[Regorium]

Originally Posted by firebug

But maybe to short-circuit this diversion...

Let's agree that I'm not suggesting corporations should have no profits and that you're not suggesting we should have no teachers, nurses etc.

We are disagreeing on where each of us feel's the 'optimum' point of balance between corporate profits and the physical and social infrastructure for alberta citizens should be.

My opinion is that in the last boom corporate profits received too much of the rent taken and AB citizens too little. I'd trade truck nuts for better health-care and cleaner environment next time.

Consider AB citizens see a lot of that corporate profit as well in the form of big raises, big bonuses, lots of high paying jobs (including teachers and nurses), and low taxes.

I also agree that I don't know where the optimum balance of taxation is, but I would absolutely consider that just raising taxes does not directly lead to a different split of profits vs. health care. In fact it may mean that the split stays the same, but the pie gets smaller.

And to attempt to re-rail this 'Alberta Oil discussion thread'. My point was that, speaking as someone inside the capital deployment side of an E&P firm, it's not my experience that the royalty review is impacting capital spending in the current environment.

I would say it's not impacting the amount of capital spending, but absolutely is affecting the location of it. My company just spent a bunch of money in Mexico, southern US, and eastern Canada. The extra percentage points of tax and the risk premium based on the uncertainty royalty review are direct inputs to decide whether a project is prioritized or not.