The Province is facing some intense scrutiny on the prices of it’s energy sources.

The criticism comes after a leaked report suggesting Alberta is not doing a great job at getting good prices for energy.

The recently leaked report suggests that Alberta is lagging behind countries like Norway,Russia, and Angola, when it comes to getting a good value for our natural resources.

Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan tells the Alberta Morning News that increasing royalties would not necessarily have a negative impact on the energy industry.

“The energy industry has been very, very effective in demonizing royalties and they’ve also been very effective in making PR opportunities out of things like the global economic collapse, cause that’s really what happened in 2008” says McGowan.

McGowan believes that a country like Angola has done a much better job at negotiating their energy royalties than we are.

Angola gets 75% of the excess product after costs compared to the just over 50% Alberta is currently getting.

McGowan says during the reign of Ed Stelmach as Premier spin doctors were able to successfully play the fear card after Stelmach’s Royalty increase.

i880News, Saturday, Mar. 30, 2013
Byline: Joel Lefevre