SOCIAL CREDIT PLATFORM
R U READY? For education that meets the needs of students and employers?
R U READY? For first class service in health care?
R U READY? For a better share of energy resource wealth for all Albertans?
R U READY? For reasonably priced utilities?
R U READY? For affordable housing?
R U READY? For Alberta business owned by Albertans?
R U READY? For a pristine environment?
Albertans are invited to review the contents of our platform and judge for themselves if these are concerns that they share in common with us. Click here to open.
Energy Resource Dividends for Voters
In the October 4, 2008 edition of the Calgary Herald, a special report entitled “Why We Don’t Vote” was published. Eight ideas to increase voter turnout were featured: fixed election dates, citizen’s assembly, MP/MLA recall, plebiscite, landed immigrants, electronic/anywhere voting, proportional representation, outreach. The Alberta Social Credit Party proposes that a ninth option be added to improve the turnout of Alberta voters: Option 9 - Energy resource dividends linked to voting.
First, the size of the Heritage Trust Fund should be increased significantly by consistently saving a much larger portion of our energy resource wealth. Then a yearly, tax-free dividend from the earnings of the Heritage Fund would be paid to every Albertan who voted in the last provincial election.
As an incentive to complete high school, eighteen year-old Albertans who graduate from high school would commence receiving yearly dividends upon graduation instead of requiring them to wait until they vote at the next provincial election.
Not only would this entice more Albertans to vote but it would also encourage them to become more interested in the management of our energy resources and the distribution of the resulting wealth.
Voters would demand answers from their MLAs regarding the government’s management (or lack of management) of Alberta’s energy resources. Why aren’t we getting larger dividend cheques? Why aren’t we receiving higher royalties and taxes from the production of oil and gas? Why are we exporting bitumen instead of upgrading it in Alberta? Why are we subsidizing the building of oilsands facilities through royalty holidays without taking an equity interest in these facilities? And so on.
Yes, this option would get-out the voters, voters who would have acquired a much better understanding of major issues facing Alberta.
Len Skowronski
Tell Stephen Harper we will stop all bitumen exports
Stephen Harper announced that a Tory government would prohibit bitumen exports to countries with greenhouse-gas emission standards weaker than Canada's. The Alberta government indicated it is concerned that the federal government is planning to interfere in the management of its energy resources.
Here is a sure-fire way of avoiding this dispute over federal and provincial turf. The Alberta government should pass legislation that requires all bitumen be upgraded in Alberta and that only high-grade synthetic crude oil, gasoline and diesel may be exported.
This would allow us to control emissions within Canadian standards. It would also allow us to keep the investment, jobs and profits arising from building and operating our own bitumen upgrading plants. It would increase our royalty revenue, for the royalties on bitumen are considerably less than those on crude oil.
EnCana Corp. and joint-venture partner ConocoPhillips are expanding their Wood River refinery in Roxana, Ill, to raise total refining capacity to 356,000 barrels per day through the addition of a new coker that will convert Alberta bitumen into light crude and gas. For this expansion, they will spend $US 3.6 billion, mainly from profits gained from the mining of low-royalty bitumen from the Athabasca oilsands.
Now wouldn’t it be better if we kept these billions of dollars, plus the jobs and profits from upgrading the bitumen in Alberta? It is time that the Alberta PC government takes action on bitumen exports so that we do not lose control of our resources to the federal government and USA.
Len Skowronski
Stop the Wealthy Jumping the Healthcare Queue!
How dumb does Don Copeman think Albertans are? Does he really believe we accept that the clients of Copeman Healthcare Centre are paying $2900 to $3900 a year for preventative heath services? That we cannot see beyond the façade and see it for the queue – jumping scam that it really is? Well the majority of Albertans are much smarter than he thinks! It is only members of our provincial government who chose not to see through Copeman’s smoke-screen so that they can promote their ideology to privatize healthcare.
Two doctors have left general practices with universal access to join the Clinic in Calgary and serve the wealthy elite. What will the patients of these doctors do, if they cannot afford to pay the annual fees to continue having access to their doctors? Copeman says that these doctors may have quit being general practitioners completely because of the high rental costs for their facilities. This points to another instance of the PC government failing to do its job by refusing to cap rent increases to the rate of inflation.
If our provincial government refuses to stop the slide of healthcare into a two-tiered system then perhaps it is time for the federal government to step-in. Stephen Harper is claiming during his election campaign that he is a common man who stands-up for the common people. Well here is his chance to support equal access to healthcare and stop special access for the wealthy. Even though this Clinic may pass a legal interpretation of the Canada Health Act, it doesn’t keep to the spirit intended by the founders of the Act. If need be, Mr. Harper should sponsor an amendment to the Act that would safeguard the universality of healthcare in Canada.
Len Skowronski
PC Government Shames Albertans
For over two decades, conscientious Albertans have been urging the PC government to properly manage the development of our oil and gas resources. Our call has mostly been ignored. Now the world is taking notice of this government’s failings and Albertans are being perceived as polluters, major global warming contributors and poor fiscal planners.
Politicians in the USA are threatening to boycott our “dirty oil”. The Organization for Economic Development and Co-operation (OECD) chastised us for saving so little of our resource wealth, pointing out that Norway has built a fund of $400 billion while Alberta has only $16 billion in its Heritage Trust Fund.
What has the government done to respond to these criticisms? The Premier visited US politicians, arguing that they should suppress their environmental concerns in order to sustain a reliable supply of oil and gas. $24 million will be spent to propagate the message “things are not as bad as they seem”. A third of the budget surplus will be saved.
The government has missed the point. Substantial actions rather than excuses are needed. Suspend the allocation of new leases and the approval of new projects until a comprehensive oilsands plan is developed. Limit the use of natural gas and fresh water for bitumen recovery. Capture the carbon dioxide created during the recovery and processing of bitumen and store it or use it in some other productive process.
This year the total budget surplus should be saved. At least a third of our oil and gas revenues should be saved in subsequent years.
Len Skowronski
Buy Back Alberta!
Establishing the Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo) to manage the $70 billion in the Heritage Trust and other funds could prove beneficial to Albertans provided the Alberta government leads this organization with the appropriate oversight and mandate.
First, immediate oversight action is needed to stop the building of an empire for Alberta Finance personnel. Why does this start-up investment organization need to have a staff of 150 when it has only one client, the Alberta government?
Secondly, although growing our funds through wise investment is a laudable goal, this organization should be given a larger, long-term mandate: Buy Back Alberta! Instead of participating in a $7.4-billion takeover of a power and gas utility in Washington State, AIMCo should focus on initiating and growing Alberta-owned ventures in Alberta and the rest of Canada.
We should use this capital to regain control of our resources, environment and economy by taking equity interests in all future oils sands projects, including the building of bitumen upgrading plants. Likewise, we should provide capital investment in Alberta-owned food processing and merchandising companies so that they could compete with the foreign-owned companies that now control these sectors in Alberta. Let’s help build our own Exxons, Cargills and Wal-Marts.
Given the right vision from the government, AIMCo could use the funds in its care to reverse the tide of foreign takeovers in Alberta and the rest of Canada, so that we would become “Masters in our own house”.
Len Skowronski