Smart Meters - Too smart for our present politic.

Smart meters are only a part of the "new" designs.  They send and receive information back to the supplier on an hourly duration or, less.  New "smart" electrical appliance can identify information on your use and include that information back to the supplier.

Now, the supplier has a comprehensive list of your waking hours; sleeping hours night time meanderings.  Whether you are at home or not at home. In the more modern house, what you took out of your fridge and what you put into your fridge.

This is marketing gold and you can be very sure the suppliers will be selling this information to marketing people for data mining.

I say, no more smart meter talk until we see legislation in place that will seriously curtail how information collected can be used.   Protection of privacy before smart meters!

Alberta sends taxpayer dollars to Korea while Albertans go hungry.

 The headlines read: Imperial snubs Alberta workers

250M job goes to South Korea -- and it looks like more will follow

Several billion more!

All of the resource projects are treated cost-plus under this Government.  The companies finance the projects and Alberta Taxpayer refunds them every last nickle plus interest on their investment!.

When a project starts to produce oil, they pay Alberta only 1% royalty until the project is totally paid for.

Holidays, overseas flights and get-away are all reimbursed in this manner.  The Auditor General pointed out there is not enough staff to audit what is actually billed as project costs.   Clearly; a rip off!

When the project is fully paid for by Alberta Taxpayers, the resource company starts paying the going rate on the product.  Today that is  less than 19% Canadian dollars less any agreement discounts for up-graders.

When the books are balanced, you will find that the Taxpayer is paying for the up-graders and there is no return for this large outlay of cash except perhaps for some income tax if the workers don't happen to be American.

For you Albertans that think the Conservative is the only way to vote because of some phobia or cult rendering I say to you, think again and find a new religion.

Oil Dispersents and oil spills

I sailed the Mackenzie River for years on the Tugs, as a supercargo; a purser.   90% of what we did had to do with the safe transport and handling of bulk oil and fuel products.

A major supplier of oil to the NWT is the Norman Wells Refinery from which we lifted many thousands of tons of various oil grades including Bunker C.

At the end of a shipping season, the refinery would drain its pipelines into the Mackenzie from which point it would float downstream into the delta through the bird sanctuaries to the coast.

I have followed a couple of these "flushes" down river and there was no sign of dead fish or tarred birds.

Then, there was a bunker spill in a place called Bar C  aka Tununik. Being close to an ESSO camp all the boys toys came out and I had a chance to play with all of them.  Slick-Lickers similar to what you see on TV today had a good but limited success in containment.

Straw and peat moss (Use a carbon base material to filter or soak up a carbon base spill) was the most effective and also the most manual labor. Garden rakes proved to be the most useful tool in collecting the mix into bags to be hauled away.

Oil spills in running water such as ditches can be contained with the use of straw.  Put a straw bale below the offending spill and the oil will be stopped by the straw bail allowing only clear water to pass.

And now to the dispersant:

Still in Bar C, dispersant was added to the water/oil mixtures. Gone from sight; gone from mind.

I must say at this point there was no indication of dead fish of any kind while working with the mechanical clean up apparatus.

However after the dispersant applications dead fish littered the banks from Bar C to the Arctic ocean.


I am of the opinion after working in this, that dispersant is far more harmful than the oil and at the same time, the damages from the oil is grossly over blown!  

Alberta Wild Rose Party cripples into the media.

In this press release Danielle Smith to do what, I am not sure.  It does however point out her positions on a lot of things which you should be very concerned about.  Her figures are good and items such as the Oilsands Development benefits all Canadians (and Americans) is true.

She is saying however that Albertans should expect no more than a job and the income tax revenues that come from this development.   At no point does she suggest we should get away from the lowest royalty prices in the world which causes every Albertan to contribute to the oil companies, not the other way around.

She is quick to recognize the cap and trade program is not in Canada or Alberta's favor and would bring about a major economic shock to Canada and Alberta.  I go a step further by saying if it is implemented in a big way it will result in the next "bubble" to burst in economies as most the carbon dioxide is returned to the surface with the the scarfed oil.   How many times are you going to pay to put it down a hole??

The WRP corner stone of doing away with the Balance of payments is unchanged but the english has softened.  She likens Quebec to Greece which is legitimate and the outright inequities of the balance of payments plan is properly challenged.

She is saying our schools, universities and health care are all suffering because of the balance of payments which is really out on a right wing limb.

As the Alberta Liberals pointed out our spending has not changed since 1986.  The doom and gloom scenarios by the Conservatives are nothing less than spin doctoring. Smith is picking up on this and doing some spinning on her own pointing us to hate the Feds again.

I can almost hear Jim Dinning and the Oil Companies whispering in her ear "Danielle, if you can rip off the balance of payments and put them into still further reduced royalty, we will buy you elections for your lifetime"

Alberta shell game pumps more money into private clinics.

Was this not the hospital that received a 6 million dollar upgrade in the weeks preceding the sale to a private concern??

Was this not the hospital that was sold for pennies on the dollar of assessed value to a private concern??

Why was the giveaway not sufficient to guarantee a business or is this just a ploy to further ramp up the charges for private health care!

Why the shortfall?  Was it because the title of the hospital was flipped several times ensuring profit for insiders as was the case with our power lines?

There is absolutely no accountability from this Government on the money they spend to push their prioritization agenda!

Being stuck on a Conservative vote is being stuck on dumb!

Alberta cuts in services still another farce - spending hasn't changed since 1989!

The Conservatives in Alberta continue to layer lie upon lie in order to promote and maintain their doom and gloom scenarios in support of their program cuts and privatization plans.

The results are shorted services and cash props for private sector operations.

Alberta rejected a national plan on pension reform

Ted Morton, our American finance Minister has done a flip flop on pension improvements opting instead for an Alberta Pension; rejecting all other formats.

An Alberta Pension would go the way of the Heritage Trust fund, itself being a pension in kind.

