A New Deal for Alberta?

Oilpatch worker urges Justin Trudeau to help Alberta in widely shared Facebook post

‘Please start helping our own people through these tough times’

By Andrea Huncar, CBC News Posted: Jan 15, 2016 3:21 PM MT Last Updated: Jan 15, 2016 3:39 PM MT

Could someone please explain to me why it is that Rachel Notley hasn’t even  (publicly) considered  building a refinery  right  there at the oil patch..value added to  the extracted oil without it even leaving the  Province..

Yes, I know that  previous regimes allowed the patch to be sold off to  corporate interests outside the  country..and ?  If they don’t figure out a way to push their pipelines through (and they won’t)  then what  other option do they have?

TransCanada may try suing the USA over their refusal to accept  a pipeline, but will they succeed?  Funny how the US  usually manages to twist those agreements around to suit their needs and in this case, that is a good thing..

Trudeau seems determined to support  a West to East version, sadly, but there is no reason why Notley et al cannot invest in some infrastructure …this would not only create jobs  but added value to the raw product, which is something Canada should have been on board with for the last century..instead we ship our resources out and then buy them back at premium prices..time we got a bit  tougher on foreign  purchasing of our resources, and foreign investment in our industries…with our dollar turning into a peso once again, it’s past time to  start adapting the New Deal of  Roosevelt’s answer to the  dirty 30’s and create our own version for dirty oil…

Yes, ideally, we should just leave it in the ground, but the  sad truth is that the rest of the country isn’t set up for zero  oil  just yet..and, jointly, we will soon be unable to afford  imported oil.  The powers that be keep telling us that  oil remains so high here because we lack refineries..here’s a great opportunity for  Alberta to  add value, and jobs, to it’s economy.  And Trudeau could sweeten the  pot with  tax subsidies and  money to help with the construction of  a system that would create more taxpaying workers, not less..a win – win for everyone…

Whatever…the bottom line is that our own entrenched corporate shills here in BC (the so-called  BC Liberals)  have so far refused to consider pipelines, despite all the saber rattling (Christy Clark isn’t totally stupid, she knows that this is the real  reason she  was elected, and  uses it to maintain her otherwise  shaky power base) so it  might behoove Notley to  at least look into the idea.