A telling tale of two Alberta investments
Two major investment decisions were announced last week, both positive for Alberta’s future. The contrast in responses by the mainstream media, however, says a lot about the political mentality of today’s editors.
The first was the new Alberta government announcing that it would invest another $624 million into our health care, education and social services. That was met with a media response that was either lukewarm or downright critical. Instead of applauding this badly needed cash injection, they — and the opposition, of course — primarily wanted to know where the money would come from.
The second announcement, from Telus executive chairman Darren Entwistle, was for a larger amount — $1 billion for a new fibre-optic system to speed up Internet access in our area. The media response to this was positively acclamatory, applauding Entwistle for his generosity to our city.
Telus is a private company, which resulted from the sale in the 1990s of publicly owned and controlled companies — Alberta Government Telephones, Edmonton Telephones and, finally, BC Telecom. Just like all corporate decisions, Telus based this one on reasonable expectation of profit, and made it behind closed doors, even though it will affect our future as surely as spending decisions made by our democratically elected government. It’s a different form of government, I guess, but one that editors seem more comfortable with.
Not one of the media reports asked where Telus’ $1 billion would come from — or the additional amount that would be required for profit and executive compensation. It will all come from us, of course. Telus would have no other reason for making this investment.