Cleaning up inactive assets continues to hang over the energy sector like a dark cloud Bad policy happens to good people. Like Albertans. But bad policy, paradoxically, can often start in a good place. Here’s an example. Alberta’s UCP government recently floated a trial balloon entitled the Liability Management Incentive Program (LMIP). In a nutshell,…
While the 2023 budget may be an election budget, taxpayers have a lot to be happy about Counting on another oil boom to balance Alberta’s future budgets is like counting on winning the lottery to pay your mortgage. Being able to write a budget shopping list with a $12.3 billion surplus is a fortunate blessing…
Premier Smith’s retread energy panel seemingly out to please only one particular constituency It’s a pretty tall order, one that will define much in terms of how Albertans see themselves – and how the rest of Canada sees Alberta. After all, who knows what energy life will be like in, say, 2033? 2039? 2044? How…
Where are the wind players, the solar players, the geothermal players, the First Nation communities, the young professionals? So close. Yet so far away. That’s the paradox in Alberta premier Danielle Smith’s latest advisory pronouncement, via which five oilpatch veterans are charged with a weighty task: mapping Alberta’s energy future. Whew. That’s a big ask,…
The Liability Management Incentive Program is both bad politics and bad policy Psssst. Ms. Premier... Quick question: have you lost your ever-loving mind? I had always figured you to be more astute than the average bear, but yeesh, this one ought to have you rethinking your internal advisory team and how you act on their…
But, as Margaret Thatcher wrote, hindsight is "sadly denied to practicing politicians The late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wrote this intriguing passage in The Downing Street Years: “The wisdom of hindsight, so useful to historians and indeed to authors of memoirs, is sadly denied to practicing politicians.” Is this a valid assessment? Let’s see…
Until politicians get out of the driver’s seat, we will never get energy transition right You’ve heard about getting things “bass-ackward”? That self-explanatory term pretty much describes the state of energy transition in Canada. That also means there’s no way Canada’s oil and gas sector, to channel prominent business thinker Jim Collins, is going from…
But politicians are fiddling while Canada combusts Have you heard about Canada’s unjust energy transition? Better pay attention: it’s unfolding before your very eyes. The unjust transition will cost people jobs, create new and more insidious types of energy poverty, and accelerate negative environmental impact – the very opposite effects of what the putative notion…
Taxpayers do not have “another billion dollars” to spare for a government program that police say won’t make us any safer Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is making the right move by trying to shield thousands of Alberta firearms owners from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wasteful gun grab. Analysts are warning that the last-minute expansion of…
Expand the Taxpayer Protection Act to stop future governments from imposing a carbon tax By Franco Terrazzano and Kris Sims Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has set her sights on stopping big-taxing politicians in Ottawa. We also need Smith to guard against tax hikes at home. And the best way to do that is to make…
Cleaning up inactive assets continues to hang over the energy sector like a dark cloud Bad policy happens to good people. Like Albertans. But bad policy, paradoxically, can often start in a good place. Here’s an example. Alberta’s UCP government recently floated a trial balloon entitled the Liability Management Incentive Program (LMIP). In a nutshell,…
While the 2023 budget may be an election budget, taxpayers have a lot to be happy about Counting on another oil boom to balance Alberta’s future budgets is like counting on winning the lottery to pay your mortgage. Being able to write a budget shopping list with a $12.3 billion surplus is a fortunate blessing…
Premier Smith’s retread energy panel seemingly out to please only one particular constituency It’s a pretty tall order, one that will define much in terms of how Albertans see themselves – and how the rest of Canada sees Alberta. After all, who knows what energy life will be like in, say, 2033? 2039? 2044? How…
Where are the wind players, the solar players, the geothermal players, the First Nation communities, the young professionals? So close. Yet so far away. That’s the paradox in Alberta premier Danielle Smith’s latest advisory pronouncement, via which five oilpatch veterans are charged with a weighty task: mapping Alberta’s energy future. Whew. That’s a big ask,…
The Liability Management Incentive Program is both bad politics and bad policy Psssst. Ms. Premier... Quick question: have you lost your ever-loving mind? I had always figured you to be more astute than the average bear, but yeesh, this one ought to have you rethinking your internal advisory team and how you act on their…
But, as Margaret Thatcher wrote, hindsight is "sadly denied to practicing politicians The late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wrote this intriguing passage in The Downing Street Years: “The wisdom of hindsight, so useful to historians and indeed to authors of memoirs, is sadly denied to practicing politicians.” Is this a valid assessment? Let’s see…
Until politicians get out of the driver’s seat, we will never get energy transition right You’ve heard about getting things “bass-ackward”? That self-explanatory term pretty much describes the state of energy transition in Canada. That also means there’s no way Canada’s oil and gas sector, to channel prominent business thinker Jim Collins, is going from…
But politicians are fiddling while Canada combusts Have you heard about Canada’s unjust energy transition? Better pay attention: it’s unfolding before your very eyes. The unjust transition will cost people jobs, create new and more insidious types of energy poverty, and accelerate negative environmental impact – the very opposite effects of what the putative notion…
Taxpayers do not have “another billion dollars” to spare for a government program that police say won’t make us any safer Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is making the right move by trying to shield thousands of Alberta firearms owners from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wasteful gun grab. Analysts are warning that the last-minute expansion of…
Expand the Taxpayer Protection Act to stop future governments from imposing a carbon tax By Franco Terrazzano and Kris Sims Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has set her sights on stopping big-taxing politicians in Ottawa. We also need Smith to guard against tax hikes at home. And the best way to do that is to make…