News this week of Berkshire Hathaway’s takeover of AltaLink should have Albertans seeing red — as in red ink, the favoured colour to indicate a financial loss.
The reason? Because Albertans have paid for the transmission lines which are the business AltaLink shareholders are selling to the foreign investment giant behind Berkshire, Warren Buffet, for a huge profit.
We’ve lost because we’re forced to pay capital costs for transmission infrastructure we don’t end up owning. And because our government has allowed this company to make a minimum guaranteed annual profit of nine per cent.
Wildrose MLA Joe Anglin, representing the constituency which surrounds us, has been a tireless advocate for a better deal for Albertans.
In question period, in the Alberta Legislature, he blasted the government for allowing Alberta power consumers to repeatedly be gouged.
“Given SNC-Lavalin is going to profit $2.35 billion thanks to Alberta’s taxpayers, and given Alberta’s ratepayers will guarantee Warren Buffet, one of the wealthiest men in the world, an annual income of nine per cent on all future transmission lines built, what’s in this deal for Albertans and who is looking after them?”
The obvious answer, if this deal is approved, is that no one is looking after Albertans. We’re their to be taken advantage of by the rich and powerful.
We like NDP leader Brian Mason’s idea.
“Ultimately, what we would like to see is the transmission system in the province operated as a public utility in the public interest.”
Obviously deregulation is a failed experiment which needs to be scrapped.
On top of news of the sale, there are reports this week, highlighted by the Wildrose Opposition, that show Albertans are paying among the highest electricity rates in North America.
They point to a Fraser Institute report which indicates Alberta businesses are losing competitiveness because they’re paying some of the highest electricity rates in North America. The report shows that out of 119 North American cities, Calgary businesses are paying the seventh highest power rates and Edmonton pays the second highest. Only Honolulu pays more for electricity than Edmonton.
According to leader Danielle Smith’s news release on the report, she said it validates a December Hydro Quebec report that revealed Edmonton and Calgary are paying some of the highest residential and commercial power prices in North America.
“We receive very little on coal royalties and natural gas prices remain low, yet Alberta businesses somehow continue to be gouged on their power bills,” Anglin said. “The fact is the government continues with a reckless overbuild of transmission lines and presiding over a broken marketplace without recognizing there is a problem.”
Why, when all Albertans, recognize there’s a problem, doesn’t this government make changes to fix it rather than stick stubbornly to their privatization philosophy at our expense.
Change is in the wind. And that wind is blowing warmer and faster from the south. Soon the temperatures will be boiling and Albertans will bask again.