Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Slava

So torn though…getting rid of CRA has to be a positive? Not in terms of the firewall and that garbage. Just in terms of the bureaucracy and stupidity of the system. Having the ~90% of people file tax returns to match them with the tax slips the government already has and come to the same conclusion they already know. It’s entirely stupid.

CRA is at least slowly moving in the right direction.

I have little doubt that adding an ARA would just mean filing two sets of taxes to agencies that have trouble communicating with each other. Because, Alberta.

You’re talking about the stupidity of the system and they’re talking about adding more stuff into/on top of the system. Seems like there’s nothing to be torn about.

[Ozy_Flame]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1592619603867602944

[Yikes]

100% agree with pepsi.

[Roughneck]

Nothing says 'small government' and 'reducing red tape' like wanting to create a redundant bureaucratic institution that not only adds costs to the government, but also increases the workload of the taxpayer and businesses.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Slava

So torn though…getting rid of CRA has to be a positive? Not in terms of the firewall and that garbage. Just in terms of the bureaucracy and stupidity of the system. Having the ~90% of people file tax returns to match them with the tax slips the government already has and come to the same conclusion they already know. It’s entirely stupid.

You're not getting rid of CRA though, you're just adding another Government Tax agency.

Its the definition of insanity. I've dealt with Revenue Quebec...its not some kind of paradise.

The fact of the matter is that our Government is already insanely bloated, the last thing we need is to create more Government jobs.

The work they would want an Alberta Revenue Agency to do is already being done by Canada Revenue, why add another layer of stupid bureaucracy?

You think CRA is going to layoff a corresponding number of agents as Alberta takes care of itself? Not a chance in hell.

On top of that, Alberta wants a flat Provincial Income Tax and has no PST? A monkey could do this work.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

CRA is at least slowly moving in the right direction.

I have little doubt that adding an ARA would just mean filing two sets of taxes to agencies that have trouble communicating with each other. Because, Alberta.

You’re talking about the stupidity of the system and they’re talking about adding more stuff into/on top of the system. Seems like there’s nothing to be torn about.

Actually...on second thought I'm detecting a personal revenue stream here.

Perhaps I've been too hasty....

No...still a terrible idea.

[Yikes]

Originally Posted by Locke

You're not getting rid of CRA though, you're just adding another Government Tax agency.

Its the definition of insanity. I've dealt with Revenue Quebec...its not some kind of paradise.

The fact of the matter is that our Government is already insanely bloated, the last thing we need is to create more Government jobs.

The work they would want an Alberta Revenue Agency to do is already being done by Canada Revenue, why add another layer of stupid bureaucracy?

You think CRA is going to layoff a corresponding number of agents as Alberta takes care of itself? Not a chance in hell.

On top of that, Alberta wants a flat Provincial Income Tax and has no PST? A monkey could do this work.

Well said and 1 million percent.

[Roughneck]

With regards to an Alberta Pension Plan, whatever one’s opinions on it I would like to think we could all agree that such a program shouldn’t be driven by somebody with Smith’s understanding of how pension funds are managed.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1592628849447440384

[Fuzz]

So wait, she doesn't want our money in a "politically driven" fund, yet that's exactly what she plans on doing? "Solar and wind, or other experiments". What decade is this troglodyte from? She's like a caricature of all that is wrong with people who seek to govern us.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

So wait, she doesn't want our money in a "politically driven" fund, yet that's exactly what she plans on doing? "Solar and wind, or other experiments". What decade is this troglodyte from? She's like a caricature of all that is wrong with people who seek to govern us.

I fear she may turn into a more polished and lipstick version of Trump with her radical views

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

So wait, she doesn't want our money in a "politically driven" fund, yet that's exactly what she plans on doing? "Solar and wind, or other experiments". What decade is this troglodyte from? She's like a caricature of all that is wrong with people who seek to govern us.

No, the government (regardless of who they are and their views) should have zero influence on how the assets managed. It’s not that she wants to invest in oil and gas, because I’d have the same opinion if the NDP wanted to invest in a bunch of wind/solar. Just leave it to the professionals and stick to mismanaging the other responsibilities.

[The Fisher Account]

Originally Posted by Slava

No, the government (regardless of who they are and their views) should have zero influence on how the assets managed. It’s not that she wants to invest in oil and gas, because I’d have the same opinion if the NDP wanted to invest in a bunch of wind/solar. Just leave it to the professionals and stick to mismanaging the other responsibilities.

Ah yes, the "professionals" at AIMCO. These dudes are crushing it:

Alberta pension manager loses $4-billion on investment bet gone wrong

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...et-gone-wrong/

I wouldn't trust AIMCO to park my car.

[Muta]

Is she nuts? Who cares what energy source it is? I just want my money going to the best possible investment, oil and gas / political preferences be damned. I don't want that narcissistic right-wing psychopath anywhere near Alberta's money.

[Bigtime]

APTN does a fact check on Smith's claims of Cherokee ancestry, guess what?

https://twitter.com/user/status/1592904685295661057

[The Fisher Account]

Alberta: cue daily national embarrassment since April 2019

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by The Fisher Account

Ah yes, the "professionals" at AIMCO. These dudes are crushing it:

Alberta pension manager loses $4-billion on investment bet gone wrong

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...et-gone-wrong/

I wouldn't trust AIMCO to park my car.

The CPP professionals lose money/value as well. That is part of investing. The CPP just lost $23B in the last quarter. Do you trust those professionals?

The board says the $16 billion decrease in net assets for the quarter consisted of a net loss of $23 billion and $7 billion in net transfers from the Canada Pension Plan.,The board says the fund's quarterly results were driven by losses in public equity strategies, due to the broad decline in global equity markets.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cpp...ults-1.6548136

[opendoor]

AIMCo has still significantly underperformed the CPP. 10-year annualized returns:

AIMCo: 7.4%
CPP: 10.1%

Or put in terms of the increase in value for every $100 invested:

AIMCo: $104
CPP: $162

Contributors would have to contribute about 25% more money to AIMCo to get the same amount after 10 years vs. the CPP.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by opendoor

AIMCo has still significantly underperformed the CPP. 10-year annualized returns:

AIMCo: 7.4%
CPP: 10.1%

Or put in terms of the increase in value for every $100 invested:

AIMCo: $104
CPP: $162

To me this isn’t really the same argument though, and perfectly illustrates why you want professionals making these decisions. Rate of return isn’t everything, particularly in pension management. The main metric for a pension is their discount rate and maintaining funded status. If that means for AIMCO and their mandates they need a 6% return to do that, then 7.4% is fine. You can’t just say “they should be earning as much as humanly possible” because that’s not how these things are managed at all.

This is just easy for the media to report and makes it easy to politicize. Think of it this way: you have a goal to meet and can get there with a 5% return. Today we could get that with a GIC and that’s the course we take. No risk, you meet the target and everyone’s happy. In the meantime the stock indexes go up 8% and people attack that strategy as leaving money on the table. It’s not really what happened, but it looks that way and plays well in the media.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

APTN does a fact check on Smith's claims of Cherokee ancestry, guess what?

https://twitter.com/user/status/1592904685295661057

I can see how she may have just been misinformed by her family, who knows. The bigger issue here is her using some ancient past that has no bearing on who she is and using it to defend her ridiculous statements. It's the equivalent of saying "I have a black friend, I can't be racist." It's entirely irrelevant.

[TheIronMaiden]

May is when we find out if American style politics work in Alberta.