The Conservatives decided that a 5% profit on investments in the fund was all that was needed to show the fund improve.  During our last race to prosperity, this crew took all profits from investments above 5% and dropped them into the infamous "General Revenues" along with money from bottles that weren't returned and all other revenues.

When challenged on bastardizing this investment they explained the money being put in General Revenues helped pay for goods and services in Alberta so, we we are winning where in fact, the money from the Heritage Trust was included in the surpluses of the day and the end result was a further reduction of the royalty on resources.

If Alberta is allowed to make go their own way and create an Alberta pension fund to augment everyone's income in old age you can bet it too will be pegged at a maximum profit well below the performance capability and, any real profits siphoned off to operate the day to day expenses of the province.

This province being stuck on voting Conservative is the best example of being stuck on Dumb there is!

Alberta; Conservative or Fascist?

The behind the scenes corruption in the province of Alberta is fascist in its nature. Since Ralph Klein became premier, Albertans have lost complete control of entire sectors, including water rights.

KEEP IN MIND, as mayor of Calgary, Klein sold (for pennies) the water rights to huge underground aquifers that run beneath the city and must be used at some point in time to furnish the city with their water.. The buyer? A favorite soft drink company!

Alberta's water is privitzed; insiders clean up!

Welcome to the Conservatives privatized water schemes! Cardinal, when he was minister re drew the water allotments along the St. Mary's aquifer and other tracks.

He sold grazing lands on the east side of the Rocky Mountains where all our water aquifers start.   Repeated inquiries to the Government asking if water rights went with the land sales brought no response.

In their schemes. A person had to be on the water border before you could vote about what to do. No more stake holders set one lot back!

Now we are paying the highest prices in the world for water (National Geographic) and the coin is going into private pockets.

This is just bad!

Conservatives moving for further isolation of the Province- Then?

The Conservative Association of Canada and the Fraser Institute have long treasured the idea of doing away with the Canada Pension Plan!   Morton is staking out that position.

He would start by further isolating Alberta and the West from Eastern Canada by doing away with the Balance of payments and putting in a Western Canada Co-Operative insurance plan probably headed up by Mazankowski's friends at the "Power Group"

After such a fund would be put in place and people obliged to put their coin in, you would find that the Province of Alberta would be the biggest investment at the lowest rates. It would go the way of the Heritage Trust where they said "that is enough profit, pull it out and put it into General Revenues"

Their Bond sales are a bust; They won't go along with Federal Financial oversight and rules. Why would anyone but a crazy person invest their coin with this crew???

Alberta oil comes at a price to Albertans.

Our royalty take is the lowest in the world and, falling.
Since this post Alberta Royalty on Resources had dropped to zero!

Our Hospitals, Universities; Education in General is short funded pushing still more unemployment figures up.

Our Infrastructure is short funded after being pushed behind for years. Highway 19 is still killing people!

Normally provincial services have been down loaded onto cities and municipalities for the purpose of further reducing royalties. With these downloads came more unemployment.

Cities and municipalities were given the ownership and control of all the utilities. Power, Water Heat all owned by the cities or the municipalities who are also given license to charge what ever they want for those services.

We end up with the highest prices in the world for our water (New National Geographic who brought you the ducks) and the highest power prices in north America.

For those of you who voted Conservative and for those of you who decided it was not worth your time to vote; Give your head a shake!

Under this Government we have priced ourselves out of every industry other than natural resource and you are paying for that industry in your every day expenses!   They are not paying you!

Your high school curriculum has been watered down to suit trade schools leaving your kids short should they want a University Education. That is, if you are prepared to second mortgage your home to pay for the latter.

How I wish Albertans' would realize that the different flavors of extreme conservatives are doing nothing for them at all while robbing this province blind of its natural resource.

Alberta working towards being a thrid world country!

Our royalty take is the lowest in the world and, falling.

Our Hospitals, Universities; Education in General is short funded pushing still more unemployment figures up.

Our Infrastructure is short funded after being pushed behind for years. Highway 19 is still killing people!

Normally provincial services have been down loaded onto cities and municipalities for the purpose of further reducing royalties. With these downloads came more unemployment.

Cities and municipalities were given the ownership and control of all the utilities. Power, Water Heat all owned by the cities or the municipalities who are also given license to charge what ever they want for those services.

We end up with the highest prices in the world for our water (New National Geographic who brought you the ducks) and the highest power prices in north America.

For those of you who voted Conservative and for those of you who decided it was not worth your time to vote; Give your head a shake!

Under this Government we have priced ourselves out of every industry other than natural resource and you are paying for that industry in your every day expenses!   They are not paying you!

Your high school curriculum has been watered down to suit trade schools leaving your kids short should they want a University Education. That is, if you are prepared to second mortgage your home to pay for the latter.

How I wish Albertans' would realize that the different flavors of extreme conservatives are doing nothing for them at all while robbing this province blind of its natural resource.

Alberta royalty scheme is a sham ; Excellent article breaking it all out!

In an expected about-face, the Alberta government effectively reversed the widely supported royalty increases that came into effect last year. According to Energy Minister Ron Liepert, it had "nothing to do with industry running the province" but "everything to do with what constituents have been telling MLAs across this province."
Royalty has dropped to zero since this post.
Except that, according to an Environics poll, a majority of Albertans -- including two-thirds of Tory supporters -- opposed this latest gift to the oilpatch.

Defending his government's undemocratic policy choice, Premier Ed Stelmach said it was "all about doing what's right."

One would hope there was compelling evidence pushing the government in that direction.

Unfortunately, that evidence has not been shown.

Ever since Stelmach's Tory government adopted a watered-down version of the Royalty Review Panel's modest proposals in 2007, Albertans have been told our province is too expensive and that billions of dollars in energy investment are fleeing to our neighbors.

Answering these tortured cries, the Tories established a committee of bureaucrats and representatives from the energy and investment industries to examine the situation.

This "competitiveness committee" recently submitted its final report and the Stelmach government accepted its recommendations, announcing royalty cuts on March 11.

