An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
Canada's establishment are stuck in the Tar Age. They like to virtue signal on the climate crisis, but their actions speak louder than their words.
Pipeline to ship bitumen sludge to Asia is planned to cross the Rocky Mountains against the objections of native Americans and the BC provincial government.
Although Indigenous youth between the ages of 12-17 comprise only 7% of all adolescents in the general population, in 2014-2015, about 35% of youth admitted to correctional services were Indigenous (Statistics Canada 2017). Indigenous girls accounted for 44% of female youth admitted, and Indigenous boys accounted for 29% of male adolescents admitted.
This quote from an Indigenous oil worker (bold mine):
I’m an Ojibwe woman. Life was very hard growing up. I was brought up in an abusive environment, and my family was mostly dependent on government assistance for income. I ran away from home several times as a teenager to escape this lifestyle. I did complete high school although there were only a handful of other Indigenous students in my graduating class. Most of my Indigenous peers quit at middle school. I eventually moved to the city, married young, went to college, which I paid for myself, had children and got divorced. I often worked two or three jobs to support my family and still struggled to make ends meet.
One day, I decided to apply to work in the oil sands in Fort McMurray. I didn’t know anyone there but I was determined to make a change – and yes, of course, as with almost any job, there were financial motivations. I applied to dozens of places even though I had no experience. Only one contractor showed interest, but that was enough to get me trained as a heavy equipment operator. I have since moved up, and now I work at a large company.
I’m tired of politicians and activists speaking about Indigenous people as if we only have one voice, one culture, one worldview. Everyone has the right to speak up for what they believe in. But we must stop speaking about Indigenous people as if we all fit one stereotype. Let’s work to support one another and empower our people to make their own choices. For me, Canada’s resource sector was a great choice, as it’s a great place to create opportunities, and I don’t want to see these jobs taken away from Indigenous people, or any Canadians.
I have broken the cycle of government dependency, violence and poverty. I have my own voice. I refuse to be a victim of my circumstances. Most of all, I have choices, and I choose to declare that I’m a proud Indigenous woman working in the oil sands.
The Government Pension Fund of Norway comprises two entirely separate sovereign wealth funds owned by the government of Norway.
The Government Pension Fund Global (Correct translation: Sovereign Pension Fund - Foreign), also known as the Oil Fund, was established in 1990 to invest the surplus revenues of the Norwegian petroleum sector. It has over US$1 trillion in assets, including 1.4% of global stocks and shares, making it the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. In May 2018, it was worth about $195,000 per Norwegian citizen. It also holds portfolios of real estate and fixed-income investments. Many companies are excluded by the fund on ethical grounds. —Wikipedia
Norway wealth fund earned a record $180 billion in 2019
Last year’s return on investment amounted to almost $34,000 for each of the 5.3 million people living in Norway, and the overall value of the fund is now equivalent to about $207,000 for every man, woman and child. The fund holds stakes in more than 9,000 companies globally, owning 1.5% of all listed stocks. It also invests in bonds and real estate.
Japan Races to Build New Coal-Burning Power Plants, Despite the Climate Risks
It is one unintended consequence of the Fukushima nuclear disaster almost a decade ago, which forced Japan to all but close its nuclear power program. Japan now plans to build as many as 22 new coal-burning power plants — one of the dirtiest sources of electricity — at 17 different sites in the next five years, just at a time when the world needs to slash carbon dioxide emissions to fight global warming.
“Why coal, why now?” said Ms. Kanno, a homemaker in Yokosuka, the site for two of the coal-burning units that will be built just several hundred feet from her home. “It’s the worst possible thing they could build.”
Together the 22 power plants would emit almost as much carbon dioxide annually as all the passenger cars sold each year in the United States. The construction stands in contrast with Japan’s effort to portray this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo as one of the greenest ever.
If you had read the article, it posits Alberta as a failed example of Norway's sovereign wealth fund. Canada and Norway are oil exporters, Japan is not.
"Alberta as a failed example of Norway's sovereign wealth fund"
Do you remember the National Energy Program (NEP)?
