AB Pol Econ

30Jul

By Bob Ascah1 Comment

Budget, Fiscal History, Government Finances, Politics

A Sales Tax for Alberta and the UCP leadership race

Updated 16 August 2022 Well it didn't take too long for a conscientious staffer in Travis Toews' campaign to ferret out the 4 September opinion piece in the Edmonton Journal. In the article Smith setting forward what I think are credible views about Alberta's topsy-Turvey finances stated- Instead, he (Klein) bought off progressives by spending an excessive and unsustainable amount on public services and he bought off conservatives by lowering taxes below the cost of delivering programs. Now the public service screams holy hell at the mention of austerity and taxpayers say they aren’t prepared to pay a dime more. I’m here to tell you: Everyone — on both sides of the political spectrum — needs to suck it up. Alberta needs a three-step financial reset. Step 1: Liquidate the Heritage Fund...

4Jul

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Energy, Government Finances, Investment, Politics

Alberta’s Job Creation Tax Cut: Theory and Reality

In 2023, a book on the Kenney government edited by Ricardo Acuna and Trevor Harrison will be released. I contribute one chapter on Alberta’s Job Creation Tax Cut examining critically whether this one-third cut to corporate income tax has had any positive impact on Alberta’s economy in terms of investment, jobs and wages. In this post (which is not part of the book chapter), I explore the theory behind the corporate income tax cuts. The critical element in my view is in assessing the nature of capital and labour in Alberta and in particular the energy sector, most notably the oilsands. Background In the UCP’s 2019 election platform, a key policy plank was to cut the corporate income tax from 12 per cent to 8 per cent over four years. Two economists- Jack M...

3Jul

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Politics

Leadership

Friday was Canada's 155th year of existence as a sovereign state and tomorrow the United States of America celebrates "independence day"- it's 246th. James David Barber's classic The Presidential Character Predicting Performance in the White House first published in 1972 and updated in 1977 has been sitting on my bookshelf for decades unread. Today I pulled it out. The preface quoted below- written in American political science code- appealed to my accumulating concerns about our current political leaders but also apply as well to corporate and institutional leadership. The preface written three years before actor Ronald Reagan captured the White House is a prescient warning about the loss of meaning, the shallowness of our political and corporate class, and the public's percepti...

15Jun

By Bob Ascah3 Comments

Budget, Fiscal History, Government Finances, Politics

IT’S FINALLY ARRIVED: A Sales Tax for Alberta: Why and How

Updated 8 July 2022 Interview with Shaye Ganam 630 CHED/ 770 CHQR https://omny.fm/shows/ched-mid-morning/a-sales-tax-for-alberta-why-and-how Read Ascah's opinion piece in the Edmonton Journal 8 July 2022. No this isn't official..yet... and this isn't a prediction or April Fool's Day joke. It's a book that promises to be a summer blockbuster! Sure, I'm the editor and contributor but there are six other academics, financiers, and journalists who weigh in on this controversial subject. Graham Thomson Mel McMillan Ergete Ferede Elizabeth Smythe Ian Glassford Ken McKenzie BUT THERE'S MORE: a foreword from Kevin Taft and Afterword of Trevor Harrison. The volume is the cumulation of a project begun in the fall of 2018, prior to the last provincial elect...

12Jun

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Capital Spending, Energy, Fiscal History, Investment

Hyndman Papers: public vs. private investment and rising interest rates

Private sector investment has been the main driver of the Alberta economy over the past half century. Private investment in Alberta is highly correlated to secular movements in oil prices. Interest rates too play a major factor in driving economies. Low interest rates make investing in capital assets such as energy projects and housing more viable than when interest rates rise dramatically as they did in the early 1980s. The global economy is facing rising interest rates and a current boom in commodity prices including oil, natural gas, potash and grain prices. The two documents below illustrate the nature of Alberta's capital investment stock relative to other provinces. Alberta in 1981 had double the per capita private sector investment of the next province Saskatchewan. As a conse...

