Economic Update, Alberta, 2021-02
Posted on 2021-02-20
There are 90000+ abandoned oil wells (The Issue with Abandoned Oil Wells in Alberta – EnergyRates.ca) in Alberta. 600 companies benefited from 300+ million CAD federal money to clean up the mess of private capitalist corporations. 1500 jobs were created. The Alberta Government takes credit for it. And there is more money: $400M available in next round of funding to clean up orphan oil wells in Alberta | Globalnews.ca The total cost estimated is in the billions.
In capitalism, the state subsidises in countless way private corporations, benefiting private individuals with public money, no strings attached. Private benefit, socialized cost. I am not against subsidizing enterprises. But the key for me, what kind of enterprise we are talking about. We could and should help, subsidize worker-coops, where a collective of workers own and operate the enterprise. If we do that, we help a collective of workers together with the community where they operate. Would be very different from what we have now.
Ottawa approves Air Canada’s $180-million takeover of Air Transat. Air Canada claimed over $400 million from the federal government during COVID-19. In an article published on December 6, CBC News revealed that the airline received the largest amount of government aid “among publicly traded companies that have disclosed finances to date.” To help pay its tens of thousands of employees, the company collected $492 million through the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), over a period ending on September 30. Per CBC News, some experts believe the airline is using passengers’ demands for refunds as leverage during these talks. This comes as over 100,000 Canadians have signed petitions calling for government involvement when it comes to flight ticket refunds after a number of airlines failed to offer monetary refunds for cancelled services. Air Canada laying off more than 1,500 staff, suspending service on several international routes.
The Federal Government continues to rubberstamp whatever private capitalist corporations want. Allows takeovers without asking questions about the money or about their monopolistic aspirations. In Europe, there is fierce competition among air passenger companies. Their pre-Covid19 prices were legendarily low for European destinations. We do the opposite, we kill competition, keeping the prices high.
The Critical Worker Benefit is a joint initiative by the federal and provincial governments that will give $465-million (with the province kicking in $118-million) to 380,000 Albertans by the way of $1,200 cheques.
“These workers have placed themselves at the front line of this pandemic in order to serve their fellow citizens during a crisis. Alberta’s government is recognizing their good work. We trust this support will help these workers continue to protect lives.”
Jason Kenney takes credit for it. It is too little and too late. Other critical workers are complaining that they were left out. And they are right. Don’t you think?
The morale of this story is that private capitalist corporations are unable or unwilling to recognize the work of their employees. They are not increasing their wages. None of it. The UCP government of Alberta is happy for the “involvement” of the federal government by financing it from public money.
Conservatives, in principle, are against government interventions in the economy. Except they bend backwards to get money from the federal government.
Having said all of this, what can we say about the “efficiency” of capitalism?