Refresher on the nice Mr. Kenney:
The orchestrated fraud & corporate welfare stench grows! Alberta municipalities abused by Petro-Pussy Premier Jason Kenney (Steve Harper/Koch Bros spawn?) to feed industry’s insatiable greed “now own what they voted for!”
Sputtering laughter! Watch the news clip! Jason Kenney’s corporate welfare war room launches $2.5M inquiry into magic land
Alberta’s Never Ending Corporate Welfare Will Bite You: Energy Relief will Cost Taxpayers, Front Page Red Deer Advocate
Alberta: More corporate welfare stench! 65,000 shallow gas wells qualify to get more than $23M in freebies from taxpayers. Again, not a penny for Albertans suffering frac quake damages, drinking water loss/contamination, health harm, loss of livestock etc.
Kenney’s $4.5 billion in corporate tax cuts obviously not enough to feed the greed.
Alberta increasing Oilpatch Welfare while enabling more harms and pollution and hundreds of $Billions in liabilities. Red Deer County caves, slashes taxes for shallow gas producers, gives zero tax relief for frac’d water well owners and farms. Where will the $5 Million shortfall come from? Why not from Kenney’s $30 Million Oilpatch Pimping Propaganda Room?
Jason Kenney gives multi-billion dollar profiting companies a taxpayer-funded war room to abuse citizens concerned about industry’s rampant life-threatening pollution: Suncor tarsands revenue up from $11.2 to $12 billion between 2017 and 2018 when companies whined about how hard it was to operate in Canada; CNRL boosted its revenue from $7.1 to $11.5 billion
Suncor Energy $Billions in Profits
Suncor Energy annual/quarterly gross profit history and growth rate from 2006 to 2019 for:
- the quarter ending June 30, 2019 was $5.093B, a 3.14% increase year-over-year;
- the twelve months ending June 30, 2019 was $19.756B, a 6.09% increase year-over-year;
- 2018 was $19.174B, a 18.05% increase from 2017; and
- 2017 was $16.242B, a 34.26% increase from 2016.
Kenney warns Albertans to brace for major cuts as UCP government readies budget by Justin Giovannetti and Kelly Cryderman, Oct 23, 2019, The Globe and Mail
Premier Jason Kenney has warned Albertans in a televised address to brace themselves for a difficult budget with significant cuts over the next four years, but he promised the pain wouldn’t match the widespread austerity of the 1990s.
The Alberta Premier said his United Conservative government’s first budget on Thursday sets the stage for spending cuts as well as a corporate tax cut to 8 per cent from 12 per cent….
Overall government spending will be reduced by 2.8 per cent over four years while funding for health and education will be frozen.
… The decision to freeze spending for health and education, which together make up 55 per cent of the provincial budget, means a 2.8-per-cent overall reduction will translate into much deeper cuts in other areas. Economists have pointed to postsecondary education and spending on climate change mitigation as potential targets.
… The former NDP government ran four years of deficits as it increased services and embarked on an aggressive infrastructure program to match a quickly growing population and provide work during a recession.
… Saying it would be “immoral” to leave a massive debt for future generations, Mr. Kenney pointed to a report he commissioned from former Saskatchewan finance minister Janice MacKinnon as rationale for the cuts. “The MacKinnon panel was clear on how we got to this point: We have a spending problem,” he said of Alberta’s continued deficits. [Not a problem from giving too much to the super rich oil and gas industry, still making billions in profits, and dismal failure to collect even bare bones royalties?]
… University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe said that while the Premier’s arithmetic is right, the province could raise taxes to the average level of the same three provinces and similarly end the deficit.
… The Alberta Federation of Labour said its own analysis shows the MacKinnon report’s assumptions on GDP growth and revenue growth are flawed, tens of thousands of job losses are possible, and Mr. Kenney’s government is ignoring the role of the public sector in the economy.
Alberta’s Opposition NDP pointed to layoffs at Husky Energy Inc. in Calgary this week, arguing that the government’s strategy of forgoing revenue to provide corporate tax cuts isn’t keeping jobs in Alberta.