Before the NEP, net migration to Alberta was almost 60,000 people per year; but seemingly overnight, it went to minus 30,000 per year — a swing of 90,000 people annually.
According to Statistics Canada, unemployment rates in Alberta spiked from 3.7 per cent in September 1980 to 12.4 per cent in September 1984 and the bankruptcy rate in Alberta rose by 150 per cent after the NEP took effect.
It was in this climate of economic meltdown that the Trudeau government perpetrated “the largest inter-regional fiscal transfer in Canadian history,” says Mansell.
“Over those five years, 1980 to 1985, the net outflow was a little over $100 billion measured in today’s dollars,” he said.
“Just to give you an idea of the magnitude of that, before the NEP the net federal fiscal balance . . . was about $6,000 for every Albertan every year. During the NEP, it reached to more than $15,000 per person per year or $60,000 per year for a family of four or about $35 billion a year, and our economy was much smaller back then,” said Mansell.
Alberta has remained the largest net contributor to Confederation — by far — contributing about $20 billion per year, and along with Saskatchewan was the only net contributor to the federal government during the NEP years from 1980 to 1985.
In Canada, the federal government makes equalization payments to provincial governments to help address fiscal disparities among Canadian provinces based on estimates of provinces' fiscal capacity—their ability to generate tax revenues. A province that does not receive equalization payments is often referred to as a "have province", while one that does is called a "have not province". In 2020–21, five provinces will receive $20.573 billion in equalization payments from the federal government.
Check out the chart in this link. You'll notice how some provinces are net recipients of transfers:
You prairie pansies are still whining about what happened 40 years ago. Get over it.
Everyone knows about 'have' and 'have not' provinces. Westerners never shut up about it. Equalization transfers is what holds Canada together. That being said, I support the right of Alberta or any province to leave if their residents so choose.
Alberta failed to grow their Heritage Fund. They failed to drive a hard bargain with oil companies. They failed to diversify their economy. What Ottawa takes would have been given to the private sector, and you'd be in same hole. Albertans are true believers in the free market, according to your politicians.
Fort McMoney is a joke, based on a classical boom/bust economy. Ridiculous prices for real estate, ridiculously high salaries and stipends to pay for the ridiculously high cost of living. It's all a cash grab. Make your money in the boom and get out when it blows.
"Hard-working" Albertans offshoring their jobs to Maritimers. Actually working the tar sands is beneath them.
Albertans don't vote Liberal, yet Trudeau is going to bat for them. Nationalizing a pipeline and offending a province that does vote Liberal. When it comes down to it, the Canadian establishment kowtows to the oil industry.
If Albertans don't like the current situation, then hold a referendum and vote to leave. Join the US, they appear to share Albertan values and culture. Cling to the oil industry until it and the planet go down the tubes.
"Equalization transfers is what holds Canada together."
I support equalization payments which is a separate issue from the NEP. I mentioned them because many Canadians don't understand how Alberta and other "have" provinces fund things for them like health care, education, etc.
In any event, we may soon become a "have not" province in which case you'll be sending us money. Expect your taxes to rise.
""Hard-working" Albertans offshoring their jobs to Maritimers."
What will they do now that they don't have those jobs? Again, taxes will have to rise in the Maritimes from what is already a relatively high level.
"Albertans don't vote Liberal, yet Trudeau is going to bat for them. Nationalizing a pipeline and offending a province that does vote Liberal."
Again, without that pipeline expansion, Canada becomes poorer. Less health care, etc. It's the right of a single province versus the right of all Canadians, not just Alberta. You're making the same error here as before. BC is not just hurting Alberta, it's hurting all Canadians.
"Cling to the oil industry until it and the planet go down the tubes."
The oil will just get produced elsewhere. In any event, I think we'll soon transition to a lithium economy. Electric cars are coming at a rapid rate.
The quote is from a 15-year old article but it shows another way the rest of Canada funded the Maritime provinces.
