{"id":190585,"date":"2018-11-22T03:42:20","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T08:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=190585"},"modified":"2018-11-22T03:42:20","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T08:42:20","slug":"ottawa-on-a-different-economic-planet-alberta-finance-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/11\/22\/ottawa-on-a-different-economic-planet-alberta-finance-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa ‘on a different economic planet:’ Alberta finance minister"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cIt’s clear the federal government’s not speaking the same economic language of Albertans,\u201d Joe Ceci said Wednesday. \u201cOttawa is living in a different economic planet.\u201d (File photo<\/a>: Joe Ceci\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CALGARY \u2014 Alberta’s finance minister says Ottawa’s latest fiscal update shows the federal government doesn’t appreciate how badly the price squeeze on western Canadian crude is hurting the Canadian economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s clear the federal government’s not speaking the same economic language of Albertans,\u201d Joe Ceci said Wednesday. \u201cOttawa is living in a different economic planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ceci said he was disappointed the fall economic statement included no actions to help Alberta oil producers narrow the price gap between their product and U.S. light crude \u2014 around a staggering $45 a barrel recently.<\/p>\n

He said Ottawa has not demonstrated a clear understanding of the economic damage caused by the failure to build new pipelines to coastal waters, enabling exports outside the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe face a critical time for Canada’s energy sector and until our market access issues are addressed, the national economy will continue to forfeit billions to the American economy,\u201d Ceci said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis update does not address one of the biggest concerns Albertans have \u2014 getting fair value for our non-renewable resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley proposed Ottawa invest in moving oil to market on rail cars as a stop-gap measure to relieve some of the landlocked oil glut until new pipelines come into operation.<\/p>\n

Ceci said he would have liked to see a mention of crude-by-rail in the economic statement.<\/p>\n

But he said there could be more information on that matter as soon as Thursday, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to visit Calgary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re busily working to get those numbers together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ceci said he is pleased with measures included in the fiscal update to allow manufacturers to write off certain capital costs immediately. It was something Ceci pitched in a letter to his federal counterpart.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis improves our competitiveness and is a win for Alberta workers and companies,\u201d Ceci said. \u201cI’m pleased the federal government listened to our advice and took action.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CALGARY \u2014 Alberta’s finance minister says Ottawa’s latest fiscal update shows the federal government doesn’t appreciate how badly the price …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":190586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}