6Jun

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Agencies, Energy, Environment, Politics

Balancing Pool Act- Public interest or political posturing

On 21 April, apparently in response to opposition demands that the UCP government stop withdrawals of utility services and get cheques or rebates into the hands of Albertans quickly, Associate Minister of Natural Gas and Electricity Dale Nally issued a news release. During a 17-minute news conference Nally took the former NDP government to task when releasing a March 2021 report from Deloitte LLP on the financial position of Alberta's Balancing Pool (ABP). The report concluded that the cost of the policy changes totaled $1.34-billion. It is ironic that this is about the same number that the UCP government lost from its bet on TC Energy's Keystone XL pipeline. Dale Nally, Associate Minister of Natural Gas and Electricity Nally was in true fighting form demonstrating lessons he h...

Sequoia Resources- Abuse of Process brought to a halt in “common sense” Court of Appeal decision

31May

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Energy, Environment, Financial Institutions

Sequoia Resources- Abuse of Process brought to a halt in “common sense” Court of Appeal decision

Background The continuing saga of the bankruptcy of Sequoia Resources is finally back at the trial stage. On March the twenty-fifth the Alberta Court of Appeal (ACA) directed the Trustee in bankruptcy’s challenge of Perpetual Energy’s sale of its “Goodyear” assets must precede to trial. The unanimous decision by ACA justices Patricia Rowbotham, Ritu Khullar and Jolaine Antonio took particular exception to the manner in which Perpetual Energy Inc. and associated entities -Perpetual Operating Trust (POT), Perpetual Operating Corp.(PEOC), and Susan Riddell Rose had relitigated their defense with two applications to the Masters of Chamber judge opposing the claim by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ LIT (PWC) acting as the Trustee over the estate of bankrupt Sequoia Resources. The long saga commences...

26May

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Energy, Environment

ESNA presents- Session on nuclear power

The link for this Zoom event will be sent on the morning of the event to the email address provided while registering in Eventbrite. If you do not see the link in your inbox, please check your junk mail folder. This event is exclusive to ESNA Members. You can join by clicking into one of the REGISTER button here. Not yet a Member? Go to ESNA.ca Virtual Luncheon - June 21(registration closes at 5:00pm on June 20, 2022) Date: Tuesday, June 21 Time: Noon - 1:00 pm Speaker: Steve Coupland Topic: Steve Coupland, Director of Regulatory and Environmental Affairs of the Canadian Nuclear Association, will discuss what we might expect to see in the future of nuclear development and deployments. Are recent government announcements signals of b...

22May

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Energy, Environment, Intergovernmental, Opinion/Research

Alberta 4- Canada 1: Alberta Court of Appeal on the Impact Assessment Act

On 10 May Alberta's Court of Appeal provided an opinion on reference questions from the Alberta government concerning the validity of the federal Impact Assessment Act or, as Premier Kenney prefers to call it, the "no pipelines law." Background . On 9 September 2019 Alberta's cabinet authorized the Alberta Court of Appeal to consider two questions. These were: Is Part 1 of An Act to enact the Impact Assessment Act and the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, to amend the Navigation Protection Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts, S.C. 2019, c. 28, unconstitutional in whole or in part, as being beyond the legislative authority of the Parliament of Canada under the Constitution of Canada? Is the Physical Activities Regulations, SOR/2019-285, unconstitutional in whole or in pa...

Presentation to the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs

26Apr

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Agencies, Intergovernmental, Opinion/Research, Politics

Presentation to the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs

On 31 March I made the following presentation to the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs about my Parkland paper Can AIMCo be Fixed? You can view the presentation on Youtube here. The discussion after the presentation was stimulating and wide ranging and highlighted concerns about government politicians interfering with public sector pensions. The Medicine Hat News had a story about the presentation on 13 April 2022. Below are my speaking notes and below that is a PDF of revised slide deck. (One of the numbers in Figure 2 had to be restated.) "Good afternoon everyone! I am speaking to you from Treaty 6 territory, a traditional gathering place for diverse Indigenous peoples including the Cree, Blackfoot, Métis, Nakota Sioux, and many others whose histories,...