Category: Hicks on Biz columns from The Edmonton Sun
Hicks on Biz columns from The Edmonton Sun
This is a momentous time.
Some kind of new order – be it a correction, or a massive do-over – feels to be in the making, on many fronts: social, economic, geopolitical.
The reaction to the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd feels quite different than after previous tragedies. A collective, visceral realization has happened. For too long have we overlooked, denied, downplayed the reality of being Black or Indigenous. If we are ever to live up to ideals of egalitarianism, we’d best humble down. A pile of internal and external attitude-changing remains to be done.
On a global scale, the economic, social, and medical implications of the COVID pandemic are just beginning to take shape. The size of the mountain emerging out of the shadows is staggering.
At home, our Alberta public health authorities have done a fine job, minimizing the virus outbreak through group action.
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But now we face the cost of the pandemic. Jobs are gone, many not ...
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Thousands of people gathered in Calgary's Poppy Plaza to protest against racism and police brutality on Wednesday, June 3, 2020. The global protests were ignited after the death of George Floyd, who was killed by the police in Minneapolis.Azin Ghaffari / Postmedia, file
Two steps forward, one step back.
That is how long-time Indigenous advocate Lewis Cardinal describes Edmonton’s progress – and often lack thereof – in creating a sense of “belonging” within the city for its Indigenous residents.
The topic comes up in the wake of the unprovoked murder of George Floyd, a black man, in the hands of Minneapolis police.
Led by the Black Lives Matter movement, the incident has galvanized awareness of injustice to Americans (and Canadians) no matter their colour. They have realized racism is alive in North American culture … and a younger generation has resolved to improve matters.
Much as we would like to think otherwise – as Cardinal says ...
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The skyline of Regina, Sask. Graham Hicks warns the post-COVID world could alter Edmonton's standard of living to Regina-like levels.Edward Willett / Getty Images/Flickr RF
The memory is still vivid.
In 2003, as an Edmonton Sun columnist, I headed to Regina to report on the non-football side of that year’s Grey Cup. Which the Eskimos and Ricky Ray decisively won.
What lingers is the image of Regina.
It was like going back in time.
Everything was neat and tidy, but the homes were smaller and the vehicles were older.
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The downtown had a few middling-size office towers, all named after Saskatchewan crown corporations (companies owned by the province) or agricultural cooperatives.
And the people were so nice! They were not in a hurry. They had time to chat, a ready smile, a willingness to help.
Edmonton with a population of 690,000 in 2003 was much wealthier and bigger than Regina, then with a population of 200,000.
Even today, the d ...
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TC Energy's Keystone pipeline facility in Hardisty, Alberta.Jeff McIntosh / The Associated Press
Let us lay ourselves down a while and rest from this ceaseless doom ‘n’ gloom.
Let’s have a chat with Ian MacGregor — the most creative and visionary mind in Alberta’s oilpatch, who not only talks the talk, but walks the walk.
MacGregor, through his company North West Refining, is a 50 per cent partner in the $10-billion Sturgeon Refinery located between Redwater and Fort Saskatchewan.
He has so much skin in the game, it is amazing he has any hide left.
And he’s been beat up real good.
The refinery is brilliant, the first to convert Alberta bitumen (currently worth $30 a barrel) directly to diesel fuel (worth around $80 a barrel) to the tune of 40,000 barrels a day.
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More important, the refinery has enabled the building of the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line. All its CO2 emissions are liquified under pressure, carried ...
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The virus may dominate the headlines, but Alberta’s biggest battle still looms.
If we do not gain the “social licence” to produce environmentally acceptable oil and gas, we might as well pack up and leave Alberta now rather than later.
We face a staggering enemy, outnumbered even within Canada by those in provinces like Quebec, Ontario, B.C. Those who believe fossil fuels must be phased out and replaced by renewable energy if the Earth is not to turn into one giant, overheated Sahara Desert.
It is hugely frustrating, because Alberta is a world leader in “de-carbonizing” our oil and gas production, in creating products from fossil fuels WITHOUT releasing CO2 into the air.
There is a little snowball happening, about 45 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.
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A little snowball that must grow into an avalanche of positive proof: That the processing of oil and gas can be as pure and clean as driven snow.
