Dear editor,
After spending 32 years in the world of finance with ties to the oil industry, and spending time in Alaska and Norway, where I spoke to people about what their oil wealth has done for them, my blood boils when I think about what has happened in Alberta. I know I'm not alone.
Watching Norway and Alaska build up massive savings accounts of $1.9 trillion and $75 billion while ours stands at $16.3 billion and knowing that our oil production is more than twice that of the other two is sickening.
Who is to blame? Phony conservatives, reformers, starting with Ralph Klein, who are supported by gullible Albertans believing every lie they feed them.
While Klein bribed us with a pathetic $400. Now Danielle Smith wants to do it with $600. and expects us to ignore the fact that every man, woman, and child in Alaska has received some $46,000 each in total annual oil dividend cheques since 1982. They pay no state taxes and their property taxes are next to nothing.
If you don't believe me google Alaska Permanent Fund to prove it for yourselves. In the past three years, Alaskans have received $4,204. each. What did Albertans get? A $137 billion debt, a massive orphan wells clean-up mess, and a pack of lies.
Those of us in the know estimate that when you add up our lost oil and gas royalties (along with lost corporate taxes) Albertans have been cheated out of more than $800 billion.
Don't ever trust a reformer. They destroy jobs and help the rich steal our wealth to buy votes.
Allan Spiller
Edmonton
