Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny 99
It is quite simple really. Firstly, the rapid oilsands development should be stopped by raising the royalty rates to a much higher level. The Conservatives tried to pull one over on the voters by upping the rate by a small percentage, and it seemed to have worked by the results we're seeing tonight. Secondly, there needs to be much more emphasis on education in this province. For such a rich place, one of the richest on earth, there is no reason that post secondary education fees are so high. Oilsand development should only be allowed to accelerate at the same rate as other sectors of the economy. Infrastructure should constitute a high rate of investment. Unfortunately, our governments at both the provincial and municipal level have failed to have any kind of positive forward thinking. People like Ralph Klein and Al Duerr will be looked back on as fools who didn't believe that infrastructure was a good investment in a province so full of a natural resource whose price could only go up. We have such an enormous amount of resources to invest - other provinces and countries would kill (and have done so) to be in the position we're in. There is simply no excuse for people seeing the dollar signs now and not worrying about the future. I work in the oilsands, in fact I'm there right now, and all my co-workers all have new fifty thousand dollar trucks, a 400k+ mortgage, and they can afford their payments now because there are good paying jobs and lots of work. Do you really believe that over the course of a thirty to forty year mortgage that Alberta will not go through some years of economic slowdown?
Those that do not know their history, are doomed to repeat it.
-Pierre Trudeau, 1985
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Oooooohhhh, it's simple is it. Oh Phew, because I thought that running a province would be rather difficult. OK just jack up the royalty rates and put thousands of albertains into the EI line. Go find me one economist who will agree with this concept.
Also Calgary has the most post secondary degrees per capita than any other city in Canada, and despite what you think education is still quite reasonable relative to its actual cost. The problem is that we don't need more people in university, if anything we need more people in relevant programs. I mean, do we need more than a couple dozen Psyc and Sociology majors? This is a very educated province, but frankly the need for labour is accross the board. We don't need to shift everyone into post secondary schools, we need an ability to attract and develop more skilled labour into the province, frankly post secondary is just a portion of that.
And I'm not sure what your friends risk tolerance on mortgages or lack of vision have to do with anything, but if they can't support 30 years of payments, that is the individuals fault and nobody else's. I'll be there in 10 years to buy their house on a distressed basis.
You are right about one thing, infrastructure is way behind, but it is way behind in all of Canada, not an excuse but it's naive to think that this is a Alberta problem.