[Thanos]

bootlegga bootlegga:

This may sound radical to you, but Alberta has done this for decades....

There's never going to be an end to the disgrace the capitalist and free marker purists have done to Alberta's image, is there? From the bullshit that Ralph Klein presided over with the irresponsible utility privatizations to the endless anti-government propaganda pushed by Preston Manning, the Byfields, Ezra Levant and so many other irresponsible conservatives, we're always going to be tarred as some sort of Americans-in-Canadian-clothing. And this even though in reality we're as deeply socialized as any other province in this country in the belief that the government absolutely has to do certain things that business won't, like simply making the damn place livable.

Sigh. We're never going to win, are we?

[BeaverFever]

bootlegga bootlegga:

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

I wonder what the exact return on investment is, in exchange for a $1.6 Bn subsidy from the Alberta taxpayer, how many dollars are returned to the Alberta taxpayer?

What seems unusual to me is that this is an industry that seems to typically think government should stay the hell out of their business, especially an NDP government....until it’s time for a taxpayer handout Does this subsidy mean the NDP government is going to have more say?

This may sound radical to you, but Alberta has done this for decades, the only difference is they bought rail cars to haul wheat and grains.



Contrary to popular belief, the Heritage Trust Fund isn't a giant piggy bank the Alberta government can raid (fortunately), it isn't even just a bunch of stocks and bonds. It routinely invests in real estate (buildings and sometimes even shopping centres), timberland, infrastructure across Canada and around the world and yes, sometimes even rolling stock like the above image shows.

https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/3675e47 ... report.pdf

Didn’t Alberta stop contributing to the fund 30 years ago because as Klein said “government shouldn’t be in the business of business “?

[newz]

herbie herbie:

They won't be going to Vancouver, so don't get too excited.

No oil for you!

[newz]

Thanos Thanos:

There's never going to be an end to the disgrace the capitalist and free marker purists have done to Alberta's image, is there?

If only the communists had their fingerprints on Alberta everything would have been fine.

[Thanos]

There's that farting sound again.

[DrCaleb]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

Didn’t Alberta stop contributing to the fund 30 years ago because as Klein said “government shouldn’t be in the business of business “?

No. Quite the opposite. A few years ago, we took the section of the Treasury Board ministry that administered the HTF and broke it off into a Crown Corporation called 'AimCo'.

AimCo grows the HTF through acquisitions, and profitable ventures. In fact, it just bought a couple buildings in the Edmonton downtown. One will be a massive condo complex and hotel, the other will house the City of Edmonton offices and also luxury apartments. Rental income will boost the HTF, as it will in AimCos' real estate holdings around the world.

It is a quite profitable venture.

[BRAH]

_______________

What's the worst that could happen?

[bootlegga]

Thanos Thanos:

bootlegga bootlegga:

This may sound radical to you, but Alberta has done this for decades....

There's never going to be an end to the disgrace the capitalist and free marker purists have done to Alberta's image, is there? From the bullshit that Ralph Klein presided over with the irresponsible utility privatizations to the endless anti-government propaganda pushed by Preston Manning, the Byfields, Ezra Levant and so many other irresponsible conservatives, we're always going to be tarred as some sort of Americans-in-Canadian-clothing. And this even though in reality we're as deeply socialized as any other province in this country in the belief that the government absolutely has to do certain things that business won't, like simply making the damn place livable.

Sigh. We're never going to win, are we?

In some ways, it's a fair argument, because we're NOT as socialized as every other province.

Most other provinces have government run car insurance, liquor stores, registries/DMVs, highway maintenance, and so on. Even our health care has fewer things covered (some provinces cover dental for example) than other provinces - and let's be honest, Klein's 'Third Way' for health care was watered down for profit healthcare ala the US. Thank God that didn't get through.

Now, don't get me wrong, some of those things are good and some are not, but compared to the rest of Canada, in some ways, we are Texas North.

That's not always a bad thing.

We've built industries from scratch and clawed our way from a have-not province to a have province much faster than other provinces because we're willing to let private enterprise step in and do the heavy lifting instead of waiting for the government to figure out how to fund it. Part of that is based on the fact that at one time in the 1930s, one-half of Albertans were American-born and everyone doesn't see private enterprise as the devil incarnate.

And that's despite the BS that seems to constantly flow from central Canada (Ontario and Quebec mostly). This pipeline battle is just the latest in a long series of battles we've waged with other parts of Canada.

Some we win (like getting resource rights in the 1930s) and some we lose (like Energy East).

Only time will tell how this one turns out, but I'm not very hopeful.

[bootlegga]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

Didn’t Alberta stop contributing to the fund 30 years ago because as Klein said “government shouldn’t be in the business of business “?

No, that was Klein's argument to privatize liquor stores, DMVs, highway maintenance and everything else that went private under his government.

PC governments actually stopped contributing to the HTF in the late '80s under Getty and Klein just continued, business as usual. FTR, Notley's government is sucking out every penny of interest from the HTF they can too. The $13 billion in interest Klein withdrew paid for the so-called 'Alberta Advantage', which was lower taxes than the rest of Canada.

That was a poor decision in my opinion, but was popular with many Albertans. A quick scan of the last year's annual report (link above) indicates that $43 billion has been returned to Albertans since the fund's inception.

Frankly, I wish Alberta was more of the 'ant' mindset than the 'grashopper', and saved more for the day when our oil has no market (sometime after 2050 I'd guess) but I am only one voter.