However, a careful reading of the government's report, the competitiveness study and supporting documents reveals no real evidence supporting recommendations predetermined by energy and investment executives.

Perhaps the most curious aspect of the whole process is that the review took place before industry statistics for 2009 had been compiled.

One would assume it would be fairly difficult to examine the impact of royalties introduced in 2009 before those numbers are available.

They tried to argue Alberta is too expensive on other grounds, but those attempts leave a great deal to be desired.

Take, for example, the cost of an oil or gas well.

In the Stelmach government's Energizing Investment report, claims were made that Alberta had higher costs than the United States; however, the technical study on which their report was based concluded the opposite.

Buried nearly a hundred pages deep in the technical report appendices is the conclusion: the lower technical complexity of Alberta's wells make them 26 per cent cheaper than those in the U.S.

And though government skirts the issue, the competitiveness study further concedes that Alberta enjoys cost advantages when compared with British Columbia and Saskatchewan because of the size of our industry and our more established and extensive infrastructure.

So, it turns out, Alberta is cheaper. What about the fleeing investment we've heard so much about?

Though the competitiveness committee report claims that "oil and gas investment was reported to be flowing out of Alberta" after 2007's new royalty framework, this claim too was contradicted by the committee's own technical analysis.

The oil industry and their friends have been attributing the decline in Alberta drilling and rig activity to royalty changes, but according to the technical report, that decline began before the royalty reforms.

The report states: "this explanation is complicated as such change (royalty reform) did not come about until 2007, after activity had already begun to decline."

Instead, it suggests a more convincing explanation: " ... the recent change in activity patterns has to do with shale gas activity, including the associated impact on prices."

As for the royalty rates, everything the competitiveness committee and the government's Energizing Investment have to say is tainted by the fact that their comparisons ignore billions of dollars' worth of incentive programs put in place since royalties increased -- also a major flaw in Jack Mintz's recent University of Calgary report on royalties.

So if the Tories' royalty cuts can't be explained by public opinion and can't be justified by their own economic analysis, why did they do it?

According to Canada West Foundation president Roger Gibbons, "It will shore up support with the oilpatch," which had been shifting its support to the Wild Rose Alliance Party since the Tories implemented higher royalties.

"That is not insignificant in terms of financial and organizational support.

"That doesn't necessarily carry a lot of votes, but it's important."

As Energy Minister Liepert put it, "If we can turn around that very influential negative view by the leadership in the oil and gas industry to one of acceptance and co-operation and moving forward, it's going to make a big difference for me politically."

Trading Albertans' natural wealth for an extended stay in office might seem worthwhile to a few politicians, but Albertans should ask themselves whether it is in our best interests to continue to allow them to do so.

Regan Boychuk is a research associate with the Parkland Institute
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

Quotes from Auditor General Fred Dunn

edmontonjournal.comOctober 2, 2009


Alberta Auditor General Fred Dunn releases his semi-annual report on Oct, 2, 2009, in Edmonton. Highlights include a second look at how the province hands out compensation packages.

This is Dunn's last report before he retires.

Photograph by: Greg Southam, Edmonton Journal

Here is a roundup of Alberta Auditor-General Fred Dunn’s comments as he delivered his final report:

On food safety and the lack of inspections and enforcement:

“I have a high regard for our colleagues and fellow citizens in Calgary. They are entrepreneurial and they are adventuresome. They’re very forward thinking, but dining out should not be a risk-taking venture.”

“To have your inspectors to go in and continuously find the same problems over and over again and nothing gets escalated in a report -- that’s a waste of time. It’s a threat to health … if you want to make it effective, enforce it.”
“If you have irresponsible and risk-taking entrepreneurs out there, let the public know.”

On cost overruns for health projects such as Calgary’s new southeast hospital and Edmonton’s Mazankowski Heart Institute:

“Our conclusion was (Alberta Health Services) does not have effective and efficient financial management systems to approve, monitor and report on capital projects.... Obviously without timely and accurate information, AHS may not be appropriately monitoring and controlling capital projects, resulting in cost overruns and missed deadlines.”

On supplemental retirement plans:

“The supplemental retirement plans were like holding a rattlesnake in your hand. If you don’t control this, it will come back to hurt you. And those things have become very expensive.”

By the end of the 2008-09 fiscal year, AHS’s total supplementary retirement plan obligation was $28 million; four of 11 plans are not funded, so there is no money set aside to cover a roughly $20 million obligation.


On “gold plated” severance packages for top health executives:

“I believe in many cases the compensation committees were either ill-prepared, ill-advised or had not possibly spent the sufficient due diligence to realize the consequence of what they were signing onto....

“There were some payments that were made, we’ll call them friendly parting gifts.”

On creating Alberta Health Services:

“The regional health authorities, they really believed they were autonomous.”
Dunn said it took too long to restructure the boards, which he called “regional fiefdoms.”

“If there was a fallacy within the restructuring, they didn’t do it fast enough,” he said. “The interim management team was there too long before the permanent one.”

On efforts to get contract information from the University of Calgary:

“When we did the CEO selection evaluation and compensation, they were the last ones to give us the contract, they did it very reluctantly, and I’ll be blunt, they sent me the wrong contract. ... If you’re going to deceive an officer of the legislature, I believe that’s tantamount to deceiving the legislature, and I believe that’s obviously inappropriate. ...They offended me.”

On why he is retiring:
“I wish I could have longer sleeps at night. I wake up far too often at 2.30 a.m. ...
“I’ll be blunt. At times I felt very frustrated and somewhat disappointed. And at times I felt rather angry. And I thought it times, when you get to that point, it’s time to leave.”

— Compiled by Trish Audette and Darcy Henton

Alberta's royalty scheme is a sham!

At the fear of repetition:
The Conservatives came up with still another not so elaborate lie to get elected in the last election. Fairness for everyone was the mantra.

The published a glossy PDF which outlined very high, impossible royalty figures that were supposed to be Alberta's future.