A few of the comments:
CitizenWhoPays TaxesNotTaxPayer [a few of this citizen’s comments copied below]
The whole Alberta Con/CPC/UCP thing is like a Jerry Springer Show. A complete gong show that leaves you rolling of your couch at the complete stupidity.
Alberta keeps getting taken in by these hucksters and they deliver the same thing again and again and again. They get caught in corruption and kicked out, change party names and Alberta brings them back again. Same actors selling the same dross.
Complete mismanagement of the resources and economy. Not one thin dime saved in 50 yrs. It costs 30% more per capita to provide services to Albertans than it does Ontarians. Where is that money going? Your getting robbed.
We just had an election, 34% voted for cons and yet the cons are not in and Alberta feels betrayed and they say the ROC has betrayed them by voting Liberal. No that is not true.
Alberta you have been betrayed and the betrayal is nasty and close to home. If you want to see the people who betrayed you then all you need to do is look in the mirror.
I don’t want to go out on limb here and say you guys are stupid because that’s rude. But you really do look like a bunch of yahoos.
We look at the fun your having and you say you wonder why we did not vote for Scheer.
**
It is so amazing. These people appear to have no critical thinking skills and no education. The cons have been sticking it to Alberta forever Alberta just keeps loving it.
It would be impossible to write a story about this stuff because no one would ever believe you.
**
Cons always chose corporate welfare over the welfare of the people. When they finally get booted from office they have a nice landing spot in some sweet corporate job shining shoes of smarter people.
**
Kenney is fixing nothing. He gave corporations who have no other place to do business tax cuts. He is a total loser and so are all his supporters.
Life does not have to be that hard.
gmfcoburg
Nothing like cutting those needed services when you give tax breaks to corporations that slready benefit from the lowest corporate taxes in th Western world. And by the way Con Kenney was part of the Harper Crew who cut corporate taxes to get , as Flaherty put it, no jobs, no new investments, nothing. Con s con job!
Nick Wright
If your provincial economy is genuinely in trouble and you’re really trying to balance your budget, you don’t neutralize spending cuts by enriching large corporations.
It’s a long debunked myth that corporations will invest the money in the province or create jobs. They’re not public servants. They just increase management’s salaries and bonuses, and investor dividends. I don’t know why people still fall for this nonsense.
At least leave corporate giveaways out of your cost-cutting budget if you want anyone to believe your balanced budget rhetoric isn’t just flimsy cover for transferring wealth to the rich.
Automatic250
I moved to BC at the height of the Klein lunacy and never looked back. Even when Harper tried to lure me back (by killing off value-added manufacturing industries), I knew the boom in Alberta was illusory and temporary. Those days are never coming back.
bojobob
After reading this article I want to welcome all the albertans that are going to leave and move to the GTA. Unfortunately, you are coming from a loser province and therefore don’t have much worth when you move to GTA. Since real estate is about 2X more expensive you can live in the armpit of Toronto – Hamilton. Why did you vote in conservatives? All they do is cut service to the people and give disproportionate welfare to corporations. Suckers!
love2ski
As an Albertan and a CA who has looked at the numbers fairly closely, I think Kenney is blowing smoke. He says the tax cut will yield approximately $1.2 billion in savings (a four year total). In the meantime, our deficit is running at say $7-$8 billion per year (that is around another $30 billion after four years, not counting interest).
Kenney is actually giving away far more in corporate tax revenue (with his tax cuts) than the savings on these currently announced spending cuts.
Health/education cover 75-80% of budget, and given our health/education needs only grow in a province that is STILL expecting larger population growth than any other province, how is Kenney going to hold costs to 0% in health/education?
Kenney’s numbers don’t add up.
However, Albertans did vote for this overwhelmingly. So when you have overcrowded classrooms, you’re bussing your kids to who knows where, that you pay for private health services or do without, or don’t get the nursing care you need when you need it, if you voted UCP, then shame on you.
We have a disfunctional revenue model, and only slight overspending. Let Kenney implement the needed provincial sales tax, eventually.
