… why oil-rich Alberta doesn’t have a massive sovereign wealth fund like Norway, consider this.
Alberta is a province, not a country. Ergo, we don’t get to keep all the wealth we generate in this province. Not even close.
I realize this runs counter to the preferred narrative in Canada, where politicians and media types insist Alberta either “put all its eggs in one basket” by failing to diversify its economy (hello Christy Clark), or that Albertans “spent like drunken sailors” during boom times.
Sure, there’s some truth to those arguments. But the far bigger reason why Alberta isn’t rolling in filthy lucre is that we are part of a federation called Canada.
I remember some of the Alberta government’s attempts at “diversifying” the provincial economy when Don Getty was premier. Most of them turned were failures and financial sinkholes. In some cases, there was too much bureaucratic meddling and, in others, insufficient financial oversight.
The guys analysis does not take into account programs where Albertans pay far more into them than they get back:
EI and CPP. We are talking 100s of billions in today’s dollars over the past fifty years.
the federal government and extreme socialism is why Canada is damn near bankrupt but the fools in this country don’t have freaking clue about economics.
“Right now, every man, woman and child in Alberta pay $6,000 more into the national budget than they get back.”
https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/why-leaving-canada-makes-sense-for-alberta-and-u-s-would-likely-welcome-a-new-state
That was written in 2015. So, without accounting for inflation or growth, Albertans gave Canada $6000 per person more than they got back in all forms of federal transfer payments from Ottawa. Calculate that out : $6000 x 4 million Albertans = $24 billion dollars per year. That’s about how much more Alberta would keep and how much Canada would lose. Even accounting for the costs of being an independent nation, they’d still be much better of financially. Especially if they spent considerably less on crony capitalism, foreign aid, the arts, media, regional development, bilingualism…to name a few bloated national programs.
I keep hearing that being landlocked would be a GDP killer but I think Canada has signed both the UN Convention on Transit Trade of Land-locked States and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. As an independent, landlocked nation Alberta would have a better legal position to negotiate the transit of goods.
For example, from the Law of the Sea : Landlocked states are given a right of access to and from the sea, without taxation of traffic through transit states.
From Transit Trade of Landlocked States : Coastal states that ratify the convention (known as “transit states”)[1] agree to make arrangements with land-locked states that are party to the treaty that wish to transit goods across the territory of the transit state to or from a coastal port in the transit state. The transit states agree that they will not discriminate based on place of origin or destination of the goods being transported. The land-locked states agree to be responsible for any expenses that the transit states incur in supervising or protecting the transit of the land-locked state’s goods.
The convention has been noted as the first international agreement to recognise the special disadvantaged position of land-locked states.[2]
As of June 2014, the treaty has been ratified by 43 states, made up of an approximately even split of land-locked and coastal states. The convention has essentially been superseded by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which contains similar provisions for transit arrangements to be made between coastal and land-locked states.
LCB is right, the program overlap into Alberta Jurisdiction by Ottawa is staggering. The quickest way for Alberta to cure its problems within Canada, is to quickly get a bargaining chip.
That bargaining chip is a vote of Alberta voters for a UDI, to be triggered by various Ottawa programs. End Equalization from Albertan’s or we pull the trigger.
End gun control in Alberta or we pull the trigger.
No carbon tax in Alberta or we pull the trigger.
Pipelines to the east and west coast or we pull the trigger.
End Bilingualism in Alberta.
End Multiculturalism in Alberta.
These are some that could be added or subtracted as Albertans make the list.
In other words Albertan’s would determine what is acceptable in Alberta.
But never take a knife to a gun fight.
The only way Ottawa and the East will listen in this poker game is when you sit down at the card table, place your gun on the table.
One of the things I tried to convince Dannielle Smith of and previously Ralph Klein in correspondence and in person.
Was that Alberta should require a portion of all Oil Royalties be paid for in physical gold, to be kept in a special vault in Edmonton.
I also tried to convince them to use that as a stepping stone in conjunction with making Edmonton an International Banking zone with same qualifications as places like Switzerland etc.
Keep in mind Norway started their Heritage Fund after Alberta, it has grown to over 1 Trillion dollars. Albertan’s Heritage was squandered by greasy Liberal/PC politicians in Alberta and welfare communist programs of Ottawa. Get out Alberta. Stand up and fight.
