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The move is over. Let the unpacking begin. Thank you, my committed readership, for staying with us here at DWR during the transition to our new home. It has been a wild and hectic couple of weeks. I should be able to commit a little more time to blogging and finding the information I find interesting and sharing it with you. With that in mind I’d like to share and and comment on the recent furor about Tom Mulcair’s comments about the “Dutch Disease” in Canada.
The noise generated by his comments are out of proportion to what his observation was:
“Mulcair claims that “Dutch disease” has hit the country, blaming energy exports from the Alberta oilsands for artificially raising the Canadian dollar and hollowing out the manufacturing industry.
Coined in an article in The Economist in 1977, the concept refers to the adverse economic effects that the discovery of large natural gas fields off of the coast of the Netherlands in the 1960s had on the country’s manufacturing sector.
The theory goes that a boom in a natural resource sector can lead to an appreciation of a country’s real exchange rate. That increase in the dollar value makes exports more expensive, and has an adverse effect on the manufacturing sector by making it less competitive.”
Okay, so it sounds reasonable so far. Our dollar goes up and makes our manufacturing industry less competitive. But what has got the defenders of corporatism all up in arms? Mulcair takes his statement one step further…
“Mulcair said the problem is the government is not enforcing legislation that would include the environmental costs of exploiting natural resources.
“Those statistics with regard to the overall losses of jobs in Canada are irrefutable,” he said this week. “And they are directly related to the fact that we’re not enforcing federal [environmental] legislation.”
Oh snap. How dare you mention that pillaging the land in the hog-wild foo-fur-ah that is Fort McMurray might be anything less than a calm nuanced approach to 
resource management is beyond the pale. Fainting couches were needed *stat* across much of the Canadian media and parliament.
“I am wondering when the leader of the Opposition will apologize to western Canadians for suggesting the strength of the western Canadian economy is a disease on Canada,” Heritage Minister James Moore said in the House of Commons.
“He attacks western Canada, he attacks our energy industry, he attacks all of the West and the great work that is being done by western Canadians to contribute to Canada’s national unity. He should be ashamed of himself,” he said.
Yes, he should be ashamed for trying to keep the government accountable to for environmental legislation that is currently on the books, oh the villainy. The tar sands have gained a love-halo that is growing in magnitude. Speaking out against them is sacrosanct,with reasonable debate being drummed out by “it’s good for the economy!!!1!” and other nonsense.
Good On Mulcair for pointing out some of the problems with the oil-sands vis-a-vis the rest of Canada, the man is doing his job as leader of the Opposition.
The amount of fraternization between the Alberta Government and the Oil Industry always makes decisions such as these seem questionable. The idea behind this three million dollar fine is more of a public relations ploy than anything
Making moonscapes here on Earth in the name or resource extraction.
else. Consider that Government gets to look good for ‘protecting the environment’ and the company also gets to be thoroughly ‘punished’ for its environmental indiscretions. Everyone wins! Well except for the wildlife, the Athabasca river, the people dying of cancer because of the emissions from the tar sands the atmosphere… Well, the right people are winning gosh darn it!
“Oilsands giant Syncrude Canada will pay a $3-million penalty for the deaths of 1,600 ducks in one of its toxic tailings ponds in April 2008.
Syncrude lawyers and federal and provincial prosecutors presented the deal Friday morning in provincial court in St. Albert, Alta., and Judge Ken Tjosvold accepted it.”
Woo, the cordial relations between Alberta Government and the oil industry. See, they can work together!
“Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert wouldn’t comment specifically on the court decision but said it sends a message to industry that the province will take action if environmental policies are breached.
“This whole process … shows that if there is a breach of an environmental regulation or legislation, that we are prepared to take action,” he said. “We did and the process unfolded and this is the culmination of it.”
In Vancouver, federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice said the fine was the largest in Canadian history for an environmental offence.
“I think this shows that we have strong environmental laws in Canada and that we will enforce them,” Prentice said.”
One would think that strong environmental laws would have stopped the creation of huge tailings ponds in the first
The cost of doing business.
place. Again though, in the acceptable discourse, companies are ‘learning lessons’ and governments are ‘protecting the environment’.
CBC should be commended though as they did find room in their article to mention another point of view.
“A $3-million fine to a multi-billion dollar company equates to a slap on the wrist,” he [Mike Hudema of Greenpeace] said.
