Our Alberta Advantage

BNN INTERVIEW WENT WELL

One idea that came up was the notion that Albertans own all the resources in Alberta and therefore Albertans can ask whatever royalties they wish.

The answer to the question is that resources that lie underground in the form of oily sand are useless to everyone. The resource only becomes useful when someone invests money to take it out of the ground and process it.

Albertans benefit very strongly when investors bring money to develop resources. Unemployment goes down, wages go up, tax dollars go up, and the province becomes prosperous. If investors don't come to Alberta, the oil sits in the ground and benefits nobody.

The question is this; When do investors come to invest in a province?

They come when it is economically feasible to come and this is usually when resource prices are high and government taxes and royalties are low.

Alberta royalties were low and therefore many investors came to Alberta. Alberta benefited from this investment so strongly that Alberta's provincial debt of $22.7 billion was paid off, Alberta's unemployment rate sank the lowest in North America and the employment rate rose to the highest in North America.

With the current crop of politicians saying that they want to make taxes high, investors will go elsewhere and all the benefits will slowly wind down and leave Alberta back where it started...with debt, rising unemployment and lack of opportunity.