Brad Wall; Best Canadian Premier Since Ralph Klein

[Anonymous]

I should say that I am not comparing anyone to Ralph Klein. He was the most successful elected Canadian politician in my lifetime. Any other premier or PM was not worthy of carrying his stack of empty beer bottles. However, Brad Wall is spot on about our silly attitudes towards our vast resource wealth.

OTTAWA - Canadians need to stop being so shy about the country's oil, natural gas and uranium wealth, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says.



"Do we act like we're the energy power that we are? The answer is no," Wall said Tuesday in Ottawa. "It's almost as if we're embarrassed of it."



He said he's not very optimistic that U.S. President Barack Obama will give the Keystone XL pipeline project the green light. He also said potential Asian customers for Canadian crude are put off by delays in building infrastructure for West Coast crude exports.



"I think we're surprising or perplexing a lot of companies and interests in countries around the world who wonder when we're going to start acting like the energy power that we are," Wall said.



The premier also argued the world would benefit from buying more Canadian oil because Canada has a better record on democracy, human rights and environmental protection than its competitors.

He made the comments with New Brunswick Premier David Alward at his side during a Canadian Chamber of Commerce panel discussion on energy exports.



Alward said his province has a lot of untapped potential.



"We believe we've got as much natural gas as Alberta does," he said.



New Brunswick is still at the testing stage to see how much natural gas can be unlocked from shale deposits there, something militant aboriginal activists oppose.



Alward said New Brunswick already has a liquefied natural gas plant ready for more work.

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/politics/archives/2013/10/20131029-135541.html">http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/po ... 35541.html">http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/politics/archives/2013/10/20131029-135541.html

[Anonymous]

We need more people like Brad Wall that will get the real story out about Canada`s energy industry. One of the cleanest, greenest and most ethical on the planet. It runs second to no other country including Norway's oil and gas industry. If politicians in Canada won't defend Canadian industry(Mulcair's No Development Party) then they should not be allowed to take office.

Last week, I approached a friend, a field manager for a small oil producer in rural Alberta with a few hundred wells.



How about a Hicks on Biz story on the company, I suggested, a column that could tell the general public the real story about the industry that's the backbone of Alberta's economy.



Not a sensationalized report about leaks or contamination or pollution, but a ground-level look at an industry that's among the cleanest of its kind in the world.



I could witness first-hand the process of going back to old wells, re-boring, drilling horizontally, and the fracking that has bent New Brunswick aboriginals all out of shape.



I could report back to the general public on environmental improvements, on ever-improving technology, on the industry's job creation and so on.



Nope. The oil company's head office didn't want any publicity.



No matter how sympathetic the journalist, they feared what might be written in the comments section of any on-line story - that kennel where mad dogs go to bay at the moon.



Can't say I blame them – if I ran a privately held oil company, I'd probably make the same decision.



But that's how bad it has become.



The energy business – our business – has been hammered by the climate change evangelists, First Nations' opposition and the David Suzukis of the world.



All mishaps, minor or major, no matter the context, are seized upon and amplified as if they signified the end of Earth.



Of course incidents and accidents will happen. That's why the Alberta Workers Compensation Board takes up an entire downtown office tower. Derailments, like Gainford, will happen. (Lac-Megantic was a freak accident, never before seen in 200 years of railroading.) Occasional oil spills or seepages, like CNRL's Primrose Lake embarrassment, will happen.



What counts is that accidents continue to decrease in volume, severity, injuries or deaths. And that is happening! You just don't see headlines saying "Primrose Lake the first ever leakage from SAG-D oilsands wells" or "170,000 oil wells fracked: One verified report of water contamination." You don't see "five million waterfowl fly over oilsands' tailing ponds. A few hundred land."



As for climate change and pollution from fossil fuels, I happily declare myself a radical conservationist.



We are discovering this planet has infinite supplies of fossil fuels.



The technology is at hand to extract, transport and consume oil and natural gas with so little pollution as to challenge "alternative" energy sources for environmental cleanliness ... at a tiny fraction of their costs.



