A few things to note from the article: First and most importantly, it's brought to you courtesy of the Canadian Petroleum Services. Might be some slight bias. Secondly that the majority of the millions of barrels a day of oil poduced in Canada is taken from Crown-owned mineral rights. Since the Queen doesn't own Canada any more, those resources belong to the people. You and me! And thirdly, the main point of the article is that even after admitting to 2.4 billion a year in subsidies, (numbers that Harper denied but his fellow party leaders like Mulcair and Trudeau suggested), because of the risk of oil exploration and research and development, these subsidies are only subsidies if you "assume" they're not worth the risk.
Well, I could type away here about the hundred other ways oil is subsidized in Canada, the well known and the not-so-well known, but I'd like to point out one other line from this article first: the line where the writer says that direct transfers of government funds to oil companies are "clearly documented" in government budgets. What government budget in Canada has EVER been a clear document? They are purposefully UNclear, like this first article and for the same reasons.
But let's turn our attention to another article to unfuzz things a little bit, shall we? Read this.
That is how things work in the old Canadian oilpatch, kiddies! First of all, it is not a Canadian company building the infrastructure to extract Canadian oil. Why not? No good reason. Second of all, it is not Canadian employees who were working for the company building the infrastructure to extract Canadian oil. Why not? No good reason. Third of all, the Chinese workers for the Chinese company were following Chinese rules and regulations, (undoubtedly being paid Chinese wages, which are illegally low in Canada as well), ignoring the rules and laws of Canada, the country from which the oil is being extracted. Why? No good reason. Fourthly, as we read above, these guys were subsidized by the Canadian government, (and hey, all you taxpayers know where they get their money!), to endanger themselves and others. There were two other "foreigners," (Chinese people), injured. And lastly, the money from the record-shattering 1.5 million dollar fine will not go to the families of Ge Genbao or Lui Hongliang, it will go toward company training of future "foreign," (Chinese), employees. The money is being paid by Sinopec Shanghai to Sinopec Shanghai to properly train their employees to do what they should have been doing all along! How long do you reckon THOSE classes will stay in session?
Gil McGowan said Sinopec didn't just import Chinese workers, they imported Chinese health and safety standards as well. That ain't just in the tarsands, Gil! He said the chance was missed to keep the Chinese from playing by their own rules because the fine was too low. "A rounding error" for a huge corporation like Sinopec.
This kind of company autonomy on Canadian soil, the ability for the Chinese to just come over here and take OUR oil while flouting our laws represents a massive subsidy in my "assumption." So does the fact that this oil will be removed as bitumen, a form much more dangerous to transport than crude oil, and transported across Canada, the country that owns it, putting its environment and beauty at great risk, THAT represents a massive subsidy in my assumption as well. The obvious alternative is to refine it in Canada before shipping it to China in safer forms. In refineries built and staffed by Canadians.
Why are things like this not obvious? Oh, right, Harper. The guy has a Chinese food named after him, folks! In his 9 years as Prime Minister he did far more for China than Canada. And STILL his influence remains! People want to name the Calgary airport after this traitor! Unbelievable in my assumption. There are people slamming the new Rachel Notley leadership in Alberta for ruining the province in the name of the environment. Well this is mostly the squawking of the former Harper supporters, (and a large portion of them were attached to oil in some way), worried that Notley just might make the oil industry PAY taxes and regulate itself and maybe even USE those taxes for worthwhile things such as cleaning up the mess they have made of Alberta. The people who prefer the suppression of environmentalism, one of Harper's pet projects, so that things like THIS remain virtually unknown in Alberta instead of on the front page of newspapers and top stories of newscasts.
It's not just the one oilspill. They happen ALL THE TIME! Look at that list at the end of the article. Those are just the really big ones. Nexen said they're sorry. Oh well then just keep right on going. I don't think I need to but I will point out that Nexen is yet another Canadian BASED Chinese company.
I'll remind readers of something I've posted before here. If the Canadian oil industry were not completely corrupted and they cared one iota about the fact that the oil being extracted belongs to Canadians and should be benefitting Canadians when it's extracted and sold, it would look something like Norway, a country with less oil than Canada, but because they have colossally better government, have a pension fund contribution from their oil industry that is approaching one TRILLION bucks. Canadian oil contribution to the Canada pension fund? I think it's zero, right? Zero?
Norway charges extractors up to 78% tax! And Canada's worried about just demanding that refineries be set up in our country. Hell we don't even demand that EXTRACTION infrastructure be built locally! And if you look closely at the dates of the whole Sinopec lawsuit story, the accident occurred in 2007 at a construction site started in, oh would you look at that - 2006. The first year of Stephen Harper's reign of terror. Coincidence? I think not!
So now today I see this unsubstantiated post:
Do I really need to point out how incredible this is? $600,000? Where does that rounding error number even come from? And who's counting these birds? I think maybe someone made this as a joke to put in The Onion or something and somehow it got forwarded to poeple who actually embarrass themselves by posting it! But I suppose we shouldn't be too hard on Albertans who don't know what's going on in their own province. They're not supposed to. Let's not forget that Harper is from Calgary, Alberta. Coincidence? I think not!
I admit, I'm not up-to-speed on the Notley government and what she and her cohorts are up to. I'm sure I'm not going out on a limb by saying it's corrupt in some ways. She's a politician! You have to expect that. But if this Don Quixote windmill assault criticism is the best complaint her opponents can come up with, maybe she's doing okay. SOMEbody has to do their best to clean up the mess Harper has made there! And if it is costing Alberta tax payers money, maybe, just maybe it's because of the BRUTAL deals that were set up to essentially give Alberta's oil away under the Harper administration.
I know, I know. I just walked into the knee-jerk rebuttal, "Yeah, sure, blame it on Harper now that he's gone!" If that's a comfortable defence for you, there's nothing I can do. But I'd just like to convince one person in Alberta to wake up and smell the bitumen. Or one person in Ottawa.
I read today that Trudeau Part Deux was crying over the past treatment of native Canadians. How about we take a closer look at the PRESENT rear-ending natives of Canada, (how long before "native Canadian means people born in Canada, not just what it means today?), are receiving at the hands of foreign oil companies, water companies, drug companies, banks, probably mining companies and logging companies as well? Every Norwegian has a million dollar pension just from their oil. Canada is a FAR richer nation and even old fellas like me probably won't even GET a pension. I would love to see Trudeau shed a tear or two over THAT! What are the chances?
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