Coming up shortly are anno ...
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Edmonton's housing market started out strong in March, but ended with an overall decline of two per cent compared to last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.File
Predictions of doom in the post-COVID Canadian real estate market have to be questioned … as do visions of sunshine and roses.
On the gloom side, analysts argue COVID will be the straw that breaks the back of Vancouver and Toronto’s real estate prices, prices that have defied normal cycles by going up, up, up over the last 20 years with no major corrections.
A real-estate crash in those two cities would send the Canadian economy reeling – a knock-out punch on top of the financial burden caused by the COVID crisis.
A more convincing counter-argument says the financial storm will be minor. Thanks to COVID spending by governments, especially shoring up banks, things will return to “normal” (with way more debt, but nobody seems to care) in a year’s time.
A sobering statistic: Until a few years ago, rea ...
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Staff harvests cannabis at the Freedom Cannabis facility in Acheson, Alberta on Sept. 21, 2019.David_Bloom / Postmedia
With all eyes on the COVID-19 crisis, the fledgling Northern Alberta cannabis industry has been slowly crawling toward some degree of normalcy.
There are now 125 cannabis retail stores in Metropolitan Edmonton, which were allowed to stay open during the virus-combating lock-down (subject to COVID distancing and other preventative measures).
Surprise, surprise, cannabis product sales have jumped, an estimated 20 per cent bump over expect
ations. If every night is a Saturday night …
While analysts gloomily say the gross revenue from 2020 Canada’s country-wide pot sales won’t be close to pre-COVID forecasts of $3.5 billion, and more likely at $2.5 billion, things are not so dire on the local scene.
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A container of buds at the SpiritLeaf cannabis bud bar retail store in Edmonton on July 12, 201 ...
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Chief Jim Badger said Sucker Creek First Nation is well prepared to deal with the single COVID-19 case since the individual was infected from a connection in High Prairie and is now self-isolating.NIAID-RML / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Despite the current COVID-19 and oil/gas malaise, Alberta has survived and eventually prospered after every economic downtown since it became a province in 1905, and even before that, through the boom-bust cycles of the 19th Century fur trade totally dependent on the whims of European haberdashery.
“Of course we’ll recover,” says a retired friend. “But will I be around to see it?”
BUY AT THE BOTTOM, SELL AT THE TOP
The bad news is the stock market crash a few weeks ago. The good news – never talked about – are the careful investors who kept a chunk of their holdings in cash and are now happily buying blue-chip stocks at a fraction of their 2019 prices.
For all the complexities, stock market investment follows a predicta ...
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The near empty parking lot at the Premium Outlet Centre shopping mall near the International Airport in Edmonton, April 17, 2020, is an indication of the economic impact of COVID-19 restrictions.Ed Kaiser / Postmedia
What’s going to happen?
After the pandemic, will recent graduates find decent jobs?
Will you have enough money to cover the mortgage and utilities? If not, will the banks/government cut you some slack?
Will seniors receive the same government pensions as in the past? Could private pension payments be slashed?
If I’m a businessperson, can I ride out the storm … or does all the blood, sweat and tears I’ve put into this enterprise end in bankruptcy … unless the government somehow bails me out?
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Let’s not kid ourselves. The economy — thanks to COVID-19, rock-bottom oil prices and wanton over-spending by Ottawa and Alberta in the recent past — is in horrible shape.
It’s worse than ...
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Downtown Edmonton is seen from Ada Boulevard near Rundle Park in Edmonton on Friday, Jan. 3, 2020.Ian Kucerak / Postmedia, file
The glass is half-full, not half-empty.
Never waste a good crisis.
From the ashes, the phoenix is reborn.
Positives can arise from this unprecedented economic emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, impossibly low oil prices and forever-delayed resource development.
The biggest positive? A shattering of conventionality.
For decades, Alberta made half-hearted efforts to innovate and diversify beyond oil and gas. It never really happened. It was too easy to make a ton of money from oil and gas.
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Today, these last few weeks, it has hit home. Either we drastically change, or we die.
Every other jurisdiction in Canada, and around the world, faces a similar challenge. If we are all rebuilding from ground zero, Alberta looks really good.
Our population is young, strong and talented, supported by excellent educatio ...
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