Alberta Politics Thread

[peter12]

I love the increasingly nostalgic inflation of O&G salaries. I made great money at my peak, working in junior management in a non-engineer role. It wasn't like they were pouring gold coins into my pants though.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by peter12

I love the increasingly nostalgic inflation of O&G salaries. I made great money at my peak, working in junior management in a non-engineer role. It wasn't like they were pouring gold coins into my pants though.

Would've been a little redundant, no? Weren't you just getting your pants made out of gold back then?

[heep223]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Would've been a little redundant, no? Weren't you just getting your pants made out of gold back then?

Today I learned that Levi's makes 501s out of gold.

[puckedoff]

My 401's are made of gold...

[IliketoPuck]

I don't fully understand what the author is getting at here:

http://boereport.com/2016/03/08/albe...-utility-debt/

He seems to be implying that phasing out coal plants early will result in a higher provincial debt burden beyond the already large $10Bn/year deficits being run? And is he also implying that it will result in higher electricity rates?

Can anyone with a more detailed understanding explain?

[Resolute 14]

He's saying two things there.

1. The cost of phasing out coal plants early will be very high for several reasons, but he focuses on how we will be required to compensate the operators of the plants we shut down. That, in turn, will create a 'utility debt', on top of the general debt we are already piling up.

2. Popular support for an early phase out of coal plants would decline dramatically if people were told their energy bills would rise as a result.

He is also improperly joining the two statements. If people were paying higher rates to satisfy argument 2, those higher rates would be spent to off-set the costs from argument 1.

[Fuzz]

We should run these until they are EOL. Don't authorize new ones, but lets not burn spent money here. Ugh.

[CaptainCrunch]

I think the writer is really looking at Ontario as an example, where they I think did early shut downs of plants and ended up running up multi-billion dollar penalties to do it.

I do agree with the writer that there's no real point to doing early phase outs, let the plants run until the end of their life while planning to replace them with cleaner energy solutions.

[Leeman4Gilmour]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

I don't fully understand what the author is getting at here:

http://boereport.com/2016/03/08/albe...-utility-debt/

He seems to be implying that phasing out coal plants early will result in a higher provincial debt burden beyond the already large $10Bn/year deficits being run? And is he also implying that it will result in higher electricity rates?

Can anyone with a more detailed understanding explain?

He may be referring to this

[IliketoPuck]

So more taxes. On top of the carbon tax. On top of the income tax. On top of the corporate tax. Still running a $10Bn deficit, wage cuts, and layoffs.

Got it.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

So more taxes. On top of the carbon tax. On top of the income tax. On top of the corporate tax. Still running a $10Bn deficit, wage cuts, and layoffs.

Got it.

Taxes are the answer. Taxes are always the answer.

How much to Unions pay in taxes?

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by Locke

Taxes are the answer. Taxes are always the answer.

How much to Unions pay in taxes?

Not biting! I promised myself no more teacher rants for at least a week.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Not biting! I promised myself no more teacher rants for at least a week.

Thats like an Economics Chastity belt.

The point being though is that you cant squeeze blood from a stone at this point.

Its like the Twilight Zone, these are all measures that a Government should use to reign in a rampantly successful economy rather than stomp on the embers of one thats flickering out.

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by Locke

Thats like an Economics Chastity belt.

The point being though is that you cant squeeze blood from a stone at this point.

Its like the Twilight Zone, these are all measures that a Government should use to reign in a rampantly successful economy rather than stomp on the embers of one thats flickering out.

Hah I know.

I'm extremely conflicted being a finance professional. The numbers guy knows what needs to change, but the side of me that sees the ugly underbelly of the education in our city causes a ruckus.

Removing administrative bloat combined with better capital allocation would go a long way to improving essential services in this province.

Alberta has never had a revenue problem, its always been a spending problem.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Hah I know.

I'm extremely conflicted being a finance professional. The numbers guy knows what needs to change, but the side of me that sees the ugly underbelly of the education in our city causes a ruckus.

Removing administrative bloat combined with better capital allocation would go a long way to improving essential services in this province.

Alberta has never had a revenue problem, its always been a spending problem.

And when you have a spending problem one of your major issues is getting value for the money spent.

[CliffFletcher]

Anyone who thinks Alberta's budget problems can be solved without cutting spending and increasing taxes is blinded by ideology. Taxes have to increase and become closer to the norm in the developed world. Spending has to be cut to become closer to norm in the developed world. Because for the last 15 years Albertans have enjoyed a fantasy economy based on petro-bucks, and that show is over. Time to sober up and start running our public services on a sustainable model.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Anyone who thinks Alberta's budget problems can be solved without cutting spending and increasing taxes is blinded by ideology. Taxes have to increase and become closer to the norm in the developed world. Spending has to be cut to become closer to norm in the developed world. Because for the last 15 years Albertans have enjoyed a fantasy economy based on petro-bucks, and that show is over. Time to sober up and start running our public services on a sustainable model.

Except the taxation is already increasing both in the shift in the tax system and in the 3 billion plus carbon tax (and it is a tax going to general revenue) so now the cuts have to happen.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Anyone who thinks Alberta's budget problems can be solved without cutting spending and increasing taxes is blinded by ideology. Taxes have to increase and become closer to the norm in the developed world. Spending has to be cut to become closer to norm in the developed world. Because for the last 15 years Albertans have enjoyed a fantasy economy based on petro-bucks, and that show is over. Time to sober up and start running our public services on a sustainable model.

Couldnt agree more. But the taxes have gone up already, but the spending, from an already unsustainable level, has continued to go up.

So someone in power disagrees with you, or at the very least feels that they're going to leave the party early and not be responsible for helping to pay the bill.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Locke

Couldnt agree more. But the taxes have gone up already, but the spending, from an already unsustainable level, has continued to go up.

So someone in power disagrees with you, or at the very least feels that they're going to leave the party early and not be responsible for helping to pay the bill.

Agreed. I'm one of those fools who thought the NDP would have to govern from the centre in order to get re-elected. But they're just digging the province into a deeper hole that whoever replaces them will just have to dig out of again.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

So more taxes. On top of the carbon tax. On top of the income tax. On top of the corporate tax. Still running a $10Bn deficit, wage cuts, and layoffs.

Got it.

Hey, we can't just keep borrowing 10+ billion a year. All these raises for the teachers and union buddies have to come from somewhere!