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EDMONTON - Labour leaders in Alberta have joined forces to say they don't want to see public services cuts in Thursday's provincial budget.

The group consists of the Alberta Federation of Labour, Alberta Teachers' Association, Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Alberta, Health Sciences Association of Alberta and United Nurses of Alberta.

They said in a joint release Monday that the majority of Albertans don't want public services cut and would rather see an increase in taxes for the wealthy and corporations.

The group says Albertans see a booming economy, soaring corporate profits and low unemployment.

So they're confused as to why health care, education, and community services still don't have the resources they need to do the job right.

The group says the Conservative government is trying to justify massive cuts to health care and education by saying oil prices have dipped, but the labour leaders say Albertans aren't buying it.

Huffpost Alberta, Monday, Mar. 04, 2013

Nurses, teachers, health sciences professionals, and public employees urge government to listen to majority of Albertans

Edmonton - Labour leaders are standing up for the majority of Albertans who do not want to see public services cut on March 7.

At a joint press conference on Monday, March 4, at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Edmonton, the presidents of the province's six largest public sector unions and associations urged Alison Redford to listen to Albertans, most of whom want their public services protected. The Alberta Federation of Labour, Alberta Teachers' Association, Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Alberta, Health Sciences Association of Alberta and United Nurses of Alberta have decided to join their voices together to send a clear message about the upcoming budget.

Polling, conducted by Environics from February 14-21, shows that more than 70 per cent of Albertans reject the idea of cuts to public services. More than three quarters of those polled agree that there should be an increase on taxes for the wealthy and corporations.

Far from thinking the government should cut public services, the majority of Albertans believe we should be investing more in health care, education, and other services. Albertans see a growing province, a booming economy, soaring corporate profits and low unemployment, and they're confused as to why health care, education, and community services still don't have the resources they need to do the job right.

Albertans were clear in their message that they support the need for some increased revenues, but that they reject the idea of a sales tax. Only 17 per cent of those polled were in support of a provincial sales tax, 72 per cent said they would be in favour of returning to a progressive income tax, and 77 per cent were in favour of increased taxes on corporations and those who make more than $200,000 per year.

When asked about spending, respondents identified several priorities: Creating a provincial strategy for long-term care for seniors was a high priority for 70 per cent of respondents, while protecting publicly-funded health care against for-profit health care was identified as a high priority by 57 per cent. Nearly half of respondents said that hiring more teachers and support staff for elementary and secondary schools was a high priority.

The government is trying to justify massive cuts to health care and education by saying oil prices have dipped. Albertans aren't buying it. Albertans know a growing economy needs adequate investment in public services.

Because labour leaders were concerned about the direction that budget discussions had been going, they commissioned a poll by Environics Research Group to find out what Alberta are looking for. The poll, which surveyed more than 1,000 Albertans, is considered to have a margin of error of +/- 3.1, with a 95% confidence level.

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Olav Rokne, AFL Communications Director at 780-289-6528 (cell) or via email [email protected].

Fact sheet–Revenue, spending & public sector wages (Revised March 2013)
Fact sheet–Oil companies' profits (March 2013)

Podcast of today's conference

Nurses, teachers, health sciences professionals, and public employees urge government to listen to majority of Albertans

Edmonton - Labour leaders are standing up for the majority of Albertans who do not want to see public services cut on March 7.

At a joint press conference on Monday, March 4, at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Edmonton, the presidents of all five public sector unions and the Alberta Federation of Labour will urge Alison Redford to listen to Albertans, most of whom want their public services protected.

When:
10 AM, March 4, 2013

Where:
River Valley Room, Lobby Level
Crowne Plaza Chateau Lacombe Hotel
10111 Bellamy Hill Rd NW, Edmonton

Who:
Canadian Union of Public Employees, Alberta President Marle Roberts
United Nurses of Alberta, President Heather Smith
Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, President Guy Smith
Health Sciences Association of Alberta, President Elisabeth Ballermann
Alberta Teachers' Association, Vice President Mark Ramsankar
Alberta Federation of Labour, President Gil McGowan

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Olav Rokne, AFL Communications Director at 780-289-6528 (cell) or via email [email protected].

