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Alberta

Making the most of this time

Published

4 years ago

5 minute read

These are strange, difficult times for us all. Many of us are temporarily out of work, hours are being cut back, jobs are being put on hold or altogether canceled, and we’re tightening our belts as we continue to prepare and react to this pandemic. Daily life has been profoundly disrupted for many of us, and it would be an understatement to say we’re in new, unprecedented territory here.

It’s easy to get caught up in the endless news cycles, but we’re encouraged by all of the individuals and companies stepping up to make this all just a little bit easier by pulling together, launching online classes, inspiring one another with new creative content, hosting giveaways and contests, and giving where they can.

To help you make the most of this time, we’ve compiled a list of resources, organizations and services that are either free, or offering reduced pricing, as well as some additional ideas to make the best of this situation (this is by no means an exhausted list).

——-

REMOTE WORKING/ COLLABORATION RESOURCES

Adobe is offering 2 months free of Creative:
https://www.adobe.com/covid-19-response/message-from-shantanu.html

Avid is offering a 90 day free license for Media Composer Ultimate, Pro Tools, Pro Tools Ultimate, or Sibelius Ultimate:
https://www.avid.com/covid-19

Writers Room – Free Screenwriting Add-On for Google Docs, use this quarantine time to create your next hit TV Show, Shortfilm or Feature Film.
http://writersrm.com

Comcast in USA offering 60 days free internet service, and public hot spots:
https://corporate.comcast.com/covid-19

Zoom online video conferencing has made substantial adjustments to their free account to accommodate for students through July 1st:
https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/covid19.html

Frame.io is offering a free 90-day enterprise account, as well as an additional 2TB of free space for 90 days:
https://blog.frame.io/2020/03/18/frameio-covid-19-response/

Sound Cloud
50% off SoundCloud Pro Unlimited subscriptions
Today through Monday, March 30th they are offering the biggest-ever discount on our premium creator subscription plan, Pro Unlimited.
http://soundcloud.com/pro/?ref=t738&utm_source=Braze&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=COVID-Comms-Note-from-CEO

——

ONLINE EDUCATION RESOURCES

PRO EDU offering reduced pricing on all of their fantastic classes:
https://proedu.com/blogs/news/temporary-pricing-for-those-quarantined-inside-from-covid-19

Shane Hurlbut, ASC Illumination Experience Workshop offered free until June 16th:
https://www.hurlbutacademy.com/illumination-experience-workshop/

UPenn Free Film History Course— “Hollywood: History, Industry, Art”:
https://www.classcentral.com/course/edx-hollywood-history-industry-art-5643

450 Free Ivy League Online Courses:
https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/ivy-league-free-online-courses-a0d7ae675869/?fbclid=IwAR2W2MjT5XM6BHg4q6fl3GfFbETDHaNOIp5GGkLj7J4DIVhLaCkYXTbwhzU

The New York Public Library has nearly 300,000 eBooks and audiobooks available through their app:
https://www.nypl.org/books-music-movies/ebookcentral

——-

ENTERTAINMENT/INSPIRATION RESOURCES

Many movies currently/recently in theaters are going to be getting VOD/Streaming online release. Slashfilm.com has published an up-to-date list:
https://www.slashfilm.com/coronavirus-early-digital-releases-list/

Audible has just released a whole bunch of audiobooks (many of the literary classics) for free, without any sort of sign-up required:
https://stories.audible.com/start-listen

Metropolitan Opera has been doing nightly streams of several of their most famous shows:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90478031/you-can-stream-the-met-opera-for-free-during-the-coronavirus-crisis-heres-how

—–

OTHER IDEAS

A few other things you could occupy your time with:

Cut a new reel
Archive your projects
Check in with your clients
Write that screenplay you’ve been putting off
Teach yourself new software, or hardware— now’s the time to master your gear
Organize your gear
Revamp your website
Read some screenplays. There’s plenty of resources out there, but to get you started, here’s the 10 best original and adapter screenplays nominated for the 2019 Oscars: https://www.scriptreaderpro.com/best-original-screenplay/
Chip away at the AFI Top 100: https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies/

Give yourself a mental break. These are weird times, and I think many of us think if we’re not multi-tasking and being 100% productive every second of the day, we’re failing.

But unplugging, taking a breath, and reflecting is healthy and needed— especially NOW

Raoul Bhatt
https://instagram.com/raoul

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Making the most of this time

Alberta

Alberta government should eliminate corporate welfare to generate benefits for Albertans

Published on May 2, 2024

By

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:

Spencer Gudewill
Policy Analyst, Fraser Institute
and
Tegan Hill
Associate Director, Alberta Policy, Fraser Institute
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Alberta

Official statement from Premier Danielle Smith and Energy Minister Brian Jean on the start-up of the Trans Mountain Pipeline

Published on May 1, 2024

By

Alberta is celebrating an important achievement for the energy industry – the start-up of the twinned Trans Mountain pipeline. It’s great news Albertans and Canadians as this will welcome a new era of prosperity and economic growth. The completion of TMX is monumental for Alberta, since this will significantly increase our province’s output. It will triple the capacity of the original pipeline to now carry 890,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia’s Pacific Coast.
We are excited that Canada’s biggest and newest oil pipeline in more than a decade, can now bring oil from Edmonton to tide water in B.C. This will allow us to get our energy resources to Pacific markets, including Washington State and California, and Asian markets like Japan, South Korea, China, and India. Alberta now has new energy customers and tankers with Alberta oil will be unloading in China and India in the next few months.
For Alberta this is a game-changer, the world needs more reliably and sustainably sourced Alberta energy, not less. World demand for oil and gas resources will continue in the decades ahead and the new pipeline expansion will give us the opportunity to meet global energy demands and increase North American and global energy security and help remove the issues of energy poverty in other parts of the world.
Analysts are predicting the price differential on Canadian crude oil will narrow resulting in many millions of extra government revenues, which will help fund important programs like health, education, and social services – the things Albertans rely on. TMX will also result in billions of dollars of economic prosperity for Albertans, Indigenous communities and Canadians and create well-paying jobs throughout Canada.
Our province wants to congratulate the Trans Mountain Corporation for its tenacity to have completed this long awaited and much needed energy infrastructure, and to thank the more than 30,000 dedicated, skilled workers whose efforts made this extraordinary project a reality. The province also wants to thank the Federal Government for seeing this project through. This is a great example of an area where the provincial and federal government can cooperate and work together for the benefit of Albertans and all Canadians.
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