Nationalize The Oil Patch

Under workers control!

A publicly owned Petro-Alberta would have a democratically elected board of directors, including representatives of the workers, consumer advocates, environmentalists, and the public.

Share ownership by the public and the workers, union investment with profit sharing and public debentures.

The Stelmach government should tax energy companies' profits up to nearly 100 per cent and the government should take ownership of part of the oil sector, rather than adopt the tamer recommendations of the royalty review panel, an Edmonton-based think tank said today.
In stark contrast to the energy industry's complaints that the review's proposed hikes go way too far and would cripple the economy, The University of Alberta's Parkland Institute said Albertans deserve to capture at least 90 per cent of available economic rent on oilsands project.
The left-leaning institute also noted that the nationalized oil companies in Norway, China, Korea and Japan have taken stakes in Alberta's oilpatch, and that a predecessor to energy giant EnCana was once partly province-owned.
"Public ownership is the best way to capture royalties, as 100 per cent goes to the owners, the people of Alberta," the report says.

Parkland research director Diana Gibson says Albertans should expect the same kind of return on the province‘s resources as an oil and gas executive earning a multimillion-dollar paycheque would get for his shareholders.

Selling Albertans Short: Alberta's Royalty Review Panel fails the public interest by Diana Gibson, Parkland Institute October 17, 2007
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