Castuserraticus

The spider senses start tingling as soon as I see a CBC source. Their coverage is often slanted towards the sensational. The question is what do you classify as arms - armoured personnel carriers vs bombs. I know we have a handful of companies that supply aerospace parts - could include missile parts but the biggest component is landing gear from what I recall. I think there may be some armoured vehicle manufacturing. I'm not aware of any munitions manufacturing.

I've had physio, chiro, ART, and acupuncture for various athletic and other injuries. All have worked to varying degrees. The practitioner is critical. If what they're doing doesn't feel right then try another practitioner. When injured I'll see up to 3 practitioners of each type within the first week or two. When I find what works for that injury then I return. Physios do the best assessments I've found. Some chiros are like doctors and try to crank patients through too quickly and don't take time to do proper assessments. The acupuncturist I go to is for a specific issue and he provides the only relief I've found for the condition. I've learned over the years to be very proactive. Don't believe what doctors tell you just because they're doctors. It's my health and I have to advocate for it.

When my son was about 2 I took him into the office with me. He was enjoying running around and spinning on chairs. Suddenly he shows up without a diaper. It turns out he's laid a turd onto the floor in front of the boss' office. I didn't take him with me again.

I'm a year behind you and have an Airwalk hoodie. My son's friends were amazed. Go ahead - it'll make you cool too. Although you'll also get the urge to butcher the language, drop your pants half way down your ass, and make strange hand gestures. I've adapted, but the top of my ass does get a bit chilled these days.

Thanks for the info. I'll look those books up. The book I recommended is by a practicing Muslim. It covers a great deal of their history as well as the present state of the religion and society. Have a look before you blow it off. Every book written is slanted by the author's opinion and therefore somewhat political.

Why is it OK to name the kids Mohammad? Some of them turn into murders and thieves. Is that showing respect to their prophet? I don't foresee any advancements in most Muslim societies. And to think, at the time of the crusades they had the most advanced society in the world with renowned teachers, huge libraries, and advanced technology. If anyone's interested in an inside view of the Muslim world I highly recommend "The Trouble with Islam Today". It's written by a woman who grew up in and still loves Islam. She put her life on the line writing the book.

The salmon fly is attractive but not related to fishing Calgary. I thought a stonefly was in the logo.

* if you license someone, they do have a larger voice in how the resource is managed? Most likely - they can choose to have a larger voice as you have Don. * if you don't license someone, they have no voice and are counted with all others As above - in Alberta anyone who chooses can become involved as much as they want - in energy, forestry, agriculture, ... * licenses may/could incorporate things like location restrictions, age, insurance coverage & first aid training - definitely * licences for guides handling boats may/could require certificate of competency Definitely - there are a few boats each year that the river beats up * typical resource exploiters [ oil/gas, coal, wood] pay about 15% of gross income as a "user fee/royalty/stumpage etc" - is this appropriate for fishing guides? No - C&R is not an extractive industry * if a license system was set up, who should pay for administration - you & I, the Govt, the license holders et al? All these options are ultimately you & I as it's our tax dollars. It should be the license holders paying which means you likely don't want the gov't administering it as the costs will be too high for the relatively small number of guides. This implies a voluntary license system which is somewhat like the present outfitters association membership. Administrative costs would have to include enforcement which can be expensive. * how long should the license be in effect. Yearly, 5 years, quarterly, fishing season only? - annual * should all types of fishing guides be licensed? What about fly in camps, ice fishing guides, horsey outfitters whose wranglers point you @ the creek ??? * could license holders justifiability restrict the public to certain locations if their business is effected. Not public waters. * conversely, should the public, on crowded waters, restrict guides No, generally I believe the guides who make their living from the resource will be more passionate about protecting it than Joe Sixpack. * should guides have to adhere to a higher level of conduct and if so, who develops the ethics for guides The guides - has to be somewhat self policing. A main element is who to complain to and what's the punishment for irresponsible behaviour. * how would a guide and/or a guided operation be identified? License number displayed on boat. They all have to wear the same bright pink hat. * should owners of business who supply guiding services be licensed? Should these license fees be greater that the guide license? No - The owners already pay business taxes and collect licensing fees. They are acting as agents for independant operators. Or should the whole question of licensing guides be dumped and the free for all continue? The primary driver behind most regulation is having someone to complain to and a system of enforcement for violations. Rules are always written based on previous problems so the problems have to be defined. Out-of-province operators, resource management, encroachment on the rights of others, ... A huge problem here is that once a regulatory system is in place it would grow resulting in ever increasing fees. New problems will pop up because people cheat in newly creative ways to get around existing regs. It seems a major fear is that the present system is so open and lax that a truly unscrupulous operator could do some serious damage in a fairly short time period. With all the law abiding fisherman on this board and others watching for violations how long could a crook operate?

