[BRAH]

Thanos Thanos:

Hard to build up a decent surplus when the revenue for it kept being taken away as federal transfers to the other provinces, especially to Quebec.

If it wasn't for the Federal transfers Alberta would be in a better position even with the AB NDP and Rachel Notley.

[Sunnyways]

Thanos Thanos:

The situation isn't comparable in the slightest. All the oil revenue in Norway goes to the Norwegian federal government; being offshore it's controlled by the national state, not a province or sub-state. It's not a case in Norway where a provincial state ends up losing between two-thirds and three-quarters of it's resource revenue to confiscation by the federal government, the way it happens every year with oil & gas producing provinces in Canada.

As for not saving as much as should have been that's always easier said than done. One, the province is obligated to use that revenue to provide and maintain infrastructure, education, health services, and a thousand other responsibilities. Two, the provincial revenue take gets hammered at least once a decade by a major recession and during those recessions Alberta doesn't receive any kind of waiver from it's forced contribution to Ottawa; the feds come and take what they want regardless of the economic conditions going on inside the province.

If someone could please provide me with an example of any other province in this country "saving like they should" with their own revenue. Judging by the size of the Ontario and Quebec debt & deficits neither of those provinces has saved a penny since Confederation. Don't see why Alberta continually gets this sort of smear placed against us when it's easily arguable that every other province in this country, going by their debts and deficits alone, has been run much worse than we have.

I do not intend it as a smear, more a suggestion that Alberta and every other Canadian province need to take on board if they want to avoid making similar mistakes in the future. I now live in NL where we blew our oil bonanza, ruined our fishery (with some foreign help), took a massive gamble on a hydro project and are facing a fiscal catastrophe. In the Eighties, I remember being amazed at the luxurious state of Foothills hospital and the empty freeways in Calgary which was during the bust. The province had obviously thought the good times were going to roll on forever. I'm fully aware Norway is an independent state and Alberta and the rest of us aren't but why not look to the best run oil-rich country as an example? Were no mistakes made locally on spending?

[DrCaleb]

Sunnyways Sunnyways:

Were no mistakes made locally on spending?

I'm going with 'no'. All the projects I've heard of for the last few years have been on or under budget and on time.

The NDP, I think made a bold move for Alberta in that they did not slash an already slashed civil service in the name of political points. Most of the civil service hasn't had a raise since Redford put a freeze on raises and hiring. The payroll is a very small percentage of provincial revenue, and the effects of cuts would be unemployment that would be a mental barrier to growth.

Instead they kept up with Government infrastructure projects, kept people employed and incurred a bit of debt. Debt that can be erased as we now see an uptick in employment and investment. Sooner than the turnaround that followed Ralphs' 5% cut across the board for Government spending.

[CharlesAnthony]

News reports of this sort distract the public's attention away from the obvious concerted effort to destroy the remaining life out of the Canadian economy.

[bootlegga]

Thanos Thanos:

Hard to build up a decent surplus when the revenue for it kept being taken away as federal transfers to the other provinces, especially to Quebec.

That's a total red herring that the UCP propagates constantly.

That argument might make sense IF the provincial government paid those transfers out of its revenues, but they are derived from federal tax revenue.

The reason we can't build a decent surplus is because Albertans want lot of hospitals, schools, twinned highways, and other goodies without having to pay the taxes necessary to support all of it.

If we paid as much in taxes as those communists next door in Saskatchewan, we'd have run surpluses since forever.

[BartSimpson]

Thanos Thanos:

The situation isn't comparable in the slightest. All the oil revenue in Norway goes to the Norwegian federal government; being offshore it's controlled by the national state, not a province or sub-state. It's not a case in Norway where a provincial state ends up losing between two-thirds and three-quarters of it's resource revenue to confiscation by the federal government, the way it happens every year with oil & gas producing provinces in Canada.

As for not saving as much as should have been that's always easier said than done. One, the province is obligated to use that revenue to provide and maintain infrastructure, education, health services, and a thousand other responsibilities. Two, the provincial revenue take gets hammered at least once a decade by a major recession and during those recessions Alberta doesn't receive any kind of waiver from it's forced contribution to Ottawa; the feds come and take what they want regardless of the economic conditions going on inside the province.

If someone could please provide me with an example of any other province in this country "saving like they should" with their own revenue. Judging by the size of the Ontario and Quebec debt & deficits neither of those provinces has saved a penny since Confederation. Don't see why Alberta continually gets this sort of smear placed against us when it's easily arguable that every other province in this country, going by their debts and deficits alone, has been run much worse than we have.

Maybe now you see the wisdom in how our Constitution was created to protect the rights of individuals and the states against Fedzilla.

Our states that manage their money well, like Alaska, can't have their reserve funds raided by the greedy fucking bastards in Congress whenever it suits them.

That's the wisdom of the 10th Amendment.

[Thanos]

The US Constitution is an inspired document. Too bad that it's ensuring of liberty does nothing at all to prevent lunatics from burning down the only system in which the Constitution operates.

[BartSimpson]

Thanos Thanos:

The US Constitution is an inspired document. Too bad that it's ensuring of liberty does nothing at all to prevent lunatics from burning down the only system in which the Constitution operates.

I know you hate Trump but the fact remains that so far he's heading in a direction that's more aligned with the Constitution than any of his predecessors dating all the way back to Herbert Hoover.

Most of the crap he's been undoing are things that were never authorized either by the Constitution or by Congress.

[Sunnyways]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Sunnyways Sunnyways:

Were no mistakes made locally on spending?

I'm going with 'no'. All the projects I've heard of for the last few years have been on or under budget and on time.

Instead they kept up with Government infrastructure projects, kept people employed and incurred a bit of debt. Debt that can be erased as we now see an uptick in employment and investment. Sooner than the turnaround that followed Ralphs' 5% cut across the board for Government spending.

I’m talking about the last sixty years. Now is not the time to cut spending.