There are more important factors: On the one hand, it is very dangerous when big industry runs government — that is not democracy. But on the other hand, it is tyranny when the government breaks contract — that is not democracy either. As Heather Douglas (Chamber of Commerce) says, whatever changes are made should be made gradually, and that can be orchestrated by simply honouring existing contracts.

It is the very fact that our royalties are lower that brought so much big industry to our province. That is a good thing, in that we are out of debt and prosperous. But it is a bad thing, because it brought droves of newcomers, and our infrastructure is desperately in arrears trying to handle them. And it is also a bad thing because our oil reserves are being depleted quickly… which is why we need greater royalties, to sustain us when the wells dry up! Hopefully the added revenues would be invested, not just spent, or we would really be headed for down times.

Industry, of course, says that they need to keep the money for research and development, not just for greed. It might be interesting to publish the annual incomes of their top executives to see just how much greed is really involved!

Finally, if some industry pulls out and goes elsewhere in Canada, to the Maritimes and Saskatchewan, for example, that might not be such a bad thing. The huge influx of population that we have experienced might slow down and infrastructure could catch up.

Other places could share our prosperity:

“It’s mine, but you can have some.
With you I’d like to share it,
‘Cause if I share it with you,
You’ll have some too.”

And our oil sands would last longer, which would mean we might not need that vast increase in royalties, because our prosperity would settle down a bit and last longer.

I think going slowly would be a good idea. Yes, raise the royalties, but don’t break contract. And don’t pretend the increased income is for the citizens of Alberta NOW, because it should really be for down-the-road, and for diversification.