“We’re proud of our work. We’re proud of our jobs. We’re proud of our industry. We’re proud of our province. We believe Alberta should have MLAs who understand what we do, how the oil and gas industry works, and are proud of us. We have 329 years of direct industry experience in all facets of our business. Help us put it to work for our government, our industry and our province.”

Background

On January 1, 2009 the Government of Alberta, led by a Progressive Conservative Party majority government since 1971, passed the New Royalty Framework (“NRF”) into law. Introduced in October of 2007, this controversial policy significantly raised the royalty rates on oil and gas production. It was widely criticized by the resource and financial industries as being punitive to Alberta’s most important industry by making Alberta non-competitive for continued investment. It resulted in the redeployment of significant investment capital and drilling and service assets outside of Alberta.

In the summer of 2008 the world economy began a serious decline. Prices for commodities such  as crude oil and natural gas fell precipitously. By the fall of that year the world’s debt and equity markets were in turmoil. Major banks and financial institutions become insolvent. Several failed. What was unfolding has been described as the worst economic downturn the world has experienced since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Governments responded with trillions of dollars of borrowed economic stimulus to prop up financial institutions and stem further massive layoffs. Many regions of the world have yet to recover.

On January 1, 2009, in the middle of this global financial chaos and ignoring global economic realities, the PC government passed the NRF into law anyway.

Later in 2009 a new political movement called the Wildrose Party held a leadership race which ultimately resulted in Danielle Smith winning in October. Wildrose gained support because it was obvious to a growing number of Albertans that the governing Progressive Conservative party had lost touch with the people on several major policy fronts, not just the NRF.

What followed was thirteen people from different aspects of the oil and gas industry across Alberta, independently chose to seek their local nomination for the Wildrose, won, and are now running to become MLAs in the upcoming provincial election. Most of us had never met until the fall of 2011.

But we all share the following:

• The belief that oil and gas is Alberta’s most important industry by any measure
• That with the NRF, the Progressive Conservative Party has once again demonstrated they do not understand our business
• Our industry has virtually no direct representation on the floor of the legislature in Edmonton
• We’re determined to change that

So we ask our fellow oil workers across Alberta to review our website and give us and Wildrose the support we think our industry deserves.

Protectthepatch.ca was conceived, created and sponsored by the Wildrose Party oil and gas industry candidates listed above. Every effort has been made to ensure the information contained herein is correct. Sources for the information have been referenced where applicable. Opinions expressed are those of the thirteen candidates.