[phobiaphobe]

http://www.canada.com/calgary/global...8-eb9e35809bb5


We have the lowest taxes in the nation and our debt-free provincial government is giving back a third of its 3.6 billion dollar budget surplus, while investing the other 2 thirds.

Later this year, every man, woman and child in Alberta (except prisoners) will recieve a cheque for $400.00. Ah, the virtue of selfishness.

[jetbdude]

!

[phobiaphobe]

You can always move here...

[sheepofblue]

So they over tax everyone and then give it all back even. Sounds like a vote buying scheme, bet y'all didn't pay in even.

[jetbdude]

Originally Posted by phobiaphobe

You can always move here...

Been there...... nice, but not sure about moving there though....

[luvtolean]

Originally Posted by sheepofblue

So they over tax everyone and then give it all back even. Sounds like a vote buying scheme, bet y'all didn't pay in even.

You mean like Bush's tax cuts?

I think this is very equitable. Invest part of the surplus, send the rest back.

[sheepofblue]

Originally Posted by luvtolean

You mean like Bush's tax cuts?

I think this is very equitable. Invest part of the surplus, send the rest back.

Agree on the invest part but on the tax cuts more went to those that pay less on a percentage basis (not a dollar basis). Besides a tax cut means that the government never stole your money therefore it was not in thier possession ever.

[phobiaphobe]

Originally Posted by sheepofblue

So they over tax everyone and then give it all back even. Sounds like a vote buying scheme, bet y'all didn't pay in even.

That was my first reaction. Our provincial income tax is a flat 10%. Another 23% of my income goes to the federal government for income tax, unemployment insurance, and pension. That plus 7% federal goods and services tax. The provincial government's surplus revenue comes from oil and gas royalties. So technically, it is everyone's money.

Our conservative legislature has reduced government substantially, paid off all of the debt from the previous administration, and made a very visible effort to give taxpayers more of a say in how the province is run. They're still politicians, and there's still a lot waste, but they're going in the right direction.

We love our premier. The rest of the country hates him; he is crude, vulgar, drinks too much, and is extremely outspoken. He doesn't behave at all like a typical politician... more like an average Albertan. He comes from the working class.

I'll share a quote from Ralph, but I have to set it up. We have a program here called AISH. Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped. If you're so crippled that you can't work, the government pays you a basic living allowance. Klein's government found that too many able-bodied people were abusing the system and collecting the $850 a month; they introduced some changes in the form of stricter application requirements. He was instantly attacked in the media for "preying" on these poor individuals. At a public event, 2 women accosted him about their AISH payments, to which he replied: "you don't look severely handicapped" Good one.

edit: more to the quote: Asked whether he was worried about offending anyone, he replied: "I'll offend people abusing the system and I don't mind that."

[luvtolean]

Originally Posted by sheepofblue

Agree on the invest part but on the tax cuts more went to those that pay less on a percentage basis (not a dollar basis). Besides a tax cut means that the government never stole your money therefore it was not in thier possession ever.

Understood. It's not perfect. But it's better than nothing.

[phobiaphobe]

As for the vote buying comment, he is retiring, so if anything it would be more of a "legacy buying" move.

[oldfogey]

So now, when we complain about petrol prices, we know who to blame, eh? C$400 per Albertan. You mean not everybody loses from higher oil prices?

[phobiaphobe]

Bring on the hunnerd dollar barrels baby.

[CBR929RE]

$400 but its still 400 canadian

[phobiaphobe]

Which today is about $340 real dollars.

[CBR929RE]

Originally Posted by phobiaphobe

Which today is about $340 real dollars.

thats not too bad, what are you gonna buy?

[phobiaphobe]

A VISA payment, or maybe natural gas, if I'm feeling saucy.

[CBR929RE]

Originally Posted by phobiaphobe

or maybe natural gas, if I'm feeling saucy.

you're gonna spend $400 on Taco Bell?

[phobiaphobe]

They are talking about doing this rebate program again next year... Why don't they just lower taxes? With these multi-billion dollar surpluses obviously they are collecting way too much. They have done a good job of shrinking the government here, the province has zero debt and yes the taxes have come down a bit but clearly not enough.

Lower the taxes before Ottawa starts helping themselves to our surplus, like good old ****face Trudeau.

[nhfirefighter13]

Cuz they want to collect the interest they're making off of your money.

[tignanello]

Originally Posted by phobiaphobe

They are talking about doing this rebate program again next year... Why don't they just lower taxes? With these multi-billion dollar surpluses obviously they are collecting way too much. They have done a good job of shrinking the government here, the province has zero debt and yes the taxes have come down a bit but clearly not enough.

Lower the taxes before Ottawa starts helping themselves to our surplus, like good old ****face Trudeau.

