ECA Review 2019-01-03

6 J anuary 3'19 Hanna/Coronation/Stettler, a b. e C a review
PRAIRIEVIEW
Notley’s ‘Hail
Mary’ pass
by Herman Schwenk
Rachel Notley, the Alberta premier,
is getting desperate.
She is within six months of having to
call an election.
I think she sees the writing on the
wall.
This is forcing her to come up with
some desperate ideas to get re-elected
or at least leave with a credible legacy.
Since she can’t get a pipeline built
during her tenure she came up with
the idea of buying thousands of rail
cars and trains to pull the cars for
moving oil.
As well, she is asking for proposals
to build a refinery to market some of
our surplus oil.
The upside of this idea is that it
would provide thousands of jobs.
In my opinion, a refinery at this time
is a non-starter.
“
People did not vote
for her [Notley], they voted
against the old, corrupt PC
government that Jason
Kenney and his people
appear to be
resurrecting.
This isn’t really a new idea by the
NDP.
Is there a business case for another
refinery at this time? I think not or it
would have already happened.
Of course being a socialist, her idea
of a proposal would involve government
intervention of some kind, like a
government incentive grant or partial
ownership.
As usual, she has not thought
through the logistics of what she is
asking for.
We’re talking about an investment of
10 to 15 billion dollars.
This would take years of planning
and regulatory approvals, something
that would not and could not happen in
the next six months.
Who does she think would be prepared
to provide the financing needed
for a project of this magnitude?
You would think if she hasn’t
learned anything else in the last 3 1/2
years that she would have figured out
that money doesn’t grow on trees or
maybe she thinks borrowed money is
money growing on trees.
“
VIEWPOINTS
She has the same basic problem with
her railcar idea.
While it would not be a project of the
same magnitude, it would still require
significant financing and there would
be a logistical problem of running
many more trains on existing rail
tracks.
Sooner or later there will be some
pipeline capacity built and by that time
the rail cars would not be needed.
Right now there are somewhere
between 250,000 and 300,000 barrels of
oil being moved daily by rail.
I think that most of that is going to
the USA.
In my mind, it is moving in the
wrong direction.
Last week at the Canadian First
Ministers Conference, the premier of
Quebec, Francois Legault, said it was
socially unacceptable for Alberta’s
‘dirty oil’ to move through Quebec.
However, it is socially acceptable to
transfer over 13 billion dollars to their
coffers, most of which is generated by
Alberta’s ‘dirty oil’.
Legault has demonstrated ignorance
and hypocrisy with his comments
about dirty energy.
Jason Kenney was recently quoted
as saying in an Edmonton Sun editorial,
“It is not acceptable for a province
to block our resources while benefiting
massively from the wealth they
generate”.
If Quebec does not like our oil going
through their province in a pipeline
then Notley should make sure it goes
through the province in the rail cars
we have now instead of going to the
USA.
Quebec may prevent us from
exporting oil by pipeline for now but
they can’t stop us from shipping it
through the province by rail.
I think Rachel Notley is now finally
beginning to figure out what makes
Alberta tick.
Her ultra-socialist concepts just do
not work.
Her accidental election win in 2015
has caused Alberta to lose over $100
billion in investment and almost that
much in deficit financing.
She still thinks she won that election
because the people liked her socialist
policies.
People did not vote for her, they
voted against the old, corrupt PC government
that Jason Kenney and his
people appear to be resurrecting.
However, even with that happening,
Notley’s ‘Hail Mary’ pass still will not
get her re-elected.
The opinions expressed are not necessarily
the opinions of this newspaper.
LEGISLATURE
How not to get it done
by Rick Strankman, MLA
Drumheller Stettler
Ronald Reagan once said that the
nine most terrifying words in the
English language are: “I’m from the
government and I’m here to help.”
His quote aptly describes the typical
inefficiency of government.
Where government fails, private
industry, more often than not, will
prosper.
In order for prosperity to
have a fighting chance, it
requires an atmosphere
that is free of market
manipulation and
over-regulation.
Examples of over-regulation
and government
manipulation are currently
on display across Canada.
Governments across this
country have bogged down
pipelines for generations.
They are attempting to remedy that
with, you guessed it, a higher level of
government involvement!
The Trans Mountain Pipeline
project is a shining example of how
government can over-regulate and
allow objections to halt a project and
make it no longer viable for private
investors to pursue.
Although it’s important to protect
the environment, landowner rights
and ensure companies are accountable
for their actions, there must be reasonable
limits to how far those actions can
go.
Both the Alberta and Federal governments
have failed to prioritize the
importance of the energy industries
contribution to the Canadian economy.
Now, average Canadians are beginning
to feel the negative effects of
government overreach.
If Alberta and Canada are going to
climb out of the self-imposed regulatory
purgatory, a vastly different
approach needs to be taken.
The difficulties investors in
Canadian energy have encountered
have had inevitable negative consequences
for the Canadian economy.
Unprecedented exodus of investment
dollars to other locations throughout
the world was seen in 2018. It appears
that this will continue in 2019.
The Canadian energy industry
dilemma has accomplished
only one thing, self-imposed
hardship.
Consumers of the energy
products that have been the
foundation of our economic
success in the global market
depend on a consistent and
reliable supply of those
products.
Canadian energy policies
Strankman are now creating an impression
that our supply is
unreliable and inconsistent.
While the government plays a vital
role in protecting Canadians and their
assets from harm, in recent years they
have grossly overstepped their role in
our lives.
Time and again we are seeing corporations
that meet requirements to
engage in their line of production,
effectively blocked from moving forward
by endless regulations that add
unbudgeted costs and delays.
Nowhere are the words by Ronald
Reagan exemplified better than right
here in Alberta.
Overarching Government regulations
have been at the root of most, if
not all, of the province’s current economic
woes.
If this government truly would like
to help move industry and Albertans
forward, their best course of action
would be to create and stick to a reasonable
set of regulations that allow
our industries to fairly compete in the
global market.
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