A Note to the rest of Canada: Hands Off!

By LICIA CORBELLA

There has been much talk of late about the Surplus Envy the rest of Canada (ROC) has for Alberta. Methinks Sigmund Freud might have had something interesting to say about that.

But first, some hard facts for all those whiners who are eyeing Alberta's conservatively projected $2.8-billion surplus.

In 2004, the feds collected $25.6 billion gross in personal and corporate income taxes from Albertans -- the largest per-capita haul in Canada.

According to Tracy Balash, spokesperson for Alberta Finance, Alberta receives about $16.3 billion back in federal government services and programs. That means the net contribution Albertans generously share with the ROC comes to $9.3 billion -- or $2,914 per Albertan -- by far the largest per capita transfer payments of any other province. Next in line is Ontario at $1,856 per Ontarian.

Now this next bit of info is important -- even somewhat shocking -- and shouldn't be lost on anyone -- particularly Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, who is concerned that Ontario will soon become a "have-not" province and who described Alberta's oil wealth, as the "elephant in the room" during the recent premiers' conference in Banff.

The royalties Alberta received from the oil and gas industry -- which includes natural gas, crude oil, synthetic crude and bitumen -- for the fiscal year of 2004-2005 was $8.4 billion.

In other words, the feds take the equivalent of the entire royalties the Alberta government receives from its oil and gas industry PLUS $900 million.

So, before British Columbians go ballistic, Manitobans go mental and Ontarians ogle Alberta's oil wealth and ever-growing surplus, there's a few things the ROC needs to understand, and more importantly -- DO -- before Albertans ever agree willingly to share MORE of their hard won surplus with the jealous masses outside of our borders.

* When every single other province in Canada blows up one of its biggest and most important hospitals -- as the Alberta government (wrongly) did here in Calgary -- and closes every single other inner-city hospital in its largest city to boot, then we'll consider sharing more of our hard-earned money with you.

* When every other kid in the country spends as much time being bused to and from school as Calgary and Edmonton kids do (which is the highest in the country for urban children -- because not enough schools were built in new neighbourhoods) -- then we'll consider sending you more of our hard-earned money.

* When every other province scraps paying for kindergarten for a few years, like the Tories did (which was wrong) then we'll consider sharing even more.

* When every single MLA or MPP in every other provincial legislature in the country willingly takes a 5% wage cut -- like Premier Ralph Klein did, along with every other public sector worker -- then we'll consider sharing more of our hard-earned money with you. Indeed, while the first action Klein did as premier was to cut his salary by 5% and do away with MLA platinum pension plans, in contrast, the very first thing the B.C. Liberal government did when it was swept to power was to give itself a 5% wage INCREASE and then expect wage cuts from everyone else. For shame.

That's right folks in the ROC. It hasn't been easy. Albertans -- all of us -- put up with considerable hardships to get into this enviable financial position and most of us did it without carping.

Yes, we're going to have a multi-billion dollar surplus this year, but we also have a $7-billion infrastructure debt for all those roads schools and hospitals that never got built or maintained so we could be debt free.

But most importantly, Albertans didn't elect successive federal Liberal governments who waste and steal billions of dollars annually. The ROC does. So don't blame us.

And another thing to keep in mind. Waaay back when the Athabasca oil sands were being developed and oil sold for just a few dollars a barrel, it cost Syncrude and other companies more than $30 a barrel to make oil out of that sticky sand.

It took enormous vision and considerable risk for the Alberta government and Alberta industry leaders to continue investing in oil sands development during those money losing years. Care to share a cut of those losses? No, we didn't think so.