Oil Royalties

Big business makes me sick. The increased royalty tax on oil and gas in Alberta, proposed by premier Ed Stelmach is perfectly acceptable. Let’s just look at the basics. How much has oil prices jumped over the last 5 years? A LOT. More importantly the oil production in Alberta has also jumped exponentially, easily making big oil companies more than a billion dollars a years, which is by the way the price tag on the purposed oil royalty. A couple of companies have threatened to leave, which is an absolute joke. NO oil company would leave. A forced move would mean selling their stakes in the oil patch at a lower price and better consolidate their competitors in the area. So I would say to Stelmach, pull your socks up and increase the royalty’s its only fair.

This is what is proposed specifically;
"The new framework, set to take effect Jan. 1, 2009, is expected to deliver an additional $1.4 billion in royalties in 2010 -- 20 per cent more than initial projections under the old system -- but falls nearly $500 million short of what was recommended by the panel."

You tell me if it is fair to take a small percentage of profit away from the oil and gas industry.

Ralph Klein is kinda jerk.

Ralph Klein is so stereotypically conservative it's crazy. Observe.

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=12910686

Federal Conservatives Want To Stay

Sometimes people surprise you. Sometimes clowns surprise you. For Anyone that isn't a Tory it doesn't take much to provoke them into calling a Stephen Harper a clown. He's had a "wishy-washy" approach to politics since the conservatives have come into power. To be fair he has had a lot to deal with. The Liberals leaving a dynasty of corruption(not saying the other parties don't have corruption, but they weren't running the country for over a decade). Appeasing Quebec, trying to prove to them that his party isn't that bad after all. On top of this and its been really good for Canadian politics, he has a minority government. It may not be a stretch to say the conservative are going to win the next election. The economy is doing well, and conservatives have always had a pro-business focus, so would make sense to allow them to do what they do best, capitalism. And in ten years when the bubble bursts, we'll be back to a more socialist government... hopefully. The recent throne speech certainly seems like the Tories are wanting to stay in power, after all they got a lot to prove to the rest Canada.

It would seem the Harper has bowed to the opposition and is slowly pulling out of Afghanistan. By 2011 he wants to shift the focus to training the Afghan army and police. Which is fair, it would be wrong to pull out immediately. After all we came in and disrupted their government and way of life. Now, we seem to be providing a sense of stability for the country even though its they are focusing on fighting us rather than each other. I am sure that our forces provide much more security than an Afghan warlord(s) would/did.

As for strengthening the Youth Criminal Act seems somewhat dubious. They want to "ensure that young offenders who commit serious crimes are held accountable to victims and their communities." While this does seem to hopeful, they are going to have to release more details for it to convince me that they want to rehabilitate, rather than incarcerate.

He wants to implement a national strategy to reduce Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions by 60 to 70 per cent by 2050, but I thought serious climate change was happening now? Maybe they're giving time for corporations to react...

This is interesting "placing formal limits on the use of the federal spending power for new shared-cost programs in areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction."

Personally I love this, "bringing in legislation to allow for the direct election of senators and limits on their tenure." WOO! Hey how many times to they get together? Its not often. In 2006 the salary was $122, 700 and the may get additional salaries depending on their office. An interesting note New Zealand abolished their senate completely and are doing fine. Granted they are a small country, but it certainly makes one think.

Harper wants to "[modernize] Canada's military to strengthen surveillance and protection across Canada and meeting responsibilities towards the United Nations and other allies." Good we have exellent soldiers, imagine how much better they'll be at surviving when they aren't using second hand tanks, planes, etc.

Also they want to "[reinstate] a bill to give aboriginal people on reserves the same protections as other Canadians under the Canadian Human Rights Act." GOOD!

There more points but I felt those were the main points, but for once I read about our government and kinda felt hopeful. It was nice feeling. Hopefully the opposition keeps the conservative on the "straight and narrow" as much a possible.

I pulled quotes of the crown speech from http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=d93a5e2d-5e44-4a97-aaeb-c8cfee28feb2

and the info on senators salaries is from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Senate

A faux boom?

Saskatchewanites have seen and heard about it everywhere. “It” being the Saskatchewan’s government’s campaign to attract Albertans back. Someone needs to sit down and look to see if it is a trend or a spike. In the first part of a four part story in the Calgary Sun, headlines and intro paragraph’s make seem like it is certainly going be a trend. With stories of ex-Pats coming back to Regina, quotes from ex-Calgarians that moved to Regina for a quieter life. Lots of people are coming home.

Examining the two page article closer, one will find that perhaps it’s a spike. The people the articles are mostly business’s buying and fixing up property, an ex-Pat player coming home to work in their father’s market firm, and an ex-barber coming home to rent out north-central Regina apartments. Look at these one must think these are the notables from the people that have migrated and that maybe true, but in 6 months only 800 people have migrated back to Saskatchewan from Alberta. The scary part is that those 800 people are made out to be our biggest migrates and the reason for the exponential growth in housing and rent prices.

It makes one wonder how many more business’s bloated with oil money will come in to further inflate the market. How many more ex-Pats will come home to work for their father’s successful business and how many more slum lords do we need. Is the Saskatchewan is doing the right thing by increasing its tax base, but it seems like they are blowing hot air and just trying to make money off real estate inflation.

Home is where the debt is.