In front of a government panel on Tuesday, a labour group argued in favour of increasing refining operations in Alberta, instead of sending unprocessed bitumen to foreign refineries.

Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan told the province's Standing Committee on Alberta's Economic Future that upgrading bitumen locally should be a top priority for resource development and job growth.

The committee was debating whether or not Alberta should renew the Bitumen Royalty in Kind program, where the province receives oil from producers instead of royalties and then uses that bitumen to feed upgraders.

Under BRIK, the program has created capacity to upgrade up to 75,000 additional barrels per day. Established by former premier Ed Stelmach in 2007, Stelmach pledged to upgrade 72% of Alberta's bitumen locally by 2016.

Although a new, $5.7 billion refinery is currently being built near Redwater, no new refinery has been built in Alberta since 1984, despite the sudden demand for Canadian oil.

A refinery that would have been operated by several First Nations bands was dismissed by the government in early 2012, after the project's proponents failed to impress the province with their business model.

There is also talk about creating a pipeline linking the oilsands to refineries in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. However, McGowan and the AFL have focused most of their criticism towards pipelines that aim to send bitumen to foreign refineries.

"This is the time to be investing in the long-term prosperity of this province," said McGowan. "75,000 barrels per day may sound like a lot, but it's really little more than a drop in the bucket."

The AFL has continually argued against projects like the proposed Northern Gateway and Keystone XL pipelines. McGowan says most of the jobs created would be short-term, temporary jobs and would only provide job growth to refineries in the United States and Asia.

Government reports obtained by the AFL through freedom of information requests show exporting bitumen provides a 35% return in value, while locally upgrading synthetic crude captures 70%.

After Premier Alison Redford told Albertans that the upcoming budget would see a $6 billion loss in resource revenue – a phenomenon she called a "bitumen bubble" – McGowan has repeatedly asked the province to look into domestic refining.

"The latest government projection is that we will only be upgrading 26% of our bitumen by 2020," said McGowan. "Something needs to be done to turn this ship around."

Although Redford told Albertans that her province would be facing "tough decisions" to solve the province's current financial woes, McGowan says the bitumen bubble may offer a silver lining.

"The price of bitumen is low right now because we're flooding the market with bitumen," McGowan told Today in early February.

"The solution they're proposing is building more pipelines to flood the market even further. That's just not how markets work," he said. "We need to refine the bitumen here, so that we're selling what the international markets want: synthetic crude."

Fort McMurray Today, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013
Byline: Vincent McDermott

In front of a government panel on Tuesday, a labour group argued in favour of increasing refining operations in Alberta, instead of sending unprocessed bitumen to foreign refineries.

Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan told the province's Standing Committee on Alberta's Economic Future that upgrading bitumen locally should be a top priority for resource development and job growth.

The committee was debating whether or not Alberta should renew the Bitumen Royalty in Kind program, where the province receives oil from producers instead of royalties and then uses that bitumen to feed upgraders.

Under BRIK, the program has created capacity to upgrade up to 75,000 additional barrels per day. Established by former premier Ed Stelmach in 2007, Stelmach pledged to upgrade 72% of Alberta's bitumen locally by 2016.

Although a new, $5.7 billion refinery is currently being built near Redwater, no new refinery has been built in Alberta since 1984, despite the sudden demand for Canadian oil.

A refinery that would have been operated by several First Nations bands was dismissed by the government in early 2012, after the project's proponents failed to impress the province with their business model.

There is also talk about creating a pipeline linking the oilsands to refineries in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. However, McGowan and the AFL have focused most of their criticism towards pipelines that aim to send bitumen to foreign refineries.

"This is the time to be investing in the long-term prosperity of this province," said McGowan. "75,000 barrels per day may sound like a lot, but it's really little more than a drop in the bucket."

The AFL has continually argued against projects like the proposed Northern Gateway and Keystone XL pipelines. McGowan says most of the jobs created would be short-term, temporary jobs and would only provide job growth to refineries in the United States and Asia.

Government reports obtained by the AFL through freedom of information requests show exporting bitumen provides a 35% return in value, while locally upgrading synthetic crude captures 70%.

