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Originally Posted by Thunderball
Agreed. Bailouts only reward inefficiency, and tend to bite the recipients in the ass when things improve. Allowing a bailout now only encourages a carbon tax/NEP 2.0 later on. The government has all the ammo they'd ever need, "we helped you when you were hurting, and now you cry when you're making record profits again... well, now we need something in return..."
A stable, business-friendly environment with low taxes is the best way for the AB Government to help the Oilpatch weather the storm and keep most of its people gainfully employed.
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They just don't get it, there is no hammer big enough to hit them over the head with..... They
say they are talking to the industry and listening....I call BS on that....
Excellent column this weekend by Dave Yager... here is an excerpt:
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Things are no better in Edmonton. On Jan. 1, and despite the advice and protests of every oil industry manager and investment analyst, Premier Ed Stelmach increased oil and gas royalties. After clobbering his province's most important industry, in his public pre-budget advice Stelmach actually had the audacity to ask Ottawa to ensure Alberta got its "fair share" of federal largesse. Alberta's oil industry and support economy will be devastated in 2009 if nothing changes. Yet stubborn Ed won't even admit he's part of the problem.
The regulatory and red tape onslaught from both governments also destroys jobs. The incomprehensibly long and expensive hearing process into the Mackenzie Valley pipeline plodded right through the recent boom. If federal politicians really cared about economic stimulus, why aren't we building that pipeline right now? A joint federal-provincial environmental panel just stopped EnCana's plans to drill 1,300 gas wells on the Suffield block, allowing Alberta Wilderness Association vice-president Cliff Wallis to proudly declare, "There's some good recommendations that will make it impossible . . . for EnCana to proceed."
Thanks Cliff. One assumes unemployed roughnecks can eat Suffield's kangaroo rats and rare songbirds now that their survival is assured.
The oil business has said for years that if governments just leave it alone, it will roll with the punches of volatile commodity prices. But our governments cannot control themselves when it comes to changing tax policies, increasing royalties, and creating an expensive and tangled mishmash of environmental protection policies and regulatory approval processes. Each is an employment killer created by politicians who purport to care about jobs for ordinary Canadians.
It is impossible not to be angry and cynical.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/Technol...286/story.html
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