Alberta
Alberta government should pay dividends to Albertans from Heritage Fund
From the Fraser Institute
By Tegan Hill and Joel Emes
Despite promising in February to rebuild the Heritage Fund to help eliminate Alberta’s reliance on resource revenue, last month Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she plans to use income from the fund to “assist in de-risking projects” in the oil and gas sector (in other words, projects that can’t secure financing from private lenders). Clearly, if Alberta has any hope of building up the Heritage Fund, it needs robust fiscal rules to help ensure governments responsibly grow the fund—and don’t raid it for other purposes.
The Lougheed government created Alberta’s Heritage Fund in 1976 to save a share of the province’s resource revenue for the future. Since its creation, however, governments have only contributed resource revenue in 11 out of 48 years of the fund’s existence, and just 3.9 per cent of total resource revenue has been deposited in the fund over its lifetime. Instead, governments have largely spent away onetime resource revenues, contributing to Alberta’s boom-and-bust cycle, rather than saving a share of resource revenue to turn it into a financial asset that can generate steady income over time.
While Premier Smith says she wants to build up the fund so its investment income (i.e. earnings) can eventually replace resource revenue in the budget, the fund’s earnings in 2023/24 are a projected $2.1 billion compared to a projected $19.4 billion in resource revenue. Obviously, Alberta needs a new approach to grow the fund. On this front, it can look to Alaska’s experience with its Permanent Fund, which was also created in 1976 but has grown much larger over time.
Unlike Alberta’s Heritage Fund, Alaska’s fund operates under robust fiscal rules. First, according to Alaska’s constitution, the state government must deposit at least 25 per cent of all mineral revenues into the fund each year. Alberta could introduce a similar constitutional rule.
In addition, a share of the Alaska fund’s earnings are set aside each year to ensure that the principal of the fund is not eroded through inflation. Alaska also prohibits use of the principal without approval by a referendum; the government may only spend the earnings of the fund (minus what’s needed to inflation-proof the principal).
And crucially, there’s the dividends—a topic that would surely pique the interest of many Albertans. In Alaska, the government pays a share of the fund’s earnings to Alaskan citizens via a dividend, which has helped support growth in the fund over the long term. By giving citizens an ownership share in the state’s resource fund, Alaskans recognize their vested interest and demand that the state maximize returns. Put simply, due to the annual dividend, Alaskans want the government to maintain the Permanent Fund’s health. And any government that tried to use the fund for irresponsible purposes would face the ire of Alaskan voters.
Which brings us back to Alberta. If the Smith government began contributing 25 per cent of resource revenue to the Heritage Fund and inflation-proofing the principal this year, it could pay each Albertan a dividend worth between $148 to $297 in 2024/25, equivalent to $594 to $1,187 per family of four. From 2024/25 to 2026/27, each Albertan could receive a total of $571 to $1,108 in dividends, equivalent to $2,284 to $4,430 per family of four. And as the fund grows, so would the dividends.
The Smith government has promised to rebuild the Heritage Fund, yet at the same time wants to use the fund’s earnings to “assist in de-risking” energy projects in the province. Without a mechanism to ensure growth of the fund, it will remain vulnerable to the whims of governments. Alberta should learn from Alaska’s success and start paying annual dividends to Albertans.
Authors:
Alberta
Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest
From LifeSiteNews
Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.
An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.
On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.
“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.
Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.
“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”
After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.
Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.
He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.
In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”
However, defence lawyer Sarah Miller pointed out that that Pawlowski’s sermon was protected under freedom of speech, an argument that Krinke quickly dismissed.
“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.
Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.
Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.
The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.
Alberta
Heavy-duty truckers welcome new ‘natural gas highway’ in Alberta
Clean Energy Fuels CEO Andrew Littlefair, Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose, and Mullen Group chairman Murray Mullen attend the opening of a new Clean Energy/Tourmaline compressed natural gas (CNG) fuelling station in Calgary on Oct. 22, 2024. Photo courtesy Tourmaline
From the Canadian Energy Centre
New compressed natural gas fueling stations in Grande Prairie and Calgary join new stop in Edmonton
Heavy-duty truckers hauling everything from restaurant supplies to specialized oilfield services along one of Western Canada’s busiest corridors now have more access to a fuel that can help reduce emissions and save costs.
Two new fuelling stations serving compressed natural gas (CNG) rather than diesel in Grande Prairie and Calgary, along with a stop that opened in Edmonton last year, create the first phase of what proponents call a “natural gas highway”.
“Compressed natural gas is viable, it’s competitive and it’s good for the environment,” said Murray Mullen, chair of Mullen Group, which operates more than 4,300 trucks and thousands of pieces of equipment supporting Western Canada’s energy industry.
Right now, the company is running 19 CNG units and plans to deploy another 15 as they become available.
“They’re running the highways right now and they’re performing exceptionally well,” Mullen said on Oct. 22 during the ribbon-cutting ceremony opening the new station on the northern edge of Calgary along Highway 2.
“Our people love them, our customers love them and I think it’s going to be the way for the future to be honest,” he said.
Heavy-duty trucks at Tourmaline and Clean Energy’s new Calgary compressed natural gas fuelling station. Photo courtesy Tourmaline
According to Natural Resources Canada, natural gas burns more cleanly than gasoline or diesel fuel, producing fewer toxic pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
The two new CNG stops are part of a $70 million partnership announced last year between major Canadian natural gas producer Tourmaline and California-based Clean Energy Fuels.
Their deal would see up to 20 new CNG stations built in Western Canada over the next five years, daily filling up to 3,000 natural gas-fueled trucks.
One of North America’s biggest trucking suppliers to businesses including McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Subway and Popeye’s says the new stations will help as it expands its fleet of CNG-powered vehicles across Canada.
Amy Senter, global vice-president of sustainability with Illinois-based Martin Brower, said in a statement that using more CNG is critical to the company achieving its emissions reduction targets.
For Tourmaline, delivering CNG to heavy-duty truckers builds on its multi-year program to displace diesel in its operations, primarily by switching drilling equipment to run on natural gas.
Between 2018 and 2022, the company displaced the equivalent of 36 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of diesel that didn’t get used, or the equivalent emissions of about 58,000 passenger vehicles.
Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose speaks to reporters during the opening of a new Tourmaline/Clean Energy compressed natural gas fuelling station in Calgary on Oct. 22, 2024. Photo courtesy Tourmaline
Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose noted that the trucking sector switching fuel from diesel to natural gas is gaining momentum, notably in Asia.
A “small but growing” share of China’s trucking fleet moving to natural gas helped drive an 11 percent reduction in overall diesel consumption this June compared to the previous year, according to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“China’s talking about 30 percent of the trucks sold going forward are to be CNG trucks, and it’s all about reducing emissions,” Rose said.
“It’s one global atmosphere. We’re going to reduce them here; they’re going to reduce them there and everybody’s a net winner.”
Switching from diesel to CNG is “extremely cost competitive” for trucking fleets, said Clean Energy CEO Andrew Littlefair.
“It will really move the big rigs that we need in Western Canada for the long distance and heavy loads,” he said.
Tourmaline and Clean Energy aim to have seven CNG fuelling stations operating by the end of 2025. Construction is set to begin in Kamloops, B.C., followed by Fort McMurray and Fort St. John.
“You’ll have that Western Canadian corridor, and then we’ll grow it from there,” Littlefair said.
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