UI started sensibly enough, but in 1971, it was ramped up into a gigantic vote-getter, especially in rural Quebec and the Atlantic. The idea was to save small towns by using EI to subsidize “seasonal” jobs in fishing and forestry which hitherto had not qualified for benefits. This became “Lotto 10-42” — work 10 weeks and loaf for the next 42.
In his excellent recent book, [published by the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies], Retreat from Growth, maritime economist Fred McMahon documents the devastating effect UI inflicts on the Atlantic economy.
During the 1960s, before the feds showed up to “help,” the region had almost caught up to the rest of the country. Unemployment was only slightly higher than the Canadian average, private job-creating investment was the same, and education and skill levels were rising.
Then came Lotto 10-42, along with a raft of bogus short-term government “job creation” grants to help people get their 10 weeks to qualify for benefits. It didn’t matter what the jobs were, and still doesn’t — fixing park benches, counting cars, making fibreglass caskets in Cape Breton. Atlantic political careers are won or lost on the delivery of EI make-work grants.
A maritimer who “hoards” a make-work job longer than the EI qualifying period is considered anti-social and selfish. Think of the neighbours! The wage rates of these bogus jobs are set exactly high enough to deliver the maximum EI benefit. Meanwhile, real jobs frequently go begging for lack of anyone willing or skilled enough to do them, private investment lags, and Atlantic skill levels have dropped, because you can’t collect pogey in school.
Ottawa might as well have handed out heroin. In some towns, 90% of the people are addicted. It got so ridiculous that in 1993, even the federal Liberals decided to scale it back. Resentment flared, and the Liberals dropped from 31 Atlantic seats to 11 in the 1997 election.
Last I read, Liberal Pogey Minister Joe Volpe was scrambling to restore $1 billion worth of seasonal-work EI benefits by cabinet order heading into last year’s election.
The question is, who will end this ridiculous program? Well, not the federal Liberals. Nor the federal Conservatives. Nor the “have-not” provincial premiers. Politically they can’t.
Only the premiers of the “have” provinces, Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan and B.C., have a motive to end it, because their workers are paying for it through higher-than-necessary EI premiums. Statistically, it costs each Albertan (man, woman and child) $800 extra per year to keep this federal transfer scam going. The figure for Ontarians is $900.
But first, the “have” premiers need to get over their guilt complex for being better-off. Then they must push for a constitutional amendment restoring EI responsibility to the provinces.
Until they do, nobody will fix the problem, and the whole country will go on paying the price.
Note: We have a lottery here in Canada called the "Lotto 6/49". They used to say: "Who needs the "6/49" when you've got the "10/42", a reference to the above.
What will they do now that they don't have those jobs? Again, taxes will have to rise in the Maritimes from what is already a relatively high level.
They will become regionally self-sufficient. The same would happen if equalization were scrapped. From a federal standpoint, regional self-sufficiency threatens the confederation.
Again, without that pipeline expansion, Canada becomes poorer. Less health care, etc. It's the right of a single province versus the right of all Canadians, not just Alberta. You're making the same error here as before. BC is not just hurting Alberta, it's hurting all Canadians.
The high energy consumption lifestyle we take for granted is coming to an end. The question is whether civilization adjusts to it, or doesn't. The entire premise is that we are headed off a cliff and must abandon fossil fuels. What the feds are doing puts the lie to their greenwashing. Off camera, it's business as usual.
The oil will just get produced elsewhere. In any event, I think we'll soon transition to a lithium economy. Electric cars are coming at a rapid rate.
Yes, the oil is getting produced, all else be damned. Our future will be wonderful, with flying electric cars powered by di-lithium crystals.
Lotto 10-42
When unemployment is low, EI runs a surplus, which the feds can then plunder. They ain't giving it up. EI doesn't help the long term unemployed, who end up under provincial welfare rolls. EI is a program designed for middle class voters.
Hope you Yanks are enjoying this foray into domestic Canadian politics.
Actually didn’t know it was that complicated up there...
