Publically owned Oil and Gas Industry for Canada...Good or Bad?

Is it time for Canada’s oil sector to become publically owned?

While I do not agree with publically owned businesses like the liquor board and the care of roads for transportation department, I believe that government run oil industry may be the way to go to keep our economy running, jobs going and job creation.

With less reliance on the United States for refinement we would create and keep jobs here in Canada instead of shipping them to the United States, a country that has become hostile towards our oil while they still support oil from countries that support terrorists.

Saskatchewan’s potash is doing so well it makes me wonder how well Canada’s oil sands would do if we were to kick the oil companies off the land and the provinces started producing it themselves.

Before this happens one huge deal would have to be done and that is building our own refineries close enough to the oil sands so that transport would not be a bigger issue than what Keystone is causing. 

I realize we have the environmentalists’ screaming already at my blog that refineries are pollutants and that no one wants to live by them…we have so much land in Canada where no one lives and no one wants to live and until our reliance on oil and gas comes to a halt, we have to suck it up that everything from our vehicles to the computers we own use this type of energy to make and use.

Many people commute to the oil sands and work for weeks away from home, the same cannot be done for jobs at refineries?

Strict regulations need to be made in order for pipelines to run to those refineries, oil spills do not need to happen damaged pipes need attention immediately. A government run oil and gas industry could make sure of this.

Creation of these jobs would also create stability in the economy. These jobs would also be higher paying, stable employment…something governments need to be making right now.

With all the jobs lost because of oil companies shutting their doors, this would be the perfect time to say ADIOS to these crooked companies that are only here to make money off Canadas resources and at the same time make Canada look like the bad guys to the rest of the world.

All the profit would come to Canada, it would fix our roads, educate our children and put food on the tables of many people who crooked companies have now laid off.

The Alberta and Saskatchewan governments could put people back to work; these governments could start making money again. They could do it by making the oil and gas industry a Publically Owned Company. They could keep this industry from down turns every 5-10 years by making it a publically owned company. 

They could invest in their government’s future and their constituent’s futures by getting oil companies, that do not care about the workers or the people of this country, out of our country and taking over the production and refinement its own oil and gas.

These companies keep saying that if royalties are too high they won't stay, well...lets call them on that. 

We do not need these companies; yes it may be easier to have them do the work…but is it better? Hard work makes everything more worthwhile. Doing things the easy way, may be easy...but it isn't right.

Obviously it isn’t better to have companies that keep destroying our economy when they feel like it by laying off thousands of people and treating of them like crap only to have the government have to support these people while the market is down.

Controlling our own oil and gas industry makes sense, doesn't it? 

Let's put our oil and gas industry back to work under government run, build our own refineries, creating jobs here in Canada and say good bye to reliance on Companies who sell out Canada when it serves them.

Who is Cleaning Your Toilet?

When the Middle, Rich and Mega Rich classes tell the Poor class they shouldn't procreate it leaves me to wonder…

Who do you think is going to clean your toilets?

For the most part the Middle class do this on their own at home, but think about it this way, who does it in the Malls, Restaurants, theaters, Hotels or Casinos you enjoy using?

I wonder…

Which class of citizens do the Middle/Rich/Mega-Rich believe make the beds in the Hotels they stay in when they vacation in their favorite destination spot? Which class of citizens rings your bill up and hands you those bags of groceries every time you visit a grocery store?

I read comments all the time from Middle/Rich and Mega Rich individuals who believe the poor should stop having children if we cannot afford them, we should have to have a licence to have children in the first place.

What these individuals do not consider is who after our generations are gone and we are not allowed to procreate unless told to is going to clean up after them, cook for them, stock the shelves for them…basically do the manual labor?

Can you see a Lawyer, after spending the night in a $500/night hotel room, washing the bedding and cleaning the room before he leaves the hotel for the day? Can you see yourself cleaning the isles in the movie theater and washing the sinks and toilets after the movie?

Those jobs are done by the working poor, whose children are usually the ones who take over those crappy jobs, thank you very much, unless WE parents drill it into their heads that they are worth more and can be more, the working poor’s children will end up as the working poor right after us…serving the Middle/Rich/Mega Rich Classes.

Before you try telling the poor classes to stop having children, remember who is handing you that coffee, making that bed or cooking that meal at your favorite restaurant, because most likely it isn’t your wife or husband if your family is making over $100,000.

And think, should the working poor have to worry about whether they can pay the utility bill or have the car breaks fixed so they can get to their job safely?