During the last election when the document was published I put up on the blog that the regime held nothing for Alberta Taxpayers. The blog isn't a main stream news paper so, it went unheeded.

When asked for his view of royalty by the media, Kevin Taft threw his apron over his face and ran for the wings. A great opportunity lost.

When the Conservatives recently announced changes to the farce they call a regime I bounced them on this blog and across the world as being the liars they are.

Now, Ron Liepert is running around the country giving dog and pony shows about reducing royalty rates. He is saying there will be still more changes.

Here is the trick:
As the price of oil ropes in these impossible figures they put up in that election document, Liepert goes out for positive press saying he is reducing royalties.

The point of all this is as it was before. There was never any intention of doing anything but reduce royalty. They hammered this home when they changed Alberta's take from US dollars to Canadian dollars in that same document.

Who's fault is all this??

It is my mind the fault lies directly with those people who did not bother to vote. They were in sufficient numbers they could have beat the Conservatives as in no contest.

A critique of Alberta's screwed up health care system.

Dear Gene, Premier Stelmach, and Members of the Legislative Assembly,
As a tax payer and a voter I wish to address Health Care Issues, have some questions I would like answered, some information and some opinions on the following concerns:

In the Edmonton Journal, there was an article Public Versus Private. I am in complete support of the public system NOT private delivery of public services. The votes of my friends and family will hinge on this.

1) Why was the special funding for bone and joint surgery at the Grande Prairie hospital not renewed?

2) Why did Edmonton residents have to drive to Westlock and St. Paul to get knee surgery done and drive home very sick for three hours one way in one situation after anaesthetic because the main earner in the family had to work the next day and couldn’t take the day off?

3) Why does it take three to four weeks to get fasting blood work done at Dynalife, a private for profit publicly funded laboratory, thus delaying surgical procedures and doctor’s visits while siphoning huge money out of our province each year?
One woman has to go from central Edmonton to St Albert. Her wait is 4 weeks. She doesn’t drive.
The system we had before was superior to this and the money stayed here.

4) Many of us paid into the public system for over 40 years with health care premiums and taxes without ever using any of it, knowing that others before us were using that system we were paying for and did not once resent it. It wouldn’t have mattered that my end of life expense to the public was only one day, I was happy with that. It was pride in my Canadian Values as a health care professional. But I also had the security of knowing that in the very last year of my life if I needed “in and out of hospital care”, it would be there for me not a sense of entitlement but rightfully earned.

Why aren’t the younger generation paying premiums and taxes that reflect ones income like we did? Will they be exempt from aging and illness in their later years? Believe me, it isn’t our generation that has a feeling of entitlement. We cared for our citizens when we didn’t need it.

5) Why are we adopting an Australian model when it is fraught with problems costing an extra $3billion of tax payer’s money? The research was done by two CEO’s from three Canadian hospitals complete with references.

6) As a tax payers and voters, do we get to see the “hidden cost” that AHS states are there in a public system?

7) What kind of protection will patients have in the event of a Cardiac arrest in a private facility? Are we going to plug up our hospitals with the easy cases leaving the difficult ones to wait for a surgeon, or a space as has been happening?

8) Who is going to insure standards of practice?
Right now, I know of 7 private for profit home care agencies, each having their own rules that the coordinator can’t have access to as it appears to be secretive. Staff brought in from other countries are low paid and are cherry picking the 15 minute jobs working for two or three agencies. I would be happy to send you the information from front line workers.

9) How could activity based funding “create a level the playing field” stated by Hughes and ensure the same discipline in both systems? when the private does 100 easy surgeries compared to those in the public hospital which are much more complex requiring more care and stay in hospital?
The numbers cannot reflect equal activity.

10) Incentives to provide “superior quality” for hospitals and physicians is undermining their professional capabilities. Perhaps we need to go back to having managers who are nursing and medical people not those who tell staff that they “have to tow the corporate line” or lose their job as some have.

11) One patient needed surgery for a problem that would have put him back to work the next day-“IF HE PAID FOR IT”. He has to wait 6 months to get it done in the public system. WHY? Don’t we want people working?

12) Who will develop policies and standards? The glossy 2020 Vision is of little help.

In closing, if Mr Hughes thinks Albertans are indifferent as to whether surgery is done in a private or public facility, I would disagree with him. Albertans don’t want to be pushed to the side by queue jumpers and have the system cost more than can be provided by the public facility.

I am tired of being told we are burdening the next generation. Please make those stats publicly available. Many of us would to be given credit for the 45 years of financial contribution to the health care system that we hadn’t used. Hopefully, I won’t use a penny but will drop dead on my porch with a margarita in my hand.
I await your genuine reply. Please feel free to forward this to your colleagues.

Sincerely.,
Darlene - Alberta Health Care Professional.

Encana acknowldges royalty scam and suggests on par with other provinces.

Alberta would have received a bigger chunk of EnCana Corp.' s 2010 budget if it harmonized royalties with British Columbia, CEO Randy Eresman said Tuesday.

And Canada would gain even more if its royalty policies were harmonized with the United States, he added, speaking at the company's investor day presentation -- the first since splitting with Cenovus Energy late last year.
Although Eresman said he's generally pleased with the Alberta government's royalty overhaul, he said the province still lags B.C. and states such as Texas in terms of its competitiveness.

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/EnCana+floats+harmonized+royalties+with/2694072/story.html#ixzz0iV1cdtTj

Alberta Balanace of Payments agreement.

It has come to my attention from a concerned Alberta employee that the Alberta Conservatives have been working with the Yukon, British Columbia and Saskatchewan to plan a way to get out of balance of payments.

The Balance of Payments is what makes Canada a country!  Our trade limitations between provinces are greater in some cases than our limitations with the USA.  These limitations are being removed slowly but surely which I think is a good thing.

If we do away with the Balance of Payments it doesn't take much of an imagination to figure out the effected provinces (all) would be looking for new alliance with the US as a better advantage than other provinces in Canada.

