Alberta to suffer

[Brunopolis]

I should have checked the link first. It is a very succint description of what I was describing. I wasn't aware of several of the other sovereign wealth funds, although I don't believe that the Russian fund is anything other than a giant slush fund. Good link.

I wouldn't doubt it. Corruption in Russia is rampant. Some people sure made a killing during the Soviet switch to "Capitalism".

Edited November 6, 2008 by Brunopolis

[bluegreen]

I wouldn't doubt it. Corruption in Russia is rampant. Some people sure made a killing during the Soviet switch to "Capitalism".

Based upon the daily body count in Moscow, you are both literally, and figuratively correct ;-)

[Jerry J. Fortin]

Alberta is not in trouble. However as usual her citizens are. It isn't just the CWB, and it isn't just the oil patch. What harms our citizens the most is the equalization program which takes citizens tax dollars out of the province and gives them to other citizens in other provinces to pay for programs and services provided by the federal government.

Most of the western provinces are in the "have status" whereas most of the east is in the "have not" status. This is problematic for westerners, yet not to the degree that most people in the rest of Canada may think. Alberta at least has no provincial debt to pay and is still in a surplus situation in terms of budget expenditures. We are in fact able to whether the economic storms that are currently devouring the eastern economies.

The issue for Alberta to consider is economic diversification and the creation of a a value added secondary industry that is able to enhance our existing resources. What the west needs is manufacturing and mechanized productive capacity.

[bluegreen]

Alberta is not in trouble. However as usual her citizens are. It isn't just the CWB, and it isn't just the oil patch. What harms our citizens the most is the equalization program which takes citizens tax dollars out of the province and gives them to other citizens in other provinces to pay for programs and services provided by the federal government.

Most of the western provinces are in the "have status" whereas most of the east is in the "have not" status. This is problematic for westerners, yet not to the degree that most people in the rest of Canada may think. Alberta at least has no provincial debt to pay and is still in a surplus situation in terms of budget expenditures. We are in fact able to whether the economic storms that are currently devouring the eastern economies.

The issue for Alberta to consider is economic diversification and the creation of a a value added secondary industry that is able to enhance our existing resources. What the west needs is manufacturing and mechanized productive capacity.

And how exactly do you propose to manage diversification? Without being part of a much larger manufacturing, and trading currency union, the West would be priced right out of most export markets. Import substitution would be a lost cause, due to inflated local costs. ( think 'comparative' and 'absolute' advantage). Your' Oil wealth is a two edged sword, and it's impact, at the margin, on exchange rates has sidswiped a much bigger integrated economy, (Ontario) than the West could hope to have anytime soon. I'm not tooting Ontarios horn, when I point out that there are hundreds of towns, and more than 100,000 manufacturing and service businesses that have been clobbered by the high exchange rates essentially made in the west. Ontario's economy is on a totally different scale, and the skills, education, infrastructure, etc. have been abuilding for generations.

I suspect you are pretty young, if your' memory cannot go back to the time when 'The West' was not a have region. Still, I concede that it must Irk to pay for other peoples services. I know, as a Torontonian, that the contempt with which the R.O.C. treats us really irks when you consider that even as our Province receives back $370mm, our one troubled city continues to contribute about $20 billion in net transfers to the rest of Ontario, and Canada. We are not worthy enough to receive the same EI benefits as an Albertan, or Saskatchewan(ian?). It's not the money that irk's, its the shallow minded anti-toronto bigotry.

Don't forget that the wheel turns over time, and our economic diversity does tend to control the risks of a catastrophic failure. Alberta is made considerably safer by the International weight and standing that a united Canada has, while your' sister western provinces probably have a much keener sense of the benefits of membership in a broad confederation.