The other option is to use another nation’s currency. Using the USD is called dollarization and it’s not uncommon. The USD is the world’s reserve currency right now. Given the amount of trade and travel between the US and Alberta it is the most practical. Besides I’m not sure the Canadian dollar would do very well if it lost its piggy bank and one of its biggest exports. Australia has a similar economy so its dollar is another option, I suppose. FYI: Iceland considered using the Canadian dollar after the financial crisis of 2008.
This is Canada. Nobody except the privileged few, and Quebec based monopolies, get to keep any portion of the wealth they make. The rest of the wealth is taken away to support the free loaders who continually keep the politicians in power.
In the current Dominion of Canada, all mineral wealth on “private property” is in fact owned and controlled by The Crown…and we all know what that means.
In the Republic of Canada all mineral wealth on private property belongs to the sovereign citizen landowner who maintains allodial title and hence all subsequent wealth generated stays local.
Present national polling gives the Trudeau Liberals a comfortable lead and, unless Trudeau stumbles, as in failing to follow the (Ad Agency script), they will be re-elected.
Alberta’s U.C.P provincial government could respond with a provincial referendum on a Sovereignty Association question. It would seize the initiative and have a mandate to negotiate. Saskatchewan would have to follow suit.
The Liberal government would be in a quandary. The West. energy industry gets full support or they become the party that couldn’t keep Canada, together. Without Alberta money, Quebec would have to become financially viable. In which case the federal Liberals become irrelevant.
The current trend is for another one or two terms of Trudeau Liberal government. Brad Wall’s warning that after crippling the oil industry, the next Liberal target is the agricultural industry is accurate.
The time left to retain Canada as a “free and democratic” nation-state or failing that, West. Canada as the same, is limited.
Funny how quickly a meme can change.
Simple question for those who insist Alberta belongs in Canada, is of course,
How do we benefit now?
How does the future look?
The current federal government makes separation look really good,I am hard pressed to envisage a down side.
What might a downside be?
Keeping in mind Canada is racing toward bankruptcy regardless of which branch of the Uni-party holds the reins.
And these same politicians made lawfare against most everything we value.
If reelected the Liberals will loot every pool of wealth they can identify,that is their form,note the “Carbon Tax” requires you to rat out all your assets so you can receive a “rebate”.
Also our Presstitutes are very careful to avoid mentioning the draconian leaps the Liberals have made toward stripping your last legal rights,remember”Harper Dictator”..Justine so dreamy..you do not need property,civil or any other rights..Just blow in the devise or you go to jail,comrade.
Growing too much pot at home..14 years comrade.
Sneering at your master? Man handled &Papers please Madame.
A couple more years of this and I see blood in the streets..
Oh wait the only heads that get broken protesting are those of tax paying citizens..
Love the way the French are using riot police and water cannons on the citizens,yet their favoured agitators and activists can destroy property on camera and walk away.
Rules are only for those little people.
Serious question.
Is Canada a country?
Canada is not a country. That’s what Lucien Bouchard said and it was true then and its true now. It is not a country; whatever it is, it is a mess. Everyone would be better off if it was split up into three or four smaller countries. Even Quebec would be better off, although not economically. But who cares!
One piece of advice I would give Alberta is to change the pro-pipeline ads, stick figures carrying maple leaf flags have some vaguely Liberal ambience that seems out of place. I would go with something a bit more edgy like allusions to the Gaia-earth-goddess foundation of far left BC politics, witches dancing around a burning effigy of Peter Lougheed might do the trick. Psychedelic rotations of Horgan spinning endlessly around the Sun of Weaver, hippies on bikes, the whole nine metres.
Get the sensible portion of the BC vote oriented to your cause and we’ll sweep this hippie-dippie coalition into the sea where they always wanted to be anyway (cavort with the Orca, bond with the seal).
And next time there’s a development friendly BC government, offer better terms. We don’t want to be 100% on the hook to clean up after any damage just so you know. That is what caused the original agreement to fall apart, Alberta was trying to get a pipeline without risk factor consequences. Nice try, it doesn’t work that way. Why should BC assume all risks for a project that is going to benefit Alberta at about a 3:1 ratio (if not more)? And becoming independent isn’t going to change that question, it would only make it zero percent likely that you’d get a favourable deal.
