As oilsands activity heats up, Alberta employers brace for soaring costs, worker shortages

The Election write is imminent!  Beings as how this is the only place this story is showing I would say the Conservatives are trying hard to find an agenda to run with!   Here they are trying a shiny and very false labor pictures will take the forefront. 25 years of expansion pumped into a 10 year window! 

Special Report: Labour Pains is the first real test of the waters for them.  I will follow it, point on point.

Alberta braces for Another boom.  NOT  SO!

Election time again! Alberta is on the cusp of another boom.  NOT SO.  Not one of the upgrader owners has projected an immediate start and none have projected a completion of 2015 as the article outlines.  It is nothing more than chewing gum for the mind!

With crude oil well above 100 dollars per barrel, and our royalty at zero% Canadian, we, the taxpayers of Alberta are losing our shirts and probably our homes!  The tar sands production is 1.6 million barrels a day, Now reduced because of Coker repairs.

If we were getting the same royalty that BC and Saskatchewan are getting we would have a provincial income of 133 million dollars per day USD instead of nothing!  (Plus gas and water).  Things moving like they are going in the Middle East now we will look at more than 2.00 per bbl US and, the Alberta Taxpayers will still get nothing!   Liepert has told us this program is in 6 years before it is reviewed.  That being the case we will be short 266 million USD  per day if  you let these guys back into office again!

And, don’t think the Wild Rose Party is going to do any different!  Rick Orman, Smith’s right hand man is still a lobbyist for the oil companies!  He authored the Pension thefts and the WRP are all on side with this!

Royalties explained here:

Oil Sands players are busy rolling out new projects, ramping up production and hiring workers. Again; NOT SO!   In fact the rash of job offers are empty.  I checked 14 of them and in each case they thanked me for my resume (not using my name etc) and said there would be no decision for 3 or 4 months (long after the election is over). My guess would be they cancel the positions offered; not needed or reconsidered.  This is what they usually do.

Oil sands production is curtailed by several hundred million barrels per day because a Coker malfunction caused a  shut down.  None of the players who stuck their necks out for upgraders (India, China) have started new projects yet.  Nor have the projects been lined up for the next year!   Three  to 15 years down the road they may open the need for engineers and a few surveyors. But this won’t happen, not now and not immediate as the article would have you believe.   Pipelines have to be built to the West Coast before it is of great interest to China or India!

Meanwhile we were getting payments in kind for tar sands crude which gave us about 48 cents per barrel for our crude.  As Mr. Taft of the Liberals pointed out, we get more for returning a bottle!

With our royalty down to zero I have to guess we are no longer getting payments in kind and if we are, Alberta Taxpayers are paying out of pocket to make it happen.  Employment figures are based on “one particular study” not otherwise named which says we will have 20% more employment in 15 or 20 years.

The point of the above is, there is no economic growth!  Alberta has had a make work program in effect for the oil patch for more than a year.  This program allows companies to take home a million dollars for a dry hole (Calgary Herald) and workers get 1 weeks work in 3 or 4. 

According to this article 22,000 jobs are in this program. Alberta taxpayers are generous!   Most of these workers are Americans who are working in the province illegally but still show as unemployed in the US.  They cannot collect EI in Canada!  I suspect they have another game going south of the border.

This program of subsistence wages is in effect for all workers.  Your tax dollars at work!  It also serves to drive down the number of unemployed in Alberta (getting ready for election) and Canada making this article possible.   Life is wonderful under Conservative Governments is the message.

Not enough professionals they say!  Alberta stopped all support in high school for university education.  They took advice they could not build “big business” because we could not graduate enough degrees.

We could have had both Universities and Trade Schools covered but; no!  While cutting support for University Education in high schools they tightened up the funding for Universities to a 1986 level forcing them to increase tuition.  

Alberta young adults were obliged to go into trade schools; obliged by virtues of increased costs and a lack of high school preparation.  Now, years have passed and we have foreigners in the majority of executive positions and Albertans still being offered unlimited jobs as laborers.

Teachers went along with this, no problem! It was a well kept secret at the time and produced 10 years of large automatic raises for them.  Now, they are the highest paid in the world!  My kid, with a 98% average asked the councilor for guidelines in preparation to become a Doctor.   He told her “Give it up; why don’t you want to be a nurse?”   Many kids were treated the same. Perhaps you?

There are presently more Americans in Alberta's oil patch than Albertans!  Add to this the number of out of province people you can see Albertans are a minority. They don’t make enough money to add to the economy!

This brings us to the Conservatives change in the immigration laws.  This bit of phony news was heralded by Redford saying we would have a shortage of 114,000 people in 10 years?  I take it no one is graduating from school in Alberta?  She said their eyes opened wide when she said it.  No wonder; unlike most Albertans they were awake!

My bet is a number of these upgraders will still be on the drawing board in 10 years and we will be fighting a pipeline to the west coast at that time.  In short their spin release should have been spread over 25 years which is typical for them.

Canada's Immigration chief is opening the door for their own kind of  Conservative uglies! Kenny said he would work a way so that employers would have a direct influence by setting up a quick entry for immigrants with "a direct offer". 

How to produce a direct offer?  It opens the door for immigration companies to set up (sic example) in Mexico or the Philippians . There, they can charge some poor SOB his/her's first year’s wages to secure a guaranteed citizenship for Canada.