After Premier Alison Redford told Albertans that the upcoming budget would see a $6 billion loss in resource revenue – a phenomenon she called a "bitumen bubble" – McGowan has repeatedly asked the province to look into domestic refining.

"The latest government projection is that we will only be upgrading 26% of our bitumen by 2020," said McGowan. "Something needs to be done to turn this ship around."

Although Redford told Albertans that her province would be facing "tough decisions" to solve the province's current financial woes, McGowan says the bitumen bubble may offer a silver lining.

"The price of bitumen is low right now because we're flooding the market with bitumen," McGowan told Today in early February.

"The solution they're proposing is building more pipelines to flood the market even further. That's just not how markets work," he said. "We need to refine the bitumen here, so that we're selling what the international markets want: synthetic crude."

Fort McMurray Today, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013
Byline: Vincent McDermott

Alberta Premier Alison Redford, desperate to cut costs amid a ballooning deficit, is angering the very labour groups she coveted for support during her leadership bid and last year's election.

The province's teachers on Tuesday joined a growing number of groups expressing frustration with Ms. Redford's Progressive Conservative government, dismissing the latest contract offer by the province as a "thinly veiled threat" to roll back salaries and reduce staff.

"Teachers do not respond well to ultimatums," said Carol Henderson, president of the Alberta Teachers' Association, which represents the province's 42,000 teachers.

She said the offer, which includes wage freezes, fails to address workloads adequately. She called it "unacceptable" and urged teachers to go back to the bargaining table with Alberta's 62 school boards to find labour peace at the local, rather than provincial, level.

The Tory government is scrutinizing teachers, doctors and civil servants as it prepares to release a very tight 2013-14 budget on March 7. Facing a deficit of $3.5-billion to $4-billion this fiscal year – about four times bigger than projected – the government is looking to pinch every penny it can.

In its third-quarter update last week, the province announced a three-year salary freeze for public-sector managers starting April 1 to save about $54-million. The government also said it would cut the number of managers by 10 per cent over the same period.

Alberta Health Services, which manages health care, told its staff to brace for austerity. The University of Calgary has said enrolment at its medical school would be limited to 155 spots, down from 170, because it expects the budget to slash funding. The fast-growing province already has a shortage of physicians and is stuck in long-running labour talks with doctors.

"It seems like the Redford government is preparing to pick an unnecessary fight," said Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. "If there's any province in Canada that can afford quality public services, it's Alberta. The sky is not falling."

Mr. McGowan said Ms. Redford appears to have forgotten the new constituency – teachers, nurses and public sector workers – that propelled her to a massive majority last April, and warned of labour strife if the province doesn't sort out its revenue problem.

"If they think they can return to Klein-style cuts or rollbacks, then they've got another thing coming," he said.

This month, Alberta Medical Association president Michael Giuffre, who represents about 10,000 physicians, issued a letter accusing Ms. Redford of making "inaccurate and misleading" public comments about the province's doctors. He highlighted a particularly touchy topic: pay.

Dr. Giuffre wrote that doctors are paid 14 per cent more than the national average – not 29 per cent, as the government suggested – and noted that salary also covers the costs of running an office in a province where space and staffing are expensive.

"The tenor of your comments vilifies Alberta's physicians and creates an environment that will poison efforts to recruit and retain doctors in the future," he wrote.

He also said funding cuts will have "serious and negative" impact on health care.

"Some medical practices in Alberta will no longer be viable; offices will close and patients will be without care," he added.

Negotiations with doctors are continuing with a facilitator after almost two years, but there's no deadline for a deal. Health Minister Fred Horne enraged doctors in November when he attempted to force a contract that included an overall raise, cost-of-living adjustments over three years, as well as a lump-sum payment of 2.5 per cent of the previous year's billings that would run through 2016. He revoked the offer to head back to the bargaining table.

"There was an end of February deadline, and then that was extended to as soon as possible once the budget comes out," said Bart Johnson, a spokesman from Mr. Horne's office.

Last week, Alberta Education Minister Jeff Johnson offered the teachers and school boards a four-year contract with a wage freeze for the first three years, followed by a 2 per cent hike in the final year. He also dangled cash incentives, including 1 per cent of their salary in each of last two years of the deal if an agreement is reached by the end of February.

