Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
I don't think there's any evidence to suggest that the NDP are making things any better or worse at this moment. That would be extremely premature and really just indicative of bias.
I think Kevin O'Leary is not a worthwhile businessman, and I would take the Oil companies positive word on Notley as being more representative of the impact on the industry than Kev's ill-informed opinion.
Hopefully for his sake Dragon's Den is still in syndication.
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I would be careful on this. You are right that the public message from the sector is one of teamwork. However, from my personal conversations the inside talk is a bit more nervous. Again, that is personal opinion of those individuals, but I don't think folks by and large at the oil companies are totally onboard and happy with this going through.
You can shoot Kevin all you want, but he did say a few critical items that speak to the current issue Alberta and Canada is facing. One is the pipelines. He is bang on. All governments in Canada are to blame, especially Harper. He could have played the national interest card and rammed it through. However he wanted to become the savvy politician and as a result nothing has been built. A lot of the current WCS discount could have been avoided if he acted. As for Notley, her play nice with Quebec was a mistake. If she thinks being diplomatic with Quebec will get her anywhere she hasn't read history. This is only going to further the delay of building our own pipelines we need to get competitive pricing.
The next part is on investment waiting on certainty. He is correct there. I do know exploration work in this city as one person told me "15 years ago levels" right now. I do know projects have been shelved. Is that all on the NDP? No of course not. The price of oil has a lot to do with it. However, why would someone have the incentive to build now? These companies are long term players, and sitting on their hands for 2 years is a wise decision. In the meantime many jobs and investment sit dormant until the certainty returns in both the market and the tax regime.
That was Kevin's point. Why give less incentive to companies to invest at a time when more is needed. The idea is fine, but the timing is completely wrong. As a result I am sure more than one job will sit dormant while the companies wait and see for 2 years out. The oil is going nowhere, the jobs can wait. As such Notley is hurting Alberta, and it doesn't matter who says it the message is correct.