Revolutionary Moderation

Generational theft

In the face of a growing deficit and lower oil and gas prices, the provincial government has elected to return to the sort of fire-sale royalty rates we charged for our oil and gas before Ed Stelmach was elected leader of his party on the promise of a review of those rates.

So, unlike other jurisdictions that have responded to major recessions with one-time infusions of cash into their economies, Alberta is responding to an oil-price-related slowdown of our overheated economy with a price cut on our resources that will forgo $363 million in revenue for each of the next two years, and unknown amounts beyond that, while hoping to deplete our finite resources more quickly. In fact, if they don't, this policy will be called a failure.

Because the only thing better than leaving our children with a debt burden is making sure they don't have the natural resources to sell in order to help pay for our greed. Hilarious!