everything business and farm/ranch every entrapenuer etc so it flows to our failed pet green projects, who cares if they go out of business. They have not a clue where money comes from as they stand on it, damn they are stupid.
Trudeau will be reelected as will Kathleen Wynne. The teaching profession has brainwashed their students that only liberals can save the country and conservatives are bad. I cant wait for the day when the government is bankrupt and the teachers and civil servants have to take a 50% haircut in their pensions
Alberta apparently still more attractive than Sask…takes a lot to overcome a long communist history. Doesn’t look like the semi-communist gov’t there is making much of an impact…in spite of all the anti-CO2 warming pretense while building bird choppers and spending huge sums to store a harmless gas underground.
Sept 11 Drilling
AB 128
SK 35
Hey Alberta,
Anyone remember Bob Rae?
Ontario does and we’ve got his cousin Kathleen now.
We’ll never recover despite a reprieve with Mike Harris, too many people became takers during the years of the NDP and they said, “we want more”.
And you won’t fully recover either.
Sorry, but it’s true. Get used to it!
I will be leaving BC. There is no longer an advantage to living in the west. The left has taken it over. The goodies, if there any left, will be sprinkled in the east. Not that it makes much difference anymore. Canada needs another Harper and there are none available. We are a nation adrift with a fool at the helm.
“IMHO it is a reflection of how wealthy this country is that voters gamble their futures so cavalierly.”
Let me give that a big ol’ Ditto.
Exactly like how the SJW crowd are so far detached from “daily survival” that they have lost all perspective on which human virtues are important.
We’ll never recover despite a reprieve with Mike Harris, too many people became takers during the years of the NDP and they said, “we want more”.
B. C. is another example of that. Lotusland, which pretty much decides what happens in the rest of the province, fell in love with the Dippers in 1972 when it elected Dave Barrett and never recovered from that.
Canada is kryptonite to investors.
And the wealthy vote themselves into poverty. Demonstrated over and over and over again. Somehow wealth creates the delusion that natural law no longer applies to the wealthy and so they elect those who destroy wealth and wealth creation because the elected destroyers don’t follow natural law.
Canada and conservatives need a leader speaking in human voice, not just talking points worked out by staffers and consultants.
I suspect it doesn’t matter much who is elected next, be it federally or Provincially. The Federal “Conservatives” support the Paris Accord. The United “Conservative” party in Alberta will fully support global warming scams of one sort or another. Too many people (and I include intelligent, thoughtful people…not just morons) don’t take the time to do the slightest bit of research into much anymore. Hence, people wind up believing scientists on global warming, but not vaccinations. It’s whatever is fashionable at the moment that seems to govern the majority’s beliefs these days.
Enjoy the decline! Ha.
agreed, I am seriously disappointed in Scheer already
and I’ll bet cha old Cheers is a GG, Good God ,kristian. First 3 “discussions” I had on Gorebullwarming were with GGK’s, and one of those idiots suggested we try to reduce our impact just in case. Never considering that these very actions might just have the reverse effect. Thank the church for “believers”!
2 Peter 3:13
“But we, according to His promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells.”
Sometimes I despair. We have socialist rulers who want to destroy everything their civilization has created that gives such power to them and wealth to all, in the name of protecting the environment which somehow has become more important than the humans who provide them with their wealth and power.
Caves and darkness for thee but not for me.
Oh, don`t get me going.
I`m not. We are getting exactly what I expected from him. Nothing.
It will never happen. Government employees are a parasitic class rather like bhuddists monks, leaching off the backs of working people.
Except, different from the monks, they have a taste for luxury we cannot afford.
I hope I live to see the collapse of Big Government.
From a distance, because they are so entitled they will bring down everything we know to “prove” they are so valuable and us dweebs need the lesson.
They will figure out how pi$$ed we are when we ask them to stand against the wall.
‘Sometimes I despair.’ Same here. The big population provincial governments are socialist, the maritimes are content with being on welfare, and only Saskatchewan and Manitoba are somewhat interested in supporting business.
Maurice Strong’s dream of deindustrializing the west is coming true in Canada.
Another example http://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2017/09/15/another-blow-to-pipeline-projects-in-canada/
Elections for mayor in a month – this would be a good start in kicking out the parasites but the opposition is too spread out and disorganised. No one has held them to account for their actions. Next there are the accomplices of Notley and Butts. They need to be reminded that their positions are very temporary. Attack
I don’t want to live in Gerald Butts’ world
No one has held them to account for their actions.
Whenever I bring up the subject to most people I know, the usual reaction is something like the shrugging of shoulders and asking, “What can you do about it?”
They are either unwilling to make the effort to change the status quo or have already accepted defeat.
Instead of running away to strange lands, why don’t we all get involved in a political party that can defeat the left. I’m a member of the Sask Party and the Conservative Party of Canada. This province is doing very well, and no, I’m not moving to the Cayman Islands or to the USA.
