Alberta Politics Thread

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Handsome B. Wonderful

Ahhahaha aha haha haha haha haha ha. Yeah, good one. Staying employed is your bonus this year.

Suncor and CRNL delivered bonuses I believe.

[crazy_eoj]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

My former company gave bonuses earlier this year. Not to everybody but some folks who worked hard and performed well. I know a few more tech companies that did quite well this past 12 months too.

Shall we continue the hyperbole that the whole private sector is suffering, or can we at least just isolated it into a relative argument for the O/G industry?

Yes agreed. Total Hyperbole. Are you living in a cave?

Tuesday’s fiscal update also shows the economy is now forecast to shrink by 2.7 per cent in 2016, following a contraction of 3.7 per cent in 2015 — which government officials said was the worst two-year contraction on record, and worse than the brutal recession of 1982-83.

http://business.financialpost.com/ne..._lsa=6fd7-0536


"Alberta’s economy is headed for the largest two-year contraction on record, as private sector investment continues to fall, by a projected 16 per cent this year, and the government’s deficit balloons to almost $10.9 billion.

Most of the new jobs in Alberta in the last 12 months have been in health care, social assistance and education. Despite those gains, 49,100 net jobs were lost between July 2015 and the end of last month, the fiscal update shows.

In the last year, 29,000 jobs have been lost in forestry, mining and oil and gas; 28,800 jobs have been lost in manufacturing; and 11,000 jobs have been lost in construction "

[Ozy_Flame]

Good stuff. Does that speak for the whole private sector?

http://www.whistlerquestion.com/news...kers-1.2316237

I know the economy on the whole is depressed right now. But that doesn't stop some employers from having a steady and/or good year and doling out bonuses. It's happening in this economy whether you want to believe it or not, and despite it not being as frequent and frenetic as 3-4 years ago. It would be foolish to think that the entire private sector is in dire straits.

[para transit fellow]

Commercial office and industrial space leasing is picking up in Airdrie. Oil patch may be in doldrums but other businesses are working.

I've had to look for office space/ shop space/yard space this summer as the Building we lease has been sold. We got confirmation (and notice to vacate sept 30) just two weeks ago.

In mid july, I had a list of 4 possible places to lease. All were long- time vacate (6 months or more) and all of four were leased/ off the market by Mid august.

(nb: I did found a place via friend of a friend... we can move in sept 15)

[Frank MetaMusil]

Originally Posted by belsarius

Let's do a little fact checking..

The direct government jobs represented by the AUPE were given a new contract by Hancock in 2014 and raises then, they are not due for more raises until 2018 so lets clarify it's not ALL of AUPE.

Second, yes there are raises coming to AHS support workers who have been without contract since 2014. After being unable to come to an agreement with the PC or the NDP government they went to an independent arbitrator who gave them a 5% raise effective 2014.

Third, there is a wage freeze for government management in effect right now and AUPE is anticipating the government will negotiate from a position of wage freeze for all direct employees next year when the current contract expires.

So no the NDP are not giving out raises to AUPE.

Thanks for clarifying. Honestly, I'm new to this union gig and I probably made a wise decision to join given the situation. It still feels weird/wrong to be taking a bigger piece of the pie while a significant number of families are faced with life altering decisions.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, former evil oil guy (me) feels like he doesn't deserve the income boost just for being there and doing the same work I used to for XYZ oil company at a lower salary.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Handsome B. Wonderful

Ahhahaha aha haha haha haha haha ha. Yeah, good one. Staying employed is your bonus this year.

Sorry to hear about your crappy job/job performance.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by crazy_eoj

Yes agreed. Total Hyperbole. Are you living in a cave?

Tuesday’s fiscal update also shows the economy is now forecast to shrink by 2.7 per cent in 2016, following a contraction of 3.7 per cent in 2015 — which government officials said was the worst two-year contraction on record, and worse than the brutal recession of 1982-83.

http://business.financialpost.com/ne..._lsa=6fd7-0536


"Alberta’s economy is headed for the largest two-year contraction on record, as private sector investment continues to fall, by a projected 16 per cent this year, and the government’s deficit balloons to almost $10.9 billion.

Most of the new jobs in Alberta in the last 12 months have been in health care, social assistance and education. Despite those gains, 49,100 net jobs were lost between July 2015 and the end of last month, the fiscal update shows.

