Re: “Our farmers have been cheated,” page 31, Feb. 19.
The writer seems to be confused. It was Don Getty who was involved in building the Lloydminster upgrader. After paying $160 million in interest yearly, it lost money every year, and was to be closed.
When Klein took over, he cited all of our business failures, like magnesium plants, pulp mills, incinerators and upgraders, said that Alberta would no longer interfere with the market, instead it would remove hurdles, and let the diversified businesses boom.
Under Getty, Alberta had invested $720 million for a 24 per cent stake in the $1.6-billion project. Tired of losing money, Alberta sold its share to Saskatchewan for $32 million and the feds sold their share to Husky for $46 million. Later Saskatchewan sold its share to Husky.
Between 1973 and 1993, the Alberta government lost $2.2 billion ($4.5 billion in 2019 dollars) by trying to diversify the economy. Canada's smallest iron ore mine contains more iron than all of Alberta, 3.5 times as much as Hines Creek. Hines creek is not economical.
For some reason the writer doesn’t realize that the oilsands do pay 25 per cent royalties when oil is below $55, and 40 per cent when they are above $120. This used to be 50 per cent, but Ed Stelmach lowered it, after he chased oil companies from Alberta with the royalty review.
Lougheed did not invest in tractors in 1935 and trucks in 1917, because the boom didn’t hit until 1974, and Lougheed was only seven in 1935.
Harper could only get an elected Senate, with term limits, and less generous pensions, if he got seven provinces with 50 per cent of the population to agree. Quebec, Ontario and P.E.I., with 61 per cent of the population, blocked it. Harper did not talk to Wynne for a year after that. She made a big deal of the prime minister ignoring her. You can blame Wynne for the Senate.
While Harper encouraged legal economic immigration, which benefits Canada, he almost stopped illegal border crossers, and only allowed in privately sponsored refugees. In short, if you were a drain on the economy, he didn’t want you.
In 2014, 63 per cent of immigrants were economic immigrants that businesses needed; in 2019 that number has dropped below half. The people of Canada supported Harper's immigration system.
- Bob Wilson,
Calgary
