The CBC is reporting that the government is inviting comments from the public in relation to the royalty review process by telephone and through its website. According to the CBC:

“While the formal consultation is over, we have not stopped listening,” Premier Ed Stelmach said in a news release Tuesday. “We want to make sure that people who have comments send them to the right place so we can consider this input as part of the review process.”

Given the potential impacts that oil sands development has on the economy and environment I am shocked that this did not occur sooner. Is the government recognizing that greater public consultation should have occurred?

It seems that the government also views that the Department of Energy is competent to meet with and discuss industry concerns in relation to the proposed hikes to royalties. In holding this view, the government seems to be rejecting the conclusion from the report that the Department of Energy lacks sufficient expertise to keep up with developments in the industry.

Are we to understand that the Department of Energy lacks the expertise to understand the industry but that meaningful input will come from members of the public who have been tainted by a report that has already concluded that they are being robbed by the greedy oil companies? How can taxpayers have any confidence that they will obtain their fair share without destroying the economy? I am trying to understand who exactly is qualified to lead the process of royalty reviews. So far the author’s of “Our Fair Share” seem to be the only people qualified, or maybe that is the point they are trying to promote.

Jon Stewart’s Daily Show looks at Canada’s “immigration” problem. Very funny clip, Albertans will find it humorous due to the fact that Mexicans are migrating to Alberta in droves to do the jobs that Albertans aren’t interested in.

Well the UAE has tapped their oil so now they are gobbling up chunks of Alberta’s Oils Sands. I really like how Canada has more or less sold our resources off to foreign interests…

CALGARY — Big-spending Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (TAQA) has made its most significant deal so far in Alberta’s energy patch, spending $5-billion to buy PrimeWest Energy Trust as the United Arab Emirates-based firm continues to pursue ambitions of becoming a major player within Canada.

The deal - the third made by TAQA in Alberta since May - won’t be the last as the company seeks to increase the size of its Canadian subsidiary, TAQA North, from $7.5-billion currently to $20-billion by 2012 through production growth and additional purchases, said CEO Peter Barker-Homek.

Link.

Interesting article on Canada.com describing how Canada has been using it’s resource wealth as justification for our lack of military.

Is it possible that Americans will come to pay greater heed to Canada?

In appreciation of our energy largesse, will there be more understanding and less expectation from Americans when it comes to asking Canada for defence contributions?

Unquestionably, the dynamic between the two countries will shift in this new era of peak oil.

Link.

This might be obvious for those who have spent sometime in Calgary but it’s now official there is more money in Alberta than pretty much anywhere else in Canada.

From Bloomberg:

The fourth-biggest province was home to 23 percent of Canadians in the top income bracket in 2004, which was C$2.83 million ($2.83 million) or higher, Statistics Canada said today. Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, had 51 percent and Quebec, the second-biggest, had 10 percent.

Albertans’ incomes are rising as energy companies scramble to develop oil fields in the province’s tar sands, site of the biggest reserves outside the Middle East, causing labor and housing shortages. In 1992, when oil prices were below $20 a barrel, Albertans accounted for 11.1 percent of the people in the top 0.01 percent of earners.

Link.