Otherwise, he warned of the "possibility of salary rollbacks" and expressed his desire to "minimize as much as possible reductions in teaching staff."

The ATA had offered a four-year deal with salary increases at 0, 0, 1 and 3 per cent, and provisions around working conditions, but Mr. Johnson rejected it. On Tuesday, he said he was disappointed the teachers turned down his latest offer, which he said would ensure labour and cost stability.

Jacquie Hansen, president of the Alberta School Boards Association, said the minister's recent offer has "some merit" as well as "some concerns," but her organization recommended boards ratify it. The previous five-year deal with the teachers and boards ended last August.

The Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013
Byline: Dawn Walton

Speaking Notes

Gil McGowan, President

As elected officials from across the province, you all know that the majority of Albertans want to see more upgrading done within our borders.

You’ve seen the polls. And you’ve heard directly from your constituents.

In their hearts and in their guts, Albertans feel a strong need to move up the value ladder.

Albertans are saying “yes” to adding value and “no” to sending high-quality, high-paying jobs down the pipeline to places like the US Midwest, the US Gulf Coast and, in the future, to China.

The wishes and preferences of Albertans on this issue are clear.

But, we all know that public opinion isn’t enough. In order to become a reality, upgrading also has to pass the economic test.

On that score, the power players in the oil industry are on entirely different page than ordinary Albertans.

They say the numbers don’t add up for Alberta-based upgrading.

They put on their longest faces and sadly report that we have no choice but to get comfortable on the lowest rung of the value ladder.

They say that the case is closed.

But we at the AFL aren’t buying it.

I’m here today to challenge the industry’s conventional wisdom.

I’m here to say that the industry power players are wrong…and that the majority of supposedly ill-informed ordinary Albertans are right.

I’m also here to thank Premier Redford…but also to take her to task.

Albertans should thank her for drawing wide public attention to the whole concept of the differential between the price that’s paid for conventional oil and the price we get for bitumen.

The premier is right when she says that the differential is incredibly important to the future of the Alberta economy.

But she’s dead wrong when she says that a widening differential is a disaster for our province. The truth is that a wider differential dramatically improves the economics of upgrading and presents us with an opportunity to do exactly what they majority of Albertans want us to do – and that is, move up the value ladder.

To put it another way, the so-called bitumen bubble that has been inflated by the widening differential has a very significant silver lining. And if the goal of this committee and this government is to develop effective public policy, it’s a silver lining that cannot be over-looked or ignored.

For those of us in Alberta’s labour movement, the need for our policy makers to see and seize the opportunity presented by the widening differential is great. The need for policy leadership is great because, as a province, we are in the process of tumbling down the value ladder, rather than climbing up it.

This slide shows the reality we’re facing today. Throughout the 80s, 90s and well into this decade, we normally upgraded about two-thirds of our raw bitumen to synthetic crude. Former Premier Stelmach promised that his government would ensure that 70 per cent would be upgraded within the province. That’s why he established the BRIK program. But we’re moving in the wrong direction. Today, we upgrade only 58 per cent and the ERCB projects that by 2017, that figure will drop to 47 per cent.

Even worse, a report prepared last for the government by the consulting firm Wood MacKenzie projects that by 2025 Alberta will be upgrading only 26 per cent of our bitumen.

To be clear, no one is talking about shutting down existing upgrading or refining facilities. They’re all very, very profitable. In fact, there isn’t an upgrader or refinery in the country that isn’t making money hand over fist. Instead, the problem is that – with the notable exemption of the Northwest Upgrader and refinery – no new upgrading capacity is being added in our province. Virtually all of our province’s new oil sands production is going to be shipped out of the province in raw form.

Why is this a problem? It’s a problem because by shipping our bitumen raw, we’re letting literally thousands and thousands of good jobs slip through our fingers.

A single upgrader employs up to 2,000 people in direct operations positions. It also provides millions of man-hours of employment each year for construction workers doing regular maintenance and turnarounds.

 In addition, as the Conference Board of Canada has pointed out, upgraders and refineries have incredibly long supply chains – so the spin-off affects to suppliers and local businesses are huge.

