Business
A Response To: An Open Letter To Canadians From Oil And Gas Workers
Update – April 13th 2020: Eavor Techologies View Eavor Technologies CEO – John Redfern’s response here
My letter in response to this article in the Financial Post: https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/an-open-letter-to-canadians-from-oil-and-gas-workers
By Zac Trolley
Dear Albertan oil executives,
Canada’s oil and gas workers need your help. For decades, we have been asking you to diversify our economy and look for ways to avoid the boom and bust cycle. We are now in a perfect storm with oil prices falling and workers in isolation from a deadly virus. We need your leadership more than ever.
Unfortunately for us, you’ve chosen the least imaginative path possible: stay the course. In your April 6th Op-Ed in the Financial Post, you argued that the fossil fuel industry needs federal support in order to maintain a skilled workforce. For a province that prides itself on hard work and innovation, don’t you think we can do better?
The underlying assumption that you have made is that oil prices will return to a level that’s profitable for Alberta. But the historical trend doesn’t support your argument.
When you look at the historical price of WTI, Alberta’s golden years came from a bubble. In 2008 analysts all over the province were claiming oil would climb to $200 and Alberta would become the crown jewel of Canada. That turned out to be wishful thinking. You have dusted off that same playbook, claiming that oil will keep going up in price. The more likely scenario is that prices will return to their historical average.
We cannot rely on high oil prices for our economic survival.
(The picture was taken from https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/crude-oil But any 30-year graph will do. )
I agree with you that we need to ensure that we can maintain our workforce. It’s essential that Alberta has skilled people working in our province so that we can develop our resources. Canada as a whole needs to maintain our skilled labour force and keep our economy functioning so that we can rebound once the pandemic is over.
But putting those 200,000 people back to work into fossil fuels is a terrible idea.
So what do we do with hundreds of thousands of unemployed people and billions of dollars of idle equipment?
My suggestion is we find markets outside of oil and gas that require very similar skill sets. We leverage our existing infrastructure, supply chains, and experience to build new industries here in Alberta.
I’ve got three examples.
Geothermal Energy
Geothermal energy needs the same drilling rigs that the oil service industry has sitting idle. You can use your existing geologists, roughnecks, pipefitters, and welders to drill geothermal wells instead of oil wells. The end result is clean baseload power that can replace coal in this province and all over the world. The added benefit of developing geothermal is that we repurpose orphan wells into sources of heat and electricity. Companies like Eavor and DEEP have already started.
Battery Manufacturing
As we move to cleaner energy sources, batteries will become more important to the sustainability of our economy. Batteries need a lot of material to be manufactured and companies like E3 Metals are developing extraction techniques to create a lithium industry here in Alberta. There are plenty of technicians, engineers, and fabricators in our energy community that are entirely capable of working on projects like this.
Nuclear Power
While we are brainstorming ideas, let’s think big. If we are serious about providing clean, low carbon, environmentally friendly energy we have to look at nuclear. The folks at Terrestial Energy have designed a modular reactor that’s small, safe, and could absolutely be manufactured here in Alberta. I bet the mod yards would be jumping at the chance to have a backlog of work.
I agree with you that we absolutely need to support our workforce. However, I don’t think keeping our oil industry limping along can be the full answer for our skilled and versatile workforce. Our talented population needs options.
Please stop looking in the rearview mirror and start building for the future.
Update – April 13th 2020: View Eavor Technologies CEO – John Redfern’s response here
This article was originally published on April 8, 2020.
News release from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
The feds are spending millions of your tax dollars trying to “green” their offices. Then the government is spending millions more of your tax dollars flying battalions of bureaucrats and politicians around the world.
Here’s a crazy idea: the government could save you money, and cut down on emissions, by skipping out on a couple taxpayer-funded international conferences.
Plus, we’ve compiled the craziest examples of government waste in one video. You’re going to love the video, but hate the waste.
All that and more in this week’s Taxpayer Waste Watch. Enjoy.
Franco.
Bank of Canada fixes with its left hand, what it breaks with its right
They say hypocrites are the kind of people who will cut down a tree, only to stand on the stump and give a speech about the importance of protecting forests.
