Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
And other parties have said that increasing the royalties wouldn't help any.
It wouldn't help Alberta, outside of giving the government more bragging power in regards to our surplus.
Nothing would change.
Except of course Encana pulling their money and investing it elsewhere.
I think its been pointed out a few times in this thread that the oil pulled from the oil sands is not 80 bucks a barrel. As I understand it(correct me if I'm wrong Reaper)...we get somewhere around 50.
I guess that remains to be seen.
If Alberta 'needs' anything....the money is already there to provide it.
Well if the oil really belongs to 'us'....everything should be made public. Right?
or not. The Chavez comment was made to point out how the government has a habit of ruining a good thing when they get too involved.
Of course we should get something. 15% is a good number.
I can't figure out why it should be increased.
Are we lacking funds?
Or does Ed need an ever bigger surplus?
That is exactly the point.
I could understand increasing the royalties if Alberta had an unbalanced budget each year, and health care, education, senior aid...roads, etc, etc....were severely drawn back by the lack of funds.
But alas...that is not the case, and any draw back in those fields is probably because of the lack of management, organization or something else 'outside' of money.
Which is why I said throwing even MORE money at the problems we have here in Alberta isn't going to solve anything.
What else would we need with 2 billion more....thats right, we DO NOT need it.
Let Encana generate their profits and stick that money back into the economy. The government would only waste it.
We are NOT lacking in royalty funds.
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The reason I keep saying "that's a different issue" is that we're in agreement on that issue. There is enough money, it should be handled better etc etc.
But for so me reason it isn't and hasn't been. Perhaps they feel with more money they can leave the surplus and or heritage fund where it is and commit more to the public. I guess that's where we diverge.
You think "why give them more" (not an invalid point) I think "give them more and maybe they'll losen up". IMO if even one more hospital gets built from it, it'd be a good thing.