And these are temporary, transitory jobs in construction. These are long-term, stable, family-sustaining, community-building jobs. If you don’t build the upgraders and refineries, you don’t get these jobs – it’s as simple as that.

Our federation, working with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, has estimated that if the volume of diluted bitumen slated to go down the Keystone XL pipeline were instead upgraded in Alberta before being exported as synthetic crude, it would create as many as 18,000 permanent, direct and indirect jobs.

If the bitumen slated for the Northern Gateway pipeline was upgraded here and shipped as synthetic crude, it would create 26,000 jobs.

Those are numbers provided by economists working for the labour movement. But for our purposes today, I want to draw your attention to work done by other economists…in particular, work done by economists and energy experts working for the Alberta government itself.  

We at the AFL do a lot of FOIP searches…and we recently did a search on reports conducted or commissioned by the government on the subject of upgrading.

The search netted about 8,000 pages of documents. But there were two that really stood out, both of which we have included in your kits.

The first is entitled “Alberta’s Value Added Oil Sands Opportunities and Bitumen Royalty in Kind.”

It includes this slide, which shows that when you export bitumen in raw or diluted form, you capture about 35 per cent of the value chain. But if you upgrade that same bitumen to synthetic crude and export that product, you capture 70 per cent of the value chain. And if you move even higher up the chain, to products like gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and petrochemicals, you can essentially capture 100 per cent of the value chain.

At the same time there is compelling evidence that moving up the value ladder will also generate more revenue for government to help pay for things that Albertans need like health care or education or which can be saved for future generations.

For example, just a few months ago, Ian McGregor from Northwest Upgrading told this committee that if his very small refinery had been in operation last year, it would have generated approximately $500 million more in revenue for the government than they got by allowing the bitumen to be exported raw. And that’s on a volume of 37,500 barrels per day…which is tiny compared to overall production from the oil sands.

So that’s what we stand to lose if we don’t find a way to arrest our province’s headlong tumble down the value ladder. Thousands of jobs. Millions, perhaps billions, in public revenue. And the difference between 35 per cent of the value chain and 70 per cent.

Of course, the skeptics will say – and have said – that the numbers just don’t add up.

And for a few years – just a few (between 2009 and 2011) – they didn’t. But they do now.

To illustrate my point, I’d like to draw your attention to the second very important document that we received as a result of our FOIP search.

This one is entitled “Oil Sands Fiscal Regime Competitiveness Review.” It comes to a number of very interesting conclusions about royalties (it shows we are not getting a fair share for the sale of our collectively owned resources) and carbon taxes (it shows that there is little to be feared from a carbon tax and actually something to be gained).

But for our purposes, I want to focus on the report’s findings on upgrading.

Basically, it says that there were two factors undermining the economics of Alberta-based upgrading between 2009-2011. The first was the spike in the cost of the oil sands related construction and the second was the narrowing of the differential between world oil prices and the price for bitumen.

Like many, many other studies I’ve seen this one concluded that the high cost of construction was a direct result of the pace of development. Too many projects, approved and under construction at the same time were undermining productivity and driving up costs.

On the differential side, the study points out that, contrary to the arguments presented and repeated recently by the premier, that a relatively wide differential is nothing new and nothing to be afraid of. In fact, the study shows that the differential has hovered in the 25-30 per cent range for most of the past two decades.

The study also shows that wider spread between conventional and oil prices and bitumen prices is not only good for Alberta-based upgrading, it’s our biggest competitive advantage.

Take a look at this slide. What it shows are the break even points for SAGD, mining and integrated projects at different differential and price levels. Look closely. What it shows is that projects with upgraders are very economic unless the differential gets narrower than 15 per cent. On the other hand, the viability of SAGD operations without upgraders plummets as the differential gets wider.

The picture is similar in the next slide, also from the same report. What this one shows is that upgraders are entirely viable in the current price and differential climate.

Here’s the report’s conclusion:

“Despite the fact that adding upgrading capacity makes less economic sense in today’s market (2011, when the differential was 15 percent), our sensitivity analysis suggests an integrated upgrader serves as a hedge against volatility of the light-heavy differential.”