Now “hooked up” and the name forward to Canadian business to make a job description that
fits the person where they will serve more or less as indentured.

Now Mexican companies or Canadian Companies in Mexico are in touch with employers offering them vetted immigrants to fill their position, charging a fee for services on the way past..

They could streamline it even more by licensing coyotes and cut down on training time.

Canadian Citizenship; bought and sold!  That is the Conservative fix! 

And, to the last line of their article “We will hear more of these stories.” 

Busted for stealing Alberta pensions; their make work program and corruption in general they are going into the election on BS numbers and a 25  year projection stuff into a 10 year window.

We cannot vote the same way over and over again and expect a change in results!

I will be supporting the Liberal Party of Alberta as being the only way out of this mess!

Jobs; Jobs; Jobs! But, not many are real!

Newspapers all over Alberta and BC are pushing Help Wanted adds big time!   There were not this many adds when we were at our peak production periods.  And, we sure are not at peak production now.  Things are tough in Alberta.  Rather than tweak favorable horoscopes the industry is pushing a non existent job application program.  This is something they do every election time but this time, having been caught stealing pensions in their trust they have pulled out all the stops!  

BC is under heavy siege being indentifed with the Alberta Conservatives through PNWER


I don't want to rain on your parade but, these jobs just don't exist.  Perhaps some of them will in 4 or 5 years time regardless of Government but, not before!

If you read these job adds just a little closer, there is no indication of when the jobs will start.  They are written in a way you would assume near immediate but, it is not the case!

The ones that do project a time for hire are picking dates beyond the next election. Interviews will tell you, "if the present government is reelected" which is straight BS!  Alternative Governments would put much more coin in your dish!

There is no truth to the very great majority of adds! They are simply not looking after the population! They are however trying to buy votes; to put a positive spin on a provincial Government that is in trouble and will stop at nothing at all to get elected again!

If the Conservatives including WRP and BC Liberals don't get in this time there is a good chance we will move towards a royalty regime which is close to that of BC and Saskatchewan which is good for everyone; not just a few of the chosen.

 The Companies will loose the taxpayer portion of the royalty and that is big bucks between 32 and 64 million dollars a day!.

We are presently loosing 32 million dollars a day from tar sands alone!  If on the other hand they do get in because Albertan's don't vote, Saskatchewan will claim opposition and cut their royalty down.

I keep repeating Alberta is getting zero for royalty and the Conservatives are calling this ridiculous. The little exercise I put up is based on 100 dollar oil which with things going as they are will be up to 200.00 shortly.

They are lying to you!  Get a new Government in a share in a little prosperity!

Alberta royalty explained.

I have said we are presently getting zero for royalty on our resources. The Conservatives are saying this is ridiculous!

Here it is on the tar sands; oil sands what ever you want to call them taken on a 100 dollar US Barrel oil.

Originally we were getting 25% royalty taken in US dollars on production on the completed plant.

Until the plant was paid for we collected only 1% US dollars (1.00 US per bbl).  The balance went to the companies to pay for the build of the plant.  (99.00  US per bbl)

Ralph Klein started the cuts to royalty with his famous Firestorm fishing trip.  Oil companies took him fishing and he came back with a deal that a plant add on would be paid for by Alberta Taxpayers the same as a new plant.

Following that there were no releases on what was paid leaving people to assume we were still on the original deal. It was a big secret! Then!

Then Auditor General Fred Dunn pointed out Alberta was only collecting 16% US on a barrel of oil (16.00 US per barrel  and their stated target at that time was 19% or 19.00 per bbl US.

In this time lapse we had lost 9% of our royalty .  Thereafter the Conservatives put out a "hate Fred Dunn" campaign saying he "had no business in reporting this"

The last election royalty was a big deal.  On the eve of the election the Conservatives pumped out a "New Royalty Framework"  .pdf  which is alive and well today.  They put ridiculous out of reach percentages on this paper along with one line which said "Taken in Canadian Dollars"

No part of this paper was ever applied nor was it ever intended to be applied except for the Canadian Dollar bit.  They put that part in immediately a loss to Alberta of 18% of our revenues!  After he was elected he was on TV saying he heard the complaints of the Gas industry and Conventional oil industry and would address them separately.  With that he changed all our resource takes to Canadian Dollars and our royalty is essentially the same for all!

It also served to upset oil types who knew no better into trashing the Conservatives while complaining about the high oil increases.  The press was alive in favor of royalty cuts fueled by the nonsense posts of uninformed people and a great many who were just playing the game!


Then,  with royalty at 16% Canadian the 100.00 barrel of oil would return 16.00 less 18% exchange left us with 13.20 per bbl.   


18%  is interesting as it is the Percentage used to explain the difference between the US and Canadian economies.


A year ago, Ron Liepert said our royalty will be only 6% immediately and will be that for the next 6 years at which time it will be reviewed.  (Which means in another 5 years or earlier it will be down to zero)


A 100 US barrel of oil  and a 90 cent Canadian dollars  gives us 5.40 per barrel Canadian.