I think the general perception down here is it’s a lot simpler... that’s what you see all the trump deranged people saying “I’m going to move to Canada!” all the time...
It’s generally perceived as simpler more straightforward situation up there...
Clean B.C. is quietly using coal and gas power from out of province. Here’s why
British Columbians naturally assume they’re using clean power when they fire up holiday lights, juice up a cell phone or plug in a shiny new electric car.
That’s the message conveyed in advertisements for the CleanBC initiative launched by the NDP government, which has spent $3.17 million on a CleanBC “information campaign,” including almost $570,000 for focus group testing and telephone town halls, according to the B.C. finance ministry.
“We’ll reduce air pollution by shifting to clean B.C. energy,” say the CleanBC ads, which feature scenic photos of hydro reservoirs. “CleanBC: Our Nature. Our Power. Our Future.”
Yet despite all the bumph, British Columbians have no way of knowing if the electricity they use comes from a coal-fired plant in Alberta or Wyoming, a nuclear plant in Washington, a gas-fired plant in California or a hydro dam in B.C.
Here’s why.
BC Hydro’s wholly-owned corporate subsidiary, Powerex Corp., exports B.C. power when prices are high and imports power from other jurisdictions when prices are low.
In 2018, for instance, B.C. imported more electricity than it exported — not because B.C. has a power shortage (it has a growing surplus due to the recent spate of mill closures) but because Powerex reaps bigger profits when BC Hydro slows down generators to import cheaper power, especially at night.
“B.C. buys its power from outside B.C., which we would argue is not clean,” says Martin Mullany, interim executive director for Clean Energy BC.
“A good chunk of the electricity we use is imported,” Mullany says. “In reality we are trading for brown power” — meaning power generated from conventional ‘dirty’ sources such as coal and gas.
Wyoming, which generates almost 90 per cent of its power from coal, was among the 12 U.S. states that exported power to B.C. last year. (Notably, B.C. did not export any electricity to Wyoming in 2018.)
Utah, where coal-fired power plants produce 70 per cent of the state’s energy, and Montana, which derives about 55 per cent of its power from coal, also exported power to B.C. last year.
So did Nebraska, which gets 63 per cent of its power from coal, 15 per cent from nuclear plants, 14 per cent from wind and three per cent from natural gas.
Coal is responsible for about 23 per cent of the power generated in Arizona, another exporter to B.C., while gas produces about 44 per cent of the electricity in that state.
That adds up to a lot of carbon.
In 2017, the latest year for which statistics are available, electricity imports to B.C. totalled just over 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the B.C. environment ministry — roughly the equivalent of putting 255,000 new cars on the road, using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s calculation of 4.71 tonnes of annual carbon emissions for a standard passenger vehicle.
It’s generally perceived as simpler more straightforward situation up there...
Our parliamentary system fits that description. The Canadian PM, along with the unelected PMO (Prime Minister's Office) has more power than a US President could hope for.
23 comments:
Biden stimulus is turning into a tease & deny.
Leary should be banned from entering Canada.
Canada's establishment are stuck in the Tar Age. They like to virtue signal on the climate crisis, but their actions speak louder than their words.
Pipeline to ship bitumen sludge to Asia is planned to cross the Rocky Mountains against the objections of native Americans and the BC provincial government.
Peter Pan,
"...against the objections of native Americans and the BC provincial government."
I'm assuming you meant "native Canadians". Here's what one of them said:
"We want to earn our way." —Ron Quintal
Ron Quintal is president of the Fort Chipewyan Metis Nation. Quintal says that band will sue Ottawa if it rejects the Frontier oilsands project.
source: 'Borderline insulting': Indigenous group could launch unprecedented challenge if Ottawa rejects Frontier
Some sobering statistics:
Although Indigenous youth between the ages of 12-17 comprise only 7% of all adolescents in the general population, in 2014-2015, about 35% of youth admitted to correctional services were Indigenous (Statistics Canada 2017). Indigenous girls accounted for 44% of female youth admitted, and Indigenous boys accounted for 29% of male adolescents admitted.