Ahhh, morphine! Wonderful stuff. I hope you have a speedy recovery.

http://www.2000wave.com/gateway.asp For others interested in global economic trends, the above links to John Mauldin's weekly comments. He's one of the most accurate prognosticators of global economic trends (US centric) and scans the world for info each week. There's a tremendous amount of info that supports and backgrounds Don's comments in the archives. John also distributes commentary by other writers. There's some interesting guest commentary a few weeks back arguing convincingly that the present US condition is actually good and sustainable (Ken Fisher I think). Canada's present period of prosperity arose from the weak $CDN. The US will hurt over the near term because inflation is much more pronounced where your local currency is falling. China's shift of some of their reserves out of the $US hit the news recently but was noted by Mauldin and others months ago. For some interesting commentary and technical analaysis check out the founders commentary at www.goldmoney.com. The downward trend of the $US is shown well there. I won a nice supper about 2 years ago from a business associate who bet me the $CDN would fall from around $0.85. I wish the news would stop headlining the "record oil prices" and other commodity prices. When adjusted for currency, the commodity prices have been stable for quite a while. Just note how gasoline had been around $1 for about 2 years. The saviour of the world economy is the growth of middle class expectations in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China). The potential is for a global boom that has no precedence due to the areal and numeric scope.

So people think they're going to get a fat cheque in the mail from the increased royalties eh? From the Oct. 31 Globe and Mail. Breaking News from The Globe and Mail The untenable position of Jack Layton Neil Reynolds Wednesday, October 31, 2007 OTTAWA — By unequivocally championing big corporate tax cuts, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion has given Finance Minister Jim Flaherty lots of political cover for whatever corporate cuts he wants to make. What are the chances that NDP Leader Jack Layton could be persuaded to join this remarkable Dion-Flaherty accord? They are, for certain, slim. But perhaps he could be shamed. With more certainty than ever, economic research now indicates that workers effectively pay all corporate taxes through lost wages. Has the time not come for progressives to throw their support behind corporate tax cuts? Working for the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation, economists Wiji Arulampalam, Michael Devereux and Giorgia Maffini set out to examine "the extent to which corporate income taxes are shifted on to the work force in the form of lower wages." Using the ORBIS financial database, which contains financial information for more than nine million companies, they analyzed the profit and loss statements of 23,215 companies, from 10 countries, for a 10-year period, 1993 to 2003. They ignored small businesses, looked only at unionized companies, and, when dealing with multinational companies, accepted only unconsolidated financial reports from subsidiaries. In the end, they reported that corporate income taxes have a "significant negative impact" on workers' wages. In itself, this was not surprising. Many economists have identified the same effect. But these economists quantified the impact. For an additional dollar in taxation, workers in the short term take a 54-cent hit; in the long run, a $1 hit. Or more. "A $1 rise in tax liability," they say, "results in a fall in worker compensation in excess of $1." Corporate taxes, in other words, can be a deadweight loss. As capital retreats from higher tax rates to lower tax rates, per-worker productivity falls; the lower the productivity, the lower the wages. And the smaller the country, the more pronounced the impact. You can't justify corporate taxes as a mechanism to make the rich pay. In economic terms, corporate taxes must be regarded simply as another cost of doing business. The higher the corporate tax, the higher the cost of doing business. In a statement that appears self-evident, but apparently isn't in some circles, the Oxford economists observe: "Wage rates closely correlate with profits." This was precisely the point that Jack Mintz, Duanjie Chen and Andrey Tarasov made this past summer in a C.D. Howe Institute backgrounder report on tax reform in Canada. "Although politicians often claim that taxes levied on capital investments fall on the rich and the powerful," they observed, "more evidence suggests that workers bear the brunt of corporate taxation." Corporate taxes, they said, "ultimately fall primarily on labour incomes." The C.D. Howe report, citing the Oxford research, examined Canada's corporate tax rates as a cost of doing business in Canada. It found this cost "strikingly high across the provinces." Notwithstanding the tax cuts that governments have introduced in the past couple of years, "the impact of corporate taxes on the tax-inclusive cost of doing business in 2011 will have changed little from 2007 in most provinces." Ontario imposes the highest cost. Corporate taxes formed 30 per cent of the cost of doing business in the province in 2006; they will still form 27 per cent of the cost when all anticipated tax cuts have been made in 2011. Ontario imposes the highest corporate income tax as well: 14 per cent. And the highest tax on capital: 33 per cent. Further still, it imposes its provincial sales tax on capital purchases. In a province struggling forlornly to remain a "have" province, these taxes are an absurd, bizarre and unnecessary handicap. By contrast, New Brunswick's tax-imposed cost of doing business was only 20 per cent in 2006; and this cost will fall to 15 per cent in 2011. New Brunswick has reduced its tax burden on businesses incrementally for a number of years. It now has the lowest corporate tax burden, expressed as a cost of doing business, in the country - lower even than Alberta. It's only a matter of time until capital exits Ontario and heads for New Brunswick. (By contrast further, New Brunswick has lowered its capital tax to 2 per cent.) As the C.D. Howe report noted, though, workers bear the brunt of all taxation, regardless of the myriad ways it is packaged - income taxes, sales taxes, payroll taxes, property taxes. Canada's effective tax rate on workers is now 45.9 per cent. Quebec workers pay the highest rate (at 49.8 per cent), Alberta workers the lowest (at 39.2 per cent). Does Mr. Layton still insist that these pass-me-down corporate taxes should be protected - or indeed increased? Workers of Canada, unite!

