Quebec announced it would introduce a balanced budget for the first time in many years.
What Quebec does not mention is that this year the French province will receive $9.5 billion in Alberta transfer payment (TP) dollars — up from the $8.6 billion it received from Alberta last year. Quebec also does not mention organized crime in Quebec annually skims $2 billion from the budget.
Albertans are again running a $7 billion deficit — what Albertans are not talking about is that with all the booms and busts in the oil patch over the years, since P.E. Trudeau launched his National Energy Policy (NEP) in October 1980, their province for the first time is approaching “have not status.”
The province of Alberta has, over the past 50 years, contributed more than $700 billion in TPs. If the unearned interest that would have accrued — had that money been added to the $700 billion in Alberta’s Heritage Savings Fund Trusts. The interest -— $300 billion — and the principal amount would be well over $1 trillion.
Norway started its heritage savings trust at about the same time Alberta started theirs. Today, the Norwegian fund has saved and invested more than $1 trillion — more than $1,000 billion. Today, the Alberta fund has about $12 billion saved and invested.
The Norwegians are more fortunate than the Albertans — Norway does not have to concern themselves about a free-loading Quebec. When Pierre Elliot Trudeau was elected in 1968, the debt was $16.8 billion, the Second World War debt was paid off by 1955, our dollar was worth $1.06 U.S. The Liberal Party of Canada in 1968, introduced this line: “we’ll screw the west and take the rest.”
That line has been used very effectively in all federal elections since 1968. Only in Canada, eh?
Ernie Slump
Penticton
