An article aimed at putting a stick in the spokes of all the semi-literates that are now abusing Alberta, or any resource-rich jurisdiction, for not properly and previously diversifying their economies away from petroleum, when success breeds high wages and costs which make it hard for new industries to compete. You think it’s easy, you try it. Reinventing an economy is a formidable challenge. Every city, municipality, province, state, and country on earth wants to be the next Silicon Valley. Good luck. Read on…
“….; anyone that makes such criticism is so far removed from job creation that they would understand nothing about the challenges of actually running a business or building something.”
Greens have constantly scolded Alberta for failure to diversify the economy, see the line above, most relevant in the article. Socialist fantasists are like children who believe “if you wish hard enough, it WILL come true”.
(You can fly,you can fly, you can fly.: from the documentary “Peter Pan”)
They should only grow the f*** up. And stfu.
Diversifying your economy when most countries are faced with static or declining populations is a big challenge. Globalists promoted the China trade as a solid growth avenue based on 1.3 billion people. Raise their income = higher global demand. Dito India. The reality is that these economies are not isolated from global debt and their educated populations are struggling like everywhere else to find good jobs. Leveraging assets does create demand but governments around the world have gone massively overboard. A day of reckoning is close.
Where does Canada sit in all this? IMHO not very well. Since the industrialization strategy of this country has failed massively. The so called industrial of Canada is being hollowed out just as the USA Rust Belt was. TO can hoot all they want about Google redeveloping 12 acres but is that an industrial nirvana? Energy was a cash cow that this country could have exploited but instead the people decided to follow a prissy assed no mind who would have trouble behind a Big Mac counter. Top all this with the disrupter impact of technology in resource extraction and utilization. Fracking is an obvious example. USA oil and gas production has as much to do with the economic climate in Alberta as the no minds who run this country. What sector goes down next?
I suggest Canadian banks could easily become the next disrupted industry. Every year banks lose some of their ability to charge fees. The next challenge will be elimination of credit cards as mobile payment takes root. Those people who actually have money in the bank will be able to pay this way. Those who do not will still finance their life styles by credit card but the overall health of that industry caves as a result. Will companies by willing to eat the 2 – 3% clearing fee if another payment method charges fractions of a %?
I disagree. I agree that diversification of an economy can occur, by necessity, as you’ve noted. But the main way that economy’s diversify is when the periphery of the main economic driver is humming along well, and others want to take advantage of all the free money (as in, not committed to something already) floating around in the local economy. Or the skills in the supporting industry that can boost other areas as well. Or the “let them work” attitude in government and regulators that allowed the primary industry to flourish.
A pair of my great-grandparents met in New York when they were over in the New World working contracts as indentured textile workers. New York wasn’t built as a clothing town. Very few clothes are made there today (though it’s still a high fashion Mecca). Textiles were a boom industry because it was a primary gateway to the US and there were lots of immigrants without a lot of high-tech (for the time) skills. High population density + desperate workforce + lots of manual (digital, for fingerwork) labour required + let-them-work attitude + = booming textiles industry.
The idea that a government can cause a diversified economy in any way other than staying the hell out of the way is dangerous. Government picking winners and losers on any basis other than “what sells is what people want, and should flourish” means it’s not an even playing field.
While a diversified economy is nice to have, economies develop organically. With a strong resource available companies spring up that foster that development. It is not surprising that those with a more communist mentality would have a penchant for central planning and control — and it is obvious they have no understanding of how business works.
a more succinct version of what I was trying to say above. 🙂
Oh, they don’t abuse EVERY resource-rich jurisdiction. Just the ones whose peoples have a problem with the globalists’ multiple attempts to steal or cheat them out of their resource wealth—Russia and Alberta being just two.
The House of Saud has made no realistic plans for “diversifying” the Saudi economy to prevent the financial ruin of the Kingdom when the oil runs out in 15 years (maximum), and nobody is pushing them very hard. They’re cashing out, and investing as much of the money as they can outside the Kingdom.
Mmmm.. are 1st year economics courses still teaching that having different countries (or provinces) specialize in what they do best, and then trade with other specialized economies, frequently increases efficiencies, and therefore increases availability and affordability of products, which in turn leads to a higher standard of living?
Of course, that simplified theory also includes the words “efficiency” and “trade”, both of which are anathema to our leftie friends.
BTW, are they chastising the Maritimes for not diversifying beyond tourism? Or Native reserves for not diversifying beyond gov’t funded programs?
Maybe even getting into oil or other resource extraction?
Thought not.
Just the eeevil Albertans. How dare they be successful!
As usual the author can’t see the elephant in the room. As if high wages in resource sector are the reason Alberta can’t diversify its economy.
In the early 80’s, Ontario had plenty of manufacturing. Since then, manufacturing has been shipped elsewhere & instead we now have warehouses, Walmarts and factory outlet shopping malls selling stuff made offshore. We can add to the list financial advisers selling investment & retirement products for Demarais.
Are we supposed to drive resource industry wages to $2/hr like in Mexico or $5/day like in China and while paying public sector $100,000 plus c/w benefits?
https://torontosun.com/news/provincial/ontarios-sunshine-list-swells-to-131741-workers
https://torontosun.com/2017/04/20/rise-of-the-100000-teacher/wcm/59333b07-0315-4c2c-a225-bfce10e4860c
Public Servants and their Communist controllers: UNIONS
In any new Western Sovereign Nation, I would push Extremely hard to ensure these Marxist “entities” are OUTLAWED and have that enshirined in our constitution. Along with term limits for ANY Politician Elected Judges etc.
You wanna “SERVE”..??
Fine, you will be paid accordingly and NO you will not have the Option to Hold the entire Country hostage for ever more wages and benefits.
On the last election day here in Alberta my wife and I were walking to the polling place when we met a neighbour. In the few seconds we chatted we found out that she was a government employee going to vote NDP because Alberta needed to diversify our economy. My wife and I run our own little company that hires 12 people and pays them tradesman wages. Of course we were going to vote UCP since the NDP and liberals had killed the economy and had forced us to downsize drastically. We pointed out that it is very hard to diversify when the economy is flat because the government is killing its biggest driver. The neighbour got quite huffy and stomped off when we explained that most of our work had nothing to do with the oil patch. Our industry does very little for the patch but because the patch was very very slow all the other industries were feeling the pinch.
There was a time when diversifying your company mean finding new markets or new products to adjust to changing economic realities. Now it means ensuring that the work force has the proper distribution of body parts, skin pigmentation and cultures. Someone in the Ottawa citizen this A.M. commented that Scheer should he win the election would have difficulty forming a “diverse” cabinet. ?