Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

For all the wealth they potentially possess, Alberta’s vast petroleum reserves have arguably been badly mismanaged since the early 1990s both in terms of collecting proper royalties and environmental sustainability. Even some of the industry’s biggest promoters have conceded that the laborious extraction of oil from sand and clay has left the province’s economic fortunes in an unreliable economic situation, not to mention the resulting ecological degradation that bitumen mining causes. The speaker will argue that the revolving door between cabinet tables and the corporate board rooms, since Ralph Klein became Premier of Alberta, effectively allowed the oil industry to dictate public policy and thereby undermine the democratic process. He will also speculate on whether or not Alberta’s fortunes can improve with Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP Government promoting pipelines and implementing a tax on carbon as a way of taking action on climate change and environmental issues. Speaker: Dr. Kevin