When  the US and Canada normalize and we are back at a 85 cent Canadian dollar which is the norm, we will get 5.10 per barrel. (100 US to Can =85.00 X 6%=5.10)

We pay for their power lines, we pay for their roads, we pay for their water and using US standards we pay for their health care!
WE ARE IN THE HOLE and have been in the hole for some time!  How much can you and  your family afford to pay them?

With the stuff going on in the middle east we are poised to see 200.00 US or more per barrel. When that happens Albertans will be short some 320 thousand dollars per day in resource royalty!

BC and Saskatchewan and pretty much the rest of the world are taking 20% US dollars for their royalty where our deal was for 25% and this is where we should be at!

The bottom line: The Conservatives have been reducing Alberta's royalty from day 1 of  Ralph Klein's reign to the present time!  They will continue to do so!

You cannot vote the same way every time and reasonably expect a different outcome!

Support me on voting Alberta Liberal!

This article updated on:
http://albertathedetails.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-politics-and-finance-of-alberta-and.html

Alberta Water, Power and Oil Support groups.

This story is the tip of the iceberg! The Conservatives separated generation from Transmission with the sale of PPAs (Power Purchase Agreements)

The higher profit agreements were picked up right away. Many of these purchases were resold or “flipped” within a week. Some reported to be flipped several times. Conservative insiders picked up a load of quick gold from this.

The not so profitable (gas generation) was picked up by the Parent Company of Great West Life (Mazankowski) who still owns them but with Natural Gas cheap these PPAs are worth a lot more.
At the end of this charade to jack up prices the cities ended up with most of the PPAs.

The battle for power generation continues.. Fording Coal owned large tracks of coal in Central Alberta. They wanted to build a generation plant there similar to Sundance at a factious name of Bow City Alberta. They were going to build their own power lines to Calgary and to Southern Alberta. This was in truth High River.

TransAlta along with the Cons moved to stop this. They went so far as to privately fund environmental groups active at that time who were protesting a coal generation plant.

Since that time, ENMAX is building a gas generated plant outside of Calgary. This hit a big fight by EPCOR, TransAlta and the Conservative Government as it would negate the argument that southern lines were needed for Calgary.

We have a similar thing happening now (using water analogy) Municipalities in Southern Alberta are slated to export bulk water to the US with private holdings pocketing the profits. Insiders hard at work… All the available water allotments are out now and being banked by oil companies who are poised to sell them to municipalities.

The Liberals said earlier they would draw all the water allotments back into the Crown and redistribute as to need. If there is to be water export, the profits would come into the provincial treasury rather than Conservative insiders.  Municipalities would not have to pay US import water prices for their service!

This same group of people are among the major contributors to the Wild Rose Party (2.1 million dollars) who are entirely on side with the Conservatives in all matters.  They have attracted all the Klein drop outs.

These items were all followed at the time.  Top Right Corner of this blog search for those items that interest you. eg: PPA, Water; Electricty; and so on.

Wild Rose Party. Funding and Program!

Wild Rose Party. Funding and Program!

Albertans must surly know the funding for Orman comes from the oil companies where as  the huge Funding for the Wild Rose party 2.1 million dollars is coming from vested interests, both the energy companies and the Mormon church who are not at all shy about these things.   Not only that but municipalities in Southern Alberta who are vested in Bulk Water Exports to the US are big contributors.    Of course this is not legal so nothing will be said until after elections at which point she will take the "divulge nothing" option and pay her 15.000 dollar fine.

Our royalty is zero;zilch; nada!  Our Heritage Trust which should have been far above 200 billion dollars is now sitting at 15 billion.  That in turn will be gone by 2014 where  Liepert expects a 5 billion dollar surplus off taxes alone having totally done away with Alberta Health Care and having sold off provincial hospitals to private companies and physician and health care consortium's.

 

Danielle Smith, Orman and the Wild Rose Party are completely on board with all of this. Example: When the Heritage Trust blossomed again, she said "Wild Rose will start a new account made up of  Taxpayer contributions!)  They too are not going to take any royalty for our oil.  On tar sands alone we are presently loosing 1.6 million dollars per day in revenue!

Pubic Pensions, still being sacked will be explained away  as needed adjustments, down by 50% or more!

The schools are on the verge of privatization having all but done away with the public school systems.

Universities will remain frozen in funding to 1986 levels.  Only our richest families will be able to attend.  Support for university at the high school level will depend on how much money you pay to attend a school that offers those specific courses.

You have just this one chance to change this province for the sake of your kids and your futures!

Support me in backing the Liberals.  The NDP are simply a protest vote and this is not the time to play around!

Conservatives tell Petroleum Association-Business as Usual after election!

Loose Lips Liepert addressed the Petroleum Group in Calgary saying if elected it will be business as usual and by 2014 we should have a 5 billion dollar surplus.

There is presently 15 billion dollars left in the Heritage Trust fund of the 200 billion or more that should have been in there!   By 2014 there will be nothing left! 

(There is no reference link: The Calgary Herald pulled the article from their news the moment I posted a comment to it!)

He talked sustainability fund again.  There is no such thing!  There is as outlined previously the public Pension funds which they were busted for robbing.  AIMCo who was to have been looking after these funds posted an 8 billion dollar loss while the rest of that industry in Canada posted at 3% gain.  If patterns hold, they will be drawing still more from the pension funds!

Next, that means any promises they make about changes are off the board!

