Quote:
Originally Posted by thurmas
I don't think its fair comparing Alberta to Norway with how stubborn and American in many ways the Alberta culture is when it comes to Oil and Gas. They obviously want to go the U.S. or Australia route and extract as much as they can as soon as they can. They obviously do not care about having a PST to insulate their economy or plan for proper well cleanups. If thats their end game have at er I guess and bring in the revenue now as they won't listen anyway. America atleast is enjoying good economic times right now producing more than they have ever before regardless of consequences and our economy could certainly use some resources boom monies right now with how weak our economy is to the u.s. right now.
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Alaska is part of America. They don't have a national oil company either. They have to rely on the private sector just like Alberta. They also have the same lax attitude to the environment and low taxes. In fact, Alaska has no state income or sales tax. And yet:
Alberta. 4.8M population. $21B SWF
Alaska. 0.8M population. $64B SWF
It's good thing equalization exists. Obfuscating around redistribution of federal income tax revenue is a really nice distraction from the objectively poor management of wealth in that province.
Imagine looking at all these comparisons and thinking that these might be the guys to trust with your pension savings....