Sask. oil and gas

[wmoebis]

If Sask. was/is waiting for Alberta to be tapped out is this a good thing? On one hand it maybe as they can open a whole new field when prices are at there peak. On the other have they waited to long.

The infra stucture has been depleted. The roads are a shambles, the small towns are closing hotels, restaurants, service stations and schools. What will be left when this boom hits and who will rebuild, at what cost. Will all this lost revenue be eaten up to rebuild infra structure.

How many people have left and will they be willing to return? Will the communities be rebuilt or will they be a northern type camp towns where the money flows back to Alberta.

[coppertop]

GEEZ, if all the Sask. popluation left Alberta we would have ghost towns all across the province !!!

[ivbinconned]

On the border of the new west
Ric Dolphin - Monday,29 January 2007
WESTERN Standard

For several lifetimes, Saskatchewan had been the slightly retarded cousin that Alberta and B.C. regarded with affectionate pity. More even than gimpy sister Manitoba, Saskatchewan was plagued by socialist governments, worshipping at the altar of St. Tommy of Douglas and believing in the sanctity of collective disability. Its wheat and potash supported the plethora of cradle-to-grave services that a developmentally challenged province required. Saskatchewan was the place CBC types most liked to be from: the folk-roots nirvana that invented medicare and where--pace Corner Gas--every man was a simpleton, every woman strong, and all the Mounties native, female or gay.

We Alumbians could never totally dis the place, for so many of us are Saskabush escapees.

The wheat patch has hemorrhaged talent to the oilpatch for decades, though not all of Saskatchewan's best and brightest live in Calgary. Some live in Vancouver or Edmonton. Once in a while, they return and bestow a little largesse on the old alma mater. Some quietly support the conservative Saskatchewan Party, favoured to win the 2003 election--until Lorne Calvert's NDP convinced enough people that the fascist swine would dismantle Crown corporations and leave a timorous populace at the mercy of free enterprise.

Going into 2007, with a general election probable, Saskatchewan is far richer than in 2003, when the NDP won 30 seats to the SP's 28. Royalties, taxes and rents from oil, gas, potash and uranium have transformed this province of just under a million from "have-not" to "have" status in Confederation. Unemployment, hovering just below four per cent, is Canada's second lowest after Alberta (three per cent). Stealing thunder from the 2003 SP platform, the NDP has reduced corporate taxes and knocked the provincial sales tax from seven to five per cent. Home sales are setting records in Regina and Saskatoon. Grain and oilseed production and prices have risen with agricultural employment, and new biofuel plants provide an added fillip for Saskatchewan's bedrock industry.

High commodity prices and improved tax conditions have attracted swarms of Albertans to the province, spending billions on exploration for all the aforementioned minerals, plus gold, platinum and diamonds. A Calgary company called Oilsands Quest is aggressively exploring northwest Saskatchewan, east of Fort McMurray, for tar sands and reports promising results.

With nuclear power undergoing an international renaissance--new plants going up in China, India and Europe--the price of uranium has risen from less than $10 a pound five years ago to $60 today. Saskatchewan--mostly provincially based Cameco--produces 40 per cent of the world's reactor-grade uranium from the hard, black ore in the Athabasca Basin up north.

Emissions-free nuclear power is touted as the way to heat the steam used to extract oil from Alberta's tar sands. ("It's not a question of 'if'--it's a question of 'when,'" said federal Industry Minister Gary Lunn a few weeks ago.) It isn't inconceivable that Saskatchewan might someday use its own uranium to extract oil from its own tar sands, considerably increasing the 18 per cent proportion of Canadian oil (versus Alberta's current 70 per cent) and becoming a place CBCers will no longer brag about being from.

In sum, Saskatch-ewan, despite a funny name and hayseed image, is a comer, not a goner. And one might think that Pastor Lorne, 54, the former United Church minister who presided over this fortunate reversal, would occupy the catbird seat heading into the next election. One would, however, be wrong.