It means any "surplus" will come through the cancellation of Alberta Health Care coverage and the privatization of the health industry! While make work programs for the oil industry will be funded from Pensions and Heritage trust.

It means the next few years are going to be the most miserable Albertans have ever lived through!

Wild Rose Party are fully on side with all of this!

On the other hand the Liberal Budget is non sensational, straight forward and very much on the mark. It protects our health care builds our needed pipelines and will without a doubt show Albertans a betterment of Lifestyle they could never have dreamed of under Conservative Governments.

Albertans must Vote to achieve this! The Conservatives got in with only 22% of the vote. That is because the people who wanted change did not take the time to vote!

This time do it!

Alberta Pre Election Budget - The real one will follow if you elect them again.

•  Alberta Pre Election Budget

IT WAS NOT OIL RESOURCE REVENUES WHO PAID DAY TO DAY EXENSES! IT WAS OUR HERITAGE TRUST FUND WHICH PAID 15 TOTAL PROVINCIAL BUDGETS! And.the Heritage Trust Fund was not sacked to help a starving province!  It was sacked throughout the highest, richest production years Alberta has ever known!  It was not invested in capital projects that did not appreciate as they would have you think!

160 billion dollars was pulled out of the fund and ran through General Revenues and used to artificially reduce oil royalty to zero!  The Heritage Trust is now down to 15 billion and falling fast! To replace this money they will increase your personal taxes!

THERE NEVER WAS A SUSTAINABILITY FUND!  Alberta's AIMCO however reported an 8 billion dollar loss in pension funds. (between an 8 and 12 million loss to pensions) at the same time the Conservatives were busted for stealing Alberta Pension Funds. http://albertathedetails.blogspot.com/2011/12/alberta-pensions-at-risk.html

Stupendous Predictions abound.  It is the true benchmark of the Conservatives. In their world it is not how much BS you throw but how much you make stick to the door that counts!

This time, last election: Our resource revenues were promised a pie in the sky increases in the "New Royalty Regime". Our royalty was 16% USD and US exchange was 18%.  They projected huge, impossible royalty increases exactly as they are doing this time! Same old show.

As it turned out, they changed our take from USD to Can $ in that document, a loss to this province of 18% at the time! The purpose was to reduce royalty and only to reduce royalty.  So much for promises from these guys. As Stelmach said in debate on that election, "we are Conservatives. not like these other guys"

The original deal on royalty was 25% on a paid plant and only 1% while the plant was being paid for.  Under this formula Alberta Taxpayers paid 100%  of these plants.  It was not a big investment by no name oil industry types. It was 100% Alberta Taxpayer coin!

Since the last election however they have reduced our royalty from 16% (When their stated target was 19% auditor Fred Dunn) to zilch!

Plant pay offs have nothing to do with their projected robbery.  Conservative idealism howeveris everything!

"INCREASES IN HEALTH CARE SPENDING" they say. No more chance than the proverbial snow ball in hell!  They do have every intention of totally privatizing our health care and doing away with Alberta Health Care Coverage. This is where most your phantom billions are coming from!  That is why so many health care companies are now registered in Alberta after Alberta changed legislation to allow Private Coverage in Alberta.  That is why your local Blue Cross is beating down your door to sell health care coverage.

STUPENDOUS  PREDICTIONS  abound.  It is the true benchmark of the Conservatives. In their world it is not how much BS you throw but how much you make stick to the door that counts!

This time, last election: Our resource revenues were promised a pie in the sky increases in the "New Royalty Regime". Our royalty was 16% USD and US exchange was 18%.  They projected huge, impossible royalty increases exactly as they are doing this time! Same old show.

As it turned out, they changed our take from USD to Can $ in that document, a loss to this
province of 18% at the time! The purpose was to reduce royalty and only to reduce royalty. 
So much for promises from these guys. As Stelmach said in debate on that election, "we are
Conservatives. not like these other guys"

The original deal on royalty was 25% on a paid plant and only 1% while the plant was being
paid for.  Under this formula Alberta Taxpayers paid 100%  of these plants.  It was not a big
investment by no name oil industry types. It was 100% Alberta Taxpayer coin!

Since the last election however they have reduced our royalty from 16% (When their stated
target was 19% auditor Fred Dunn) to zilch!

Plant pay offs have nothing to do with their projected robbery.  Conservative idealism however is everything!

"INCREASES IN HEALTH CARE SPENDING" they say. No more chance than the proverbial snow ball in  hell!

They have every intention of totally privatizing our health care and doing away with Alberta
Health Care Coverage. This is where most your phantom billions are coming from!  That is why so many health care companies are now registered in Alberta after Alberta changed legislation to allow Private Coverage in Alberta.  That is why your local Blue Cross is beating down your door trying to sell you a private medical coverage policy and your TV is alive with health care coverage alternatives.


Reducing royalty to zero and privatizing anything that can be construed social is what these guys are all about!  Likewise the Wild Rose Party whose members now include those same people who authored the sacking of the Heritage Trust. WRP have a work for your welfare program on the drawing boards they don't mind talking about.  
If you think this is as good as it gets, think again!  Under Conservatives or WRP your future is very bleak! Alberta needs a new big, change!

The Liberal Budget on the other hand is non sensational, well thought out with the future
considered. We can operate without oppression and ripping off of public funds. Entirely doable not a sack of cover-ups and false promises like this budget. A very superior product.

