Alberta Oil "Investment"

There is a good discussion on oil at

One segment brought out a cold fact that its the Alberta Taxpayer who pays for building the Tar Sands and oil factories around the province, not the oil companies! Yet they refer to their "giant investment"

Start up of these projects is bankrolled by the oil companies in as much as a finance company may help you buy your car.

It is however, the Alberta taxpayer who pays for the project by accepting only 1% royalty payments on sales.

Example:
If the royalty is 16% (which is high for today's dealings) 1% goes to the province as a royalty while the other 15% is retained by the oil company to apply against the cost of the start up. These costs would include finance charges, transportation, wages contractors; everything.

When the project is fully paid for, the oil company is to pay 16%

While I may agree with the formula I do not agree with the application. Auditor General Fred Dunn chided the Government for not having enough staff in the department which is responsible for auditing the oil companies. This is a deliberate short staff by the Government.

In other words the oil companies, unaudited are free to charge what ever they think is right against the Alberta taxpayer!

While Saskatchewan are still at 30% US royalty, BC is still at 30% US royalty and Alberta Languishes at below 16% considering we only get 48 cents per bbl of crude which goes to the up graders.

This Government is in the oil business; not the business of looking after the electorate.

There is only 1 way to change this and that is to Vote and Vote something other than Conservatives.. The Wild rose party will give you more of the same; there is no help for us there.

Water export on the agenda for all Provinces!

We have conservatives in power from shore to shore; the flood gates are about to open and your cost of living is to make a dramatic increase.

Danny Williams is asking for permits to ship bulk water from a pristine lake in PEI to the US. Harper is thinking about it.

On June 16the the Western Premiers met in Vancouver. Their agenda primary was environment, energy and the economy. Campbell also said "There will also be a focus on water and how to manage and conserve what Campbell called a "critical component of all activities" in Canada.

Read more: Western premiers meet in B.C.

After this meeting BC announced building a new dam on the Peace River.

It is my thought that BC is going to build the dam, Alberta is going to build the pipeline and Saskatchewan, and the NWT are going to split the profits.

If this goes through it means Alberta will further reduce the oil royalty close to zero and Albertans will be paying 30 to 50 times more for their water based on California prices.

Remember the higher they can push your water utility prices the more the exporters can collect from the US.

Alberta Oil Roytalty is theatre; not fact!

Liepert is at it again!

He is muddling facts to suit his purpose trying to legitimatize the phony oil royalty sheet published in order to get them elected last time. Lies compounding lies.

The "new regime" they published at the last election showed impossible royalty to be charged 2 years after the election. These turkeys are not in the business of increasing royalty!

This same .PDF shows the huge increases. It starts out the oil sands royalty goes to 25% (our original deal) when oil gets to 55.00 per barrel Canadian. This same publication reduced our take from USD to Can$. However, our present rate and rate at the time of this publication was less than 19% as was bounced by AG Fred Dunn.

The same sheet increments royalty by about 1% for every 10 dollars Can increase in the price of oil. When oil gets up to 90 dollars we get 38.00 per barrel.

Liepert scrapped this when it started to come in effect. Now, we are back to the old royalty of less than 16% less the addition of a new Alberta Make Work Program that was announced as being a redraft of the published oil regime but in reality has nothing to do with it at all!

What this new "tweak" does is give away a huge amount of Alberta revenue. The Journal ran a story about 2 weeks ago where a company was drilling to 2700 feet and made a million dollars profit with the subsidy of the new regime. They did not have to produce anything to collect this. Their intention as outlined in the article was to continue drilling wells for profit.

Nothing will change until you get rid of the Conservatives! Wild Rose is simply another right wing charade being run by Dinning's crew to keep the fire at Stelmach's feet.

If you want anything left of this province at all, turf them all out!

Alberta setting up for water export- it is going to cost you.

Full discussion; it's bad!
Like most things this Government does, it moves coin from the pockets of the citizens into the pocket of corporations and nothing comes back to us.

Recently there were two news items. Drumheller Alberta and Okotoks Alberta purchased water allotments. The first was from an unnamed party (insider so no money figures were given) the other was from an Oil Company. The latter cost Okotoks over a million dollars for rights to some 230,000 cubic meters of water annually.

If we ever get a new, non conservative party into power we can put some of these crooks in Jail!

Water allotments have never been sold until now. The oil companies received them free of charge as did the unnamed insider. Why then the sale?

Bolstered by the Alberta Government the towns had to pay up. This adds many dollars to the resource and forces the price of water utilities way up. When it comes time to export, they will tell Albertans the cost is the same. Edmonton now has the highest water prices in the world (National Geographic April 2010). Soon enough the rest of Alberta will join the ranks of most expensive in the world.

The more they can charge you and get away with it, the more they can get for the export water.

Following the long standing Conservative dream of including water into NAFTA and changing bulk water to a commodity is fore front in their plans.

If we export water under NAFTA rules, we must give the Americans first chance at the water and we cannot charge the Americans more money than we are now paying. When it comes time to export, people in Alberta will be paying the much more money than those people in California who are the targeted export market.

They are effectively fixing prices at your expense. (My US readers will pick up on this one!)

Meanwhile TV is carrying subtle advertisements by the Conservative version Environment Canada in fill in spots saying our water is our finest resource and it must be shared.

All this ties in with the new dam being built on the Peace by BC. There is no chance that last meeting between BC and Saskatchewan, the Yukon and Albert was about oil. The other guys don't have heritage trust funds to prop up a lower royalty rate. It was about water!

I can see BC saying they will build the dam if Alberta builds the pipelines to move it.

I have been fighting this crew for our water for years here is a letter to Taylor on January 9, 2004 which is as valid today as it was then.

Quote:
January 9-2004

The Honorable Dr. Lorne Taylor,
Minister of Environment,
Government of Alberta.

Your recent comments quoted in the ‘Journal indicate you are about to move people to the water, rather than water to the people.

I have cause to wonder if this is just “chewing gum for the mind”!

The Alberta Government is presently involved in moving potable water from the St. Mary’s irrigation system in southern Alberta by pipe line into Montana. This, going against the wishes of local ranchers and stakeholders! The water is being used for water in a recreation area in Montana as well as for drinking.

What is the name of the Minister who put this project into place?

Who paid for the materials in the pipeline?

What is the diameter of the line?

Where are the lift stations and who pays for them?

What is the annual quantity of water exported from this drought area?

Why is this not considered illegal?

Does the Alberta Government bill for the charges directly or has this been turned over to a private company to operate at their convenience? If so, what is the name and address of this company?

In the ‘80s the Alberta Government commissioned a study by Weatherford on moving water from the Peace River into Southern Alberta, using it to irrigate the pipeline corridor and export huge amounts into the American northern states.

This plan calls for an immense pipe line capable of moving two-thirds of the Peace River Flow through the pipe along with the assurances it will not harm the wild life. This same plan calls for 8 lift stations to move the water; each of them using the electrical power of a small city.

Further, this plan was approved, only shelved, until the weather gets dry enough and the public can see the light. It is my understanding this project has been given recent notice and review. How far along is this plan?


Lastly the CBC documentary we corresponded about. Your Senior Hydrologist confirmed there would be no saline discharges at the “pristine” Alberta location shown in that documentary so it would be impossible to get the Montana situation at that site. It ignores the fact that Montana situations exist in other parts of Alberta and BC. The CBC documentary was grossly misleading to say the least and, I know they are capable of better. So, the question comes. Did the Alberta Government subsidize or otherwise pay the CBC to produce that program?


Dig in folks; if they get away with this it will be rough!