The first big sign that all is not right in Big Dipper's world came in the Weyburn-Big Muddy byelection last June. Brenda Bakken-Lakkey, the high-maintenance SaskParty MLA who narrowly stole the seat in 2003, had resigned in a huff, claiming SaskParty Leader Brad Wall was not listening to her. So the NDP put forward a strong local candidate, Graham Mickleborough, a 50-something farm boy, former credit union manager and the NDP-appointed president of the Weyburn college. He was even the grandson of a Tommy Douglas MLA. The NDP backed their pink dream candidate with cabinet visits, stacked rallies and a multimillion-dollar donation to a local old folks' home. He was up against two parachutists: seatless Liberal Leader David Karwacki, 41, from Saskatoon; and a winsome 26-year-old researcher from the SP's Regina office, Dustin Duncan.

Long and short: dashing Duncan dusted the competition, pulling in more than 40 per cent of the vote. Liberal Karwacki, a successful produce distributor, came in second with 27 per cent, while poor Graham got just 24 per cent. And this in a riding once held by St. Tommy himself. Karwacki crowed, having beaten at least the NDP; but five days later, one of his Liberal stalwarts defected to Brad Wall's crew. Wall, 41, a likable Swift Current entrepreneur who took over the SP in 2004, held a press conference to announce his new acquisition.

Lorne Calvert, figuring he hadn't returned enough new wealth to the lumpenproletariat, came up with the two per cent PST reduction, which took effect in October. But around that same time, a Sigma Analytics poll showed the SaskParty with 48 per cent support to the NDP's 32 and the Liberal's 16. Even more humiliating for Lorne, 36 per cent didn't want him as premier, versus 33 per cent who did, while 39 per cent wanted Brad. Adding to NDP woes, Kevin Yates resigned from cabinet after questioning Calvert's leadership.

"You make a grown man cry," is the refrain of the old Stones' song "Start Me Up," chosen for the NDP convention in November--its title bringing defibrillators to mind. "We're not old and tired," Calvert insisted to his audience. "We're bold and inspired." So a couple of weeks later, several senior ministers announced they would not run in the next election.

Heads are being scratched in Saskatchewan. How could Lorne Calvert be so unpopular amid such prosperity? Why, despite all the available jobs, did Saskatchewan still suffer a net loss of young workers, mostly to Alberta, in 2006? Why haven't those Tory-style tax cuts brought grateful migrants back to Daddy?

Free-enterpriser Wall, who may become premier, blames the "brand." Saskatchewan, he says, has branded itself as "the place where you're from." His plan calls for a partnership with Alumbia--"The New West," he calls it. Alberta and B.C. have formed a free-trade alliance; why shouldn't Saskatchewan join? With all three wealthy provinces pulling together, young Saskatchewanians would become part of the western commonwealth without having to leave home. He may be on the right track.

Saskatchewan's elegant, pre-NDP legislature on Wascana Lake displays portraits of past premiers. Tommy, of course, has place of honour. He brought British-style free medicare and rid the province of nasty wildcatters with oil rigs, telling them that Saskatchewan's petroleum resources were best saved for future generations. So they moved on to a place called Leduc, Alta. In his portrait, Tommy, legs crossed, looks ever so slightly smug.

Less prominent is the portrait of Walter Scott, newspaper owner, Liberal and first premier. Scott was not a social reformer in the NDP sense. He was an entrepreneur and booster who propelled the new province into a prosperity then even bigger, richer and more bullish than Alberta's. "This province has as yet less than a half million souls," Scott said in 1910. "Just as sure as the sun shines, there will be within this province some day a population running into the tens of millions." In the painting, Scott stands propped against a wall, a cigar in one hand, the other hand thrust into his vest pocket. If not for the Depression and the choices of subsequent governments, one might almost imagine Scott's dream having come true.