In the last year, 29,000 jobs have been lost in forestry, mining and oil and gas; 28,800 jobs have been lost in manufacturing; and 11,000 jobs have been lost in construction "

So your saying that 97% of Albertans who were working didn't lose their jobs.

[crazy_eoj]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Good stuff. Does that speak for the whole private sector?
......

I know the economy on the whole is depressed right now.

There are exceptions to any rule. But the facts are the entire economy is in the worst two year contraction in Alberta's history. Full stop.

Pretending that one or two companies doing well cancels this is the strangest NDP argument I've heard in awhile.

[Mr.Coffee]

When employment numbers are cited for job loss, do those numbers include contractors that have been cut as well?

[Ironhorse]

Doubtful. The only credible stat available is the number of people drawing EI, for which contractors are not eligible.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by crazy_eoj

There are exceptions to any rule. But the facts are the entire economy is in the worst two year contraction in Alberta's history. Full stop.

Pretending that one or two companies doing well cancels this is the strangest NDP argument I've heard in awhile.

Huh? I didn't say anything like that. At all. I am pointing out some companies are doing good and some can afford to give out bonuses, even in a tough economy.

Do I have to bust out the crayons, or are we good?

[calgarywinning]

Ozy, I think without diving to deep into it, that is the exception and not the rule. This is one of Alberta's worst recessions in 3 decades.

[V]

Ozy's post is just a reaction to the kind of post that assumes we all work in O&G, or if we don't, we're just as impacted as they are.

I got a pretty sweet raise and bonus, and I'm probably going to get another one next year.

[jammies]

All else aside, using the finances of a person or a family as an analogy for the finances of a government needs to stop. Just... stop. It's relatable because we all make and spend money, but it's also simplification far past the point of misrepresentation into profound error.

I wish there was a specific name for this specific and specious argument, like Godwin's Law is used for to refer to and curb arguments based on comparisons to Hitler and the Nazis. Lacking such a convenient label, however, doesn't mean it doesn't deserve to be brought up every time someone misuses the analogy as if it is more than asserting a spider is exactly like a lion because they both eat prey and excrete fertilizer.

[crazy_eoj]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Huh? I didn't say anything like that. At all. I am pointing out some companies are doing good and some can afford to give out bonuses, even in a tough economy.

Do I have to bust out the crayons, or are we good?

Yeah maybe you should break out those English crayons. Here's your quote, seems you forgot you wrote it:

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flames

Shall we continue the hyperbole that the whole private sector is suffering, or can we at least just isolated it into a relative argument for the O/G industry?

So when you use the word "whole", and then back that up by suggesting the suffering is isolated to oil and gas, it doesn't mean the same thing as saying every single private individual business in their entirety.

That's why a post about how terrible the forestry industry, manufacturing, construction, and economy in general totally refutes what you posted. Your article about one tech company doing well doesn't support your statement that only oil and gas is suffering and saying anything else is hyperbole either.

[Resolute 14]

Brian Jean attempts to ad-lib a joke about Notley. Backfires spectacularly.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmont...tley-1.3742353

"I've been beating this drum for 10,11 years. I will continue to beat it, I promise. But it's against the law to beat Rachel Notley."

[Fuzz]

Brian is about as cringe-worthy a guy you can get. This did not help.

[Ozy_Flame]

I had to read that twice, thought he was making a joke about fapping.

[Tacopuck]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Brian Jean attempts to ad-lib a joke about Notley. Backfires spectacularly.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmont...tley-1.3742353

Notley has been subjected to a series of highly publicized violent threats and images in the past year. In one instance, an image of her face was pasted on a large piece of cardboard and used as target during a golf tournament. It was condemned by critics and described by some as an example of the violence that female politicians are subjected to.

What Brian said was definitely not the language we should expect to come from a politician however I'm getting pretty sick of Notely making any political based attack against her a gender issue. The whole golf course thing was especially annoying.

I'm sorry you are a public figure, male or female, you have to be able to withstand intense and unrelenting public criticism. You are the leader of our province, lots of people are upset with you, people are going to say nasty things about you, that does not give you the right to publicly shame an individual or organization just because you dont like it. Making it a gender issue is doing a disservice to the position you hold. The issues behind the criticism is not a gender issue, the issue is you are terrible at doing your job with the province, get use to it or give the people a reason not to criticize you.

/rant

[Resolute 14]

Well, in this case, Notley hasn't even commented publicly on this one, so blame her defenders. Even so, it remains Jean's fault if he handed her and her supporters that shield to deflect criticism of her own incompetence for a few days.