ALBERTA HAS YET TO SEE A SOCIAL CREDIT DOLLAR

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27408, 22 July 1954, Page 10

ALBERTA HAS YET TO SEE A SOCIAL CREDIT DOLLAR

HAROLD G. LONG,

bV

THE HOME OF SOCIAL CREDIT

[Specialty written /or " The Press,"

, General Manager of trial

•• Lethbridge Herald," Lethbridge, Alberta)

By the early forties, the Alberta Government had learned that Alberta is not a sovereign state, has no control over banking and currency, no control over production nor trading in goods, and that it pays to keep a province’s financial standing in good shape. The new federal tax agreement subsidy helped all provinces greatly to meet their governmental responsibilities and obligations. This year Alberta’s share of the tax agreement fund being paid by Ottawa runs to 32,100,000 dollars, which is double the whole Alberta budget in 1935, the first year of Social Credit government. In the early forties Aberhart died, and a young protege of his, Ernest Manning, took over as Premier. Manning is fair and a hard worker; and he brought Alberta back to its feet — but in the orthodox way. There is no social credit, *as conceived by Major Douglas and promised by Aberhart, in Alberta. Then, in 1947,. Alberta struck oil in a big way, out on the plains just south-east df Edmonton. There ha'd been some small oil production before at Turney valley, but the area was very limited. Since the Leduc strike in 1947, one field after another has been found; and Alberta today is producing 250,000 barrels a day and could double that any time if a market could be found for the additional amount. The Oil Boom It so happens that, while farmers and ranchers hold the surface rights in Alberta, the Province holds title to all mining and petroleum rights with few exceptions. So, when oil was struck, the wildcatters bent on drilling for oil had to go to the Province for leases. The sale of oil rights, royalties and other rights connected with the boom in oil has brought Alberta up to this spring the sum of 240.000.000 dollars—against the 157,000,000 dollars provincial debt in 1935. Naturally the oil boom has boosted provincial collections from all other sources; and this year the Provincial Budget called for 204,000,000 dollars, which is being spent for all provincial purposes, for retirement of debt, and for loans to municipalities *to help them finance improvements required to serve a rapidly expanding population.

Imagine the jump—from 16,500,000 dollars for all purposes to 204,000,000 dollars this year. The provincial debentures have not all been retired. About 95,000,000 dollars is still owing; but the province has over 150,000,000 dollars in the bag to pay it off when it comes due. And no new debt is being incurred. However, the debt of the municipalities, trying to keep up with the boom, is grpwing as fast as the government is retiring- its debt—and now stands at a combined total of nearly 200,000,000 dollars.

Private Capital Employed Of course, the Social Credit Government claims all the credit for the oil boom that has dropped gobs of revenue into the provincial treasury. But all oil development and produc-

tion is being done by private capital—the social creditors hate the Socialists —and all the Government does is to rake in the royalties and the millions of dollars from the sale of rights to the private-enterprise oil industry It might be explained that in most provinces in Canada the owner of surface rights on land also owns the mineral and petroleum rights, and the royalties and sale of oil lands returns go to the landowner. But Alberta came into the Confederation in 1905 when all these rights were held by the Federal Government because there were practically no people in the north-west territories up to that time What happened in Alberta could not have happened in, say, the old provinces of Ontario and Quebec. There the landowners would have got the royalties. Here they are funnelled into the treasury of the province.

Municipalities, hard put to it to keep up with the increase in population, are complaining bitterly that the province is hogging all the oil money while the municipalities are going into debt Edmonton, which was a city of about 100,000 at the end of the war. now hai 200,000, and it is projecting its population as a likely 400,000 by 1975. Calgary has grown from 110.000 to 175,000 Lethbridge has jumped from 15,000 to almost 30,000 in the last eight yean. And the oil and natural gas boom is only starting. The Great Pipelines Just 60 miles due west of, Lethbridge in the foothills near Pincher creek, a terrific gas cap has been discovered at 12,000 feet deep. It holds 3,100,000,000,000 cubic feet of wet gas. This gas will be part of what will be carried to Eastern Canada in a 300,000,000.000*d011ar gas pipeline within the next couple of years. Another 100,000,000 dollars gas pipeline will take gas from northern Alberta oil and gas fields to Vancouver, 8.C., and to Seattle and Portland in Northwestern United States. Altogether, 500,000,000 dollars will be spent in gas pipelines within the next two years. There are already 500,000,000 dollars worth of oil pipelines carrying crude oil as far east as Toronto and as far west as Vancouver. So that is where Alberta’s wealth Is coming from. It is not funny money. It is not just printing press or fountain money such as Aberhart envisaged. It is money from the resources of Alberta—and it is money which the users of oil and gas will have to pay over the years. And Alberta still has not seen an honest-to-goodness social credit dollar and never expects to. But the social credit enthusiasts explain it all. The Good Lord did not allow big oil to be struck in Alberta until after an honest social credit government had been elected to power so it copld play Santa Claus to Alberta’s million people. Motto- for New Zealand social creditors in their campaign: promi.<»e to strike oil and make everybody rich.