Looking for a free ride

Re: “Review assumptions behind Alberta’s fiscal woes; Rising expenditures, reliance on resource revenue are unsustainable,”

The Journal, Feb 1. It is unfortunate that Bob Ascah, as director of the Institute of Public Economics at the University of Alberta, did not list the most fundamental part in his article.

Basic assumption: Albertans, unlike other Canadians, are entitled to a whole whack of public services which are not paid for by our taxes just because we live above a sea of non-renewable natural resources.

We take it as a given that if the resources are there and we can rip them out of the ground, then any money they bring in is ours to spend solely on ourselves.

Forget the Norwegian model where resource revenues are put into their endowment fund which was started in 1990, which is worth $573 billion as of Dec. 31, 2011, and which will generate an annual income of $28 billion based on a five-per-cent return. Forget the equivalent Alberta Heritage Fund which was started in 1976, which is valued at only $14.7 billion as of Sept. 30, 2011, and which will generate an annual return of $735 million. Forget that the Norwegian return in six months is what we have saved in 36 years and that the Norwegians will get the same return over and over again.

What is important to remember is that we are Albertans and, as such, are entitled to as many free rides as we can get.

Ronald G. Rowswell, Edmonton