At the University of Alberta last week, globally respected energy economist Peter Tertzakian gave a public speech entitled A Canadian Energy Conversation. (His dad, the retired Gerry Tertzakian, was a bio-technology entrepreneur here in town.)



Peter is too cautious and respectful of facts, figures and statistics to be as environmentally radical as myself.



But two things he said stuck like glue.



The best Canada can do for global carbon emissions (i.e. climate change) is to send our oil and natural gas expertise and know-how abroad, to help developing nations displace coal with cleaner fossil fuels. "If coal was swapped out for natural gas," he said, "global carbon emissions would drop by 60%."



Number two on his list is energy efficiency. And that's another technology issue. "We use a fraction of the energy in a barrel of oil. The greater the efficiency, the more environmentally responsible we will be."



Canada is well on its way, the oil economist says, to offering the world "the cleanest barrel of oil possible."

Surely to goodness a few Suzukian environmentalists will arrive, through independent and logical thought, at the same conclusion – that clean, energy-efficient fossil fuels can achieve the environmental cleanliness we all seek.



Or have they all been brainwashed into an irrational belief that nature and the fossil-fuel industry – no matter how clean - cannot co-exist?



Yet through all this individual oil and gas companies lie low, so brow-beaten that they hide in their bunkers, instead of challenging eco-warrior myths.



What a sad state of affairs.



Factoids: (Source: energy economist Peter Tertzakian lecture, "A Canadian Energy Conversation")



The case for improving what we have – a clean, fossil-fuel powered world.



World Energy Council energy forecasts.



Fossil fuels, 2010 – 79% of total energy use.



Fossil fuels, 2050 – 59% to 71%



Renewable energy sources, 2010 – 15%



Renewable energy sources, 2050 – 20% to 30%



Based on current growth, time for renewable fuels to be dominant: 1,000 years



Conservation:



1908 first mass-produced car, the Ford Model-T – continuous non-stop North American growth in vehicle production until 2008.



Carbon emission reduction if natural gas replaced coal in world-wide electricity generation – 60%



Efficiency:



Time to drill well in Canada six years ago, 50 days.



Time to drill well in 2012, 11 to 20 days.



Production expectations of new oil wells: Ten years ago, 50 barrels a day was good. Today, if not 500 barrels a day, not economically viable.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/10/24/hicks-on-biz-stand-up-and-fight">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/10/24/h ... -and-fight">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/10/24/hicks-on-biz-stand-up-and-fight

[Anonymous]

Saskatchewan's time has indeed come. Brad Wall, unlike that socialist twat Allsion Redtory is a stready hand at the wheel.

Yes, it was Saskatchewan's day last week, when the Roughriders trounced the Hamilton Tiger Cats to win the 2013 Grey Cup, at home!



But the Miracle on the Prairies is far greater than Darian Durant, Kory Sheets, Weston Dressler and that amazing offensive line composed of beefy Saskatchewan farm boys.



The Roughrider triumph is symbolic of the turnaround in Saskatchewan's economic fortunes, since Brad Wall's Saskatchewan Party came to power in 2007.



Saskatchewan has gone from zero to hero — from a debt-riddled economic backwater to a province brimming with accomplishment — and the surface is scarcely scratched.



Government numbers offer a snapshot of economic fortune, and Saskatchewan's are impressive.



The Saskatchewan government's accumulated debt (excluding crown corporations) has shrunk from $13 billion in the late '80s to $4 billion today.



After 80 years — 80 years! — of a population stuck at 900,000, Saskatchewan has shot up in the last seven years to 1.1 million. Forecasts now call for 1.2 million by 2020.



Alberta is the only province to which Saskatchewan still sends more people than it takes. Wages here still out-trump Saskatchewan.



Who better to offer anecdotal evidence of this turnaround than the man himself? Premier Brad Wall and his Saskatchewan Party were re-elected in 2011 with 65% of the popular vote, and 49 of 58 seats.