Is Alberta really doing so good?
http://www.canadiancontent.net/forums/about10906.html

[phobiaphobe]

Originally Posted by tignanello

Is Alberta really doing so good?
http://www.canadiancontent.net/forums/about10906.html

Oh man, it would take me a really long post to rip that article all to pieces, but suffice it to say it was written by a Liberal who has NO idea what he's talking about.

I suppose Andrew Nikiforuk must not drive an automobile or heat his home. Oh and of course if a Liberal government were elected they would suddenly halt all drilling.

Northern Alberta is absolutely pristine. Yes there is drilling and yes there are a few gravel roads... And the environmental control and regulation is MASSIVE. I have worked up there, this guy hasn't.

edit: oh and I like this part: "property devaluation is par for the course in Alberta"... That's hilarious, especially for someone who's about to profit 60 grand from a condo he's made 3 mortgage payments on. **** that's funny.

[phobiaphobe]

Ah what the hell may as well finish what I've started.

The eastern slopes of the Rockies, Alberta's signature landscape, is now slated for gas drilling so intensive that within the industry it's known as "carpet-bombing." Watersheds and fescue grasslands - which can capture more carbon dioxide than forests (maintaining these lands is the province's smartest climate-change fighter) could all be destroyed to make a few more "Ralph bucks."

Wrong. Most of the eastern slopes of the Rockies are national park... Kananaskis, Banff, (the world's largest nature reserve) and Jasper. They will never be drilled.

Carrying on...

To accommodate urban sprawl and other goodies, the government admits that it has over-allocated water from every major river in southern Alberta - an area experiencing a 3-per-cent economic growth rate. In 50 years, no one expects to be able to float down the Bow or Oldman rivers.

Wrong. Canada has an incredibly enormous freshwater surplus. We even export a bunch of it.

We have a nine year supply of conventional gas left - and the sorry replacement,
coal bed methane, promises to fragment more land, threaten more water, use more energy and unsettle more rural Albertans than all previous drilling combined.

Wrong. Coal-bed drilling only goes a couple hundred metres deep, compared to conventional drilling at a couple thousand metres. Oh and BTW there is more oil in the tarsands than all of Saudi Arabia.

The much vaunted oil sands, Alberta's original "provincial sacrifice zone," remain a sobering study in mega project mismanagement. It's not likely that the world's biggest holes in the ground will ever be reclaimed,

What's to reclaim? They are TAR SANDS. Exactly how it sounds. Dig those bitches up.

and most projects are already being dogged by the rising costs of steel, water, solvents, natural gas, manpower and basic infrastructure

True. And typical of a boom.

When a society greedily eats its children's future, the social indicators generally look bad.

Like when we greedily put billions into the Heritage trust funds and leave the place debt-free for our children?

Albertans now spend more on gambling ($2-billion) than the province earns from oil revenues. Many consider it Mr. Klein's most impressive legacy.

Pretty impressive of Klein to force all those people to gamble. He also forces people to divorce and crash their cars.

Yet Alberta hasn't put one penny in the province's static $12-billion Heritage Fund since 1987.

Not true. We just put a billion in there.

Our one-per-cent royalty rate for oil sands remains a continental embarrassment.

Yes lower taxes that encourage foreign investment are surely an embarassment. But not as embarrassing as the percentage that Ottawa steals.

About what I'd expect from a guy that canonizes terrorists that blow up pipelines.

[Purpdust]

Amen to that.

[Kuss929]

Originally Posted by Purpdust

Amen to that.

He is a spy from Toronto.

[phobiaphobe]

Good, he can go back in a few years and tell them all how much better it is here. We're the new centre of the universe, it even says so on the cover of this week's Macleans.

Purp are you moved out now? Let's go have a beer on Sunday and watch the GP.

[pmatch]

Hold on there Alberta cowboy. You might be shotting from the hip a bit too fast! I think you should go back and review that article from Canadian Content and realize there is quite a bit of truth to it. I worked in mining and in the oil patch all over the north half of your province and up to into the NWT. From what I saw they are ripping it to shreds and you can't undertake a project like the oil sands and not cause problems. And don't think for one minute that this is being done for the benefit of Alberta or Canada. And if Alberta were so great then why do people from Alberta keep coming to British Columbia to retire?

[tignanello]

Originally Posted by pmatch

Hold on there Alberta cowboy. You might be shotting from the hip a bit too fast! I think you should go back and review that article from Canadian Content and realize there is quite a bit of truth to it. I worked in mining and in the oil patch all over the north half of your province and up to into the NWT. From what I saw they are ripping it to shreds and you can't undertake a project like the oil sands and not cause problems. And don't think for one minute that this is being done for the benefit of Alberta or Canada. And if Alberta were so great then why do people from Alberta keep coming to British Columbia to retire?