Having endured the constricting hand of NDP governments for 47 of the past 63 years, having watched B.C. and Alberta dynamism steal its young; having suffered the indignity of being the place winners flee--perhaps newly enriched Saskatchewan is now ready to resume the march into the big brave future once imagined by Walter Scott. I think I speak for all Alumbians when I say, we'd love them along for the ride.

[Horse]

IVBC the same could be said to you sell out and come to alta, it shouldnt take a bright fellow like you to make a mill$ and go back and live the life of riley.
I do believe the minister of resources reserves the same powers in alta as in sask.
Why would you as an investor want to go to a province where you might be expected to be enviromently sound and pay for the services and resources you are explioting when you can go to alta and have everything handed to you. Not so many yr ago we as albertans paid for a large percent of drilling and most infrastructure basical the oil patch was a welfare state, and now they are corporate thieves with the gov consent sure there are lots of new rich but there are still many that just PAY and dont benifit from the wealth.
AS for the western standard based in the golden city Calgary and a conserative just what do you expect.
Cant rember the other points I wanted to cover but by dismising those that dont agree with you by calling them an NDP is petty and lame. You know if you realy tried you may be able to make a decission by yourself.

[grassfarmer]

Someone told me recently that the early 1980's Alberta Government grants to get oil companies to drill more wells during a slump are still getting paid to the companies today - the program was never stopped. The figure quoted was $184 million a year - don't know if this is true or not.

[wilagro]

grassfarmer: In Alberta the oil companies still get generous "depletion" allowances and this is built in to the royalty scheme and WE do not have a clue as to what the province of Alberta has LOST over the last 35 years or so.

Then there are the "proven" natural gas reserves that can't be sold because the oil must come out first. There is a crooked scheme there as well where compensation is paid for keeping a lid on the gas. In many cases the same company is developing BOTH resources and in many cases in the SAME field.

It is a complicated business and WE as ordinary Albertans have to accept that our glorious and all-knowing government will ALWAYS look after our every interest.

Well, I have heard "stories" about the doings of oil companies that will never be aired as too many people would be implicated. In my opinion WE lost control of the industry when the PCers came to power in this province and shortly after Lougheed stepped down.

The EUB is understaffed and overworked. Klein and his gang took a lot of their authority away and allowed industry to "police" itself. BAD move IMHO.

Enough rant, especially considering the thread relates to Sask. oil and gas, but they should learn from our mistakes as well as success.

Sounds like the NDP government is doing some good things and are adapting to "market' forces while still keeping some control...as they should do.

[skhadenuf]

With the condition of the Alberta economy and population explosion, I don't think anyone can meaningfully question what the government of Alberta has lost over the years because of their insight to invest and attract the energy sector there. I know what we have lost here in Saskatchewan because of our idiot NDP er mentality and that is we've lost our population particularly our rural population because we had a and have morons in government who think that industry development may just fall out of the sky and land in Saskatchewan. We can only wish to have that kind of problem in our province where our government would be proactive in generating activity.

[Burbert]

wilagro, saskfarmer3, I think we should research this some more, I believe the CWB is behind all the bad things that are happening in Canada. Checked commodity marketing lately. RELAX guy/gals, it's a joke, feeble attempt a humor!

[wilagro]

Burbert: Just mention the CWB or NDP and the "anti's" go absolutely ga ga. I am sure that their blood pressure zooms and they are near apoplectic collapse.

Oh well, they are not going to change...after all they can read charts and graphs and interpret them so skillfully.

[FarmRanger]

If you were part of a company looking to invest in Aberta or Saskatchewan oilsands, which would you pick? The one who has consistently been pro-private enterprise, or not? Some of the talk now coming from the Saskatchewan government may be encouraging, but there is still a lot of history to overcome.

Oilsands development is very expensive and the risk to investment is higher because of the political environment. Who wants to spend a billion dollars only to have the next government change its mind on the rules and “tax” your future profits away? Not saying investment won’t ever happen under those conditions, but other costs would have to be lower in Saskatchewan to make up for the increased risk. The same reasoning works for other industries.