Were the Regina and Lloydminster upgraders worth it?
In 2011, when oil was 14 per cent of revenue, health care was around 41 per cent of expenditures. That meant that during those boom years, oil revenue could be considered having paid the bill for every doctor, nurse, hospital, old folks home and home care worker south of Craven, and that includes Regina.
That revenue became so important to this province that when OPEC opened the taps in late 2014 and oil crashed from over US$100 per barrel for West Texas Intermediate down to US$26, the provincial deficit for several years almost precisely matched the decline in oil prices. I was able to confirm this at the time by asking both the premier and finance minister several times. That remained the case for several years.
“Every economy needs ‘anchor’ projects. The two upgraders have definitely offered that stability, mooring and value add churn. Very important projects indeed.”
Cripes what an utter dummy Wall was and is. No, economies do not need ‘anchors’, whatever that means. They just need rule of law open markets and low taxes.
The only other omission from this article is the importance of the collapse of the CANPOTEX potash cartel at the hand of Belarus. That put an end to Wall’s socialist partying.
All in all, that’s just another brick at Brad Wall.