Our Alberta Advantage

ALBERTA DRILLING FALLS
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2007 2008

820 900 British Columbia (up 9%)

12,800 9,575 Alberta (down 26%)

3,505 3,600 Saskatchewan (up 3%)

340 350 Manitoba (up 3%)

Source: Petroleum Services Association of Canada
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One of these things is not like the others. Can you find it?

Alberta is the only province in Western Canada that is predicted to see a fall in drilling levels for 2008.

This disparity may indicate that the Royalty Review Proposals that Alberta politicians adopted are the leading cause of the marked slow down of Alberta's drilling activity.

Factors such as gas prices and the weak US dollar are common to all jurisdictions and so it is fairly reasonable to connect the Royalty Review to the fall in Alberta's drilling because it is the only significant variable that changed.

As I work on the documentary "How to Kill a Wild Rose", I am perplexed by the loud claims that the Royalty Review panel and the political leadership made defending the Royalty Review on the grounds that it would cause no harm to the economy of Alberta. The reason given for their confidence was that the proposals were very carefully constructed.

I cannot in my wildest imagining understand how such a careful study of the oil and gas industry would have failed to foresee the weakness that was emerging in the gas fields and in the overall Alberta economy.

Either the Alberta Royalty Review Panel and the politicians are incompetent or they were being deceptive in their claim that the Royalty Review would not harm the Alberta economy.

I intend to find out by the time I wrap the production.