The Liberals will not be sacking public pensions and considered unnecessary staff and consultants to make the budget!

It is time to support the Liberal Party of Alberta and reclaim this province for the
citizens while protecting and growing our industries and jobs. We don't have to be a one industry province!

Pipelines - Who pays!

Pipelines appear to ship product from coast to coast but none are bigger than taxpayer dollars!

In Alberta, the Alberta Conservatives have priced our oil for export into the US at 75% of the market price.  The remaining 25% will go towards the payment of the construction and business of the pipelines.

How much we pay will depend on the price of oil  Since 2007 (This policy has been in since the start up of the Tar Sands) the price has remained below 100.00 per bbl/us.  More recently it has moved periodically above 100.00 per barrel US.

Tar Sands output has ranged very close to 1 million barrels a year over a number of years now.

I arbitrarily take 75.00 as being the average and our payment would be 25%  of that or, 18.75 per barrel US.

That works out to 18,750,000 per year paid towards pipelines by the Alberta Taxpayers. Over 10 years that would be $187,500,000 US.


The pipeline has  been on tap for 20 years and for several of those years the price of oil was above 190.00 per barrel US!  The pipeline has been paid for time and time again, who gets the money and why?

Somehow in the dealings Trans Canada Pipelines get paid for the pipeline. My thought is this would be from the refineries in the US. 

From the Taxpayers of Alberta to the Refineries in the US and Back to Trans Canada. A magnificent laundry system to keep the cost of pipelines away from Albertans.

The pipeline to the West coast will be more expensive than the one running south.The 5.5 billion dollars is a low ball estimate.  It could easily reach 5 times that amount!

In this deal, BC and Saskatchewan are on side with Alberta but no one in these jurisdictions is going to tell their taxpayers how much it is going to cost or, how they are going to pay. 

If you want a decent, honest accounting system, vote Liberal of Alberta with me!

Conservatives are circling the wagons!

After the Alberta Conservatives were busted for stealing pension funds from trust accounts in their care, there was a flurry of activity with Redford and group winging away to Ottawa to whisper in Harper's ear.

The results have been fast and furious:
Flathery reported to the Globe and Financial Posts he was "thinking" of make it legal for Governments to lend/borrow on pension funds.   His timing couldn't be better for those of you who had any doubts as to the credibility of the charges!

Next, we hear Harper from Switzerland saying he's going to change Canada's Pensions.  This, after he has set up a company in Ottawa to run herd on the CPP group.  It was patterned after Alberta's AIMCO which Harper considered to be a great idea.

When they interviewed the weasel in charge of this new company he said simply "things are not busy right now"  (Links to the stories or video will follow)

Harper arrives back in Canada and the debate on the pension changes was called up. It went as a normal debate was until I posted news about the like AIMCO company he had set up.  This went up on day one and on day 2 the Conservatives in Ottawa forced closure on the debate.

My guess is the new legislation will have teeth in it to allow Governments to meddle with pensions.  This will be done to give Alberta's outright theft the air of legitimacy.

Over the next months you will see any number of protective moves from Ottawa to save Alberta. And, you will hear any number of excuses from the Alberta Conservatives as they try to salvage something.


While all this is going on remember the AIMCO statements for last year showed an 8 billion dollar loss on their portfolios, the Alberta Government being their biggest if not only customer.


Pension portfolios across Canada gained by 1/2 of 1%   (0.50%) while my own personal portfolio gained by 3%


These were shown as outright Losses, not investments!

While on this subject, Mr. Rexall is the Chair of AIMCO.  We have a 400 million dollar Arena being proposed in Edmonton.   The city of Edmonton has been using P3 company to finance their constructions. 

Is the Government lending the City of Edmonton P3 money from the Pension Funds and showing them as losses in the Pension funds while preparing to get payments from the City of Edmonton and putting same into their General Revenues?

How much of Mr. Rexall's money is going into the Arena and is it his money or is it Pension money from AIMCO.   People should be asking for full disclosure.

Snelgrove Quits the Conservatives!

 There are a lot of stories being put out about how Snelgrove is unhappy with the leadership process and, that is why he is quitting.

This just doesn't make sense.  Why wait months, until prior to a new election to toss in the sponge?

I say that Snelgrove, burnt because he was the minister of finance when the theft of Alberta Pension Funds broke.  He had to wear the roses.  Then, Redford came up with a zero based accounting process for the new budget which does no consider any of the past histories and allows for a library of misrepresentations.

I'm pretty sure Snelgrove, a decent person took at look at the new scheme and said "NO!  NO MORE!" and dropped out of the club.

There have been about 10  high placed resignations to date and, there will be more before an election is called.

The Conservatives got their present grande majority with only 22% of the decided voters.  If the just half of the people who didn't vote showed up at the poles, there wouldn't be a conservative sitting!

If  you want a decent life in your province you have to get out there and vote when the time comes.  Nothing short of your vote is going to change anything!

In the interest of our industry, jobs and the well being of our families I am supporting the Liberals of Alberta. If your mind is not made up; join with me.

Lennox not up to their reputation and much worse!

Lennox put out a Furnace model XC13 024 230 01 with a faulty computer board in it.