Lower Price at the Pump=Massive Layoffs

The Saskatchewan Government isn't being as honest as it should with its people when it comes to the oil and gas price drop.

In Brad Wall’s televised speech he, of course, did not go into the details of how this down time is going to affect the industry itself.

He talked about how HIS government kept its promise of job creation, which it did…through the oil and gas industry.

You see MOST of those jobs that his government may have been responsible for creating has been in conjunction with keeping up with the boom of oil and gas.

From seeing first hand what happens when that industry slows down, being Albertan, Saskatchewan is in for a big surprise.

Brad Wall and his government are very proud of the fact that they have the “lowest” unemployment rate in the country. That will not be the case if the oil does not rebound immediately.

You will have massive layoffs, not just from the oil and gas companies like Cal-

Frac, Iron Horse, Haliburton, Element and Baker Hughes…these companies rely on other businesses to do the work they do.

Many of these companies sub-contract to other companies who then have their welders and class 1 drivers do the work for the bigger companies.

Companies like Vanko Oilfield Services in Kindersley, SK probably won’t need all their people to do repairs to pump jacks and maintenance to picker equipment, layoffs will happen. While REV Energy Services ltd out of Kerrobert, SK will need to keep some people on, not everyone will be keeping their jobs there either. Welding companies like Gremur Industries Ltd out of Maidstone, SK could have some tough times ahead as they deal with oilfield construction, people there will probably see their time shortened with the barrel of oil dropping to less than $53 as of January 4^th, 2015.

These massive and wealthy companies get their safety equipment and supplies from companies like Kost Fire Safety Ltd in Medicine Hat, AB that have trained personnel to care for this safety gear who make sure this gear works properly so no one will get hurt, they have other work for these people to do, but the money they make off the safety equipment will take a hit if the companies stop drilling.

These are just small companies who will lose jobs and income directly from the drop in the oil price that the Saskatchewan government is not being up front with you about, it isn’t just about their “budget”. There are the other industries that are going to take a massive hit.

Oil and gas companies like Baker Hughes and Cal-Frac spend millions of dollars on hotel rooms, restaurants and fuel themselves for their own workers who travel. 

Those new hotels and motels that are built and/or renovated in Kindersley,SK and elsewhere are going to lose money when road bans are put into place in Saskatchewan and these multi-million dollar companies start handing out pink slips. The restaurants and living accommodations are going to take a huge hit when the road bans are put in place. Rental accommodations are going to lose their renters who move back to where ever they came from because landlords here got greedy, charging exorbitant amounts of money for holes in the ground.

Gas stations are not going to have the company trucks pulling in to fuel up so the workers can head home to see their loved ones, they are already at home living off of unemployment.

Which brings me to my last point Saskatchewan; this has been a boost in your livelihoods. You have never seen this kind of money flowing through the coffers before. Many of your people have gone from making substandard wages to having wealth beyond knowledge. I hope they were smart enough to save and not blow it on huge houses and expensive cars/trucks/SUVs.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/as-crude-prices-plummet-oilsands-workers-find-themselves-jobless-1.2176208

One of the biggest problems people face, especially people who have no experience with money, are that when they get money they want to spend that money. Alberta saw it in the 1980’s.

People lose their houses and vehicles because they do not budget for the price of oil dropping this low. They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on building a dream home for their family with a mortgage payment that is outrageous, along with car payments for both adults (sometimes even the kids) and then the layoff happens.

Remember, you only receive 55% of your insurable earnings on Unemployment…BUT, there are stipulations, the Canadian government website http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/ei/types/regular.shtml#much…says, “As of January 1, 2014, the maximum insurable earnings amount is $48,600. This means that you can receive a maximum amount of$514 per week.”  

I hope your mortgage and car payments are not more than $2000 and that you have another income coming in to cover the cost of incidentals like food and utilities…or you are going to be flooding the market with brand new houses and that vehicle is not worth what you paid for it anymore, you now have to take what you can get for it.

So people of Saskatchewan, this is the first down time in the oil and gas for you. Those Albertans who moved here and have gone through this should be fine, if they used their heads. I hope that the Saskatchewan governments’ positive spin on bringing in the industry did not take away the sensibilities of the people.

The one good thing about oil and gas prices is that it can rebound whenever the United States government decides. So when they decide to stop policing the world you may get your jobs and livelihood back, hopefully this will happen before anyone loses their shirts.