A membership is $30.00. Write a letter to your Conservative MP and let’s help him or her defeat the idiots who make our lives miserable.
This is how one guy won the war, using Legos.
https://youtu.be/90uEEGHGSnU
I’m a bit more jaded than you. The system is stacked against guys like you and I from the west. It can’t be changed.
Remember when chretien ran the table and took 100 out of 101 seats in Ontario? Bongo did the same in ’15 by taking all 40 seats in fishworld. The libranos can pull off the same results in ’19.
The east does not think like the west and ‘conservatives’ who hope to have a chance at forming government in this country end up trying to appeal to the same voter. Fishworld, quebek or ontario don’t want to hear a conservative message. They toss out the libranos about once a generation.
The old saying that ‘all politics is local’ is true. You can get to your town council, your mla to a lesser degree and hardly at all to your MP. He only needs you at nomination/election time.
When I was a young idealist I thought I could make a difference. I played the game until the shovel of reality hit me right between the eyes. It’s rigged. An interloper like butts comes to power through the back door. He can do more damage than you could ever do good by playing along.
It’s not the politics that are wrong in Canada it’s the philosophy. Canadians have become moochers. The politicians have only accommodated them.
Getting involved with the CPC is a waste of time and money. They had a chance to elect a real leader and blew it. Contrary to hysteria, most of Trudeau’s policies are in continuity with Harper.
@abtrapper: as long as you keep resorting to regional collectivism, you will keep losing.
Well, Liberals can’t Liberal, if people if people stopped voting for them. Ontario and Quebec will never stop forcing Liberals on us. The only way is to get out of Canada. Either the Sask party rationally becomes a separatist party, or it’s time to apply for citizenship in another country.
US is a non starter; Democrats are worse than Liberals, and they have New York and California that do to the US what Ontario and Quebec do to Canada.
UK is out, their most right ring politician is to the left of Bob Rae.
Maybe Poland? Australia is worse than Germany in terms of trying to kill their own citizens with a Great Leap Forward in the energy sector.
I wonder how Iceland is doing… ∂ will have to learn how to type thorns and eths…
they get money from me, AFTER THEY PROVE THEY ARE WORTH IT. I will donate to the CPC, after 1 million federal civil servants are fired. Not before. Until one of the stands up and cuts government DEEPLY, you are just another part of the problem.
Name one government, of any party, anywhere in Canada, at any level, where government actually got smaller on their watch. No point buying a membership in that. No point writing a letter to those people. They all want bigger government. I want smaller government. I want a country where there is no representation without taxation; ie if you don’t pay in, you don’t have a vote. People who collect welfare will always vote for more welfare. People who get paid with tax dollars, don’t get a vote. etc. etc. etc.
there is no shortage of stupid in Canada.
Kevin, you are correct. not one government has ever reduced the size or cost of government. there is no such thing as a conservative in government, never has been. I was a card carrying conservative party member for a long time. I left after decades of watching so called conservatives squander every opportunity they were given. when you govern like a liberal socialist then you are a liberal socialist. it will not change until the country goes broke and the people are starving, and maybe not even then, as long as someone gets even a dime for doing nothing they will continue doing nothing.
you said it better and more accurately than I could. thank you
Been there done that. Worked as riding president, and as an official agent for a candidate in a Federal election.
The public sector will tear you down with the media as their allies, they are entrenched.
We already have two Canada’s and two economies, one for the civil servants, union thugs, the Indian industry, government overlords, doctors,nurses, and the welfare class all with their hands out looking for their next raise or the next increase in benefits, then you have the otherside who do their best all the while paying increasing taxes, surcharges, extra fees call it what you will but paying through the nose. I’m not saying the parties of the first part don’t pay these extra taxes and fees, but for them all they have to do is threaten to strike and problem solved.
Well said, especially regarding the easterners. We will forever be under the thumb of the east whether or not fishworld is included. Look at the representation – 4 MPs from PEI? Really? The whole damn province is smaller than some of the constituencies in the ROC. I mean the producing parts of the ROC.
Separation is the only real answer. I had high hopes for PQ a few years back but they are too easily bought off especially with MY money!
Alberta will not survive with another NDP provincial government or another federal Trudeau government. I was mildly happy with the merger of the PCs and the ‘rose, but I fear that we are merely going to slap a coat of paint on the old jalopy and we will face another crisis within just a few years. YEARS not decades! There are way too damn many progressives out there that are afraid of being ‘right-wing’ which to them is “extremist”
I’m too old to lead a new movement but I can certainly follow!
I agree, if things like this continue we will move as well.
Apparently you don’t have to live here, or even intend to live here, and you can still be, or become, a citizen.
Link not working? Or just slow?