Ted Morton, an American citizen has no problems with this nor does the Wild Rose Party who are headquartered in southern Alberta, next to the US border and have the support of the Oil companies who would like nothing better.

There is a chance in a true royalty review to shift billions of dollars out of the oil companies into Alberta's treasury a thought that is totally abhorrent to a politically Conservative mind.

Alberta to trash balance of payments-Canada Beware!

There has been broad coverage this week about Ted Morton's assessment of losses due to fine tuning the so called royalty regime.  He is saying hundreds of millions of dollars will be lost.

The royalty regime he refers to is a farce; an election document; a lie that put them into office.  The AG bounced them after two years pointing out they were far from achieving their stated targets of 19% royalty.

Then came the crisis.  The minister said the new regime would not be applied any time soon.

The change in the phantom  scale hits to top end; where we won't see the price of oil for many years to come!  It would have nothing to do with our profit and loss picture if it were real.  With our royalty take being half of either BC or Saskatchewan,  we are surly going broke but it has nothing to do with the BS regime.

What Morton has done is positioned himself to press for the abolition of the balance of payments formula which has been long standing and agreed to by all the provinces. This in my view is the fabric of Canada.

Ted Morton, a US citizen was co author of the Alberta Firewall with the members of the Wild Rose Party of which doing away with the balance of payments was a keystone. 

Any savings that came from such a plan would go directly to reducing oil royalty further.  It would do nothing for the quality of life in Alberta.

We can nothing short of treading them as traitors but we can do something about the Federal end of things and shut down Stephen Harper bringing to an end Norton's and the Wild Rose ambitions.

Oil Investment funds - pay attention!

Alberta has resisted the overtures of the Fed to have a Federal Security Commission in Alberta.  The fiasco of oil royalty is just one reason why they want a closed club.

People investing in the oil industry will take much of their leads from Government releases. 

What happens to your investment when the Government lies publicly about those same investments?

Examples:
To get elected they put out a nonsense sheet about oil royalty that would have you believe the oil companies were going to loose their shirts.  That was the public information.  In private, they never applied any of the royalty figures; it was business as usual.  If you sold your stock based on the public information; you got hooped.

It goes on and on.  Their public positions have nothing to do with the reality of what they are doing in relation to the oil companies.  Likewise their adventures into stock.   For what purpose?  Where does the money go?  How is it accounted for?  What are your returns based on.

My guess would be the money taken on bonds is dumped into General Revenues to be used along with everything else.  You would get the guaranteed interest but, would you invest if you knew you were investing in a slush fund?

Alberta cuts oil and gas royalities

This announcement is a farce!  Alberta never, ever initiated the "new royalty regime".  That was an
empty document;a lie to get them elected last time.   This is really no different than them working with the oil companies to propel the NEP farce!

2 years after the election the AG in Alberta bounced the Government because they had failed to reach their targeted 19% royalty.   After that time the minster stated publicly there would be no new rates put in, in the foreseeable future and the AG had no right to look into royalties.

The oil companies are picking up the brass and the drums now to lend credibility to an election bungle saying
they may stay, things will improve and other spin doctoring.  This is a grand theater, nothing more.

The mentioned reductions take place in the scale where Alberta has never ever received any cash!  In writing of the reduced number of rigs they fail to mention most rigs are into directional drilling now.   1/10th of the rigs are required to do the same job! 

Run after a taxi and you save more money than when you chase a bus!

We still collect less than 1/2 of what BC or Saskatchewan does!  What is there to cut?  We are presently paying them to take the stuff out of the province and the Wild Rose Party, financed by the same oil companies promise more of the same.

The Conservatives do not think this  province is entitled to anything more than a lease on the land and income taxes, on par with the US Republicans.

This rip off  isn't going to change any time soon unless Albertans step away from the Conservative vote or, those people who though their vote would not mean anything will step up to the plate and vote.

The royalty announcement isn't even chewing gum for the mind!  It is not just cheap theater; It is perpetrating blatant lies.

Alberta new royalty regime is a farce!

Alberta has produced a document about their new oil regime and competitiveness that is a Public Relations show with very little relative fact in it.

For instance; number of drilling rigs in Alberta is down.  They do not take any time explaining that omnidirectional drilling techniques is what is in now and one rig can drill as many holes as a dozen rigs of just a few years ago. 

Also Alberta does not have the oil shale play that BC and Saskatchewan does.

A year after the last oil regime was announced with all the big numbers in it, the Auditor general pointed out to the Government they had not come any where close to their targets of 19%.

That same document changed our take from US dollars to Canadian dollars.
Take into consideration the 48 cents per barrel we get for crude in payment in lieu of cash and  you will quickly determine we collect less that 1/2 of what either BC or Saskatchewan take in.

The maximum royalty rate will be reduced from • the current levels of 50 percent to 40 percent for conventional oil and to 36 percent for natural gas, effective January 1, 2011.

They have not collected so much as 1 cent at these royalty rates!

  The point of this exercise is to try to put some level of credibility to the BS they peddled to get elected last time!. 

They say that 1 person is 7 is directly or indirectly employed in the oil and gas industry.  That is saying that 14 percent can expect good or marginal returns for incomes and the other 86 percent of the population is either unemployed or marginally employed! 

This crew has been lying through their teeth since day one and they are not about to change.

Alberta's health care to be totally privitized!

We heard of the Federal budget today; transfers for health care are going to be reduced.

This will give the provinces a one liner to tell every one the devil feds did it where in truth they are working in concert.  

Brain dead Albertans continue to vote Conservative regardless of how much or how often they are lied to tricked or beaten.

The door is now open for not just Alberta, but all provinces to claim privatization is the only way to go sighting reduced funding as being the culprit.

I can only hope that some of you reading these articles by this time will have realized that your vote will make a difference!

Alberta Privitzation About Conservative dogma, Not Money, Not service.

