Alberta
Alberta Oilfield worker living in Ontario feeling overwhelmed

Submitted by Teddy Smith from London, Ontario
I just thought I’d share a bit with what’s going on in my life. I’ve worked the service rigs for 20 years+, had some absolutely amazing times, met some truly awesome people, but most importantly I was doing a job I was in love with. The pride that I got from doing a job I knew drove the world was a fantastic feeling.
In October of 2018 my 74 yr old mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and in December my 84 year old father passed away.
Coupled with the 100% debilitating federal and provincial government towards our pristine oil fields I found myself out of work for the first time in my rigging career. I decided to sell almost everything I own and pack up and move myself, my wife and my dogs in with my mother to help look after her. She lives in London, Ontario.
My heart is Albertan. My soul bleeds oil and I am truly feeling overwhelmed by the overall general sense of ‘suck it up’ Alberta that I get from the general population of people here in Ontario. Every person I talk to here in Ontario has absolutely no idea what it’s like to work in the patch, no respect for what we do and all they come back with is you got paid really good money to do what you did, you should have set money aside for a rainy day… well how the hell to you do that with it’s been pouring for the last 5 years???
The people in Ontario don’t care how Albertans feel. They make fun of us on This Hour Has 22 Minutes. They don’t understand and they are unwilling to learn how we have the most ethical, cleanest, safest oil in the world.
There comes a time when one says I’ve had enough!!
I want to see us stop importing oil and using 100% Canadian refined oil and gas.
We need the media outlets to stop twisting Alberta’s story and get the truth out there.
We need to stop the indoctrination of youth in our school system into thinking oil is bad.
We definitely need to stop the equalization payments.
I want our voices to be hear loud and clear and it’s NOT happening here. The word is not getting out!
People need to stop stifling our clean oil!!! I don’t understand at all, it’s truly heart breaking.
This is coming from someone that lives, breathes Alberta but due to tragic circumstances I’m being suffocated here in Ontario and I’m asking for help. Help me help the province that has given me the best times of my life. Help me save ALBERTA!
Canadian energy needs more faces showing the plight of our disgruntled energy workers in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia.
I am by no means a politician just a very humbled righand who chose to make his family’s personal life very public in the Hope’s of providing a better understanding to the uneducated/misinformed masses of the east in regards to the current state of our great western provinces.
Alberta
Low oil prices could have big consequences for Alberta’s finances

From the Fraser Institute
By Tegan Hill
Amid the tariff war, the price of West Texas Intermediate oil—a common benchmark—recently dropped below US$60 per barrel. Given every $1 drop in oil prices is an estimated $750 million hit to provincial revenues, if oil prices remain low for long, there could be big implications for Alberta’s budget.
The Smith government already projects a $5.2 billion budget deficit in 2025/26 with continued deficits over the following two years. This year’s deficit is based on oil prices averaging US$68.00 per barrel. While the budget does include a $4 billion “contingency” for unforeseen events, given the economic and fiscal impact of Trump’s tariffs, it could quickly be eaten up.
Budget deficits come with costs for Albertans, who will already pay a projected $600 each in provincial government debt interest in 2025/26. That’s money that could have gone towards health care and education, or even tax relief.
Unfortunately, this is all part of the resource revenue rollercoaster that’s are all too familiar to Albertans.
Resource revenue (including oil and gas royalties) is inherently volatile. In the last 10 years alone, it has been as high as $25.2 billion in 2022/23 and as low as $2.8 billion in 2015/16. The provincial government typically enjoys budget surpluses—and increases government spending—when oil prices and resource revenue is relatively high, but is thrown into deficits when resource revenues inevitably fall.
Fortunately, the Smith government can mitigate this volatility.
The key is limiting the level of resource revenue included in the budget to a set stable amount. Any resource revenue above that stable amount is automatically saved in a rainy-day fund to be withdrawn to maintain that stable amount in the budget during years of relatively low resource revenue. The logic is simple: save during the good times so you can weather the storm during bad times.
Indeed, if the Smith government had created a rainy-day account in 2023, for example, it could have already built up a sizeable fund to help stabilize the budget when resource revenue declines. While the Smith government has deposited some money in the Heritage Fund in recent years, it has not created a dedicated rainy-day account or introduced a similar mechanism to help stabilize provincial finances.
Limiting the amount of resource revenue in the budget, particularly during times of relatively high resource revenue, also tempers demand for higher spending, which is only fiscally sustainable with permanently high resource revenues. In other words, if the government creates a rainy-day account, spending would become more closely align with stable ongoing levels of revenue.
And it’s not too late. To end the boom-bust cycle and finally help stabilize provincial finances, the Smith government should create a rainy-day account.
Alberta
Governments in Alberta should spur homebuilding amid population explosion

From the Fraser Institute
By Tegan Hill and Austin Thompson
In 2024, construction started on 47,827 housing units—the most since 48,336 units in 2007 when population growth was less than half of what it was in 2024.
Alberta has long been viewed as an oasis in Canada’s overheated housing market—a refuge for Canadians priced out of high-cost centres such as Vancouver and Toronto. But the oasis is starting to dry up. House prices and rents in the province have spiked by about one-third since the start of the pandemic. According to a recent Maru poll, more than 70 per cent of Calgarians and Edmontonians doubt they will ever be able to afford a home in their city. Which raises the question: how much longer can this go on?
Alberta’s housing affordability problem reflects a simple reality—not enough homes have been built to accommodate the province’s growing population. The result? More Albertans competing for the same homes and rental units, pushing prices higher.
Population growth has always been volatile in Alberta, but the recent surge, fuelled by record levels of immigration, is unprecedented. Alberta has set new population growth records every year since 2022, culminating in the largest-ever increase of 186,704 new residents in 2024—nearly 70 per cent more than the largest pre-pandemic increase in 2013.
Homebuilding has increased, but not enough to keep pace with the rise in population. In 2024, construction started on 47,827 housing units—the most since 48,336 units in 2007 when population growth was less than half of what it was in 2024.
Moreover, from 1972 to 2019, Alberta added 2.1 new residents (on average) for every housing unit started compared to 3.9 new residents for every housing unit started in 2024. Put differently, today nearly twice as many new residents are potentially competing for each new home compared to historical norms.
While Alberta attracts more Canadians from other provinces than any other province, federal immigration and residency policies drive Alberta’s population growth. So while the provincial government has little control over its population growth, provincial and municipal governments can affect the pace of homebuilding.
For example, recent provincial amendments to the city charters in Calgary and Edmonton have helped standardize building codes, which should minimize cost and complexity for builders who operate across different jurisdictions. Municipal zoning reforms in Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer have made it easier to build higher-density housing, and Lethbridge and Medicine Hat may soon follow suit. These changes should make it easier and faster to build homes, helping Alberta maintain some of the least restrictive building rules and quickest approval timelines in Canada.
There is, however, room for improvement. Policymakers at both the provincial and municipal level should streamline rules for building, reduce regulatory uncertainty and development costs, and shorten timelines for permit approvals. Calgary, for instance, imposes fees on developers to fund a wide array of public infrastructure—including roads, sewers, libraries, even buses—while Edmonton currently only imposes fees to fund the construction of new firehalls.
It’s difficult to say how long Alberta’s housing affordability woes will endure, but the situation is unlikely to improve unless homebuilding increases, spurred by government policies that facilitate more development.
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