The Stelmach Government has publicly talked about raising the royalties on oil & gas. We're all aware of the high price of oil, but natural gas is really cheap at the moment. For Alberta, that's a bad thing.
It's interesting to see a Conservative government talk about increasing the royalties on tar sands. The government out here has generally been seen as pro Oil and Gas but that appears to be changing. I wonder if that's not some election ploy by the local conservatives to grab onto the hearts of people. Oil and Gas is seen by most people as the "enemy". In fact it's not, it's a huge business out here (obviously) and employs 100s of thousands of people.
But I don't buy the argument that the business will up and walk away. It can't. Alberta has nearly as much oil in the sands as Saudi Arabia. The world needs that goo & it needs it now, so not like these guys can pull out and go elsewhere
And it makes sense of the province to do that. This place is an economic tiger right now, and if this economy diversified it would be a monster. It's got all the right things to make itself a very competitive city & it's a great place to live. Bring on the royalties, just spend them properly.
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