The oil and gas corporations operating in Alberta have been getting windfall profits out of the publicly owned resources there, due to the higher oil and gas market prices.
The energy department workers had been screaming for higher royalties for several years, since about 2003, but the Energy Minister shut them out. The Premier and cabinet members were keeping the advice from being heard.
Royalty payments were re-arranged by the Klein government in the early years of oilsands development, all those years ago, and heavily favoured the industry over Albertans Now that he is gone, the industry has maybe lost some of that control over government. The likelyhood of industry support for Klein's election campaigns [and so on] cannot be ignored, and now that we see that the higher level ministers are keeping the energy department workers advice from being heard, perhaps some of that payola is still going on.
Alberta government hid royalty-hike advice: auditor
http://tinyurl.com/2tv9ag
[2 pages]
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The idea of allowing corporations to get profits from publically owned resources is that they take on a risk of their investment dollars.
However, with the high demand for energy, and the fact that the royalties are structured in such a way to almost gaurantee that they get their money back, it seems a bit too much in favour of the corporate side:
Review reveals Albertans do not receive their fair share from development:
http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature7.cfm?REF=487
More links -
Review panel member finds Third-World accounting practices:
http://tinyurl.com/2lgnr8
Full Report from Review Panel -
http://www.albertaroyaltyreview.ca/
Corporate View -
"Corporations threaten to pull out of Alberta ; says that Royalties will FALL if an increase is brought in"
http://tinyurl.com/26b4dt
The energy department workers had been screaming for higher royalties for several years, since about 2003, but the Energy Minister
Royalty payments were re-arranged by the Klein government in the early years of oilsands development, all those years ago, and heavily favoured the industry over Albertans Now that he is gone, the industry has maybe lost some of that control over government. The likelyhood of industry support for Klein's election campaigns [and so on] cannot be ignored, and now that we see that the higher level ministers are keeping the energy department workers advice from being heard, perhaps some of that payola is still going on.
Alberta government hid royalty-hike advice: auditor
http://tinyurl.com/2tv9ag
[2 pages]
---------
The idea of allowing corporations to get profits from publically owned resources is that they take on a risk of their investment dollars.
However, with the high demand for energy, and the fact that the royalties are structured in such a way to almost gaurantee that they get their money back, it seems a bit too much in favour of the corporate side:
The government received more than $14 billion in oil and gas royalties in the last fiscal year ; The increases recommended will bring in about another $2Billion {now, if only we knew how much profit the corporations were getting from the Alerta operations - a figure that is not being offered up by either side!!Projects in the oilsands pay a one per cent royalty on gross revenue until their initial investment is paid back, then that number jumps to 25 per cent of profit.
Review reveals Albertans do not receive their fair share from development:
http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature7.cfm?REF=487
More links -
Review panel member finds Third-World accounting practices:
http://tinyurl.com/2lgnr8
Full Report from Review Panel -
http://www.albertaroyaltyreview.ca/
Corporate View -
"Corporations threaten to pull out of Alberta ; says that Royalties will FALL if an increase is brought in"
http://tinyurl.com/26b4dt