source: Spotlight on Gladue: Challenges, Experiences, and Possibilities in Canada’s Criminal Justice System
This quote from an Indigenous oil worker (bold mine):
I’m an Ojibwe woman. Life was very hard growing up. I was brought up in an abusive environment, and my family was mostly dependent on government assistance for income. I ran away from home several times as a teenager to escape this lifestyle. I did complete high school although there were only a handful of other Indigenous students in my graduating class. Most of my Indigenous peers quit at middle school. I eventually moved to the city, married young, went to college, which I paid for myself, had children and got divorced. I often worked two or three jobs to support my family and still struggled to make ends meet.
One day, I decided to apply to work in the oil sands in Fort McMurray. I didn’t know anyone there but I was determined to make a change – and yes, of course, as with almost any job, there were financial motivations. I applied to dozens of places even though I had no experience. Only one contractor showed interest, but that was enough to get me trained as a heavy equipment operator. I have since moved up, and now I work at a large company.
I’m tired of politicians and activists speaking about Indigenous people as if we only have one voice, one culture, one worldview. Everyone has the right to speak up for what they believe in. But we must stop speaking about Indigenous people as if we all fit one stereotype. Let’s work to support one another and empower our people to make their own choices. For me, Canada’s resource sector was a great choice, as it’s a great place to create opportunities, and I don’t want to see these jobs taken away from Indigenous people, or any Canadians.
I have broken the cycle of government dependency, violence and poverty. I have my own voice. I refuse to be a victim of my circumstances. Most of all, I have choices, and I choose to declare that I’m a proud Indigenous woman working in the oil sands.
source: I’m an Indigenous woman who works in Alberta’s oil sands – and I can speak for myself
How Canada convinced the world to eat engine lubricant
I meant indigenous groups in British Columbia who have control of their land. A majority of them are opposed to building a pipeline.
That’s just their starting position in the negotiation....
A. Fares makes the good point that Native American opinion is not monolith.
Need good paying jobs to pay the bills... that opinion is monolith. So what?
If Canada were democratic, the federal government would not be able to circumvent the will of British Columbians.
Canada vs. Norway on Climate
Population of Norway - 5.3 million
Population of Canada - 37.6 million
The Government Pension Fund of Norway comprises two entirely separate sovereign wealth funds owned by the government of Norway.
The Government Pension Fund Global (Correct translation: Sovereign Pension Fund - Foreign), also known as the Oil Fund, was established in 1990 to invest the surplus revenues of the Norwegian petroleum sector. It has over US$1 trillion in assets, including 1.4% of global stocks and shares, making it the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. In May 2018, it was worth about $195,000 per Norwegian citizen. It also holds portfolios of real estate and fixed-income investments. Many companies are excluded by the fund on ethical grounds. —Wikipedia
Norway wealth fund earned a record $180 billion in 2019
Last year’s return on investment amounted to almost $34,000 for each of the 5.3 million people living in Norway, and the overall value of the fund is now equivalent to about $207,000 for every man, woman and child.
The fund holds stakes in more than 9,000 companies globally, owning 1.5% of all listed stocks. It also invests in bonds and real estate.
source: Norway wealth fund earned a record $180 billion in 2019
Now compare that to Canada's sovereign wealth fund. Oh wait, it doesn't have one.
Apples and oranges.
At least we're doing better than Japan.
Japan Races to Build New Coal-Burning Power Plants, Despite the Climate Risks
It is one unintended consequence of the Fukushima nuclear disaster almost a decade ago, which forced Japan to all but close its nuclear power program. Japan now plans to build as many as 22 new coal-burning power plants — one of the dirtiest sources of electricity — at 17 different sites in the next five years, just at a time when the world needs to slash carbon dioxide emissions to fight global warming.
“Why coal, why now?” said Ms. Kanno, a homemaker in Yokosuka, the site for two of the coal-burning units that will be built just several hundred feet from her home. “It’s the worst possible thing they could build.”