When they discovered this, instead of offering a recall like most manufactures do, they wait until your furnace isn't working and sell you a new, revamped computer board for 500.00.

If you are looking for a new furnace I would suggest you look elsewhere!

Alberta Heritage Savings and Trust fund - deliquent!

The Alberta Heritage and Trust Fund has been under financial attack by the ruling Conservatives for more than a dozen years!

In this time more than 160 billion dollars has been taken out of the fund, put into the Governments General Operating funds where it has been used like a petty cash account to pay everyday expenses!  They have admitted to only 90 billion dollars to date but the draw continues ongoing.

This represents 160,000 loss for every man woman and child in the province of Alberta!  Broke? Now, you know why!

Many of the politicians who started the maximum draw down have left the Conservative party and are now running for the Wild Rose Party; most as officers of the party.  Alberta can look for nothing better if they are allowed to succeed. 


Recently, they have been busted for stealing Alberta Government and municipal pension funds in their trust.  This is a new deal for them, they have been doing it for just a couple of years taking from the accounts held by AIMCO.  This theft is for 10 to 12 billion dollars  (10 or 12 thousands of dollars for every man woman and child in the province). 

AIMCo have posted a 8 billion dollar loss this year alone. This, at a time when other pension funds in Canada have appreciated by .5 %.  The Alberta Government is their only real customer.


One has to wonder where the RCMP are.  AIMCO is not Government and holds no other protection from prosecution so far as I know.


If Albertans do not vote in this coming election and settle on a party outside of the Conservative club, we will have absolutely nothing left!


In the interest of our jobs and industry, I will be supporting the Liberal Party of Alberta often referred to as Red Conservatives.

Flaherty joines Alberta's efforts in Pension Theft!

This simply makes Flaherty culpable with Alberta in Pension Theft!  Earlier this week Alberta was busted for stealing Alberta's public pensions in their trust. 
 

We so very much need police investigation and intervention! I will make inquiries along those lines.

 

Now, a week later Flaherty is putting out fire controls, trying to make it possible for the Alberta Conservatives to weasel their way out of their shame.  The idea is right out of his hat, surprising absolutely every one!

It's not going to work!   People will not allow you to paint over the crime!  In any case, Alberta does not have the 10 billion dollars or more that it needs to replenish the pensions pilfered.

Alberta Pensions at Risk!

This post is made up of 3 sections:
(1): An introduction to the financial piracy; a standard practice.

(2)(Italics): The Governments response to the knowledge of the post and their immediate defense proving beyond doubt exactly what they are up to.

(3)The summary; actual post as to the mechanics, how and why and the results.
 *****************************************************************

(1)

The Alberta Conservatives are stealing your pensions just like they stole the Heritage Trust Fund. 

The Trust fund has been sacked to the tune of  120-130 billion dollars (they have admitted to only 90 billion dollars which is 10 to 15 complete provincial budgets paid for out of that account!

Monies are being transferred out of the fund into the General Operating Expense account where it is used to pay bills there-by allowing the Government to artificially reduce royalties which were to due from the resource people.  

They have successfully reduced these royalties to below 5% Canadian dollars where as both BC, Saskatchewan and the east coast are sitting at 20% US dollars!   The last election held a promise of royalty  increases.  Under the gloss of mathematical tables it actually reduced our royalty by changing the money taken from US to Canadian $ a loss of 18% at the time.   The people in this province are actually paying the companies to take the oil from the province!

The Alberta Conservatives are running and have been running this province off the good will of Churches, Food Banks, the Heritage Trust Fund and Pensions. 

It will be much worse in the future leaving Albertans the laughing stock of the Conservative world!
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(2)
 I sent Alison Redford an email with an outline of what I was about to post asking if she had any comments.   This prompted a call by them  for an immediate meeting of the Treasury Board; invited guests only. 

 Liepert explained to reporters “It is a small group, but covered all sections of the province.”

All of Alberta watched that dog and pony show on TV!  Directly after that, every conservative news outlet in the country gave a less than enthused PS to their news commentary about the big increases in Alberta’s oil outputs which, is a lie.

Immediately Finance Minister Jim Flaherty rushed out to disarm the situation by telling the world he has been considering making this type of robbery legal.
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(3)
The Conservatives are totally immune from investigation no matter how criminal they are!   This is a fact, not some cooked up imagination thing; take it to the bank! 

There is no fix for this unless you get rid of these guys!  With recent "expert articles" in the eastern press we may be able to involve law enforcement from other provinces in this.

The draw down is on all Government Controlled pensions including Civil and Municipal Pensions which are under their control.  These pensions will pay only a small fraction of what they promised you!

Pensions are the silent partner in Alberta’s P3 projects and are particularly hard hit!   Invested in the ridiculous CCS program;   Hendey drive; schools across the province and hospitals newly constructed.  The money is supplied at bargain rates; below market values which, is drastically shorting the pensions and is a conflict of interest in any court.

 
On top of this, many millions of dollars are being paid to the management of AIMCo, out of the same pension funds.

