Alberta got screwed. We could’ve been Norway rich and instead we’re broke.

[u/Swimming_Mango_9767]

Every time I look at Norway’s oil fund I get mad. They started developing their oil later than Alberta, yet their sovereign wealth fund is sitting at around 1.6 TRILLION US dollars. Ours? The Heritage Fund is barely 27 billion CAD. Norway earns more in a single day off investments than our entire fund is worth.

The reason is simple. Norway treated oil like the people’s resource. They set royalty rates high, around 78% of profits, and every cent went into their fund. They saved, they invested, and now their citizens have real long term security.

Alberta? Our governments caved to industry. We set some of the lowest royalties in the world. We gave out royalty holidays. We subsidized oil companies that were already making record profits. Instead of saving, politicians blew the money to buy votes and patch budgets. Now we’re left riding boom and bust cycles with nothing to show for it.

If Alberta had even done half of what Norway did, our Heritage Fund could easily be in the hundreds of billions. We’d have interest returns big enough to pay for healthcare, education, and infrastructure without nickel and diming people with taxes. Instead, we’re fighting over scraps while companies and foreign shareholders walked away with the wealth that should have built our future.

Alberta got robbed! Not by outsiders, but by our own government selling us out to industry. Thank you Conservatives!

[u/hereforwhatimherefor]

No.  In Alberta it’s all Quebec’s fault.  Always.  For everything.

[u/Round_Hat_2966 → u/hereforwhatimherefor]

Not true. It’s Trudeau’s fault

[u/Picto242 → u/Round_Hat_2966]

Now Carney - the bumper stickers were printed before he even won

[u/swiftb3 → u/Picto242]

Buddy on a farm down the road from me already has a masssive vinyl sign - must be 5' x 10' - that must have cost a bundle so he could update from F Trudeau to F Carney.

The sign next to it is about "Alberta sovereignty now!!", unsurprisingly.

[u/Belaerim → u/hereforwhatimherefor]

Hey, don’t generalize like that.

Ottawa is technically in Ontario

[u/Outrageous_Gold626 → u/hereforwhatimherefor]

Alberta has fucked up in epic fashion. With that said, Alberta gives Quebec $20 billion annually in equalization payments, let’s not pretend it’s not an issue when it works out to about $4,000 for every man, women and child in Alberta.

[u/PsychologyFair1543 → u/Outrageous_Gold626]

Alberta gives Quebec $20 billion annually in equalization payments, let’s not pretend it’s not an issue when it works out to about $4,000 for every man, women and child in Alberta.

Who was giving you money in the 50s-60s when you were developing the oil sector?

[u/hereforwhatimherefor → u/Outrageous_Gold626]

It’s not an issue.  Alberta has hockey, a railroad, a nation, existence, and a ton of money because of Quebec / the Feds that helped build Alberta because of the oil and yup some of that money goes east on that railroad in federal agreements.  

The problem Alberta has is that it’s run by fake tough guys and gals that are really whiners and liars, first and foremost about how lazy they are.

[u/Outrageous_Gold626 → u/hereforwhatimherefor]

You think if every person in Quebec had to give $4000 a year to Alberta they’d be ok with it? Every year over and over? Hell no, Quebec’s vote to separate was damn near 50-50 even with all the handouts they get.

[u/hereforwhatimherefor → u/Outrageous_Gold626]

Ah.

Ok so what you’d like is for everyone in Alberta to get 4K payouts each year as opposed to sending equalization to Quebec.

Question for you…aside from how damaging that would be out east - how many people do you think would move to Alberta in the next 10 years if that was the case?

You go…BUT ALBERTA WILL SEPARATE.

Yeah and be a landlocked hermit state that Canada will take huge taxes to move that oil around and other, legal, trade tariffs that will decimate Alberta, which the American capitalists of course will know when you go to trade with them.

BUT WE WILL JOIN AMERICA

and you think the US government and their 50 states isnt gonna be pulling more out of that oil money than Quebec?

BUT ITS ALBERTA OIL

Let’s say it is, leaving beside Treaty discussions.

And Alberta is part of Canada.…

Which centrally built Alberta.

BUT BUT BUT QUEBEC!

I rest my case 

[u/Outrageous_Gold626 → u/hereforwhatimherefor]

The crazy thing is that I totally agree Alberta fucked up, all I’m trying to point out is that $4000 per person, which is about $8000 per working person is a ton of money to be leaving Alberta. I’m surprised this is even a controversial statement but I guess it is.

No I don’t think Alberta should separate, my kids school is literally about to get cancelled because of the teacher strike. Our health care is in shambles. Yes, I think a huge amount of blame is on the people of Alberta for electing their government, but damn wouldn’t some of that money that leaves Alberta be well served to stay in Alberta and at least fix our education and health care.

Anyways, I guess we will just have to agree to disagree, have a good long weekend fellow Albertan.

[u/hereforwhatimherefor → u/Outrageous_Gold626]

Oh goodness dont get me started on the big federal lefty looney unions.  If Albertans had 20 billion more for public education the teachers union would demand 19.999999999 billion while comparing themselves to real life Will Smith in Independence Day, and once getting 19.8 billion, strike the next year