Alberta Minute: Oil Prices, Sales Taxes, and Clock Changes
Alberta Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Alberta politics.
This Week In Alberta:
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Oil prices dropped 20-30% when markets opened in Asia last night after OPEC+ discussions collapsed and Saudia Arabia launched a price war. North American markets aren't open yet at time of writing, so we don't know exactly what will happen yet, but it doesn't look good for Alberta.
- It's not great timing, given the state of the markets, but the Legislature is on break this week for Constituency week. Despite what you might have heard, it's not really a holiday for politicians. When the Legislature isn't sitting, politicians spend their time in their own constituencies, working on local issues.
- Given the Constituency week, there are also no Committee meetings scheduled for this week - Main Estimates will continue next week.
Last Week In Alberta:
- The calls for Alberta to adopt a PST never seem to go away, do they? If the plan was to entirely replace Alberta's income tax with a PST, we'd consider it. But we all know that we'd just end up with high income taxes AND a PST, which is why this idea is a non-starter.
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The government ran a survey about car insurance with some claiming that the survey seems designed to justify the province implementing a no-fault insurance system as is found in some other provinces. A no-fault system likely would reduce insurance rates, but at what cost? A no-fault system essentially takes away the right to sue the insurance company of the driver at fault, reducing the compensation and care a victim might receive. Do we really want the government intervening in a market every time prices go up a bit faster than normal?
- Clocks went forward yesterday, and with it came further calls for Alberta to stop changing our clocks entirely. While it's unlikely to happen immediately, with more and more provinces and states proposing to halt the practice, the change (or rather, lack of change) seems inevitable eventually. What do you think? Should we stop changing our clocks? If so, should we stick with Standard or Daylight Savings Time? Let us know!
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