The average voter like myself has paid health care premiums for over 45 years and most of us have

never used it, We still pay 30% out of pocket for services not covered by health care, while the

younger generation that are statistically bigger users of hospitals are paying nothing toward their

possible future health care.

I would cheerfully pay premiums like we did knowing that it is the younger generation that are big

users of expensive treatments. Their research is in contrast to research done by Australian

economist Ian McCauley, Australian journalist Jan Li, Donna Wilson from the U of A, and Ontario

Ceo’s, Murray Martin and Cliff Nordal “ A Visit Down Under” as well as research done by Harvard.

For example, every Albertan admitted to an institution is accurately documented. That is fact.

Alberta is chronologically the youngest province in Canada.


Of all Albertans admitted to hospital, 76.4% were under the age of 65.

Babies under a year were the most common.

The average age of hospitalized patients was 39.5 years with half of those being under the age of

36 years. These are not baby boomers.

Only 10.7% are 65 years or older and 16.4% of the elderly admitted to hospital died as compared to

3.3% of other patients.

Over half of the patients admitted to Intensive Care were younger patients who had more done to

them and stayed in ICU longer, the most expensive hospital service.

These stats were checked three times for accuracy.

Please remind me that it was not the economists with their know it all who put our world into a

recession.

Submitted by Darlene a former health care professional.

Alberta least competitive energy hub: economist

A new report by prominent economist Jack Mintz concludes.

Jack Mintz  used to be Mr. CD Howe and Council of Business Executives stand up.  Like always he is a stand up spin doctor for the Conservative causes.  Hardly a study and even less educational.

The new oil regime this article refers to was a document produced to get the conservatives elected again. It served no other purpose other than reducing our take from US dollars down to Canadian dollars.

A year after it was published Alberta's Auditor General pointed out to the Government they were far below the 19% royalty they had targeted.

Take from this, the payment in kind for bitumen which returns to Alberta 48 cents per bbl.

Bottom line is Alberta is taking far less than 50% of what either BC or Saskatchewan is collecting at their 30% USD royalty.

On the tar sands, the full cost of the project is paid by a reduced royalty take.  Albertans in effect pay all the start up costs.  This is done by us receiving only 1% royalty paid until the project is totally cleared off the books! 

When you consider the items like inflation, Water and increased cost of our power lines you will quickly determine we are actually paying these companies to take to oil from the province.

The Conservatives are of a mind that wages and income tax is all the right we have to any revenue from the resources.   All other monies go back to the corporation, and then some.  Until Albertans decide they want more than wages from this industry there is little hope for difference.

Get rid of these suckers!

Alberta Universities take funding cuts to promote Conservative Agenda! Albertans relegated to second class citizenship.

Alberta Universities take funding cuts to promote Conservive Agenda! Albertans relegated to second class citizenship.

The news is alive with funding cuts to our universities.  I have left it for you to pick your own links.

These cuts represent the very softest targets for the Torys.  Most people at the universities vote for parties other than Conservative (I choose to think because they are enlightened) so cutting them to the point of putting them out of business is the best idea Morton could come up with according to Tory insiders.  Universities are a soft target-no vote losses there.

There is more!

About 10 years ago now, the Conservatives paid big bucks to get the opinions of experts regarding the expansion of industry in Alberta.   They were told that Alberta could not support larger industries because we did not have the educated population that is needed to build these same industries.  We were not graduating enough Doctors and Engineers to grow!

Those years passed and the Conservatives found it is cheaper and easier to higher the professionals from Namibia, China and the Philippians than it was to educate our own.

You will recall when the latest boom started Alberta kids were encouraged to leave school to work as labour in the construction and oil fields.  This Government thinks that is a great plan to continue with!

Now, those jobs are gone, the same kids are back home with their parents looking for work; any kind of work and the Conservatives are cutting funding to the universities in the event that any of these kids managed to get there.

Why any one in this province would consider voting Conservative is beyond me.  Why anyone in this province would go to an even more extreme group, the Wild Rose Part is also beyond me.

And for those of you who though it was not worth while for you to vote, perhaps you will think again the next time you have a chance.

Alberta Universities take funding cuts to promote Conservive Agenda! Albertans relegated to second class citizenship.

The news is alive with funding cuts to our universities.  I have left it for you to pick your own links.

These cuts represent the very softest targets for the Torys.  Most people at the universities vote for parties other than Conservative (I choose to think because they are enlightened) so cutting them to the point of putting them out of business is the best idea Morton could come up with according to Tory insiders.  Universities are a soft target-no vote losses there.

There is more!

About 10 years ago now, the Conservatives paid big bucks to get the opinions of experts regarding the expansion of industry in Alberta.   They were told that Alberta could not support larger industries because we did not have the educated population that is needed to build these same industries.  We were not graduating enough Doctors and Engineers to grow!

Those years passed and the Conservatives found it is cheaper and easier to higher the professionals from Namibia, China and the Philippians than it was to educate our own.

You will recall when the latest boom started Alberta kids were encouraged to leave school to work as labour in the construction and oil fields.

Now, those jobs are gone, the same kids are back home with their parents looking for work; any kind of work and the Conservatives are cutting funding to the universities in the event that any of these kids managed to get there.

Why any one in this province would consider voting Conservative is beyond me.  Why anyone in this province would go to an even more extreme group, the Wild Rose Part is also beyond me.

And for those of you who though it was not worth while for you to vote, perhaps you will think again the next time you have a chance.

Gratz (GM)-A really excellent fabricating business in Alberta!

 I had the occasion to get a part made for my table saw and after a few false starts one company referred me to Gratz Manufacturing.

They treated me like a million dollar account.  My little project was taken into the shop; manufactured and returned to me in record time.  It was no less that perfect!

Don't beat yourself to death nor cut your hands all to pieces.  Drop in and see the pros at Gratz it will be a pleasant surprise and, say hello from me.

