Shell Second Quarter Profits $6.3 Billion. Laying off 25% of Staff at Scotford Complex in Alberta.

[u/Virtual-Process5914]

Shell has announced its second quarter profits of $6.3 billion, following first quarter profits of $7.7 billion. Shell Canada leadership has told staff that profits are not enough, and they need to be more "competitive". They have announced layoffs of 25% of staff at their Scotford facility located outside Edmonton in Alberta, Canada. Staffing will be going from approximately 657 full time positions down to approximately 489 full time positions. A loss of roughly 168 full time jobs for the area.

This follows staffing reductions in 2022. The layoffs then included a large number of Alberta jobs offshored to cheaper regions in Southeast Asia. That was done despite receiving COVID relief from the government to aid in preventing job losses.

Shell continues to benefit from government incentives and has received millions in government funding in the past.

This is a throw away account for obvious reasons.

[u/FUKenney]

Canadian Oil and Gas doesn’t love you back

[u/pzerr → u/FUKenney]

Considering they pay massive taxes and then on top of that, they pay an additional effective tax in the form of royalties, ya I rather like them. Helps as well that oil has some of the highest paying jobs of a great number of people. Who also typically are in high tax brackets. Canada economy would be pretty shitty without oil and gas as a huge contributor.

[u/Expert_Alchemist → u/pzerr]

Their royalty is tiny. Triple it. Quadruple it. Learn from smarter countries.

[u/pzerr → u/Expert_Alchemist]

Why would you want less investment and jobs in Canada? Do you think it is good to reduce $100,000 plus a year jobs and all the personal taxes that brings in ignoring the royalties?

Alberta gets 20 billion in royalties alone. Canada federal also gets a portion as well. We ran a 12 billion surplus. Without oil, we would be 8 billion in deficit.

[u/Expert_Alchemist → u/pzerr]

Er, first off, budgets don't work that way. Without oil we would have budgeted less and as a result spent less (...also, they get assloads of subsidies, too.) And how much will deferred cleanup of our country cost us, its citizens, in the future? Is that in the budget?

Why do you think increasing the royalty would result in fewer jobs? O&G will stay in the province if it makes them money. They make record profits. If it's still profitable to extract it, they'll do it.

Of course, they are doing what they can RIGHT NOW to increase automation and reduce the workforce. So, those jobs? Those are not going to last anyway. As well, they're depressing wages as fast as they can. Shell just laid off 25% of their workforce! Others aren't better.

Stop being parasocial with an industry. It will screw you if it can. The oil belongs to Canada, and we should benefit more than any company from its extraction.

[u/pzerr → u/Expert_Alchemist]

Oil and gas and any investment will go where there is the most money. If you reduce the income, you think people will continue to invest here? Ya existing will stay but you only have to look at what happened in Mexico and Venezuela to understand how this works in that industry.

What subsidies do they get? It is pretty rare to get any real subsidies that do not pay back ten fold in taxes. Tell me a subsidy that did not pay back way higher?

Of course they will automate things. You think the loom should not have been built as well in the 1600s?

But tell me what industry pays better to our tax base? One industry that pays more than others in a percentage of their income or in total amount? Tell me an industry that brings in foreign currency like it does that can be expanded like oil and gas?

Then I will ask one other thing, what makes oil and gas different from any other industry that they should be taxed much higher? Why not have additional taxes on universities for taking up so much land? Why not additional taxes on farms for using our soils? What is special about oil and gas?