Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[Fuzz]

Wait, Smith "ignoring facts" and experts? ####ing unreal! Who could have seen this coming? Oh, right. She told us she'd do exactly that. And morons voted for her to do that, and now she is doing that. Thanks folks.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Muta

'Crushed by a government only interested in power': Mayor blasts province on Green Line halt

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...-lrt-1.7324530

Gondek going after the UCP on Xitter today...

https://twitter.com/user/status/1835686786741461334

This gonna be fun.

For those of us who aren't on X is there an actual, official press release or statement made available from the Mayor's office on this topic? Or is this a just a Xitter rant from our Mayor?

[Duruss]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

Things have seemingly calmed entirely down in government offices, for the record. The pants on fire of 2 weeks ago seems to have totally quelled. It is eerie.

Not sure if this is a "nothing to see here" Iraq PR officer type of moment or if they successfully closed the closet door, but it's been interesting dealing with various aspects of government over the last month.

I wonder of it was with the news of Russian money going to right wing cranks?

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

For those of us who aren't on X is there an actual, official press release or statement made available from the Mayor's office on this topic? Or is this a just a Xitter rant from our Mayor?

The simplified explanation for the disagreement between Alberta and Calgary is essentially:


1) The Green Line wants to spend >=$8B going from downtown to Seton.
2) Alberta is only willing to fund a Green Line that spends <=$6B going from downtown (or close enough) to Seton.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

For those of us who aren't on X is there an actual, official press release or statement made available from the Mayor's office on this topic? Or is this a just a Xitter rant from our Mayor?

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...741461334.html

As usual, Gondek is guilty of some spin here, too (but certainly not as much)

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

UCP approves of the private hospital in Airdrie
https://calgary.citynews.ca/2024/09/...privatization/

To be fair, they claim to have had ten consolation meetings with the public. No idea what was discussed but clearly the public must be on board! They were consulted!

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by edslunch

To be fair, they claim to have had ten consolation meetings with the public. No idea what was discussed but clearly the public must be on board! They were consulted!

I am sure the UCP will get right on releasing those consultation results just like the ones they did with the Alberta Pension Plan/CPP ones.

[Robbob]

Am I missing something on the Oil and Gas side. There are mandatory spends now on abandoning wells, I think it is a relatively new program. I know we are only a couple years into it, but I thought I read it has cleaned up more that 10k wells. Even the unpaid municipal taxes are now on the radar for delinquent licensees. I don't think they are helping the industry here.

[getbak]

Is Airdrie the most poorly-served city of nearly 100,000 people in this country?

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by getbak

Is Airdrie the most poorly-served city of nearly 100,000 people in this country?

This is where the lie of being so close to Calgary does them a disservice. Us, too. We should cut them off so they really see how much they are missing.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by getbak

Is Airdrie the most poorly-served city of nearly 100,000 people in this country?

Of course.

Because they have no services of their own.

They are parasites. They need all of our services.

If we cut off Airdrie they'd whither and die.

[FireGilbert]

Originally Posted by boogerz

More tax breaks for the same oil companies that are stacking cash right now, still laying off folks in droves (e.g. Suncor's 2-3k layoffs last year), and doing share buybacks instead of reinvesting for growth.

It's a good thing the UCP are the party of strong fiscal management and economic growth.

The company I work for spends a crazy amount on share buy backs. Have been meaning to ask my regional boss why this is a good use of money instead of trying to grow the share prices organically through Capex, Opex, and acquisition investments.

Also want to ask if we can get an employee share plan to all benefit in the stock price growth and not just executives with stock options.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

The company I work for spends a crazy amount on share buy backs. Have been meaning to ask my regional boss why this is a good use of money instead of trying to grow the share prices organically through Capex, Opex, and acquisition investments.



Also want to ask if we can get an employee share plan to all benefit in the stock price growth and not just executives with stock options.

Buying back shares IS investing in the company. The company can always issue shares if they need capital in the future if they need cash.

[Harry Lime]

Well, it's investing in the name of the company. Not investing in tangible company assets.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Harry Lime

Well, it's investing in the name of the company. Not investing in tangible company assets.

Buying back stock is investing the money in the assets the company owns by increasing the % of those assets each share owns. Basically it's saying that the existing business at the market valuation is a better buy than capex or acquisitions.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

Buying back shares IS investing in the company. The company can always issue shares if they need capital in the future if they need cash.

I disagree, a Share buy back is the same as a dividend. It’s saying that investors can do better with the money than the business. You just get to decide on the volume of the dividend.

It’s just a tax preferential way of paying a dividend to defer the income until it’s sold.

[DoubleK]

A share buyback is definitely not the same as a dividend.

[Ozy_Flame]

Leaving over $130 million on the table.


CBC: 'A lost opportunity': Alberta gives back $137M to Ottawa in unspent funds to clean up inactive wells

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Robbob

Am I missing something on the Oil and Gas side. There are mandatory spends now on abandoning wells, I think it is a relatively new program. I know we are only a couple years into it, but I thought I read it has cleaned up more that 10k wells. Even the unpaid municipal taxes are now on the radar for delinquent licensees. I don't think they are helping the industry here.

Most people don’t understand this part of the industry. Yes mandatory spends have been in place for 2 years now. Increasing every year.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

A share buyback is definitely not the same as a dividend.

It certainly is the same outside of the tax implications. Every shareholder (ignoring tax) can be in the exact same scenario regardless of method of returning capital.

A company is worth 1 billion dollars has 100 million shares so shares are $10 each. They have $200 million in cash that they want to return to shareholders. Company A does a 200 million dividend. The company is now worth 800 million dollars and has a share price of $8

Company B does a share buyback of 200 million dollars. The company now is worth 800 million dollars and has 80 million shares.

Now if 80% investors in scenario A took their dividend and bought the shares from the 20% of investors who wanted to sell the value (160 million at $8 per share)of the company held by each shareholder would be the same in scenario A and scenario B. 20% of investors would have been bought out with 200 million dollars of company money.

Yes, if a company thinks it’s undervalued in the market and a group of its shareholders agree then you can create value for the shareholders but doing a buyback. But if such a scenario exists then every individual investor receiving a dividend can also make that exact same decision by adding more shares. If the stock is undervalued you now have a high yielding dividend so it creates the same upward price pressure

In future if either company wants to raise capital they can do so from the exact same asset valuation position.

So in the end the only difference is taxation a buyback creates a capital gain only for those who sell and a dividend creates a taxable dividend distribution for everyone.