Together the 22 power plants would emit almost as much carbon dioxide annually as all the passenger cars sold each year in the United States. The construction stands in contrast with Japan’s effort to portray this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo as one of the greenest ever.
source: Japan Races to Build New Coal-Burning Power Plants, Despite the Climate Risks
If you had read the article, it posits Alberta as a failed example of Norway's sovereign wealth fund. Canada and Norway are oil exporters, Japan is not.
Are you an Albertan, Ahmed ?
Peter Pan,
Yes, an Albertan.
"Alberta as a failed example of Norway's sovereign wealth fund"
Do you remember the National Energy Program (NEP)?
Before the NEP, net migration to Alberta was almost 60,000 people per year; but seemingly overnight, it went to minus 30,000 per year — a swing of 90,000 people annually.
According to Statistics Canada, unemployment rates in Alberta spiked from 3.7 per cent in September 1980 to 12.4 per cent in September 1984 and the bankruptcy rate in Alberta rose by 150 per cent after the NEP took effect.
It was in this climate of economic meltdown that the Trudeau government perpetrated “the largest inter-regional fiscal transfer in Canadian history,” says Mansell.
“Over those five years, 1980 to 1985, the net outflow was a little over $100 billion measured in today’s dollars,” he said.
“Just to give you an idea of the magnitude of that, before the NEP the net federal fiscal balance . . . was about $6,000 for every Albertan every year. During the NEP, it reached to more than $15,000 per person per year or $60,000 per year for a family of four or about $35 billion a year, and our economy was much smaller back then,” said Mansell.
Alberta has remained the largest net contributor to Confederation — by far — contributing about $20 billion per year, and along with Saskatchewan was the only net contributor to the federal government during the NEP years from 1980 to 1985.
source: Corbella: 40 years later, National Energy Program has lessons to teach today
Then there's the issue of equalization payments:
In Canada, the federal government makes equalization payments to provincial governments to help address fiscal disparities among Canadian provinces based on estimates of provinces' fiscal capacity—their ability to generate tax revenues. A province that does not receive equalization payments is often referred to as a "have province", while one that does is called a "have not province". In 2020–21, five provinces will receive $20.573 billion in equalization payments from the federal government.
Check out the chart in this link. You'll notice how some provinces are net recipients of transfers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equalization_payments_in_Canada#Canada%E2%80%99s_equalization_formula
You prairie pansies are still whining about what happened 40 years ago. Get over it.
Everyone knows about 'have' and 'have not' provinces. Westerners never shut up about it. Equalization transfers is what holds Canada together. That being said, I support the right of Alberta or any province to leave if their residents so choose.
Alberta failed to grow their Heritage Fund. They failed to drive a hard bargain with oil companies. They failed to diversify their economy. What Ottawa takes would have been given to the private sector, and you'd be in same hole. Albertans are true believers in the free market, according to your politicians.
Fort McMoney is a joke, based on a classical boom/bust economy. Ridiculous prices for real estate, ridiculously high salaries and stipends to pay for the ridiculously high cost of living. It's all a cash grab. Make your money in the boom and get out when it blows.
"Hard-working" Albertans offshoring their jobs to Maritimers. Actually working the tar sands is beneath them.
Albertans don't vote Liberal, yet Trudeau is going to bat for them. Nationalizing a pipeline and offending a province that does vote Liberal. When it comes down to it, the Canadian establishment kowtows to the oil industry.
If Albertans don't like the current situation, then hold a referendum and vote to leave.
Join the US, they appear to share Albertan values and culture.
Cling to the oil industry until it and the planet go down the tubes.
/rant
Song for Alberta:
https://youtu.be/PTMMS88gi6c
Peter Pan,
"Equalization transfers is what holds Canada together."
I support equalization payments which is a separate issue from the NEP. I mentioned them because many Canadians don't understand how Alberta and other "have" provinces fund things for them like health care, education, etc.
In any event, we may soon become a "have not" province in which case you'll be sending us money. Expect your taxes to rise.
""Hard-working" Albertans offshoring their jobs to Maritimers."
