Our Jordan Bateman gives you the heads-up on TMX and oil production, BC NDP refusing to refund small business owners, and more verbal sparring between Danielle Smith and Justin Trudeau.
🛢 Deloitte has a new report out on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and makes some predictions for when TMX starts operating in early 2024. The expansion will boost Alberta oil production by 375,000 barrels a day, a number greater than the total amount added to Canada’s production levels over the past five years combined. Not only will we produce more oil, but it will get better prices too: TMX allows Canadian oil to reach more destinations that simply the United States. This will boost prices.
💰 BC Labour Minister Harry Bains said no way to giving small businesses and other employers a rebate on their WorkSafeBC fees, even though WorkSafe is sitting on $2.7 billion in reserves, far more than they need. He claims part of the surplus is used to give employers a “discount” on rates, to the tune of $1.7 billion over five years. Yet the surplus grows – which means entrepreneurs and small business owners are overpaying.
👂 Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell reports on Premier Danielle Smith’s growing – and justified – impatience with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “I think the prime minister needs to listen a little bit more,” Smith said yesterday. She – and many other Albertans – are frustrated that Trudeau won’t acknowledge that his government’s goal of net-zero electricity generation in just 12 years can’t be done in Alberta where so much is powered with natural gas. From Smith: “We’ve got a pretty big bullhorn and I intend to use it. I just can’t sit back and watch our power grid become less reliable and less affordable. I just won’t do it.” As for Trudeau, he is doubling down on ideology over affordability, and claimed, “There are politicians who’d rather rile up people’s fears and anxieties.” Kudos to Smith for standing up for Alberta ratepayers – one can only hope the Trudeau government starts to listen.
