More Industy Absurdity on Albertan's Resource Ownership and the Royalty Review

Hey Alberta, if you were unsure of the unvarnished corporate attitude about whose oil is it anyway, well Terence Corcoran’s column in the Financial Post today should clarify things for you.

Corcoran is a seasoned business writer and I have always seen him as Canada’s Milton Friedman. But if his observations today reflect the corporate lens and values as to who owns Alberta’s natural resources, then citizens and customers better wake up to what is on the horizon and assert our ownership rights through our government -as our TRUSTEE!

If Corcoran's comments represent Big Oil's attitude that is they who should ultimate owns and control the energy resources of Alberta then they need a reality check. Last guy who tried to assert inappropriate power over the citizens of Alberta's birthright to our natural resources was Pierre Trudeau and the NEP. Who do these Big Oil guys think they are - the reincarnation of Pierre Trudeau?

Corcoran’s final paragraph is the ultimate reduction of logic to the absurd. He alleges that “the real problem with the royalty issue is the degree to which the panel reinforced the legitimacy of the idea that Albertans collectively ‘own’ the resources through there government.”

Read the Canadian Constitution Mr. Corcoran, Section 92A (1) to be exact. Let me save you some time in looking it up. Here is the text:

92A. (1) In each province, the legislature may exclusively make laws in relation to
(a) exploration for non-renewable natural resources in the province;
(b) development, conservation and management of non-renewable natural resources and forestry resources in the province, including laws in relation to the rate of primary production therefrom; and
(c) development, conservation and management of sites and facilities in the province for the generation and production of electrical energy.

Do these guys who think this way not understand the Rule of Law?

His second absurd point is an extension of the first. He equates Albertan’s collective ownership to other counties in the world with state owned resources and tier history of “…an ugly record of plunder, nationalization and monarchical control at the expense of property rights and economic freedom.”

How out of touch is this fellow? To compare Alberta with Nigeria, Venezuela, Bolivia and Kazakhstan, as he and some other pillars of industry and commerce, including have recently done, is untrue and insulting to all Albertans. It shows how dangerously out of touch with Albertan and Canadian values some of these people really are.