Olive flashback gold rib hares ear - caught more for me than any other fly including SJW.

Absolutely. Ed and other political types made mention of too much activity, leaving some in the ground for future generations, unsustainable development, and similar comments. It doesn't matter if you're a company or an individual - a 20% pay cut means your life slows down. If the Liberals and NDP got their way we could stop the industry completely. They like the Ecuador model where the government takes everything over $23/Bbl. Of course their costs are considerably lower than Alberta and they are a perrenial third world country but why let economics stop a great idea.

In order for the non-fishing family members to buy-in there would need to be some development of the lake for swimming - ie truck in some sand, build dock, picnic area.

I did some research several years ago into developing something like this. The price is outrageous Land $1500/ac. = $195,000 Power $50,000 1820 ft2 Barn - $250,000(?) Lake improvements - $100,000 Lease revenue (NPV 10%) - $21,000 Looks like a reasonable value for ~$600,000 The price is inflated by using the words "recreational property" in the listing The property is east of Drayton, NW of Alsike so it's not really remote. Participants would need the ability to carry some ongoing operating contributions (taxes, improvements, utilities). Go with undivided interests in the land - it looks like it would be difficult to subdivide - expensive to work around the water body. There may be environmental restrictions on any work around the pond. You'll need an initial capital budget to put in some infrastructure - recommend trailer sites with hook-ups initially - or people will fight over the barn. Power is already there so that's taken care of. If you do it as a bareland condo, rules can be set-up - common vs private property, financial obligations, voting rights, ownership transfer, operating committee. There are several ways to handle varying useage. As some would be able to spend much more time than others this would need to be addressed. The producing well (2/16-7-49-4W5) looks like it's nearing the end of its life so the rentals can't be relied on. It is an abandonment candidate although it likely would not be done immediately. It's not prospective for additional drilling.

It's cheaper there. A friend sent me links to real estate listings in Edmonton and Dallas. You can get a 1080 ft2 3BR bungalow in Edmonton and a 3800 ft2 5BR mansion on 1 acre in Dallas.

And the economy didn't gain strength until the mid 90's. It wasn't short term pain. Lougheed's royalty increase ended up going to drilling incentives to try and revive the industry.

Ed threw out lots of comments about how has grand plans to improve the "mess" he inherited. What did you like and what would like to have heard? It's always a good dea to remind people of what you've done right so far and he did with tally infrastructure and community funds. I'd like to see some real emphasis on education investment. It's no secret Ralph was not a fan of education and that's the area that suffered most under his watch. The schools are falling apart, custodial staff levels are at 20% of what they used to be, teachers don't have enough support staff, and they often pay for resources from their own pockets. The kids are the real future for us and we need to invest in them. I thought most of the speech was grand but vague politicking. There was little factual content.

It sounded to me like he's leaving conventional alone and going after heavy oil. changes will be phased in. That sounds much more reasonable than some of the stuff he spouted early on. Hopefully Ed learned from this to be more thoughtful before he speaks.