The premier talked to me after the Roughrider provincial festivities. He was pretty hoarse.



"My brother was four years older than me," he recalls of growing up in Saskatchewan's bad ol'days. "He got luggage for his high school graduation, like all the other kids.



"My mom helped him move to Medicine Hat (Alberta) for a job with (oil servicing industry giant) Halliburton. A few months ago, Halliburton moved its regional shop — 200 people — to Regina. My mother would not have believed it. Back then, it just seemed so impossible."



Wall sounds suspiciously Albertan, describing his government's strategy since elected at the end of 2007: Set the business environment, lower taxes, reduce government debt and get out of the way. The attitude, however, is in severe contrast to Saskatchewan's history of government economic intervention, which A) didn't work and B) dissuaded major corporations from investing in the province.



"It never seemed right to me," says Wall of his pre-premier days. "The most in-demand world commodities are food and energy. We have them here in Biblical proportions!"



Wall has not had a single deficit budget since 2007, despite the need for catch-up spending on long-deferred education, health and transport infrastructure projects.



"When it comes to spending, politicians are like that Lay potato chip commercial," says Wall. "We just can't stop at one! We had windfall potash royalties in 2008. It went straight to debt reduction, not spending. You can't put candy in front of politicians."



Economically, things quickly turned: "Like the Roughriders (four Grey Cup appearances in last seven years) we started winning," says Wall. "There's no tonic like winning."



Saskatchewan uranium is finding new Asian markets. Potash mine expansion continues unabated. Oil production - in the southeast corner of the province — continues to grow. (There's no Saskatchewan oilsands development yet. Not until its bitumen, buried much deeper than Alberta's, can be economically extracted.) And agriculture! "Fifty per cent of the world's lentils, 50% of peas, 25% of mustard. We have 40% of Canada's arable land," says Wall. "We have two mega-spending projects in agriculture every year ... spring and fall.



Wall recently gave a speech where he quoted from a book, Voices From Next Year Country (An Oral History of Rural Saskatchewan), published in 2006. "The book didn't give the name of a Fort Qu'Appelle man, but his words stuck with me.



" 'Wait until Saskatchewan gets its policies right. Then you'll see. Then you'll see. Then my son will come home.'



"A reporter tracked down this fellow. His name was Tom Hall. And his son had come home."



•Saskatchewan's 2012-13 budget,



$11.3 billion



•No deficit: no provincial budget deficit since 2007.



•Accumulated gross Saskatchewan government debt (excluding crown corporations), $4 billion, down from a high of $15 billion in late '80s.



•Debt-servicing costs - $400 million - roughly 4% of its current expenditures.



•Seasonably adjusted unemployment rate as of Nov. 2013, 3.1%, lowest in Canada.



•Average weekly earnings of $946.33 as of Aug. 2013, second-highest in Canada



•RBC Bank forecast of real Gross Domestic Product growth for Saskatchewan in 2013 and 2017, 2.7% for each year.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/11/29/hicks-on-biz-saskatchewan-wins-big">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/11/29/h ... n-wins-big">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/11/29/hicks-on-biz-saskatchewan-wins-big

[Gary Oak]

When I was in Saskatchewan, most people seemed satisfied with Brad Wall's performance. Justin Trudeau is a China's stooge.

[Anonymous]

I don't know a lot about Brad Wall, but I know which province has the worst premier. That honor belongs to Ontario.

[Anonymous]

I don't know a lot about Brad Wall, but I know which province has the worst premier. That honor belongs to Ontario.

Pauline Marois would be up there too, but then again Quebec is the Greece of Canada.

[Anonymous]

I don't know a lot about Brad Wall, but I know which province has the worst premier. That honor belongs to Ontario.

Pauline Marois would be up there too, but then again Quebec is the Greece of Canada.

We have come to expect incompetance from Quebec premiers, especially the PQ variety. The Ontario Liberals have turned the once economic engine of Canada into a sputtering two stoke scooter.