The Roughneck has kindly provided the article free of charge to our readers.
Download the pdf here: Roughneck Article April 2019.
“…founded in 1952 as the voice of the Canadian oil community. The magazine reports on the people and events of that community – both past and present – that have made the oilpatch in Canada what it is today.” Here’s a link should you wish to subscribe.
h/t GK
Let me ask, if you were a Western Canadian, and your own government put in laws that stop you from being able to “use your head and your feet” to doing something for the world that you see as a great thing, how would you think, feel and SEE things? What would you think or feel if you SEE that your own federal government didn’t support you, forgets about you, or doesn’t really care about you?
It’s a long and detailed blog post. so grab a coffee.
Western Canada is experiencing a rising tide of resentment toward the rest of the country amidst political battles over pipelines, emissions and equalization payments, with a majority in Alberta and Saskatchewan now saying they get so little out of Confederation that they might as well leave.
That’s according to a massive new survey from the Environics Institute, which confirms a widespread impression that Western alienation has gotten worse since Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister. Add a persistent malaise in Atlantic Canada, and the survey depicts an uneasy Confederation on the heels of its 150th anniversary.
The poll, which asked more than 5,000 people about their attitudes toward the country between December and January, found a federation feeling more provincial. The proportion of Canadians who said their province or region is important to their sense of self rose from 69 per cent to 77 per cent in the past decade and a half, even as talk of Quebec separatism has cooled.
I have a habit of being a woman ahead of my time.
Good news for anti pipeline activists. Groper has stuck it to Alberta again. Our little prince has appointed a female MP from B.C. to the position of Treasury Board president. She is an avid environmentalist who hates pipelines and was vocal in caucus in her opposition to pipelines. She also was behind oil tanker bans when serving as a provincial cabinet minister.
Update.
Trudeau’s Treasury Board pick #JoyceMurray prioritizes gender-balanced cabinet over oil patch jobs: @SheilaGunnReid — https://t.co/pYInid3Gqq | #cdnpoli #ABpoli pic.twitter.com/dMgrzCVtG4
— The Rebel (@TheRebelTV) March 18, 2019
Another foreign oil company says it’s getting out of the Canadian oilsands.
Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp. announced after markets closed Tuesday that it will pursue the “separation” of its Canadian assets and its Barnett Shale holdings in Texas from its core business.
Related: Cost of Notley’s oil by rail plan quadruples
h/t Ken (Kulak), Nancy Ross
After the death of Energy East, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) decided to file access to information requests with the federal government asking whether foreign oil imported to Canada was subject to the new upstream/downstream scrutiny.
The answer, revealed Wednesday, is outrageous.
Imported foreign oil is not subject to the same Liberal environmental regulations as Western Canadian oil.
Oil imported from Saudi Arabia, the U.S., Iraq or any other country is not subject to upstream/downstream regs.
Updated:
The convoy has arrived in Ottawa and everyone can hear them! pic.twitter.com/zPr7huCklw
— Chris Warkentin (@chriswarkentin) February 19, 2019
The United We Roll convoy has reached Ottawa;
Hundreds of trucks are expected to roll into Ottawa Tuesday to protest the federal government’s policies on the oil industry.
The main portion of the United We Roll Convoy set out from Red Deer, Alta., last Thursday and made stops in Regina, Dryden, Thunder Bay, and Sault Ste. Marie before mustering at Arnprior, Ont., just outside the capital.
The rally is expected to occupy almost a kilometre of Wellington Street, in front of Parliament.
Those aren’t oil trucks. Those are Reichstag Fire trucks.
Meanwhile, in Juxtaposeland…
https://twitter.com/RachelCrossUTK/status/1097526170013306883
h/t Diane
Math is hard.
Families in Manitoba, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Saskatchewan understand we need to do more to protect our environment and the health of our kids and grandkids. Starting next year, with the Climate Action Incentive, families in these provinces will get more money than they pay. pic.twitter.com/RIa80zbTZQ— Catherine McKenna 🇨🇦 (@cathmckenna) December 31, 2018
Lying? That’s easy.
… 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.
Justine and the Lieberals are convinced that Albertans are stupid. They’ve convinced themselves that Alberta can forever be treated as a welfare province, dependent on Daddy Ottawa-bucks to keep them afloat:
On top of killing Northern Gateway, Kenney also points out that Trudeau’s government “also killed the Energy East pipeline, further land-locking Alberta’s resources.”
By having nowhere to go, Alberta’s oil is selling at a huge discount compared with the benchmark West Texas Intermediate — and actually fell to a devastating $11 per barrel last month. Premier Rachel Notley announced that starting in January oil output will be curtailed, which immediately helped raise Alberta oil prices, but the differential is still huge, costing the Canadian economy about $80 million every day.
In other words, the differential, caused by a lack of pipelines (which is a federal responsibility) will cost $1.6 billion in just 20 days. Put that in your government’s cancelled pipes, Minister Sohi.
How long has this been going on for now? 40 years?
As concern grows among workers and politicians over Alberta’s embattled energy sector, a massive rally got underway in the city of Grande Prairie, Alta., to support the resource industry and to call for pipelines to be built.
Sure. Things are bound to turn around any day now.
It’s only news when it happens to Ontario.
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Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland have also called for changes to the formula.
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I want a new one.
An independent Alberta would control access to its land mass as well as the skies above it, requiring Canada’s federal government to negotiate rights for, say, Vancouver-to-Toronto flights over Alberta airspace. Canada would also need Alberta’s agreement to have trains and trucks cross its now-international borders. Threats of tolls and tariffs could abound as needed to chasten those perceived to be wronging Alberta, whether Quebec, which exports dairy to B.C., grain interests that now commandeer rail to the detriment of Alberta’s oil shippers, or the B.C. ports that depend on commodities going to and from points east. Anyone thinking that Alberta would be unable to police its borders needs to be reminded that, for the past 70 years, Alberta’s patrols have made it the continent’s only rat-free jurisdiction.
They’d only need to police the west side.
PM LookAtMySocks is worried about stoking regional divisions.
The Gov’t propaganda in question.
Q. How many conversations over the Thanksgiving table will involve politics?
A. All of them.
Fortunately, the Liberals have released their talking points for the true believers:
.@liberal_party releases talking points to help members handle #Thanksgiving dinner, taking permanent campaign in #CDNpoli to new levels pic.twitter.com/TaN3eJD1QK
— Paul Thomas (@pejthomas) October 7, 2017
What would be necessary? Here’s a quick list I threw together. Undoubtedly incomplete.
– Take responsibility for 1/35th of federal debt as of November, 2015. I think it was around $620B so that would be $17.7B. This is to be paid to the Gov’t of Canada over twenty years without interest. ($870M/yr)
– Pay 1/35 of Canada’s November 2015 Defence budget of $23B yearly to the Gov’t of Canada. This is $657M/yr or until such time as Saskatchewan deems necessary to provide for our own defence.
– A flat tax on all income, personal and corporate.
– Look towards Switzerland for banking regulation.
– All current Indian Reservations remain under the purview of the Gov’t of Canada and outside the responsibility of the Gov’t of Saskatchewan. All Status Indians remain Canadian Citizens with the right to immigrate to become a Saskatchewan Citizen with all the Rights and Responsibilities that entails.
– Until such time as Saskatchewan law can be clarified, Saskatchewan will continue to enforce the Canadian Criminal code as it exists from the point of separation.
– Freedom of speech, property rights, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, the right to firearms, the right to not self-incrimate, the right to due process, and freedom of the press be enshrined
– Elected Judges with 10 year terms.
– An appointed Supreme Court by the legislative body.