Someone should get the fat cats at the Bank of Canada on the horn and let them know about that particular definition.
In recent years, the Bank of Canada dumped millions of your tax dollars into a green initiative aimed at lowering its carbon footprint.
Meanwhile, at the exact same time, its executives have been racking up frequent flyer miles while globetrotting to exotic, far-flung locales.
Burning through jet fuel and your tax dollars in the process.
Since 2020, the Bank of Canada dropped $4.1 million on its “greening the bank” initiative, a multi-year effort to measure and reduce its carbon footprint.
More than $1 million has been spent on internal program costs, alongside $950,000 on external consultants and studies, and $2.1 million on green investments.
On top of the greening the bank initiative, the Bank of Canada also signed a contract with the Delphi Group for up to $300,000.
The Delphi Group is a consulting firm “specializing in climate change, sustainability and ESG,” according to its website.
Six staff from the Delphi Group will aid the Bank of Canada’s “annual quantification of its GHG inventory,” according to records obtained by the CTF.
But if the Bank of Canada is looking for ways to lower its carbon footprint, it doesn’t need to spend millions hiring consultants.
All it has to do is look at its executives’ expense reports.
In 2023, Bank of Canada executives racked up $535,000 in travel expenses.
Bank executives took dozens of trips to exotic destinations, including Portugal, Japan, Greece, France, Sweden, Germany, India, Peru, the West Indies and Switzerland.
Bank Governor Tiff Macklem racked up $179,000 in travel expenses alone.
Macklem took 26 separate trips, including four visits to Switzerland, two to Sweden, two to India and one each to Morocco, Portugal, Japan and the Caymen Islands.
So first you’re forced to pay for first-class airfare so bank executives can jet set around the globe to attend conferences and give speeches.
And then you’re forced to pay for millions in consultant fees because the big brains at the central bank are confused why their carbon footprint is so high.
Needless to say, if they can’t crack that puzzle, then it’s little wonder why inflation has run rampant while ravaging the paycheques of taxpayers like you.
But don’t worry, folks.
If the bank runs out of your cash to blow on all these vacations – erm, sorry, we mean “work trips” – we’re sure they’ll just fire up the money printer to cover the costs.
Franco’s note: Any time we write about the Bank of Canada I need to mention this:
The Bank of Canada has one job: keep inflation low and around two per cent. Bank of Canada bureaucrats got $20 million in bonuses in 2022 while it hiked interest rates seven times and inflation reached a 40-year high.
This should go without saying, but bonuses are for people who do a good job, not people who fail at their one and only job.
Trudeau wants to spend your money on…
Every year, the federal government tables main and supplementary estimate documents that detail how your money will be allocated to fund government programs.
But with all the shenanigans currently holding up the House of Commons, the Trudeau government is worried they may not be able to fund these government schemes.
It’s a good bet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his minions will claim a vote is needed to make sure struggling Canadians get the help they need.
But the CTF read through the entirety of the recently-released Supplementary Estimates report to see what sort of spending the feds are actually proposing:
- $970 million to cover pay raises for bureaucrats
- $4.5 million for government advertising
- $46 million for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup
- $20 million for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Canada Media Fund
- $200,000 for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plan to plant two billion trees
- $45 million for the gun confiscation scheme
- $6.9 million for pro-carbon tax ads
- $5.5 million for the Toronto Film Festival
- $3.4 million for settlements related to the Phoenix payroll fiasco
Does any of that sound like necessary government spending to you?
VIDEO: Craziest government waste
We’ve said it time and time again.
You pay too much tax because the government wastes too much money.
Don’t believe us? Then watch (and share) the video below.
CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano brings the receipts on some of the craziest government waste that’s out of Ottawa in recent years.
If you’re looking for more reading on taxpayer issues, we’ve got you covered.
Canada’s EV gamble looks even more foolish with Trump retaking the White House: https://torontosun.com/
Government employees scored $150M in standby pay last year: https://torontosun.com/
Saskatoon spent more than $300,000 to name new bus system: https://www.taxpayer.