Gratz Manufacturing Inc

Address:	16142-114 Ave Edmonton, AB, T5M 2Z5
Phone:	780-484-0380
Fax:	780-484-7207

Alberta New Cabinet sworn in.

Canada should pay attention to this one!

Ted Morton was co-author(With other members of the WRP) of the infamous "Alberta Firewall" some of the highlights are do away with making balance of payments-Alberta pays too much; Opt out of the Canada Pension Fund as an Alberta Fund would invest (as in finance) Alberta only.

In the WRP and Ted Mortons world, any money spent on any kind of welfare progarms are a waste. We can expect this group to be the first hit.

Even our new health minister has said off the mark that he really isn't in charge, Finance minister is.  

This means the Government will cut any number of goods and services to cities and communities. This in turn will force theses cities and communities to increase the costs of electricity, water and sewage to make up the losses.

All this while Alberta fosters the lowest resource royalty in the world. Our basis is now down to 19% less payment in kind in bitumen on which we get 48 cents per barrel. We get more money on bottle returns!  

Saskatchewan and BC both collect 30% US dollars. As you can see we are less than 1/2 of our neighbors. Alberta is the Conservative dream! If you let Harper run away with the Federal end you are in for much of the same!

Alberta Cabinet Shuffle

On the surface these changes appear to be a shuffle rather than a change but putting Ted Morton in finance will mean harsh changes and hard hits for Alberta and Canada. These changes mean the very worse for Albertans as right wing parties compete for the extreme.

Ted Morton was co author of the Alberta Firewall Documents. Others on this list are founders of the Wild Rose Party of Alberta.

This leaves me to consider the WRP as a child of the Ruling Conservatives and probablay finaced by Conservative Stelmach dissenters.

The Alberta Firewall is all the name implies. Provincial Police and no RCMP. Balance of payments cut drastically or done away with. Withdraw from the CPP and start an Alberta Pension plan. Do away with the Canada Health Act and totally privatize Alberta's health care (Turn it into an industry rather than a welfare pot) The list goes on but of the same tone.

The new health minister explains off the mark he has nothing to do with the health care it is in the hands of the finance minister.

There is nothing in this lineup that will do anything to royalty but reduce it and, we are all ready paying the oil companies to take the resource out of the province! 

Alberta is at 19% Can Dollar.  Except for bitumen taken in kind where we receive 48 cents a barrel Canadian, less than you would get on a bottle return.


Both BC and Saskatchewan are at 30% US dollars.


When you figure on the advanced electricity and utility charges we are indeed paying for the resource to be taken from the province.  We end up with nothing!


For you who voted Conservative; you deserve this!   For those of you who didn't bother to vote; you deserve this. 

For the rest of us it is a beating we won't recover from!

Nuclear Power - the best choice for environmentalists.

This full article balances the pros, cons and politics of electrical power generation.It is a worthwhile read if you are a discerning individual but if you are one of the shrills who will let no reason enter your mind, this article won't help you.

Alberta Power Exports may soon be no more!

The US is backing 18 billion dollars in loans to build new nuclear power plants in the US.  Through a  program of lies and deceit this Government is managing to miss the boat on the coveted power exports to the US. 

They are fumbling the chance for much needed nuclear generation in Alberta and have alienated the population by their  plans to have Alberta Consumers pay for all the power lines used to export power.

While they are chasing their tails the US is bringing on more Generation.

Just a few years ago, the US published they were going to need 70,000 MW of new generation by the year 2020.  Recently they have said there is about 50,000 MW of generation built or being built leaving only 20,000 MW of power to be acquired.

Alberta's grid is about 13,000 MW; and idea of size for comparison while Saskatchwan is at about 2900 MW

Ontario and Quebec are ramping up their Generation, Nuclear and otherwise to meet this prefect market.

New power lines are being built between Lethbridge and Montana.  This will join the grid to push power into California, the big market place.

Alberta, because of really bad management  is going to miss this market.

Some of you may laugh but that simply means we will be importing US nuclear generated power into Alberta to light our homes at double what you are paying now!

Power and Water rates are a form of indirect taxation.

Power and water rates now in the hands of the cities and towns are simply a form of taxation. Need more cash? No more mill rate arguments; simply add it to the water or power bill.

What is lacking is the provincial controls and the public input. What is certain however is if you hold those same cities and towns Mayors and councils responsible at the ballet box, you can still have some controls.

The idea of indirect taxation through utilities is a good one. Costs of running the municipalities will be borne by the renters and users in general rather than a specific group of businesses. That is fine as far as it goes. This province however has given them an open cheque book to write and spend what they see fit.

Edmonton has recently found millions for the police force. I'm waiting for the hammer to fall on the utilities which will probably be used to make it up.

Devon has announced some big, costly improvements in that town after taking a 25% increase in water charges.

It seems we have taken more than one step back from process!

Alberta Electricity's old boys club.

This Government is blatant in their manipulations to throw huge profit to their old boys club.

ENMAX wanted to build a new gas fired generation plant at Calgary to supply Calgary, Southern Alberta and export surplus to Montana and thence by grid to California. The Montana to Lethbridge lines are being built now.

ENMAX endorsed what we all have been saying, the new power lines are not needed for Alberta demands.

The Government has put the kill on the ENMAX project while opening the door to further generation in the north the more recent attention being given to Bruce Power and their Peace River plan.

This is not a new game for these guys; they are in reality not unlike a one trick dog.

About a dozen years ago now, Fording Coal were going to build a power plant at Brooks Alberta. They planned to a hook up with Langdon and were going to supply the power lines to Southern Alberta.

They were faced with a large environmental protest which was backed by the Alberta Conservative Government. Mean while TransAlta made a huge stand to discredit the need for such a build and the plant plan was defeated.

Back to the present and we have Trans Alta front and center against ENMAX . Same actions different plant.

ATCO's Peter Laugheed at one point said that ATCO were getting out of building pipelines because they only paid cost plus 10% where as power lines paid cost plus 15%, a better deal.

