[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

You're clearly convinced that the oil co's are in the clear and right about this issue. I wish I could feel the same, about either side. But I don't. So be it. I will continue to be skeptical of spin from both sides. It's also clear neither of us will win over the other to their side, although I don't even really have a side, come to think of it. Unless being a skeptic of both sides is a side.

I'm certainly convinced that the oil and gas companies are in the clear and right about this issue as it pertains to the fact that some of their projects will become uneconomic and that because of this they will have to/be able to find other places to invest their capital where the return will be greater. I also know (as should anyone who can do simple math), that a company removing $1 billion from the economy will have a very measuable effect.

Does that mean that there isn't room to move the royalty regime? Of course not, and no one is saying that any change will cause major catastrophe. What a lot of people, like myself, are saying, is that these changes will cause a great many projects to become uneconomic (this is a FACT, I have seen numbers in the area I work in where this is exactly the case), and that due to this companies will choose to go elsewhere (also a FACT, which should be evident due to the EnCana statement), and that this removal of capital from the province will have a very real impact.