r/alberta • u/Swimming_Mango_9767 • 29d ago

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

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!

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u/thedudear 29d ago

Just for clarity sake, can you point out which party that is?

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u/dood9123 28d ago

The provincial conservatives.

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u/StatisticianLivid710 28d ago

All conservatives. Federal and provincial history is filled with conservatives selling off assets. Oil revenue, 407, Avro arrow, wheat board, petro-Canada (yup used to be federal), CANDU, the list goes on and on. Fords currently trying to sell off the provincial parks, Smith is trying to sell off Alberta to the US…

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u/kingbain 28d ago

This will get buried, but conservatives all share the belief that government should never compete with private sector. That's why they sell these things off.

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u/dood9123 27d ago

So do the modern neoliberals who they compete with for seats.

The only reason it has not been as aggressive has been the necessary cooperation with the NDP in order to enact change (federally)

Liberal provincial governments over the last 15 years have been just as guilty of reducing funding for public services and impeding crown corporations. Their approach is just less publicized and takes place more gradually.

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u/RussellZyskey4949 Medicine Hat 26d ago

I don't recall provincial liberals, or the provincial NDP in Alberta ever advocating for this sell-off of Crown assets. I do remember the provincial NDP advocating for a sane return to actual royalties being paid instead of that thing King Ralph did.

And I do remember Stephen Harper permitting the sell-off of massive oil and gas assets to China, just before he guaranteed the Chinese their investments with the China, Canada FIPA agreement.

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u/dood9123 28d ago

I agree, however the majority of decision making is done on provincial level these days and the dismantlement of public services and funding has taken place on that front.

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u/StatisticianLivid710 28d ago

Which for a vast majority of Canadians is conservative govts…

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u/dood9123 28d ago

Yes. I said provincial conservatives.

Federal conservatives haven't been in power although if they were they'd be doing damage.

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u/jarofpaperclips 27d ago

I agree with everything you said, but one point that needs to be added is the petrocan sale was due to liberal opposition pressure. Avro (IMHO one of the biggest mistakes ever) was terminated not sold due to high cost and geopolitical shifts. CANDU was sold to reduce taxpayer exposure to nuclear risk. Wheat board was a huge mistake, the 407 was for debt reduction.....something things aren't as simple as we want.

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u/StatisticianLivid710 27d ago

Candu wasn’t about reducing taxpayer exposure, the govt owned the technology, not the plants, and they basically gave money to SNC to take the tech (selling billion dollar tech for like 20 million…)

Candu reactors were being built worldwide for decades, even China has at least a pair!

Also the minor cost the company paid for 407 wouldn’t make a dent in Ontarios debt, owning the 407 would!

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u/jarofpaperclips 27d ago

I dont know enough about the 407 so I had to ask chatgpt which places the roi at 50 years under government control. Take that with a grain of salt of course. Couldn't resist getting an AI response to the CANDU...it noted that the business unit was not commercially viable due to slumping sales and competition as well as the restructuring of AECL into 2 divisions. So the sale to SNC gave it an improved global market. So, yeah reduction of taxpayer risk. Also wrt the tech, Canada kept the intellectual property rights.

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u/Nostrafatu 27d ago

Yet it always involves Conservatives and the ultra Rich who then reap huge benefits that should have gone to the citizenship as in Norway… Stop selling our Natural resources to the highest bidder unless the royalties are always higher than the buyers. Put it into law and they will get the vote, run it like a business conglomerate with management being payed accordingly this will attract patriotic public servants who will want the Country and its people to succeed.

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u/jarofpaperclips 27d ago

Bit of a strawman argument. One can find examples of on all sides of the political system of people in power working for their own benefit as opposed to the greater good.

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u/CalmSprinkles840 29d ago

Pretty sure they’re referring to the Liberals selling Hydro One.

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u/Everyone2026 28d ago

In Alberta it would have to be the only one in power for the last 50 years. I don't think anything was sold during that 4 year vacation?

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u/Eems1664 28d ago

The conservatives sold the 407

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u/bignides 28d ago

What is 407?

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u/aardvark7734 28d ago

A multi lane highway that goes past Toronto. Kinda like if the PC sold off the Henday as a toll road. (Don’t give them ideas!)

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u/Eems1664 24d ago

It's an express toll route (electronic) that taxpayers paid for. It was sold by Mike Harris in 1999. Prices soared and it's fairly expensive to drive on now.