What will they do now that they don't have those jobs? Again, taxes will have to rise in the Maritimes from what is already a relatively high level.
"Albertans don't vote Liberal, yet Trudeau is going to bat for them. Nationalizing a pipeline and offending a province that does vote Liberal."
Again, without that pipeline expansion, Canada becomes poorer. Less health care, etc. It's the right of a single province versus the right of all Canadians, not just Alberta. You're making the same error here as before. BC is not just hurting Alberta, it's hurting all Canadians.
"Cling to the oil industry until it and the planet go down the tubes."
The oil will just get produced elsewhere. In any event, I think we'll soon transition to a lithium economy. Electric cars are coming at a rapid rate.
re: Pogey Scam and the Lotto 10-42
The quote is from a 15-year old article but it shows another way the rest of Canada funded the Maritime provinces.
UI started sensibly enough, but in 1971, it was ramped up into a gigantic vote-getter, especially in rural Quebec and the Atlantic. The idea was to save small towns by using EI to subsidize “seasonal” jobs in fishing and forestry which hitherto had not qualified for benefits. This became “Lotto 10-42” — work 10 weeks and loaf for the next 42.
In his excellent recent book, [published by the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies], Retreat from Growth, maritime economist Fred McMahon documents the devastating effect UI inflicts on the Atlantic economy.
During the 1960s, before the feds showed up to “help,” the region had almost caught up to the rest of the country. Unemployment was only slightly higher than the Canadian average, private job-creating investment was the same, and education and skill levels were rising.
Then came Lotto 10-42, along with a raft of bogus short-term government “job creation” grants to help people get their 10 weeks to qualify for benefits. It didn’t matter what the jobs were, and still doesn’t — fixing park benches, counting cars, making fibreglass caskets in Cape Breton. Atlantic political careers are won or lost on the delivery of EI make-work grants.
A maritimer who “hoards” a make-work job longer than the EI qualifying period is considered anti-social and selfish. Think of the neighbours! The wage rates of these bogus jobs are set exactly high enough to deliver the maximum EI benefit. Meanwhile, real jobs frequently go begging for lack of anyone willing or skilled enough to do them, private investment lags, and Atlantic skill levels have dropped, because you can’t collect pogey in school.
Ottawa might as well have handed out heroin. In some towns, 90% of the people are addicted. It got so ridiculous that in 1993, even the federal Liberals decided to scale it back. Resentment flared, and the Liberals dropped from 31 Atlantic seats to 11 in the 1997 election.
Last I read, Liberal Pogey Minister Joe Volpe was scrambling to restore $1 billion worth of seasonal-work EI benefits by cabinet order heading into last year’s election.
The question is, who will end this ridiculous program? Well, not the federal Liberals. Nor the federal Conservatives. Nor the “have-not” provincial premiers. Politically they can’t.
Only the premiers of the “have” provinces, Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan and B.C., have a motive to end it, because their workers are paying for it through higher-than-necessary EI premiums. Statistically, it costs each Albertan (man, woman and child) $800 extra per year to keep this federal transfer scam going. The figure for Ontarians is $900.
But first, the “have” premiers need to get over their guilt complex for being better-off. Then they must push for a constitutional amendment restoring EI responsibility to the provinces.
Until they do, nobody will fix the problem, and the whole country will go on paying the price.
source: Pogey Scam
Note: We have a lottery here in Canada called the "Lotto 6/49". They used to say: "Who needs the "6/49" when you've got the "10/42", a reference to the above.
What will they do now that they don't have those jobs? Again, taxes will have to rise in the Maritimes from what is already a relatively high level.
They will become regionally self-sufficient. The same would happen if equalization were scrapped. From a federal standpoint, regional self-sufficiency threatens the confederation.
Again, without that pipeline expansion, Canada becomes poorer. Less health care, etc. It's the right of a single province versus the right of all Canadians, not just Alberta. You're making the same error here as before. BC is not just hurting Alberta, it's hurting all Canadians.
