Robbing Future Generations
Fiscal conservatives sometimes talk about government debt in terms of inter-generational justice. Borrowing today saddles future generations with debt.
In reality, it’s a bit more complicated - spending that invests in future prosperity in a meaningful way can be a reasonable choice on behalf of future generations.
But the idea that the government of Alberta will give oil and gas producers a twenty billion (with a B!) dollar break on royalties if they clean up after themselves is the moral equivalent of raiding the kids’ piggy banks to give money to their rich uncle as a thank-you for not burning the house down.
At some point in the coming years, Alberta will stop producing oil. The royalties paid in these final years should be the legacy left for future generations. Peter Lougheed understood this, and established the Heritage Fund as a way of investing for the future.
If the Smith government pursues this, it has the potential to reshape the conversation in the upcoming election. The idea that ‘what’s good for oil and gas is what’s good for Alberta’ has enormous resonance with the Alberta electorate. But a skilled left-populist politician could disrupt that narrative by talking about this move as robbing the Alberta people - present and future - of what’s owed to them as the owners of these resources. The challenge for the NDP is to find a way to demonstrate that they are proponents of the industry, but unwilling to indulge it in this way.
A very good point. The NDP is a party that represents the interests of ordinary people. Hence the focus on essential public services, for example. When it comes to the oil industry, such a party is aware of the history of the industry and what it's meant for the people who directly or indirectly have made a living from it. And as the industry winds down, as it must, the NDP is naturally the party that thinks about the consequences for those people. The UCP, or whatever the conservative party is called at any given time, is clearly a party that represents the interests of corporate shareholders. As the industry winds down, their priority is to continue to ensure that shareholders get the maximum returns possible under all circumstances. The NDP is not "a proponent of the industry". The NDP is a proponent of the wellbeing of the people.
Nice to have a Premier who thinks that job and the being an oil industry lobbyist are the same thing.