Simultaneously to this post going up  AIMCo. which had a 70 billion dollar in Alberta pension Funds reported a 7 billion (10%) loss for last year!  They have only 1 customer, the Alberta Government.  I know my own pension funds took at hit of 1%

Monies are being transferred out of the fund into the General Operating Expense account where it is used to pay bills there-by allowing the Government to artificially reduce royalties which were to be paid by the resource people.  They have successfully reduced these royalties to below 5% Canadian dollars where as both BC, Saskatchewan and the east coast are sitting at 20% US dollars!  The people in this province are actually paying the companies to take the oil from the province!

They have absolutely no intentions of paying back the Heritage Trust fund and they don't have any intentions of paying back the monies taken from the pension funds.  Indeed; these monies may well be lost and they don't have the 8 to 12 billion dollars they have heisted.

The way they did the drain on the Heritage fund was to peg growth at 4% saying that is rich enough for the Alberta population.  They took everything above 4% and put it into general revenues.  AIMCo, beyond making the process easier, keeps the pension figures away from the Government workers claiming it is separate. 

The news on the Heritage Fund didn't break until it was nearly all gone.  We have an advantage this time!  They are only 3 years into it!

It is not enough municipalities complain to this Government.  It is enough however that you get some lawyers on side and see what you can salvage.  Get the Unions involved, now!

The Alberta Teachers Pension fund is robbed regularly and the Teachers Association holds the Government's feet to the fire before each election demanding they top up their pension.  I would love to know what kind of rates the Government is paying them to keep them coming back for more.  It must be considered a royal investment return; all paid for out of public pensions.

The Wild Rose Party will not offer you any different. They are very much on side with these actions and they continue to promise you they will supply more of the same. They are made up of Conservative executives who want the golden ring for themselves.  Time is now for important decisions.

I will be supporting the Liberal Party of Alberta in the coming elections.

R.C.M.P shackled in dealings with the Alberta Government

Why is it the Conservatives can steal 120 billion dollars from the Heritage Trust Fund without a challenge from the police force?

Why is it the Conservatives can steal more billions from insurance programs held in their trust and invite no examination from the R.C.M.P?


What was the big delay and apprehension in signing the R.C.M.P to another term as Alberta's police force and why was the Conservatives intent in putting in a provincial police force regardless of costs if the RCMP did not come into line?

These and some of the other outrages as in closed bidding and the obvious insider route to granting bids prompted my investigation which has been ongoing over years.  Here is the startling results:

The R.C.M.P, if they wanted to be Alberta's Police force had to agree there would be no investigations into the Alberta Government unless they had permission from the Alberta Attorney General first gave them permission to do so.


If they had not done so we would have had a private police force of the Conservatives' personal gangsters and enforcers to make life miserable for any that disagree with them.

We have a new R.C.M.P director in Ottawa now.  It is time to write him and see what he can do about cleaning up this obscenity. that has cost Alberta hundreds of billions of dollars!

Alberta Fianace - Heading for disaster big time!

The  Conservatives, through short sightedness and abject miss management has forced this province into a position of being at least, flat broke and at the outside near bankrupt.  

During the great, high flying times they had drawn more than 90 billion from the Heritage trust (Arms Length ? AIMCo)  Production remains flat meaning little new revenue while expenditures sky-rocket. Recent news broadcasts and releases tout more production but the fine print shows the increases are in foreign holdings.

Make work programs for the resource people costing 9 billion a year or more. Oil companies pulling a million profit or more for non producing wells while workers get 1 week in 3 employment.  Not enough for any trickle down luck to take place.   If these kids manage to get enough coin it goes for new rims for their favorite truck.

For those of you who think they will not face a heavy load of taxation after the next election; the Government is still short near a billion dollars for new power lines!   That coin will come as a new tax measure plus the coin for day to day operations and corporate subsidies.

Much of this loose gold goes to the executive professionals  who get full pay, most of whom are foreign educated because of the Conservatives  attack on the people of Alberta forcing kids into trade schools rather than leave a University choice. The Conservatives found early on it was cheaper to put their kids though trades schools and employ professions from foreign sources.

Reports of high school students still leaving school to get into the artificial, non existent Alberta boom I find very disquieting.

The Conservatives  reduced royalty to 5% Canadian before the crunch! This is not enough money to call it a break even deal!  Now, they have no place to move!

Facing an election in the near future and dwindling profits they are trying desperately at taxpayer expense to generate a picture, no matter how false or  how costly of a rollicking provincial economy and, it simply is not true. 

Probably, "Arms Length" public service pensions administered by AIMCo are being invested in CCS, P3 financing  and like programs so they don't show up as a debt. If they treat them like the Heritage fund they will be paid 4% for their "investment"  This would be one reason why this Government is pushing so hard on a CCS program rift with misdirection and lies.  They have already invested so the WRP grab for attention of saying  "stopping CCS" would bring a whole new set of problems.

 A Pension Fund was invested in Alberta Conservative projects would show on the pension side of the books as an investment  and it would not show as part of the debt on the Government side.  If it is treated like the Heritage fund there is no intention of repaying but will hold appreciation very low to push profits onto the projects.

You can see why this Government fought so hard against a Federal Securities commission!  If you or I tried anything like this we would be in court!

 
Strapped for cash they tried Bond funds which didn't fly; industry doesn't trust them; knows better. But it is possible AIMCo bought up a bunch of the bonds and tacked them into their portfolios. 

Arms Length with this Government means they can direct the funds which ever way they want, investing in whatever doubtful project they want and the "arms length"  comes into effect barring the public from a look at the accounts and investment strategy.