Maybe the retirees are worried about having to spend their life savings on healthcare costs in the near future unless they make a break for it now.

Here's a link to an interesting article:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...hub=TopStories

"CTV's chief political correspondent Craig Oliver pointed out that Harper, an MP for Calgary-Southwest, was put in the precarious position of having to support medicare while not appearing to criticize Alberta.
"The idea of him penalizing his home province is obviously a very difficult one politically, and he didn't want to discuss it in any significant way," Oliver said.
But criticism towards Klein's plan is also coming from the premier's own province.
The president of the Alberta Federation of Labour said Klein's reforms will only damage the increasingly fragile Alberta health system.
"They're frankly going to change the fundamental nature of our health-care system in this province," Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan told CTV's Canada AM Wednesday.
"Since Ralph Klein became premier back in 1993 he's been chipping away at the edges of public health care -- but this is the big one. This is the one we've been waiting for."
McGowan said he is primarily concerned with the prospect of an American-style private health insurance for certain services.
"Right now what's on the table that's being proposed are changes which are frankly going to change the fundamental nature of our health-care system in this province," McGowan said.
But the most worrisome aspect of the plan is the initiative to allow doctors to practice in both the private and public sector, McGowan said.
There is a limited supply of doctors in the Canadian health system and if they practice in both systems at the same time, they will become less available for the public system, he warned.
"Which means that waiting lists will get longer in the public system, and this is not just hypothetical. The idea was tried by Margaret Thatcher in Britain back in the '80s and early '90s. It was a disaster," McGowan added."

That would make me think twice about pushing the limits out there on the roads of Alberta. Is Alberta's goal to separate, or simply to become part of the US? I've been in the latter 6 years now and Alberta feels more and more like my current home in the "heartland".

[phobiaphobe]

Originally Posted by pmatch

Hold on there Alberta cowboy. You might be shotting from the hip a bit too fast! I think you should go back and review that article from Canadian Content and realize there is quite a bit of truth to it. I worked in mining and in the oil patch all over the north half of your province and up to into the NWT. From what I saw they are ripping it to shreds and you can't undertake a project like the oil sands and not cause problems. And don't think for one minute that this is being done for the benefit of Alberta or Canada. And if Alberta were so great then why do people from Alberta keep coming to British Columbia to retire?

Hey, Castlegar is a great little town. I always spend a night there on my way to Oliver and Kelowna, it's really beautiful. I know that people from BC can't stand Albertans, and I have a pretty good idea why, but get the **** off your high horse. You want to talk about environmental destruction? Lets talk about the rainforest that they've been hacking down in the interior and west coast for the last few decades.... isn't that where the bulk of your province's revenue comes from? Or what about northeastern BC? That is an oilpatch hotbed... Fort Nelson, Fort St. John, Dawson. These places are generating HUGE oil revenue and the people there are pissed that most of it gets stolen by your idiotic Liberal government... they want NE BC to separate and join Alberta. Are you surprised that people make their living in Alberta then retire in BC? Probably for the same reason that so many people from BC move to Alberta to make our big wages and pay our small taxes. If you're willing to work, it's easy to make money here. You know that from experience. And hey you can always move back to pefect little BC.

[Purpdust]

Not to mention that BC has relaxed their Permiting process to allow more mining and Exploration. For that last decade or so BC has been very PC not allowing Development of their interior. Now the Engineering firms are gearing up to make a open pit of of the place.

[pmatch]

Originally Posted by phobiaphobe

Hey, Castlegar is a great little town. I always spend a night there on my way to Oliver and Kelowna, it's really beautiful. I know that people from BC can't stand Albertans, and I have a pretty good idea why, but get the **** off your high horse. You want to talk about environmental destruction? Lets talk about the rainforest that they've been hacking down in the interior and west coast for the last few decades.... isn't that where the bulk of your province's revenue comes from? Or what about northeastern BC? That is an oilpatch hotbed... Fort Nelson, Fort St. John, Dawson. These places are generating HUGE oil revenue and the people there are pissed that most of it gets stolen by your idiotic Liberal government... they want NE BC to separate and join Alberta. Are you surprised that people make their living in Alberta then retire in BC? Probably for the same reason that so many people from BC move to Alberta to make our big wages and pay our small taxes. If you're willing to work, it's easy to make money here. You know that from experience. And hey you can always move back to pefect little BC.

I had to get on a horse so I could get to the height of your soap box
If its environmental destruction in B.C.'s oil patch then what is it in Alberta?
And we do like Albertans. Our daughter and all our relatives just got their money from Ralph. Do you come through here on your way to sport bikes west? Have you ever googled Destination Highways for B.C. (www.destinationhighways.com) should get you there. Lots of great mountain roads. 2 weeks before my Blade starts ripping them up.
Cheers