CitizenWhoPaysTaxesNotTaxPayer in response to above comment
We have no money so we are cutting taxes.. Has the world lost its mind?
rowbat
While no one can overlook the longterm need to keep the province’s books in order, it’s worth noting that ‘open for business’ Alberta has about C$15 billion in it’s heritage fund while ‘resources ultimately belong to the people’ Norway (a truly radical society…) has about US$ 1 trillion in theirs – and are using much of the money to invest in the technological changes they (and we) know are coming.
The Conservatives like to portray themselves as hard-nosed business people but the reality suggests that, by and large, they just gave it away. And now have no strategy and limited financial capability to make the changes needed.
The people of course will still get ownership of the cleanup costs when the market decides that the party is well and truly over.
Meanwhile, a federal government that continues to go out on a political limb with ITS base to get Trans Mountain built is accused of ‘betraying’ Albertans. Sigh.
CitizenWhoPaysTaxesNotTaxPayer in response to above comment
Kenney, Sheer, Harper, Ford, Moe, not one of them ever had a real job in their entire lives. They think they know business, but all they know is stirring up resentment. Frankly quite disgusting people.
beans maroc
Want to put Albertans to work Jason:
“The number of wells in the province slated to be remediated is about 3,000. However, there are more than 100,000 unproductive wells that will need to be cleaned up.”
I am sure the oil companies will be more than pleased to chip in big time, rather than selling them off to shell companies for $1.
It’s a win-win situation.
CitizenWhoPaysTaxesNotTaxPayer in response to above comment
No Beans… Jason is not planning to remediate them at all. He is going to try and dump them on the Canadian tax payer.
kramnot
Alberta runs itself for booms and busts. Norway and some other oil producers build up reserves to smooth out the dips. In the past, Alberta took its lumps and looked forward to the next boom. Now, the low oil price and falling demand is all the fault of Trudeau, Easterners, Quebec, BC, Greta..
Big T
Albertans seem to forget so much: Kenney was Minister responsible for the current equalization formula – why blame the Liberals?
Kline turned down a pipeline to the east coast in the 1980s telling the Easterners they could freeze in the dark. The rest of the country has higher taxes and also a sales tax but Alberta bragged about their lower taxes – welcome to the real world. Where is the Heritage Fund – gone and less when Notley took over than when Lougheed retired. I guess you spent it, at least once as a Christmas gift before a provincial election. Norway saved and invested and are sitting pretty now even with falling prices.
We suffered Harper for 10 years and didn’t threaten to separate – this complaining is really very childish. Time to grow up and face the real world.
Refer also to:
Canada, the world’s stupidest “petro” (fascist) state: Oil giants pay billions less tax in Canada than abroad
2017 02 17: Brilliant! MUST LISTEN! BNN Interviews Alberta Oil Patch Consultant Brent Nimeck on Lexin and AER’s Orphan Wells: “This problem is 30 years in the making. … I would call it a Ponzi Scheme…. This is an orchestrated fraud from multiple angles: Industry, CAPP and the Alberta Energy Regulator have enabled this to happen. … Through our independent analysis and we’ve confirmed this at multiple sources within the energy regulator, the liabilities are over $300 billion. That’s what’s on the hook for Alberta taxpayers right now – $300 billion.”
Calgary Executive Million Dollar Bonuses Increased 40.6% in 2016, Comparatively Nothing Paid to Clean Up Liabilities/Abandoned Wells/Facilities
Cenovus (split from Encana after Ernst lawsuit papers served on the company) continues hoarding with $3.7B cash
2016 03 16: Canada’s biggest oil producers, including Cenovus, hoarding near-record pile of cash
2015 06 30: Cenovus Energy sells royalty lands for $3.3 billion in cash after illegally fracturing Rosebud’s drinking water aquifers (then Encana), and getting away with it Thanks to then Assistant Deputy Minister Environment, now AER Chair, Bev Yee, and then Deputy Minister Environment Peter Watson, appointed Chair of Canada’s national regulator, the CER (then NEB), by Steve Harper (reward the fraud?)