Alberta • Budget
Hoping and wishing and praying

We hope that in the hubbub surrounding the historic 2009-2010 provincial budget, Albertans don’t forget that this past week, major oil companies rejected the province’s $2 billion investment in carbon capture. Syncrude, Suncor, StatoilHydro, and ConocoPhillips, as well as five other firms, dropped their applications for the government money.
And their rejection justifies what we’ve said numerous times in this space — carbon capture is not proven, nor is it well suited to the oilsands. We support government funding for green energies like wind and solar. Further investment in these technologies could create a new energy sector, not to mention a strategic advantage as the world weans itself off oil. 
But giving funds to already established and profitable companies that create huge environmental liabilities, and are not really behind the plan in the first place, is hardly a good use of taxpayer money.

World • G-20
A jaundiced look at the IMF

The G-20 meeting in London of finance ministers from the world’s biggest economies has been hailed as historic, as the presence of Barack Obama with his multilateral approach seems to have ushered in an era of co-operation and financial caution. While we welcome more regulation of hedge funds and eradication of tax havens for the rich, some of the other decisions at the G-20 make us a little uncomfortable.
At the same meeting, $500 billion was committed to the International Monetary Fund, an organization which has pushed free-market principles on poor regions from Russia to Latin America, at exactly the time when the world has acknowledged that American-style unregulated capitalism isn’t working. Using the old organizations to distribute the money behind these new plans seems reckless. Let’s hope the IMF can learn from the recent economic downturn and revises some of its policies.

Alberta • Carbon Capture
The wrong technology

Alberta was once Canada’s economic leader. How quickly your position can change when it’s based on oil revenue! With Alberta posting its largest deficit in provincial history, perhaps we can finally set aside the myth that the Progressive Conservatives are sound fiscal managers. Year after year, PC finance ministers have said that spending increases cannot continue. Well, we’re there, folks, and Alberta still has neither fiscal responsibility nor a grand vision of government spending to change our boom-and-bust economic cycle. Instead, we pray oil prices rebound. That’s very irresponsible.
While other provinces have gone into deficit in order to stimulate their economies with infrastructure plans, Alberta is dipping into the Heritage Savings Fund just to maintain the status quo. Or at least the appearance of the status quo. We still don’t know how the government will make up for that $2 billion shortfall next year.