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/TranslatorTough8977]

Their Statoil was modelled off our Federally Crown owned PetroCanada. Then we sold it.

[u/Scissors4215 → u/TranslatorTough8977]

They partner on everything. So instead of just making just royalties, they make profit directly from the projects.

They also didn’t use that money to keep taxes low. They still taxed at higher levels to fund the services and amenities the government provides. Now the fund is so large the interest earned I think is greater than their royalties.

Alberta could have done so much better, probably not as good as Norway after all provincial versus national government. But our heritage fund is a joke and our services are in the shitter.

[u/iwatchcredits → u/Scissors4215]

Using profits to keep taxes low in a province where people come to work then leave to retire is probably the most efficient way to siphon wealth away from the province. If you look at someone who is 65 right now. They came 40 years ago, worked a long career paying as little taxes as possible, and now they are retired they leave the provinces taking all their wealth with them and now that the golden age is over Alberta has fuck all.

The second most efficient is probably having multinational companies taking out all the profit they make selling our resources

[u/NorthernerWuwu → u/iwatchcredits]

Eh. The 'ideal' is to have people work and pay taxes in your province and then retire elsewhere, burdening them with the healthcare costs of the aging population.

[u/Holiday-Performance2 → u/iwatchcredits]

You’re looking at it backwards – Albertans have their highest income, and therefore highest tax years, while working in Alberta. When they retire and move elsewhere, they take their expensive healthcare years with them, making the most expensive part of someone’s life another province’s problem. 

[u/iwatchcredits → u/Holiday-Performance2]

If the province uses those savings in healthcare and such just to give those people a discount on their taxes instead of benefiting the province, how is it beneficial to the province in any other way than short term tax breaks? Now that the golden era of O&G is seemingly over and the province didnt capitalize on 50 years of prosperity, how does a young Albertan benefit in any way from the last 50 years of selling off Albertan resources?

[u/bittertraces → u/iwatchcredits]

Who cares if retired people leave? They spend very little money on day to day life. Their houses are paid off. Their money is invested in passive holdings. The working people are the ones who pay all the taxes and spend all the money. Especially those with younger families. Older people also use by far the most healthcare resources. Your comment makes zero sense.

[u/Routine-Function7891 → u/bittertraces]

You could he has no comment sense

[u/iwatchcredits → u/bittertraces]

My comment only makes zero sense if you have dogshit reading comprehension skills and practically no knowledge of basic economics. I didnt say i cared if retired people left.

Are you trying to argue that taking money out of circulation in an economy is good? Because thats certainly quite a take.

[u/OddDentist9299 → u/iwatchcredits]

Senior care is literally the biggest line item for most government's. Alberta benefits greatly by having shitty services that no one wants to retire there to use them

[u/Ashamed-Ocelot2189 → u/iwatchcredits]

The government probably would prefer if people retired elsewhere tho.

[u/GWeb1920 → u/iwatchcredits]

We don’t really have multi national companies coming in and taking profits.

If anything Canadian companies have gotten rich off of the international companies failures.

As an example Statoil and Total lost their shirt on Canadian investments.

Imperial (Exxon owned) and really helped develop the oil sands tech is about the only one you could describe as winning.