Sticking up for Alberta

Re: No sympathy here, Jan. 4

Mr. Quesnel states that he has no sympathy for Alberta, yet is uninformed about the facts as to why Alberta is in the current situation and what it wants.

To begin with, Alberta does not want anything from the rest of Canada other than the right to let the private sector build and pay for pipelines to get Canada’s natural resource to world and domestic markets. We did not ask the federal government to buy TransMountain nor are we asking Canada to spend “billions more if not trillions of our tax dollars to build unwanted pipelines."

Further, if those pipelines ever get built, I can’t fathom why he thinks he would be paying more for gas. In addition, wouldn’t it be better for all of us if all the petroleum products used in Canada were from Canadian sources rather than having to import from the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Russia, Algeria and Nigeria?

The U.S. has been a great trading partner recently – what about the environmental and human rights record of Russia, Algeria, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia?
 
Mr. Quesnel should also inform himself of the benefits that Alberta has provided in the past and is currently providing to the rest of Canada via equalization payments. According to Statistics Canada, in 2017 Albertans paid $50.3 billion in taxes to the federal government and received $28.5 billion in return. So we contributed $21.8 billion to the rest of Canada while running about a $10 billion deficit for that year.

On a per capita basis, our contribution works out to be $5,147. Ontario ($1,179 per capita) B.C. ($1,162 per capita) and Saskatchewan ($323 per capita) were the only other net contributors. If even one-half of that net amount of $21.8 billion sent in 2017 stayed in Alberta, we wouldn’t have had a deficit. 
 
Quebec received $1,981 per capita in 2017 and will receive a total of $13.1 billion in equalization payments this year. However, Quebec doesn’t want “dirty energy” from Alberta flowing through a pipeline in their province yet feels comfortable taking money via equalization from Alberta and buying oil from Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Algeria along with the U.S.   
 
We are big contributors to Canada. We’re not asking for a handout. All we want is the opportunity to have the private sector build and pay for pipelines to get our resource to market to benefit Alberta and Canada. Fossil fuel use is not going away anytime soon, so doesn’t it make sense to use products that are produced by a country having some of the highest, if not the highest, standards in the world?

Mark Bragagnolo, Calgary