The Government wants to include generation in the north to allow the tar sands to export their surplus power to the US. Bruce Power do not market their power, they only build and run the plants.

The bottom line is Multi Billions of taxpayer dollars are going to be directed to the old boys club gain and, there is nothing we can do about it.

Even so called old school conservatives must be shaking their heads now.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/

The Calgary Herald remains tightly controlled, to the point of being worthless as a news source!

Articles of policy proposals are seldom left open to comment, regardless of how bizarre or confrontational those same articles are.

When a Conservative ploy is so obviously a ploy and they try to run with it the public will call it what it is. Crap for a number of reasons.

This is where the next level of control comes in. When most of the comments are critical of the story the Herald puts up the first half dozen tame comments then, hold all the rest until some time after the story is closed. Then, a person will have to hit a tab to see "all" the comments that were withheld earlier or on the previous day.

As a Conservative rag this same paper will often cut the article and republish it under a new link in order to separate the story from adverse comment.

As a newspaper the Calgary Herald is a low a piece of information as is out there. It is not in most cases worth opening the page of it.

High Finance a History and your future!

Interviews with Jane D'Arista an Economist and Author of great merit. It is not often I put forward reading or authors but Real News have these Interviews posted and they are truly exciting.

MUST WATCH is an appropriate heading for this series. We could use some changes in Canada too!

Art Show! Super!

ART SHOW!!!!
NATALIA’S GALLERY

Hello friends

I have been invited to place 20-30 paintings at the

GREY NUN’S HOSPITAL
3015-62st, Edmonton
Lower level by the auditorium.

OCTOBER 8, 2009 to January 31, 2010

I hope you will drop by when you are in the area.

Because of my deep concern for

Public health care, seniors, agriculture, & education, a percentage all sales will be donated to support Dr Swann, leader of the official opposition, And his Liberal leadership.

DARLENE NATALIA KONDUC

Alberta Trucking about to change big time!

This should further depreciate the value of warehouse property in Calgary!

Governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan work together to cut red tape for commercial trucking industry

Regina... The Governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Regina to help truckers and shippers move goods more efficiently and safely in western Canada.

The memorandum will help harmonize policies and regulations for commercial vehicle operations, reduce barriers between the two provinces, and address safety regulations. This includes specific items such as special permits, vehicle weights and dimensions, cooperative enforcement activities, national safety code issues and research.

“Transportation is fundamental to supporting Alberta’s economy and we are committed to seeing that regulations don’t impede the economic competitiveness of either province,” said Luke Ouellette, Alberta Minister of Transportation. “This memorandum of understanding supports highway safety and the reduction of barriers to interprovincial transportation.”

“For Saskatchewan’s export-based economy, this means businesses will be more competitive in reaching inter-provincial, national and worldwide markets,” Saskatchewan Highways and Infrastructure Minister Jim Reiter said. “Our two governments are acting to reduce red tape and enhance our business climate to continue to grow our provincial economies.”

“The trucking industry is pleased to see this spirit of co-operation to allow us to move more seamlessly between the two provinces and to literally help us keep the economy moving,” Saskatchewan Trucking Association President Glen Ertell said.

“From a trucking industry perspective this is good news because it highlights all the work that has been done on transportation between Alberta and Saskatchewan over the years to benefit the economy,” said Richard Warnock, President of the Alberta Motor Transport Association.

Key issues in the MOU include:

• the harmonization of special permit conditions for turnpike doubles (a semi with two long trailers);
• the harmonization of special permit conditions for oversize and overweight indivisible loads;
• the harmonization of the maximum gross vehicle weight for B-trains (a semi with two trailers);
• the establishment of an inter-provincial heavy haul/high clearance corridor;
• the harmonization of special permit conditions for the movement of manufactured homes;
• the harmonization of regulation and permit conditions based on the National Safety Code;
• co-operative commercial vehicle enforcement activities and facilities; and
• a joint research and pilot project to address common concerns with wide-based super single tires.

Shaw and others are getting more than their fair share!!

We've got the 8th highest average connection speed (although we'd need to make it 2.5 times faster to get in the top 5). The really interesting part of the graph is the prices. The dollar figure underneath the speed rank is the price in USD for 1Mbps. We're paying double the price for our bandwidth that the US is, and 10x what Sweden is.

You'll notice that almost all European nations are charging less than we are. The main difference? Most EU countries consider internet access to be a utility like power or gas, and the governments invest heavily in upgrading infrastructure. France has gone as far to say it considers broadband internet access to be a basic right for all of it's citizens, and put it's money where it's mouth is.

Cellphone infrastructure graphs look almost identical, with Canada paying 2 or 3 times more than the US on average. Recently the CRTC auctioned off another commercial radio spectrum for use in wireless communication. The range was purchased by an international company called Globalive for $442 million. My understanding was that the money was placed into general government coffers instead of being used to improve nationwide data infrastructure.

The best part, is that the CRTC (acting on a complaint from Bell and Telus) ruled that Globalive didn't have enough Canadian ownership, so they are not going to be allowed to act as a telecom in Canada. The end result: $442 million was removed from the Telecom industry with no benefit to research or abundance, and we still only have 3 telecoms which continue to gouge us on price. Good thing the CRTC is on our side, eh?

The CRTC has also failed to defend Net Neutrality principles (essentially, every packet is worth the same as every other packet).

Net neutrality is important because without legislation supporting it, ISP's can throttle certain kinds of traffic (peer-to-peer, video streaming, etc.) as well as block access to certain websites (such as when Telus blocked access to their Union's website during the strike), or allow large corporations to pay for 'priority' traffic.

Priority traffic would mean that access to a news site like Fox News, or CNN would run at full speed, while small blogs would be throttled much slower or not be available at all, depending on which tiered package the consumer bought. The NDP and Liberals have both submitted bills for Net Neutrality which died on the floor following the dissolution of the 39th parliament by Harper.

Long story short, welcome to Canada! Home of the slow growing, expensive, aging, and unfair telecom giants!