Oil Sands Survey to be Released Friday.

We are in the final stages of analysis on our discrete choice modelling survey of 1303 random Albertans on what values are most important for the future of oil sands development. We will be releasing the results on Friday where they will be posted on Policy Channel (www.policychannel.com)

Alberta has the most dynamic and fastest growing economy in the country. We have the largest per capita disposable income and the lowest unemployment rate and lowest overall taxes in the country. There are projects in progress and planned that total over $140B of investment – and this is just counting individual projects over $100M.

One of the most interesting findings in our survey turned on Albertans expectations on their quality of life. We have all kinds of serious and costly public infrastructure demands, population growth pressures, skills and staff shortages, rapidly increased housing costs and inflation once again creeping into our lives.

The social costs on families because of too few people doing too may jobs, and the pressure on community and social cohesion is starting to take its toll. Volunteerism is a hall mark of being an Albertan but people simply don’t have discretionary time any more to participate in community life like they used to.

In spite of all the economic activity, investment and wealth creation going on in Alberta, the pressures on people is taking a toll. Albertans are getting tired of trying to keep up the pace of work that is dominating their lives. Dealing with the implications of too much concentrated growth with insufficient social capital and human capital resources is showing up in Albertans feelings about their future quality of life.

When Albertans were asked about how they saw their quality of life changing in the next two years, our poll shows that only 4% believe their quality of life will improve dramatically. There were 24% who anticipated slight improvements. A third saw no change from the hectic pace and pressures they are dealing with. Interestingly 32% feel their lives will be slightly worse and 8% anticipated a dramatic worsening of their quality of life.

The Alberta Advantage is now a cliché in this province. While the advantage still exists, it has not trickled down enough to the ordinary citizen so they can see the upside working for them. The expectations of 40% of Albertans seeing their lives being worse off in 2 years and 33% seeing a current difficult situation persisting, clearly if this is a continuing reality it is unsustainable for many Albertans.

Poll Shows Stelmach is Strong but Darkening Clouds Exist

Alberta is all over the front pages and above the fold stories in the Globe and Mail. The Strategic Counsel poll is showing Premier Stelmach is doing much better in the minds of ordinary Albertans than with the energy industry C-suites in downtown Calgary. This is good news going into an election that will be called in about 2 weeks. I will do s specific post on this poll and

The Report on Business story is a bit more unsettling as it looks like the Alberta Minister of Energy is weakening on a strong stance on royalties with the Alberta oil and gas industry. The Stelmach government has to be careful to do any such review with the industry in public and not behind closed doors.

The Klein government had an all too cosy back room relationship with the energy industry and did not do a very good job of protecting the interests of the resource owners…ordinary Albertans.

Stelmach has recently instituted an all party legislative committee process. That is the proper place for the energy industry attend in public to make it case about the “unintended consequences” they are facing as a result of the royalty review decisions. The fundamental question is should the royalty rates which are rents, be used as a means to subsidize uneconomic high cost drilling and why shouldn’t the higher producing wells pay a higher royalty?

There is a difficult political situation around the trust level of Albertans have over how well their government has managed our natural resources and the growth in Alberta during the Klein years. Any hint of returning to the behind closed doors and back room deals between Alberta Energy and the industry on our resource management will come with a significant political cost to the Stelmach government.

One of the Best Blog Posts I Have Ever Read

This morning my Inbox connected me to a blog post that is one of the best I have ever read in the Blogosphere. It is posted at Davey’s Politics and entitled “Being a Leader is More Than Holding a Title.”

Quality leadership and quality decision making in public policy are two of the most critical shortcomings we have in western democracies today. Davey’s Politics provides some insight and analysis of the current state of these dynamics in Canada today.

It is a long from post and regular readers of this Blog know what that is all about. Pour another cup of coffee and give it a slow and reflective Sunday morning read.

Wild Alliance Party Rejects Chandler as a Director

My sources tell me Mr. Chandler and his cohorts ran for directorships in the Wild Alliance Party at the Merger Meeting yesterday in Calgary. Rick Bell of the Calgary Sun confirms that it is true and they were all unsuccessful

Will Mr. Chandler now seek a Wild Alliance nomination for the soon to be announced election…or will he stick to his independent candidate guns?

I have checked both the Alliance and Wildrose sites this morning and see they have nothing about the merger meeting posted on the sites and the newspapers have spotty coverage. Does anyone out there know what is really going on with this new party that wants to perfect yesterday instead of planning for tomorrow?

I presume from earlier statements that Mr. Chandler no longer wishes to be associated with the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta. The feeling is mutual. However, I find it curious that he has allegedly been able to gain access to the PC Party Calgary Egmont nomination voting results which he posted as a comment on my Blog post yesterday.

I will presume Mr. Chandler's reporting of the results are accurate until an official reporting comes along. Once again I have to chastise the Calgary Egmont constituency organization, and any others in any political party who have followed the same path of not releasing the vote counts in nominations. Open and transparent democracy demands the release of all political party nomination results if the parties are to continue to deserve the confidence of the electorate on this and other more serious issues as well.

As for the reported Calgary Egmont "write-in" nomination of Craig Chandler for the PC Party, I wonder if that was done by Mr. Chandler himself. It matters not but it is an intriguing diversion from the weather and easier to figure out than the Sudako puzzle. I also wonder it Mr. Chandler followed up on his offer to buy the www.edstelmach.ca website from Daveberta too hoping to be the defendant in the earlier threats of legal action over the website.

I think the powers that be in the PC Party and the Premier's Office have learned a lesson and are quietly dropping the whole silly website thing. That means Daveberta is left like the pawnshop owner who actually knows he has stolen property in the store and now faces a dilemma. He doesn't really want to keep the site because it has served its purpose and can only cause more trouble if it gets misused. He can't really sell it, given what he knows about how it was acquired in the first place. What is the responsible thing for Daveberta to do under these circumstances?

The Wild Alliance is a "Reality" and a Farce to be Dealt With.

The merger of the Alliance and Wildrose Party’s is a done deal. With an underwhelming founding convention of 200 Albertans gaggled in Calgary today, it is destined to be a farce to be dealt with in the forth coming election.

The Wildrose faction has the energy and the Alliance stalwarts have the ennui. It offers a platform that is focused on perfecting yesterday. With no time to raise credible candidates or money for the election call expected in early February, they will have momentum but it will be downhill and out of touch.

There is no point in engaging in folly unless it is at a grand scale. So based on that, this merger is not totally without insignificance.