Alberta

July 25, 2009
Governments of Canada and Alberta work together for Bowden

Bowden... Albertans and residents of Bowden will benefit from joint federal and provincial funding to upgrade infrastructure in and around the Town of Bowden. 
 

http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/text/facilit/institutprofiles/bowden-eng.shtml

Earl Dreeshen, MP for Red Deer, and Luke Ouellette, Minister of Alberta Transportation and MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, today announced that Highway 2 from south of the junction with Highway 2A to south of the town of Bowden will be repaved and reconstruction of 23rd street and Westview Crescent’s sanitary systems, water systems and roads can begin. These projects are just two examples of the commitment of both governments to strengthening the Alberta economy.

The $2-million Highway 2 & 2A project will improve transportation efficiency and create local jobs.  The government of Canada will invest up to $1 million in the project. The Government of Alberta will contribute the balance of the total eligible cost of the project.

The governments of Canada and Alberta will each invest up to $632,405 in the 23rd Street and Westview Crescent reconstruction project.  The Town of Bowden will contribute the balance of the total eligible cost of the $1.9 million project.

The release, on July 6, of the Government of Alberta’s report on a Market Assessment of High Speed Rail Service in the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor leads to the consideration of a number of political and policy issues, both provincially and nationally, that might be resolved or, at least, substantially mitigated by a high speed train project.

The Alberta Government faces several problems that could be solved by introducing high speed train service in the Edmonton-Calgary Corridor.  Alberta has to show the world that it is committed to a greener economy; it has to improve its transportation infrastructure; and, it has to develop more economic alternatives to the oil and gas industry.

An electrified high speed train service between Edmonton and Calgary would take passengers from downtown Calgary to downtown Edmonton in about an hour or an hour and a half, depending on the technology chosen.  This would reduce green house emissions by millions of tonnes, as travellers switch from cars that take at least three hours to make

We're now more than halfway through a year that everybody knew was going to be brutal.

The winds of a global recession, a tight credit environment, unemployment and cautious consumers have joined forces to cloud the Canadian economy.

As bad as it is, Alberta has still managed to be in just a little better shape than many other parts of the country.

It's that Alberta attitude: Never let them see you sweat. Grin and bear it. That can-do spirit permeates the province's economy --and a big factor, too, is our oil and gas industry.

Sure, there have been victims; plenty of companies who fought the good fight have lost. But it could have been a lot worse.

Early on, economic experts forecast that Alberta wouldn't be hit so dramatically by the downturn and that it would be among the first regions to come out of it.

Many provincial economies “took it on the chin” late last year and early this year, resulting in 2009 growth being widely revised down. However, recent developments have lent support to our view that growth will return by the second half of this year and be maintained through 2010. The latest available data point to a moderating pace of both job losses and declines in real GDP in Canada, seen as evidence that the worst of the recession is likely behind us.

Improved commodity markets are anticipated to reignite capital expenditures by businesses in Canada. This will be supplemented by relatively aggressive public sector spending on infrastructure. The most recent budget season almost universally brought significant measures to stimulate provincial economies, primarily in the form of increased spending on public infrastructures but also, in some cases, tax cuts and other fiscal incentives – Alberta being the lone exception, preferring to hold the line on spending.

Came across this recent article stating that a recent study finds carbon emissions aren’t extreme. It's an interesting read.

CALGARY — A new report that compares greenhouse gas emissions of domestic and imported crude oils refined in the United States concludes that Canadian oilsands are not much dirtier than competing types of oil.

Eddy Isaacs, managing director of the Alberta-government-created Alberta Energy Research Institute, said one constant of all crudes is that 75 per cent of emissions come when the resulting gasoline is burned in a vehicle.

“What we’re arguing about is the next 25 per cent,” he said, speaking at an investor symposium in Calgary yesterday.

Based on a report by the Jacobs Consultancy to be released at the end of June, Isaacs said the best performance among oil imports to the U.S. came from Saudi Arabian light crudes. He said it rated 98 grams of carbon emissions equivalent per megajoule of gasoline.

U.S. Gulf Coast crudes were rated at about 104 and California thermal-sourced heavy crudes were at 113.4.

Synthetic crude from oilsands tapped using thermal SAGD (steam-assisted gravity drainage) wells rated at 116.1, the highest in the survey due to higher energy use. But the SAGD product that was diluted before being piped to the refinery rated just 102.1 per cent.

Mined synthetic oilsands crude was rated 108.2 and SAGD bitumen rated 111.

“What you see is that there is a range, but it’s not as dramatic as what people have made it out to be,” Isaacs said.