Did you hear that? Upgraders profitable when the differential is above 25 per cent AND they are a responsible hedge against volatility in the light-heavy differential. They’re profitable over a greater range of market scenarios than extraction-only projects.

All this talk about differentials and sensitivity analysis sound confusing. But it’s actually really simple. Low bitumen prices are actually good for us because they allow our upgrader to buy their feedstock low and sell their refined products high. In fact SCO often trades at a premium to WTI priced conventional oil.

So that’s our question for the government as the steward of our collectively-owned resources: why shouldn’t we buy low and sell high? Why sell the world products that fetch a higher price and keep the jobs for ourselves?

That leads me to our recommendations:

First, we need to see the widening differential not as a threat, but as an opportunity.

Second, we need to stop chasing the mirage of price parity between bitumen and conventional oil. The differential is not the result of lack of market access. It the natural result of bitumen’s lower quality.

Do you remember the old Russian Ladas? The fact that they couldn’t get the same price for one of those hunks of junk as GM could get for a Cadillac was because they lacked market access. It was because their product was junk. We face a similar problem with bitumen. It may not be junk, but it’s not conventional oil. So instead of chasing the impossible dream of getting world price for our sub-par product, let’s upgrade and sell that higher-value product. The only way to get Cadillac prices is to sell a Cadillac product.

Third, we need to set a more reasonable pace for development in the oil sands. Unrestrained pace is driving up costs and higher costs are one of the factors leading companies to opt for the cheaper, extraction-only projects. But failing to set a more reasonable pace of development, as Peter Lougheed suggested, we’re pricing ourselves out of the market for the kind of value-added projects that Albertans want and which would be better for our economy over the long term.

Fourth, we need to make upgrading a condition of development, not an option. By leaving these important decisions entirely in the hands of largely foreign-based multi-national energy corporations, we’re ignoring Lougheed’s advice to act like owners. Even now that the numbers do add up for Alberta-based upgrading, these companies are not investing in value-added projects because have their own, existing refining plants in the US or in China. They see the money that can be made by buying our bitumen low and shelling the refined product high. But it’s our resource and it is we, the citizens of Alberta, who should be seizing the value opportunity, not some foreign based energy giant. It may make all sorts of sense from a private-profit point-of-view for Exxon and Sinopec to rip and ship our raw resources. But just because it makes sense for them, doesn’t mean it makes sense for Albertans, who own the resource.

Fifth, we need to expand the Bitumen Royalty In Kind program. It’s a good program, but we can’t build our provinces energy program with just one BRIK.

Finally, we need to be bold and build on Peter Lougheed’s legacy. Energy companies like Exxon and Sinopec cannot be counted on to make development decisions that are in the best interests of Albertans who own our resources. The approach that Lougheed took to build our petrochemical industry is actually the one we should take today with bitumen. He set a clear goal of building a value-added industry. He understood that the government, as the steward of the resources, had to be a participant in the market, not just a spectator. He introduced regulations about what could be exported and couldn’t be. He used public money to build critical infrastructure like straddle plans to support a value-added industry. And he created a public energy corporation to enter into joint-venture projects with reluctant private-sector investors. And it worked.

In the end, all we’re asking the government to do is to see and seize the opportunity that’s in front of us.

And we’re not asking you to do anything that previous Progressive Conservative governments haven’t already done. We are asking you to lead like Lougheed.

Standing Committee on Alberta’s Economic Future
review of the BRIK (Bitumen Royalty-in-Kind) Program
Committee Room A
4^th Floor – Legislature Annex Building
Edmonton, AB
Tuesday, February 26, 2013

When Peter Julian visited his in-laws in Shandong province in 2011, he was struck by skies which, depending on weather, either were grey, or grey and wet.

The New Democratic Party MP for Burnaby-New Westminster recalls, on sunny days, blue skies were absent with the sun appearing only faintly as a faint yellow blob behind thick haze.

As NDP energy and natural resources critic, Julian lately has been thinking a lot about greenhouse gas emissions.

He's a crusader against both the Northern Gateway pipeline and a tanker port on B.C.'s north coast.

Further, he and his party want the energy debate in this country shifted - away from how Canada can export oil-sands bitumen to China from a west coast port - to how this country can generate wealth by augmenting green energy investments and refining more of its petroleum.

