Alberta
Nancy Southern has the skills and experience to help Alberta find its way forward
Nancy C. Southern is one of the heavy hitters tasked with helping us find our way forward from the economic downturn in the energy industry and the devastating impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Southern is Chair & Chief Executive Officer of ATCO Ltd., as well as Chair of Canadian Utilities Limited (an ATCO company). Reporting to the Board of Directors, she has full responsibility for executing the strategic direction and ongoing operations.
She joined the ATCO Board of Directors in 1989, was named President & Chief Executive Officer of ATCO in 2003 and was appointed Chair in December 2012. She also serves on the boards of the majority of ATCO subsidiary companies. Ms. Southern is a founding director of AKITA Drilling Ltd., a director of Sentgraf Enterprises Ltd., and Executive Vice President of Spruce Meadows.
Born and raised in Calgary, Southern studied Economics and Commerce at the University of Calgary.
During her career, she has served many roles with some of the world’s most prestigious organizations. Southern is a member on the, Canadian Advisory Council for Promoting Women on Boards, C.D. Howe Institute, American Society of Corporate Executives, Canadian Member Trilateral Commission, Business Council of Canada, also on Canada’s Advanced Manufacturing Economic Strategy Table, University of Calgary School of Public Policy Advisory Council and the U.S. Business Council.
In addition to her business leadership, Southern has long played a leading role in advocating on social issues of global importance – most notably, the rights of Indigenous peoples and the role of women in business.
In 2012, she was made an Honorary Chief of the Kainai (Blood Tribe of Alberta), was given the name Aksistoowa’paakii, or Brave Woman. Southern is also a board member at the Pension Fund Society of Bank of Montreal, Rideau Hall Foundation and was indicted in the Canadian Business Hall of Fame 2017, received the Canadian Business Leader Award from the University of Alberta in 2018, was honoured as Distinguished Policy Fellow by the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, named to the Fortune’s list of the “50 Most Powerful Women” outside of the U.S., 50 Most Important People in Canada in Maclean’s Magazine, Financial Post Magazine’s “The Power List” and to Alberta Venture’s Alberta’s Business Person of the Year for 2011.
Here are the members of the committee.
- Jack Mintz, chair
- Clive Beddoe – former chair, president and CEO, WestJet
- Robert Blakely
- Brent Belzberg – founder and senior managing partner, TorQuest Partners
- Bob Dhillon – founder, president and CEO, Mainstreet Equity Corporation
- Chris Fowler – president and CEO, Canadian Western Bank
- Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper – Canada’s 22nd prime minister
- Peter Kiss – owner and president, Morgan Construction and Environmental
- Zainul Mawji – president, Telus Home Solutions
- Nancy Southern – chair and CEO, ATCO Ltd.
- Kevin Uebelein – CEO, AIMCo
- Mac Van Wielingen – founder, ARC Financia
Dr. Jack M. Mintz heads up Alberta Economic Recovery Council
Alberta
Alberta government should eliminate corporate welfare to generate benefits for Albertans
From the Fraser Institute
By Spencer Gudewill and Tegan Hill
Last November, Premier Danielle Smith announced that her government will give up to $1.8 billion in subsidies to Dow Chemicals, which plans to expand a petrochemical project northeast of Edmonton. In other words, $1.8 billion in corporate welfare.
And this is just one example of corporate welfare paid for by Albertans.
According to a recent study published by the Fraser Institute, from 2007 to 2021, the latest year of available data, the Alberta government spent $31.0 billion (inflation-adjusted) on subsidies (a.k.a. corporate welfare) to select firms and businesses, purportedly to help Albertans. And this number excludes other forms of government handouts such as loan guarantees, direct investment and regulatory or tax privileges for particular firms and industries. So the total cost of corporate welfare in Alberta is likely much higher.
Why should Albertans care?
First off, there’s little evidence that corporate welfare generates widespread economic growth or jobs. In fact, evidence suggests the contrary—that subsidies result in a net loss to the economy by shifting resources to less productive sectors or locations (what economists call the “substitution effect”) and/or by keeping businesses alive that are otherwise economically unviable (i.e. “zombie companies”). This misallocation of resources leads to a less efficient, less productive and less prosperous Alberta.
And there are other costs to corporate welfare.
For example, between 2007 and 2019 (the latest year of pre-COVID data), every year on average the Alberta government spent 35 cents (out of every dollar of business income tax revenue it collected) on corporate welfare. Given that workers bear the burden of more than half of any business income tax indirectly through lower wages, if the government reduced business income taxes rather than spend money on corporate welfare, workers could benefit.
Moreover, Premier Smith failed in last month’s provincial budget to provide promised personal income tax relief and create a lower tax bracket for incomes below $60,000 to provide $760 in annual savings for Albertans (on average). But in 2019, after adjusting for inflation, the Alberta government spent $2.4 billion on corporate welfare—equivalent to $1,034 per tax filer. Clearly, instead of subsidizing select businesses, the Smith government could have kept its promise to lower personal income taxes.
Finally, there’s the Heritage Fund, which the Alberta government created almost 50 years ago to save a share of the province’s resource wealth for the future.
In her 2024 budget, Premier Smith earmarked $2.0 billion for the Heritage Fund this fiscal year—almost the exact amount spent on corporate welfare each year (on average) between 2007 and 2019. Put another way, the Alberta government could save twice as much in the Heritage Fund in 2024/25 if it ended corporate welfare, which would help Premier Smith keep her promise to build up the Heritage Fund to between $250 billion and $400 billion by 2050.
By eliminating corporate welfare, the Smith government can create fiscal room to reduce personal and business income taxes, or save more in the Heritage Fund. Any of these options will benefit Albertans far more than wasteful billion-dollar subsidies to favoured firms.
Authors:
Alberta
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