Get rid of these suckers while you still can! And, the WRP is on side with all this stuff so you won't find an improvement there.  If anything it will be much worse.

http://canadianimmigrant.ca/news-and-views/foreign-trained-engineers-could-fill-gaps-in-alberta-energy-sector/

 This is the result of the Conservatives ongoing plan to put Alberta talent into trade jobs and import the Engineers and Physicians from abroad.

A dozen years ago the Conservatives took advise they could not support "big business" in the province because of the lack of talent (volume) graduating from Alberta Universities.

They made the decision to freeze university funding at the 1986 levels (where they still are) putting enrollment out of reach of all but the wealthiest families in the province.  This plan was totally cemented when Ontario did away with their Senior Matriculation program graduating 2 years of students into 1 year.  Because of the lack of space in Ontario Universities many of the excess students found a university in Alberta and paid foreign enrollment fees.

The universities being short funded by the Province had to go after this more lucrative business and the infamous bell curve shot upwards into the high 90s and made room for the brightest from anywhere in the world and Albertans  were directed by default into trade schools.  Of these, some advertised University courses but, when completed they could not be rolled over to universities.  Another year was required at the university for the entrance.

More money was poured into the trade schools like NAIT and SAIT to teach industry designed programs for the resource industry.

The result was Albertans lost their choice as to whether they wanted a higher education or not.  They were efficiently channeled into the trade schools and Alberta embarked on a world wide program to attract foreign professions to the Alberta fold.

Much the same thing is happening now, for different reasons.  The Conservatives have pushed their Job Job glitz to anyone who would listen.  The World Crunch came and is still with us.  Make work programs were created to cover them through a new election which is imminent.

Under this program, companies are encouraged to drill wells.  They are reporting profits of a million dollars a hole whether or not the holes produce oil.  Before the profit is taken, any number of people are hired but some only get 1 week work out of every 3 weeks.   Hardly enough cash in the system to promote any trickle down effect!


The Conservatives have advertised aboard for workers to make the province appear that it is short of people.  Thousands have arrived from Texas and other oil states in the US to fill some of these positions and they too are taking short hours.  Because of loose tax collections they take home a larger pay than do the Canadian people.

The Conservative dream once again.  About 8 or 9 billion dollars a year going to the resource industry from taxpayer coffers and being taken up for a larger part by foreign workers while companies take home a million dollars for administration.


Edmonton-based Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists, and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA) is  working with engineering bodies in Asian countries, Latin America and elsewhere to try to establish international mobility agreements that will smooth the way for engineers from countries there to qualify more easily to obtain certification in Alberta.

It has long had such an agreement with the United Kingdom. APEGGA is the body responsible for licensing all engineers in the province and for providing ongoing training, as well as working with government, industry and educators to promote the profession.
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-APEGA LOOKS FOR FOREIGN PROFESSIONALS! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As the Alberta economy shifts into semi-boom mode again, thanks to accelerated oilsands development and unconventional oil and gas expansion, there will have to be more engineers to design the plants and the infrastructure needed to accommodate that growth-and that worries executives with the provincial association that represents engineers.

In that regard, APEGGA has worked with the American Engineering Association, which has an examination it requires foreign-trained engineers to take to work in the United States. APEGGA also has a mentoring program, by which it matches newly arrived foreign-trained engineers with other foreign-trained engineers who have worked in Canada for a number of years.

The association has mulch-pronged strategy for dealing with the impending shortage.

One aspect of that strategy is convincing the federal government to allow more foreign-trained engineers to emigrate to Canada. The government has a reasonably aggressive temporary foreign worker program, aimed mostly at filling unskilled worker positions and some trades positions, but APEGGA doesn´t believe its program to allow in permanent trained immigrants is adequate.

It also wants to see the Alberta government bump up funding for engineer training at the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary, the two post-secondary institutions in Alberta that train engineers.
Read the complete story here
For tips in seeking work as an internationally trained engineer, click here

Heartland Power Lines receive Go Ahead!

The city will grow in that direction at some point,  Ifthere is a power supply already in place, growth will be that much more attractive.  That is a plus but the when or whenever comes into play, the charm is gone.

People get much less exposure to radiation when the towers are above ground!  The magnitisim we speak of here cannot be insulated!   It is the distance your bottom is from the wires that you should consider when you gauge relative safety.   

It really pees me off when I see power lines across a field one year and go back the next and see apartments and houses  adjacent to them in the same field.  Give it another couple years and the new residents are saying "move the power lines".  Public ignorance on the subject is immense!

The new up graders are a farce! The power line is needed for them to export their power!  Alberta is trading royalty for up graders only because papers like the Sun made such a big deal out of them.  We get .48 cents a barrel royalty on bitumen.  All the profits from the up grader stay with the up grader the taxpayer pays for it all and the Conservatives  brag because we get some taxes on profit; the Conservative dream machine.

Finally, if the new lines are designed for DC current, they can move up to 20% more electricity than the same AC line.  That is 20% more in the pocket of producers (Edmonton) and the taxpayer picks up the bill.

Liepert reminds us Nuclear is still in the mix.  He would be speaking of 1000 MW mini nuclear generators which will export to the US on those same lines.