“This doesn’t send a very strong message to the industry that Alberta or the federal government is really serious about enforcing our legislation or that crimes like this can’t happen in the future.”
Exactly. What this amounts to is a non-fine for non-important issue. The correct notes have been played, the conductor has gesticulated in the appropriate way for the appeasement of the crowd. The hall goes dark, and it is business as usual here in Alberta.
Let’s Dial the Way-Back machine to September 18th, 2007. Alberta’s Royalty review was released for all to see and read. The contents of the report indicated that we as Albertans’ were getting a raw deal on the Royalties being extracted by the various private energy companies that had taken up residence in Alberta’s Tar Sands. See the whole document here. (Catch a critique of the Royalty Review here) This is from page 7 of the Executive Summary.
“Albertans do not receive their fair share from energy development. The royalty rates and formulas have not kept pace with changes in the resource base and world energy markets. Albertans’ own the resource. The onus is on their government to re-balance the royalty and tax system so that a fair share is collected. This must be done within an equitable and flexible administrative framework that maintains Alberta’s competitive edge for energy investment.
The total government take (Alberta and Canada, taxes and royalties) can be increased with Alberta still remaining an attractive investment destination. The Alberta Royalty Review Panel recommends that the total take for the energy sector be increased by sector, as shown in this table.”
Current Sharing Recommended Sharing
| Current | Sharing | Recommended | Sharing | |
| Albertans’ Share | Developers’Share | Albertans’ Share | Developers’ Share | |
| Oil Sands | 47% | 53% | 64% | 36% |
| Conventional Oil | 44% | 56% | 49% | 51% |
| Natural Gas | 58% | 42% | 63% | 37% |
Okay, nothing unreasonable going on here. Consider Norway or even Alaska for successful royalty planning. Comparatively speaking, Robert Sheppard in his Reality Check article says: “Norway’s technique seems to be to throw virtually everything it gets from offshore oil into the fund and to try to live off the cream. Alberta’s has been to live off its royalties and, if there’s any cream left over, toss some of it into the fund.”
The Results?
In 2004 the Alberta Heritage Trust Fund stood at 12.4 billion.
In 2004 Norway’s Petroleum Fund was valued at 133 billion.
Way to go Alberta Tories. Squandering our money seems to be the mission possible of the day or more succinctly, preserving the profits of the heroic oil companies that rape our land. Of course when we hear it from our rightist lapdog media in Alberta, the Royalty Review is virtually proposing the absolute destruction of the energy industry forever and ever. Which of course, is utter horsepucky, but not particularly surprising considering how politically addled we are as a province. But really, I needed to tell you about this story tell you about this one.
Alberta Health Services CEO and president Stephen Duckett speaks to reporters Wednesday in Edmonton. (CBC)
Alberta will move hundreds of hospital patients to newly created community-based spaces over the next three years, the provincial health authority confirmed Wednesday.
Alberta Health Services told union representatives on Tuesday that 350 hospital beds in Calgary and Edmonton will be closed and patients moved to 775 community-based spaces.
The province has now confirmed the breakdown of bed closures in the two cities — 160 in Edmonton and 190 in Calgary. Of those beds, 20 in Edmonton and 40 in Calgary will be kept open this year to help with what officials called “emergency room pressures.”
The government also revealed that 246 beds will be closed at Alberta Hospital over the next three years. {…}
Do you think possibly that maybe if we had decided to actually get a reasonable amount of return for the resources we have in Alberta would we have to be closing acute care beds? If the Alberta Government did not actually have the the Oil Patches procreating member lodged firmly in its posterior we might be able to pay for the necessary Health Care of the citizens of Alberta.
So what does the enraged populace of Alberta do?? Do we march on the parliament buildings to protect our healthcare? Do we write our MP’s angry letters? Do we say to ourselves maybe we should elect a viable opposition to the government? HELL NO!! We elect Paul Hinman of the Wild Fraking Rose Party of Alberta in a by-election to show our displeasure. The Wild Rose Party is batshite-crazy further to the right than the current Alberta Tories. Make sure you check out their platform; or more succinctly, imagine every wrongheaded neo-liberal fascist clusterfrack policy debacle… their platform gives a wild-eyed thumbs up to them all.
The crazy is strong here today, and I am not liking it.
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