Hopefully this particular deal concludes with an increase in corporate head office employment in Calgary and generally more employment in Alberta. The combined entity may also contribute a higher overall tax haul to Alberta as well, although corporate accounting isn't my strong suit.
On a somewhat related matter, I read the book about CP and CN Rail's previous CEO's, Hunter Harrison. It was called Railroader and it was an excellent overall biography from a 4 time CEO. Love him or hate him, he was the Steve Jobs or whatever analogy of the railroad world and he owned it.
A couple of funny moments when running CP that made me laugh as a Calgarian. His first day on the job was July 2012, the Calgary economy was on fire and it was Stampede week. He showed up to head office in a suit and really couldn't find too many people there, everybody was out drinking and partying. He lost his mind. "Company burning through cash and people are out doing shooters??" or something like that.
As a ruthless cost cutter, he wouldn't hesitate to find the smallest of expenses to cut. He was down in the basement of some office and saw a bunch of older computers that were being shipped out via Fedex. Asked where they were being sent and was told Alyth rail yard, which is located in Calgary, less than 15 minute drive from corporate office. He lost his mind because of the fact that with Fedex packages, almost all travel via cargo plane to Tennessee, Fedex's Hub and than to their destination.
Either way hopefully this is a great, positive business story for Calgary and for Alberta
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