Peter. Why should Alberta assume all risk for all BC’s rail and truck traffic and gas lies crossing through Alberta. Is it OK if Alberta charges a special tax for everything that flow.s east or west through Alberta. Maybe Alberta should shut down TransMountain and go buy your oil from the Americans. Give your head a shake.
“As an independent, landlocked nation Alberta would have a better legal position to negotiate the transit of goods.”
Its pretty simple to solve really. Hey B.C., you don’t want our pipeline-thats fine. The toll for each railcar going thru Alberta is $8000. The goods flowing from China to Canada is huge and it ALL flows though the port of Vancouver.
That’s the situation. Both Canada and Alberta would need to move goods. The rail companies, energy companies, manufacturers, miners, retailers and even the egg and dairy marketing cartels would pressure both governments to negotiate a deal. A failure to make mutually beneficial trade and transit agreements would hurt everyone. After seeing the Liberal’s negotiating skills with NAFTA, the purchase price of the old kìnder morgan transmountain pipeline and the Paris Accord, I think an independent Alberta would get a good deal.
Alaska is part of a federation too. The Alaska Permanent Fund pays annual dividends to Alaskan households, the rightful beneficiaries of Alaska’s oil wealth. (The dividends are subject to federal taxation.)
Get rid of the problem and only the problem—the Librano crime syndicate operating out of Ottawa.
May I suggest the good men soon to be brought home from Syria be sent north to put the Libranos out of business and cleaning house on the provincial level in preparation for application for US statehood.
Alberta needs a real constitution like Switzerland. Where the people make all the big decisions and the greasy politicians are just employees and faceless nobody’s. And the people rule not the courts
I find it hilarious that there’s absolutely no acknowledgement of Norway’s oil production being more or less a state-owned monopoly. Shouldn’t they be eating each other for sustenance by now?
Sure, somewhat like a benevolent Soviet system. Something like Canada’s oil production being state controlled with regulatory goal post changing and to all intents and purposes, similar to fascist corporatism.
From the article, “Now that Alberta’s oil-fired economy is also struggling, Canada is heading for the fiscal swamp.” I would suggest that is by design.
“I would suggest that is by design.”
Yes. But not by Zoolander’s design, however the fact that Zoolander is mentally deficient in no way negates his responsibility in being so evil as to be the Mascot of so corrupt and horrible a regime. In fact, Zoolander’s sheer arrogance and embracing of the entitlement of the Trudeau name as an genetic Right ensures he and his entire family should suffer as-yet unwritten civic backlashes that should be written down in history and be compared to Dictators the like of Nicolae Ceaușescu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceaușescu#Oil_embargo,_strike_and_foreign_relations and
Benito Mussolini who ended up…well hanging naked, with his woman, from a lamppost by piano wire.
Seems to me to be what Tyrants deserve. Wipe them and their seed from the face of the earth.
Driving from Toon town to Calgary yesterday I was listening to Danial trator Smith on 770 radio yapping on with glee and emotion about the The truck oil protestors in a number of locations in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Her enthusiasm rings hollow knowing her history of selling out Wild Rose.
There’s the rub.
Albertains and westerners in general will never follow through to the only solution to resolve our status in CON-federation!
If this movement were to evolve into a political movement that puts forth a leader of some sort that is when the political elite and “fake news” media will label the movement and leadership as “racist and bigoted”!
And western Canadian history will repeat itself once again.
The kind of government and mayor leadership elected in its two big cities and provincial government tells us everything. The “Cowtown” of old has longed to be O so Toronto ie urban.
Western Canadian protest movements have sprung up since the 30’S yet all refused to follow through to the only soultion. “The Hammer” of separation.
The late Ted Byfield said “ only when they think we might get out will they do anything to keep us in”!
The only thing we get from eastern government is poor government and a low weak dollar. They provide us with nothing of value that we can not provide ourselves
When ever a Canadian political leader espouse how we can fix our predicament with in the system he or she is lying.
Equalization is entrenched in our constitution. Want to change it? You will have to convince Ontario and or Quebec to vote to give up power and western cash. Not going to happen.
Free the West. Let’s get out.