Julian says the Harper government is too focused on maximizing profit from the oilsands, missing the boat on green job creation.

International tallies suggest he has a point. Conservatives have not enthusiastically embraced what many consider to be the next generation of jobs.

Those jobs include manufacturing, installing and operating renewable energy technologies like wind and solar power; running public transit systems; designing and constructing green buildings and retrofitting older structures.

Indeed, Conservatives in 2011 cancelled a popular eco-Energy Retrofit program that provided grants for making homes more energy efficient.

According to the Vienna-based International Energy Agency, the world relies on renewable sources for around 13 per cent of its total primary energy supply.

Canada's renewable energy sector generates 17 per cent of the country's primary energy supply, according to a federal website. But, of course, that figure is skewed upward by a domestic bounty of hydro power.

In a global list of top-10 renewable energy investors, Canada is absent, with China, the U.S. and Germany ranking as the world's green energy big shots.

The list was part of a European study that, even so, categorized Canada as "a significant investor," with $5 billion invested in 2011, ahead of Australia and New Zealand.

But in a report, titled Falling Behind, the Toronto-based Blue Green Canada environmental group reports, if Canada did no more than match U.S. per capita investment, "an additional $11 billion would have been earmarked by the Canadian government for clean energy."

The Alberta-based Pembina Institute says Canada's green entrepreneurs are being thwarted both by a lack of stable government policy and difficulty accessing cash.

While the renewable energy sector still has a fair share of detractors - folks turned off by giant wind turbines and companies that have gone belly up after gobbling government grants - Julian believes that renewables are an unstoppable and wholly viable trend for a world that badly needs to wean itself off fossil fuels.

The NDP, joined by Liberals and Greens, also wants more refining of oil within our borders.

The Alberta Federation of Labour asserts only half of bitumen harvested in the province is now being upgraded. In a report, titled The Bitumen Glut Has A Silver Lining, the federation argues, instead of exporting raw bitumen, it makes sense to capture greater value and jobs by refining and upgrading the product. A single upgrader, it says, employs 2,000 people.

Unquestionably, the oilsands are a giant asset for this country. They'll create 905,000 jobs across Canada by 2035, says the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

But, as the push for a greener world grows ever more intense, Canadians will want their governments to get creative. China's polluted skies are a potent harbinger.

The Windsor Star, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013
Byline: Barbara Yaffe

Fiscal update shows province has revenue problem, not a spending problem

Edmonton – Alberta’s fiscal update shows a government disconnected from the economy it’s supposed to manage says the Alberta Federation of Labour.

With the population booming, the economy growing and Albertans working hard, there’s no excuse for the government being unable to balance its books.  And it’s time for the government to stop playing the blame game.

“They’re spinning a doom-and-gloom story and putting the blame on markets and on public-sector workers, rather than their own bad planning.” Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said. “Just a few weeks ago, the government singled out doctors as the cause of our budget woes. A few weeks before that, they went after teachers. There’s been talk of cutting nurses. Now they’re going after unionized government workers. They’re desperate to blame anyone but themselves.”

The update shows that province’s population grew by 2.5%, retail sales were up by 8.2%, and the province added 55,000 new jobs. Corporate profits and individual incomes were also up.

“This budget update shows that Alberta’s economy is growing, our population is booming, and they don’t have the courage to collect a fair share of revenues that will support the services needed for Alberta’s growing population,” McGowan said, noting that the B.C. government released a budget that increased corporate taxes and taxes on those who make more than $150,000. 

The budget update, released Tuesday, shows strong economic growth, growing population but lower-than-projected resource revenues. Because of this shortfall, the government announced salary freezes for management and almost $600 million less for public services.

“Reading their fiscal update and press release, you get dizzy how quickly they spin and pull a U-turn and then spin again. It’s good times, but bad times, it’s great times, but they need to cut,” McGowan said.

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MEDIA CONTACTS:

Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780-218-9888 (cell)
Olav Rokne, AFL Communications Director at 780-289-6528 (cell) or via email [email protected].

According to experts inside Alberta Energy, it's much more profitable to refine more of our oil before we ship it.