Owning a house is a serious undertaking for the majority of people. The need for housing to be available is another growing problem for Alberta and is coming into Saskatchewan. Rents are rising. The recent rent cap in Alberta has helped out residents somewhat, but it's still hard to make head way in a province that is already known for a drastic increase in living costs over the last 7 years. However, the people of Saskatchewan need to wake up, rent increases are coming and are going to continue to rise. The top ten places to be selling homes are;

The top 10 areas in Canada with the largest year-over-year price increases in August

Battlefords, Sask., 73.9% (Your home is worth 73.9% more than last year)
Saskatoon, 56.4%
Estevan, Sask., 52%
Northeastern Alberta, 46.6%
Prince Albert, Sask., 39.6%
Lethbridge, Alta., 37.5%
Fort McMurray, Alta., 36.2%
Regina, 34.1%
South Georgian Bay, Ont., 33.1%
Brandon, Man., 31.4%

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070929.RHOMESALES29/TPStory/?query=Saskatchewan

Half of the list are Saskatchewan cites, the lowest gain in SK, is Regina but a 34% return on a one year investment is a great return. What this means is that they are going to people buying and selling homes more than usual. Each person is going to want more net profit than the last and the real exasperating point here is that they are going to get more. The influx of former Alberta residents that have sold their homes and migrating into SK will mean the market contains the money to pay "little extra" for their new home.

To give you an idea on what the housing market is like this is what people are paying in Calgary, and this also points out how inflated the market is/was.

"The average price of a single-family Calgary metro home in September was $470,888. In August, it was $485,914. It has fallen more than $35,000 from the record high of $505,920 recorded in July. Last year in September, the average sale price was $426,622 -- a 10.38 per cent year-over-year increase." - Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/calgarybusiness/story.html?id=66903d5c-9650-4281-b212-a398d90badb0&k=84400

"A new eye for the straight guy."

I came near the end of the day for the Free Knowledge day. I came for the talk on "Marc Spooner:
"The purpose of a university experience: What are you doing here anyway?!" and stayed for the "Transgenderism" presentation and discussion.
I would like to focus on the "Transgenderism" presentation, as it was pretty interesting. Especially for me, as I have friends that are gay, and one them very free about the way he dresses, but I've never felt the need to sit down and have an academic conversation with him about his sexuality and how it is treated by the rest of society. He has always just been Fin to me.
The presentation was about transgenderism over the ages and over the globe. Transgenderism has been in the public eye since at very least the 1500's and everywhere on the globe. The Orient, Africa, europe and here in North America with the Native Americans. I was surprised about the amount of sub-classification of people that cross dress. There's a huge difference between a drag queen and someone that feels that they've been given the wrong sex. With that ignorance dispelled I continued to listen. The an important reminder was inadvertently given to me. People in the "queer" community still do not feel comfortable with expressing themselves freely and would like more understanding from society. Which is to say they are suggesting to the rest of us that they are human beings and should be treated with the dignity every human being deserves. Which is a perfectly acceptable statement and one that embarrasses me. To think that we can travel to the moon and back, cure disease but we aren't advanced enough to offer everyone the same level understanding or even the common courtesy that even if we don't understand something. That something isn't automatically wrong. Society isn't used to having its norms challenged and the "queer" community isn't used to openly challenging our convoluted norms. There does seem to be hope, the presenter said while there are a great many public places where he does not feel physically safe in expressing himself, there are a small few public places where he does feel safe. Which is a start, as previously there was even less places he felt safe to act himself out in public. My thoughts at the end of the lecture was that we need to give each other time, space and understanding. Time to figure out ourselves, space to make decisions of what is right for ourselves and the understanding that we all might not be perfect, but we should all feel safe.

NDP: No Longer fit for Saskatchewan

September 23, 2007

NDP

It has been always a strange debate, the argument of where people should live in Saskatchewan or Alberta. Worst of all is the propagandi by the two governments to attract certain residents to live here and other's to go.

Over the last week three headlines have crossed across the front page of the Leader Post. Regina Economy: Best Growth in a Decade, In Search of a Life with LESS STRESSLiving Life in Calgary's Fast Lane, and Grass isn't greener in Sask. Best Growth in a Decade contained government released states that Regina's GNP growth was at the top, even past Calgary and Edmonton. The article continues on to give the reader the impression that Saskatchewan is the place to be to improve your Western standard of life. The less stress starts out with the quote ' "Smaller, quieter, cheaper" That sums up life... 'the article reads on to tout the booming economy in Saskatchewan and why Regina is so great to live here. I guess in the following article's are considered to be fair and balanced reporting As the Fast Lane article refers to Calgary as a "fast paced, big-spender, boom-town" that deters this certain ex-Saskatchewan resident from moving home. The last article is about people moving from Edmonton to Saskatoon because they went to a government website to figure out the cost of living difference between the two cities. They were lead to believe that Saskatoon was not. However, the lower wages, lack of daycare and lack of rental housing shortage has left the couple struggling. They were quoted as saying ' " Maybe they meant for only the rich to come here!' "

Reading these article makes one wonder what Saskatchewan is doing. They are a socialist government province trying to attract the conservative upper middle class from Alberta here. While the NDP ignore the needs of the working person, thus, possibly, sparking the beginning of a potential labour stortage in Saskatchewan too because the blue collar worker cannot afford to keep up with demands of an inflated market. That was created but an influx of money from Alberta. Interestingly enough Alberta is rejecting any worker that isn't able to live there. A politician from the Calgary area left the message that said "If you don't have a place to stay or a job, get out."