[GGG]

Originally Posted by Zarley

I really am scratching my head at this statement. What has improved in Alberta in the past five years? I guess I could see an argument that things have improved for public sector employees, but things have not been pretty for the rest of us:


- Crime has increased across the province each year, both in terms of per capita rates, but also in terms of severity. Calgary used to be safer than the national average, but this is not the case any longer.

- The drug crisis in the province continues to persist out of control. The chart on page 17 of this report is eye-opening.

-Average weekly earnings have stagnated brutally - after you consider the impacts of inflation the median Albertan has been consistently losing money for the past half decade.

- And of course, the majority of economic metrics on this dashboard have exhibited negative trends over the past five years. Bankruptcies, incorporation, investment, housing starts, construction, etc - take your pick. It's a horrendous record.



NDP record on oil and gas:

- A royalty review in 2015 that resulted in uncertainty that essentially resulted in missing a cycle of capital spending. That investment found other jurisdictions (Eagle Ford, Permian) and hasn't returned.

Now obviously the lack of pipeline capacity has affected oilpatch capital as well, but those same constraints existed in 2014 when investment peaked.

For comparison - here is global capital investment in the oilpatch - note the increases in North America.


- Of course, the corporate tax increase that did not result in increased government revenue certainly didn't help things. It just contributed to the stigma against investing in Alberta. Also contributing to this stigma is the cap on oil sands emissions.

- I actually don't mind a carbon tax in theory, but the non-revenue neutral way in which it has been implemented is very stupid.

- Speaking of a gap in financial and economic education, NDP policymakers simply lack an understanding of how wealth is created in a market economy. They are well meaning, but naive and ideological rather than analytical thinkers - as exemplified by the PPA fiasco.

Fully agree with you on healthcare and Carbon tax.

I think you are misusing statistics on oil and gas. In 2014 their were 3 pipelines on the books that some of which were planned to be operating now. These constraints were risks rather than roadblocks to projects.

Also the record on corporate taxes we do not have the data to parse whether the tax increase led to lower revenues than if the tax had been the same. If anything it would be a significant US tax decrease that dwarfs any changes to our rates having affects.

For drug use and crime I don’t think government policy is making a difference here. The overall economy is what is driving those numbers. They are lagging indicators of unemployment. They also did a pretty good job on the pot leagalization front and didn’t screw it up too badly (see Ontario).

The other thing they haven’t done is reduced spending. There is no drive to find efficiency and reduce cost. There should be continuous pressure being put on managers to find and deliver reduced costs.

The light bulbs and PPAs should be disqualifying. How anyone thought these were good ideas is mind boggling.

The NDP did an okay job given the hand they were dealt. Not great, not terrible. They are being tagged with a lot of things that were out of there control. That said they haven’t done good enough to warrant another term.