The province has been abuzz since the announcement of the Alberta Royalty Framework last week. Public Interest Alberta Executive Director, Joel French, weighed in on the issue speaking to both the Calgary Herald and Afternoons with Danielle on News Talk 770.
Quoted in the Herald, French said he has mixed feelings about the review, adding that Public Interest Alberta has advocated for a "fairer share" of resource revenue for Albertans. "I don't think anyone expected that the rates would be increasing," he said. "What we were disappointed in, though, is that there wasn't a mechanism for when the price gets higher … Albertans getting more money for the resources they own." Read the full story here.
On News Talk 770, French highlighted the importance of increasing revenues for the province. There was no expectation of an increase to royalties while the price of oil is so low, however when oil prices are high, Public Interest Alberta believes that Albertans should be getting a fairer share of that resource revenue.
For further critical analysis of the Alberta Royalty Review, see Andrew Nikiforuk's recent piece in the Tyee and Ricardo Acuna's "The good, the bad, and the ugly of Alberta's new royalty framework". The Alberta Federation of Labour has also released it's Royalty Review Research, available here.