Confirms $523K Rush Orders: https://www.
Trudeau’s bureaucracy boom: Salaries and spending spiralling out of control: https://www.
Premier Holt’s carbon tax flip-flop: https://tj.news/
If you’re tired of censorship and surveillance, subscribe to Reclaim The Net.
|
Meta is coming out as a supporter of age verification, and the proposal the giant is putting forward exposes and sums up many of the points critics have been consistently making.
A blog post by Meta VP and Global Head of Safety Antigone Davis proposes to implement age verification at the operating system/app stores level. Although the narrative around child safety and difficulties of parenting “in the digital age” dominates the article, “the meat of it” are the implications that this approach brings with it: namely, it creates a situation where, down the line, people would be forced to link real-world identity to their phone’s operating system (OS).
And everything they do using the phone is exposed to that OS. Davis goes into how the EU (notably via the Digital Services Act) is trying to resolve the problem of age verification, but doesn’t think any existing methods are good enough; instead, new regulation is needed, the Meta exec argues – and that would be the one that “applies to all apps.”
It means incorporating “the point of approval” into the OS or app stores. The parents would be notified when their child downloads an app, which would allow them to approve it. (The idea seems to be that if a jurisdiction has laws that prohibit a certain category of minors from using certain apps – it would be the parents’ job to “enforce” that.) It might not sound like a very reliable way to ensure compliance, but it would achieve some goals, in the grand scheme of things, quite separate from what the “think of the children” argument seeks to present as the reason for the age verification push. Meta is trying to lead the way here in introducing “industry standards” – the proposal looks to embed the technology into different operating systems and app stores. When it comes to what a social media company should consider age-appropriate content, Meta is again urging common “standards” that would be observed by everyone. And, some countries already require that parents provide government-issued ID to app stores in order for their children to use a phone and set up accounts. Meta wants the EU to “mandate by a legislative framework that applies across all member states and for all apps teens use.” |
|
|
|
You subscribe to Reclaim The Net because you value free speech and privacy. Each issue we publish is a commitment to defend these critical rights, providing insights and actionable information to protect and promote liberty in the digital age.
Despite our wide readership, less than 0.2% of our readers contribute financially. With your support, we can do more than just continue; we can amplify voices that are often suppressed and spread the word about the urgent issues of censorship and surveillance. Consider making a modest donation — just $5, or whatever amount you can afford. Your contribution will empower us to reach more people, educate them about these pressing issues, and engage them in our collective cause. Thank you for considering a contribution. Each donation not only supports our operations but also strengthens our efforts to challenge injustices and advocate for those who cannot speak out.
Thank you.
|
New website to explain changes coming to your auto insurance
G20’s Online Speech Clampdown Calls Set To Ignite Free Speech Fears
Parliament votes for proposal recommending hard drug decriminalization
Ontario court throws out Dr. Trozzi’s appeal after medical license revoked over COVID stance
Is Canada the next nuclear superpower?
Why the Trump Administration is Unlikely to Impose Import Tariffs on Canadian Oil and Natural Gas
Passenger rail experts from across the world to inform Alberta’s Passenger Rail Master Plan
-
Crime2 days agoTrafficking victim advocate analyzes testimony of reported survivor of elite abuse network
-
Business2 days agoGreen Energy or Green Grift? SDTC at the Center of a $38 Million Scandal
-
Alberta1 day agoAlberta taking Trudeau government to court to fight unconstitutional Impact Assessment Act
-
Crime2 days agoThe Bureau Exclusive: The US Government Fentanyl Case Against China, Canada, Mexico
-
Bruce Dowbiggin2 days agoClimate & Covid: How The Certainty of Elites Destroyed A Decade
-
Crime2 days agoCanada’s violent crime rate 14.0% higher than U.S. in 2022, and rising; property crime rate 27.5% higher
-
Business2 days agoAustralia passes social media ban for kids under 16 sparking online surveillance concerns
-
Business17 hours agoNorway’s Trainwreck – How Taxing Unrealized Gains Has Caused an Entrepreneurial Exodus