Alberta Premier Jason Kenney earlier this week tweeted a two-minute video clip of him telling reporters why the oil and gas industry rated a federal rescue.
The distinction between “same” and “similar” is important, because there is little evidence that Canada’s version of Big Oil is ready for the medicine that was force-fed to GM and Chrysler a decade ago. TARP stands for Troubled Asset Relief Program, the U.S. rescue fund that dispersed some US$430 billion in saving Wall Street and two of the Detroit Three automakers during the financial crisis. The governments of Canada and Ontario joined the auto bailout as junior partners, mostly to retain some leverage over the future of the Canadian operations of GM and Chrysler.
“In ’08, ’09, it was the energy industry that actually led the recovery in Canada,” Alex Pourbaix, chief executive of Cenovus Energy Inc., said on a conference call with analysts on April 29. “With adequate liquidity support from government, I think the industry can do that again.
“Every company has reduced its capital spending, so I view it as bad for Canada in the sense that it has jobs attached to it,” Tim McKay, chief executive of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., told Bloomberg this week. First, GM and Chrysler were given loans at market rates to keep them alive while officials reviewed their restructuring plans. Those plans were rejected “a couple of times” because policy-makers were unsatisfied with the ambition of the companies’ cost-saving plans, according to Boothe. Then, GM and Chrysler were rushed through bankruptcy, a process that wiped out shareholders, left creditors with pennies on the dollar and many senior managers without jobs.
CarmichaelKevin I live in Alberta but there is too much oil and gas in the world. Time to look at ways to diversify this country. But let me be clear, housing bubbles and record household debt are not the solutions.
CarmichaelKevin NO TAX PAYER MONEY for AMERICAN OWNED PROPAGANDISTS postmedianet THAT WORK TO DESTROY CANADA & INTERFERE IN OUR DEMOCRACY!! ONLY CANADIAN OWNED MEDIA TO RECEIVE TAX PAYER MONEY!! Are u listening CanadianPM JustinTrudeau cafreeland Bill_Morneau s_guilbeault
CarmichaelKevin No money for you, National Post. No money for you.
CarmichaelKevin No bailout
CarmichaelKevin Do foreign hedge fund media companies just ignore irony?
CarmichaelKevin ^They're writing this even as they're asking for more tax-payer money because they can't make their business model work even with a shared monopoly on media ownership. Boycott Postmedia. It's owned by a US hedge fund.
CarmichaelKevin like Ar Canada after all top management cashed in ..and where they have over 467 victims of PROVEN SYSTEMIC HARASSMENT AT THE CANADIAN HUMAN RIGHTS TRIBUNAL...UNIFOR AND AIR CANADA DESTROY LIVES IN IMPUNITY