Andrew Nikiforuk wrote advice for Albertans in his recent article Eight Steps to Reform the Broken Petrostate: Behave like an owner: Alberta’s oil and gas resources belong to Albertans. The Tories’ “strip it and ship it” approach was not only wasteful, but also environmentally destructive. …Governments that run on taxes
Continue readingTag: Natural Resources
Northern Insight / Perceptivity: Flawed analysis
Following the passing of Alberta’s Conservative party, Macleans writer Colby Cosh described a drawn-out illness that made the result inevitable. Followers of British Columbia politics will recognize symptoms also found west of the Alberta border: Elections Alberta, despite some political and legal controversies, did important work in investigating and documenting
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Give them what they wanted, then give them even more
Your browser does not support this audioIn April, listeners to Ian Jessop’s CFAX1070 program heard about how government pays more to facilitate mining than it receives in direct payments for metals and minerals. In the latter part of the audio segment, we discuss government plans for secret agreements that will
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Albertans will choose
[View the story “Natural resources, public assets, or corporate?” on Storify]
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Hard hitting journalism by Black Press
Mount Polley Mine meeting important to attend, by Ken Wilson, Williams Lake Tribune (Black Press), Apr 17, 2015 Over the years companies, governments, and those in-between have created some major public relations gaffs (sic) by not addressing bad situations in time, hoping the publicity would die soon. …Imperial Metals Mount
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Liberal transparency: secret agreements, no oversight
If politicians become so focused on reaping rewards for themselves, their friends and associates, they begin to act as British Columbia Liberals are acting now. Like furtive night prowlers, government members seek the cover of darkness. Publicly owned lands and natural resources have values minimized or ignored, then are privatized
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Would you trust a prevaricator with $128 million?
Less than three weeks ago, a 2,100 ft² house on a 3,350 ft² lot in east Vancouver sold for $2.2 million although the asking price was $1.6 million. Two weeks ago, a modest 60-year-old home near my North Vancouver residence sold for $1 million, also above the asking price. The
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Takin’ care of business
For each $1 million of Nestle branded water sold, BC is paid about $2. Mind you, this is a better rate of return than the province gains from resource companies mining for metals and minerals. According to the 2015 Budget and Fiscal Plan, revenue from “metals, minerals and other” is
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: The BC Liberal way: some pay, some don’t
[View the story “Takin’ Care of Business” on Storify]
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Changes inevitable for Teck Resources
Teck Resources and its associates invested more than $2.25 million in contributions to political friends in British Columbia. That was a good deal for BC Liberals but, whether or not it benefited shareholders – the largest of which are Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., China Investment Corporation and Blackrock Inc. –
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Astroturfing, Liberally
Damien Gillis of The Common Sense Canadian talked with Ian Jessop on CFAX1070 about a group that is funded by government and industry. The audio segment is available below. We should pay attention to this organization because it aims to convince citizens that natural resource extraction should occur with little
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: "Mix ideological agenda and dubious accounting"
Many British Columbians of my generation were involved directly with the forest industry. As a kid, I lived beside a log dump and, to mother’s futile distress, played regularly on log booms. As Hans Peter Meyer said in his Tyee article, Working in the Woods, almost every adult male in
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Sales tax not only way to pay for public services
CCPA Budget Submissions Natural Resource Royalties Reform, Iglika Ivanova, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, October 2014 BC used to collect well over $1 billion per year from natural gas royalties, but over the last five fiscal years these averaged a mere $330 million per year. The tax/royalty regime for LNG
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Two oil economies: Norway and Alberta
NORGES BANK Using the Bank of Canada’s average rate of exchange for 2014, a Norwegian krone has been worth $0.1757 CAN. That results in a fund value of $1,165,769,500,000 Canadian, or almost $1.2 trillion. All Norway’s oil and gas revenues go into the sovereign wealth fund, only part of earnings
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Anything wrong with this picture?
Canada’s governments say that natural resources are driving economic growth across the country. They just don’t specify which country. Resource companies don’t want to pay mining, income, sales and property taxes, they don’t pay GST and now it seems, some don’t want to hire Canadian workers. However, they want to
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: PDF version of preceding article
I’ve had a number of requests for copies of this article by people wishing to share the information. Readers can download a copy from SCRIBD. Sorry poor people
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Sorry poor people, we have other priorities
Source: British Columbia Public Accounts Source: British Columbia Public Accounts Clearly, government revenues from natural resources have declined substantially in recent years. This is in spite of rising metals and minerals prices and growth in production volumes. Here is an example. Source: BC 2014 Financial and Economic Review In any
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Understaffed and incapable, by design
In The Tyee, Scot McCannel, executive director of the Professional Employees Association, asserts, The B.C. government has slashed professionals in the public service to the point where it doesn’t have a full picture of what’s happening. In a March 2014 report, the Professional Employees Association (PEA) demonstrated that the province
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Plus ça change…
Suzanne Methot reviewed Farley Mowat’s Walking on the Land, which was published in 2000. From that review: “Farley Mowat detailed government treatment of the Ihalmiut, First Nations people in Canada’s northern lands. His accounts, which described famine and epidemics of disease, were vigorously denied by churches, industry, and government and
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Special treatment for special friends
Andrew MacLeod of The Tyee is reporting that BC Government officials aim to exempt natural gas producers from requirements they contribute to an industry fund that would pay to clean up toxic spills. “The gas sector would be exempt through a system that redefined what substances would be described as
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