Alberta

I think it is human nature to at least think "I told you so". It may not be the most endearing quality about humans, but I suspect we have all taken some secret delight in knowing that we were right and someone else was wrong. For me, I can only hope that before I say it out loud, my better nature will overcome this natural temptation to prove that someone, somewhere should have listen to me.

I must confess for the past few weeks, I have had an almost overwhelming urge to tell Albertans that they should have been listening to me. For years, in countless cars driving across the prairies, my drivers and I have talked about the fact that in a resourced based economy one needs to maximize that government's revenue from that resource. More importantly, in such an economy the state cannot rely on those monies (i.e. oil royalties) as the primary revenue to fund programs. I also wrote about this issue in mid January of last year comparing in part the history of Norway and how it managed its oil revenue as compared to Alberta.

For the individuals and their families who are watching their over-valued housing lose equity and in some areas becoming unsalable, for those who gambled that the high wages (in spite of the high cost of living) would warrant re-location from another province, for those who built a life style based on commuting large distances (sometimes literally across the country) every two weeks and for those who invested their life savings in developing needed business and services, but who now need sell out at a loss - I can only imagine the frustration, anger and disappointment you must be feeling. To be caught up in a bust or boom cycle that is both beyond your control and your understanding is, at the very least, unfair. But it needs to be said -the crash was in part predictable and to some extent, the pain preventable.

 I really wish I had been wrong. With all of my heart I wish it were possible to live in Alberta and for there always be enough money to support people. I wish that there would always be great paying jobs. But all of the best wishes in the world can't change the reality. The crash in oil prices is well beyond the control of any Albertan There were  however, things that could have been done.

Albertans chose not to have a provincial sales tax. They consistently rejected any suggestion that they should pay taxes at the same rate as other Canadians do. While there are a myriad of reasons why last year the provincial Conservatives were voted out of power for the first time in decades, one of the reasons why there was such anger was that Jim Prentice, the Premier, suggested that people needed to pay more taxes (admittedly he did not say the same thing about oil companies). Quite simple one cannot run a government without everyone paying their share. To pretend otherwise is absurd and dangerous. It is also true, that if one lives in a resourced based province, one must bank large sums of money to deal for those times when the resource is either depleted or less valued. To do anything else contemns the people of that province to live on an endless economic roller coaster.

Canada is a federation of semi-autonomous states. For it to function well, all of those states need to be economically stable. For the past few decades it feels as if there has been a continuous imbalance between the West and central Canada. It feels as if there is some sort of secret rule that says when one is doing well, it means that the other cannot be doing as well. The resource sectors and the manufacturing sectors are compatible. We need, as a nation, to work together, to support each other, to cheer on or to commiserate each other. We need to be able to share the pain and to share the benefits of living together.

I would argue that one way of ensuring that was possible is to have unified resource management policies and a unified system of how much we all pay in taxes.