The high energy consumption lifestyle we take for granted is coming to an end. The question is whether civilization adjusts to it, or doesn't. The entire premise is that we are headed off a cliff and must abandon fossil fuels. What the feds are doing puts the lie to their greenwashing. Off camera, it's business as usual.
The oil will just get produced elsewhere. In any event, I think we'll soon transition to a lithium economy. Electric cars are coming at a rapid rate.
Yes, the oil is getting produced, all else be damned. Our future will be wonderful, with flying electric cars powered by di-lithium crystals.
Lotto 10-42
When unemployment is low, EI runs a surplus, which the feds can then plunder. They ain't giving it up. EI doesn't help the long term unemployed, who end up under provincial welfare rolls. EI is a program designed for middle class voters.
Hope you Yanks are enjoying this foray into domestic Canadian politics.
Actually didn’t know it was that complicated up there...
I think the general perception down here is it’s a lot simpler... that’s what you see all the trump deranged people saying “I’m going to move to Canada!” all the time...
It’s generally perceived as simpler more straightforward situation up there...
It's the hypocrisy...
Clean B.C. is quietly using coal and gas power from out of province. Here’s why
British Columbians naturally assume they’re using clean power when they fire up holiday lights, juice up a cell phone or plug in a shiny new electric car.
That’s the message conveyed in advertisements for the CleanBC initiative launched by the NDP government, which has spent $3.17 million on a CleanBC “information campaign,” including almost $570,000 for focus group testing and telephone town halls, according to the B.C. finance ministry.
“We’ll reduce air pollution by shifting to clean B.C. energy,” say the CleanBC ads, which feature scenic photos of hydro reservoirs. “CleanBC: Our Nature. Our Power. Our Future.”
Yet despite all the bumph, British Columbians have no way of knowing if the electricity they use comes from a coal-fired plant in Alberta or Wyoming, a nuclear plant in Washington, a gas-fired plant in California or a hydro dam in B.C.
Here’s why.
BC Hydro’s wholly-owned corporate subsidiary, Powerex Corp., exports B.C. power when prices are high and imports power from other jurisdictions when prices are low.
In 2018, for instance, B.C. imported more electricity than it exported — not because B.C. has a power shortage (it has a growing surplus due to the recent spate of mill closures) but because Powerex reaps bigger profits when BC Hydro slows down generators to import cheaper power, especially at night.
“B.C. buys its power from outside B.C., which we would argue is not clean,” says Martin Mullany, interim executive director for Clean Energy BC.
“A good chunk of the electricity we use is imported,” Mullany says. “In reality we are trading for brown power” — meaning power generated from conventional ‘dirty’ sources such as coal and gas.
Wyoming, which generates almost 90 per cent of its power from coal, was among the 12 U.S. states that exported power to B.C. last year. (Notably, B.C. did not export any electricity to Wyoming in 2018.)
Utah, where coal-fired power plants produce 70 per cent of the state’s energy, and Montana, which derives about 55 per cent of its power from coal, also exported power to B.C. last year.
So did Nebraska, which gets 63 per cent of its power from coal, 15 per cent from nuclear plants, 14 per cent from wind and three per cent from natural gas.
Coal is responsible for about 23 per cent of the power generated in Arizona, another exporter to B.C., while gas produces about 44 per cent of the electricity in that state.
That adds up to a lot of carbon.
In 2017, the latest year for which statistics are available, electricity imports to B.C. totalled just over 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the B.C. environment ministry — roughly the equivalent of putting 255,000 new cars on the road, using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s calculation of 4.71 tonnes of annual carbon emissions for a standard passenger vehicle.
source: Clean B.C. is quietly using coal and gas power from out of province. Here’s why
Hypocrisy is a main ingredient for sausage-making in Canada. Why does BC have low electricity rates, but expensive car insurance?
Every province is running scams.
It’s generally perceived as simpler more straightforward situation up there...
Our parliamentary system fits that description. The Canadian PM, along with the unelected PMO (Prime Minister's Office) has more power than a US President could hope for.
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