Presentation to EQUS directors- 23 November

EQUS is a small, co-operative distributor of  electricity to 12,000, mostly rural, customers.  The organization is the product of a series of mergers of rural electrification co-operatives over the past two decades. EQUS employs about 100 staff with its head office in Innisfail.

The presentation, provocatively entitled “Alberta’s Crumbling Economic and Fiscal Foundation” builds on concerns about the future health of Alberta’s economy in a world where international financial capital places more emphasis on renewable energy solutions. The presentation highlights the pivotal role of capital expenditures of the oil and gas sector which have driven the Alberta economy since 1947. Alberta’s gross fixed capital formation (oil and gas, institutional, industrial, residential and non-residential building) is much higher, and more volatile than in Ontario.

Alberta’s crumbling economic foundation is a key part of the Alberta government’s fiscal foundation.  Over-dependency on non-renewable resource revenue results in a volatile fiscal roller coaster which presents numerous budgetary challenges. Environmental liabilities, which form part of Alberta’s crumbling economic foundation, are emerging at a time when Alberta’s fiscal condition is steadily deteriorating. 

While the Alberta government hopes to attract investment in energy -related fields, a mobilization of effort to adopt green energy sources and clean-up the massive environmental liabilities are better bets to put more people into well paying jobs than continuance on the  path the current government is on.  We have seen this movie many times before and it does not end well.