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Standing Order 30 – Debate on Royalties

Alberta Hansard – November 5, 2007

The Deputy Speaker: The hon. Member for Edmonton-Centre.

Ms Blakeman: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I think there are a couple of issues that I’d like to cover in my 10 minutes in responding to the motion set out in the Standing Order 30, and that specifically was outlining the failure of the government to promptly introduce and pass royalty legislation to prevent the loss of billions of dollars to the public treasury as oil prices rise dramatically. I think the issues that we need to take into consideration are those of stewardship, management, fiduciary duty, consequences, and issues of trust.

As far as stewardship, a number of people have spoken about the fact that this government collects royalties and is the steward of our natural resources on behalf of Albertans. I think we really need to underline that because where I come from, that means that there is even more onus on us as legislators and on government members to be careful. There’s more onus to be careful because it’s somebody else’s resources. It’s somebody else’s money.

It’s even more important that you’re careful with somebody else’s. When you are a steward for somebody else’s belongings, you have to be even more careful than if it’s your own. If you choose to make bad decisions with your own money or your own resources, fine; so be it. But when you’re placed in a position of trust to look after someone else’s, you’d better make sure that you’re doing absolutely the best that you can possibly do for them.

I would argue that what we’ve seen come forward out of the Our Fair Share report and, indeed, backed up by what I’m reading in the Auditor General’s report is that this government has not done that. They have not been good stewards. They have not been even more careful with somebody else’s money – that is, Albertans’ money and Albertans’ resources – than they would have been about their own paycheque or their own bank account. I think that’s going to relate to the loss of trust section that I’d like to talk to at the end of my remarks.

Now, you know, there was a very interesting day for me in this Assembly, Mr. Speaker, when in response to a question the member – now I’m not going to remember the constituency up north – responded with, I think, what he thought at the time was a great insult by saying “ Only the Liberals would plan and would look ahead” with great derision. He snorted that out, and we took that as a tremendous compliment because, in fact, we have done a great deal to plan.

Our funding our future policy has now been out for a couple of years. It outlines that we believed in the pay-yourself-first formula, in which oil and gas revenues would have had 30 per cent taken off the top and funneled into a series of endowment funds, including the heritage fund but also one for postsecondary education, for capital infrastructure, and for the arts, social sciences, and humanities. That money would be put away and would be grown through careful investment and management so that as oil and gas revenues declined, the money from those endowment funds and investments would be able to replace that money going into our budget.

Right now, Mr. Speaker, the money that is currently being collected by this government in the form of income tax and business tax and various levies does not meet the amount of money that they’re spending. They are subsidizing every year with oil and gas revenue right out of the ground. This is not some savings account that they’re drawing on. They are taking oil and gas revenues right out of the ground and putting it right into this year’s budget. So management of our resources, I argue, has been very poorly done by this government. They’re not managing well, and I think that any money manager would tell you that’s really, really bad practice to be doing that because if, for example, we had a terrible downturn, there was some catastrophic event, we’d be in serious trouble and would be looking at cutting massively into programs that, frankly, are just struggling to recover from the number of cuts that the government levied against them in the ’ 90s

Poor stewardship, a lack of planning, which the previous Premier took as a boasting point: I think, frankly, that will, sadly, end up being his legacy. That’s what people are going to remember him for: really, he had no plan. That wasn’t something to be proud of because, again, as stewards for Albertans we’re expected to be able to do that.

I think we have a fiduciary duty as legislators and certainly as government members to be managing people’s money wisely and to be getting the maximum amount of money for them and to be making financial decisions that are going to benefit Albertans. I would argue that that has not been happening. There has been a carelessness. There has been a lack of planning. Even the way the government is currently reacting to the two reports that are out. Do we get a government that’s going, “Yes, all right. We didn’t do very well, and we will do better”? No. What I’m hearing today – and it has been very interesting being back in this Assembly – is the Public Affairs Bureau spin campaign just a-whirring in the background, just a-whirring away in the background, giving all members of the government caucus those special words and phrases to say.

Are they acknowledging that things didn’t go well and could go better? No. What I’m hearing is, “Oh, we the public didn’t under-stand,” and “We the opposition members really don’t know,” and “We’re confused.” Nobody is admitting that there was a problem here. Now what I’m hearing is the spin: “Well, others didn’t get it,” and “We didn’t really mean it that way,” and “ We can’t read the reports properly,” and all the rest of that.

I notice that when the Minister of Energy was speaking and defending why he couldn’t have passed royalty legislation to prevent the loss of billions, he listed off the things that would have to be changed. You know what? I listened, Mr. Speaker, and what I heard was one piece of legislation and a dozen regulations. Well, I am deeply sorry if the Minister of Energy, who sits in cabinet, does not understand the government process. Regulations in this province end up getting passed behind closed doors by the Lieutenant Government in Council, also known as cabinet. It doesn’t require legislation to change those half dozen regs that he rolled off in his response to this, and there’s only one piece of legislation. You know what, Mr. Speaker? We’ve seen examples of co-operation in this House, and I would dare say that if this government brought forward good legislation on the royalties and the oil and gas structure, it could be through this Assembly in four days. That’s one week. No problem: first reading, second reading, Committee of the Whole, and third reading. We’d be done in a week if it was good legislation. But I don’t see any attempt by this government to even deal with that. What I get instead is what I’ve come to expect from this government, actually, which is: don’t take responsibility, don’t be accountable, don’t be transparent, try and make it somebody else’s fault, and then tell everyone else they were confused and didn’t understand it.

But you know what? Members of the public got a great opportunity this time around because they got two other reports, independent reports: the Auditor General’s and Our Fair Share reports. They got an opportunity to read those reports on their own and make up their own mind. You know what? They are making up their own mind.

Let me talk about consequences. What we’re seeing now is that even with the reports we have in front of us, there are significant consequences for the environment. That has not been discussed, I would argue, in any way, shape, or form as part of this whole discussion, and it needs to be. I can tell you that in my constituency of Edmonton-Centre that is a major concern: how this whole structure – the oil and gas resources, the revenue programs – is going to affect our environment, the effect on the environment being a major concern, and rolled into all of the decision-making on that, environmental assessment programs done as a part of that.

We have consequences for this province in that money was not collected that should have been collected, Mr. Speaker. I can really see that in the capacity of our NGOs, our nongovernmental organizations – that’s our charities, our volunteer-based organizations, our societies – in their ability to provide the programs and services that government has abdicated from. We also have a problem with funding for our health and education.

So the bottom line here is that our public now understands that this government can’t be trusted. They won’t accept responsibility for what they’ve done. They won’t be accountable. They won’t be transparent. And to just stand up and say, “Oh, this is not true,” or “The public somehow misunderstands,” is, I think, a gross miscalculation of what Albertans are capable of. I hope dearly that Albertans will show the government how much they understand these reports at the next election, which can’t come too soon as far as I’m concerned. We’ve had a failing.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak, Mr. Speaker.