That reminds me of a story. Back in about 1990, the building where I worked had a parkade attached where I locked up my bike. The oil industry was in the doldrums and, even though the parkade didn't even have a door, it was mainly empty. Pretty well every afternoon there would be a scantily dressed "attendant" standing by the exit. Several times co-workers went to their cars to find an adjacent vehicle being used for business purposes. It must have been a slow day because one afternoon when I rode out the exit, the lady on duty asked if I wanted some company. I was more than a bit surprised. "And how is this supposed to work?" I asked, glancing at my bike. "We can figure something out." she said. That scared this country boy and I hit the road.

The Husky upgrader, located in Saskatchewan, had been bleeding cash for years when it was sold. The gov't was tired of subsidizing Sask jobs. Syncrude was a barely break even operation for most of it's existence. The government took the opportunity to sell when it figured a good price was offered. Let's say your cane rods go up in value due to a sudden, short term cane shortage. Are you going to go back to the people you sold the rods to for a share of that value? Or are you going to stand by the deals you made with them?

A Chinese national oil company bought Talisman out of Sudan. Which country has a better record on human rights - China or Canada? Talisman built schools and medical centres there. Is China going to put pressure on the government to increase this type of development in the areas they work?

rickr if you're interested in learning to play PM me. I play Friday 6:30 am with a great group of oil people and we have a real mix from anklers to very skilled. One is a Mexican who came up here for University. He's good with his feet (soccer) but the stick is a problem. We had a big Egyptian guy a few years ago but he fell and hurt himself. Tiger is running an oil company in Calgary these days. I forget which one. Apparently he's still scary on the ice - even in rec hockey.

Wow - I don't check for a couple of days and the fan gets dirty. Where to start. From Suncor's latest annual report their production costs are $24/Bbl. They received a -$9 differential to West Texas because they mainly produce upgraded synthetic crude. The non-mining (in situ) projects are looking at differentials of over $25 with similar operating costs but less capital invested. Drilling activity in most gas producing areas (ie most of the province) has virtually stopped. I talked to a guy from Whitecourt this morning and it's dead. Oil producing areas (ie a small part of the province) are still going strong. Encana is a special case as it directly owns the petroleum rights under huge areas east of Calgary (railroad grant lands). It pays a 6% mineral tax vs higher royalties. They are also very efficient drillers due to large scale programs. How can you tell the difference between left and right wing? The right wing people are willing to invest time and money to build companies that add to the prosperity of society. They have a desire to be successful through their own hard work. The left wing people believe profits are evil and should be taxed thus taking away from prosperity. They have a desire to be taken care of because they're afraid to stand on their own. The truth is that without entrepeneurial companies there would be no economy. The Soviet Union didn't work. There are still economic projects in Alberta at $5 gas but they're few and far between. This means a much smaller industry. The windfall money came from old production. There is no windfall profit with new drilling. Without reinvestment, the gas industry will shrink by ~20% per year. The provincial government participated in about 90% of the windfall because of ballooning landsale revenues (company reinvestment). A recent report found that while company revenues increased $130Billon the government revenue increased $128 Billion. I can't remember the time period. Norway's take is a combination of direct investment in their industry and royalties. Alberta doesn't invest, it just takes. The return on investment in Norway is nearly 30%/year for the companies because the oil pools are so much bigger. The average return in Alberta is about 15%. The increased royalties would take that below 10%. Where would you want to invest? The term sustainable development gets thrown around a lot by people who can not define it. Sustainable development = population growth. Globally the number is about 3%/year. This means everyone who wants to be employed is. There are two possible roads there. In one, everyone is happy with their standard of living and remains there. In the other, some become richer and some become poorer and the result globally is the same. I am very thankful I live in a society where I can make the choice to better my life. Leaving the resources in the ground for future generations is senseless. There wasn't a major oil industry 100 years ago. I doubt there will be one in 100 years from now. The resource belongs to the generations that needs it. Human ingenuity, sparked by rising costs and business opportunities, will find new sources of energy that we likely can't even imagine (PC's anyone). We live in an incredibly abundant universe. Every time humans have predicted impending doom, new resources and technologies are found. There is no reason for people to live in scarcity in our society. There are no laws in place that state "This segment of the population shall remain poor." I've met princes and paupers over the years and the only real difference lies in the choices they make. Headline today from a new study - F&D Cost For Western Canada Gas Tripled Since 2000 - "The average full-cycle cost of new natural gas supply in Western Canada -- including a return on producers' investment -- has more than doubled since 2000 to $7.90 an mcf, a study has found. That cost is $1.65 an mcf more than the $6.25 an mcf producers received at the Alberta gas plant gate in the first nine months of this year, Ziff Energy Group reported in its 21st annual finding and development (F&D) cost study for Western Canada." And that's why the industry has slowed down.

You should maybe take over my alias.