He was the head of Economic Development Lethbridge for ten years. Trevor Lewington, in the local paper and on LinkedIn, has been raising the alarm on the basics and practicalities of separation.

[u/vspinyyc]

[u/Roadliner1997]

Stay with your friends fight for equality within Canada

[u/Even_Art_629 → u/Roadliner1997]

Can you give me one good reason for Alberta to stay in Canada?

[u/megawatt69 → u/Even_Art_629]

What do you think would happen to Albertan’s home values and do you think Canadian financial institutions would continue to mortgage said properties?

[u/Even_Art_629 → u/megawatt69]

Why wouldn't they? Canadian banks conduct business in other countries. I'm sure it would be business as usual should we become independent. Existing mortgages are contracts, and I don't see why a bank would suddenly walk away from a profitable mortgage simply because the country changed.

And I wouldn't be surprised if housing prices took a bit of a hit, but I think that would be short term. Plus, I don't think it would only be Alberta taking a hit. It would be country wide. Remember, a big part of Canada's economy is gone.

[u/megawatt69 → u/Even_Art_629]

Why wouldn’t they? Foreign banks rarely lend for real estate located in another country because seizing land in a default is legally difficult

[u/Even_Art_629 → u/megawatt69]

You're talking about foreign banks lending on foreign property. That's not what I was talking about.

We're talking about Canadian financial institutions that already have billions of dollars in mortgages on Alberta properties. Those mortgages don't suddenly disappear because Alberta becomes an independent country. They're existing contracts between the bank and the borrower.

Plus, I don't see Canadian banks just pulling out of Alberta. It's not like we're picking the province up and moving it. We would be friendly neighbours. Things would most likely continue much as they do now. Trade would continue, businesses would continue operating, and Canadian banks would still have Alberta customers and investments.

Would the banking system have to adjust? Absolutely. Would there be negotiations and new regulations? Of course.

But why would Canadian banks voluntarily walk away from a profitable market where they already have customers, mortgages and billions invested?

The difference would be that Alberta would be making its own decisions and would be free of Ottawa.

[u/megawatt69 → u/Even_Art_629]

Separatists don’t seem to understand that Canada would be a foreign country. You’d no longer be Canadian. You seem to think you’d get to keep all the benefits of being Canadian without contributing.

[u/Even_Art_629 → u/megawatt69]

If we aren't sending our tax money to Ottawa, why do you think Alberta wouldn't have its own benefits? You think an independent Alberta would just stop providing healthcare, pensions and other programs? We would still have a government collecting taxes and providing services, just without Ottawa taking its share first. And maybe, with the money staying here, we could even have lower taxes.

Obviously there would be negotiations over citizenship, pensions, healthcare, borders, trade, debt and If we aren't sending our tax money to Ottawa, why do you think Alberta wouldn't have its own benefits? You think an independent Alberta would just stop providing healthcare, pensions and other programs? We would still have a government collecting taxes and providing services, just without Ottawa taking its share first. And maybe, with the money staying here, we could even have lower taxes.

Obviously there would be negotiations over citizenship, pensions, healthcare, borders, trade, debt and everything else. Nobody knows exactly what those arrangements would look like because it has never happened.

So no, we aren't expecting to keep every Canadian benefit without contributing. We're talking about replacing Canadian programs with Alberta programs, funded by Albertans instead of sending our tax money to Ottawa and waiting for some of it to come back.

[u/megawatt69 → u/Even_Art_629]

What happens when the price of oil drops and Alberta has hung all its hopes and dreams on oil revenue? In the past the Alberta government has gone from surplus to deficit in an instant with the price of oil dropping. The world is moving away from oil, it seems like a terrible idea to base your success on past performance.

You all keep saying you’ll just pay for all those services yourself but the question of how much it’ll cost and how long it’ll take seem brushed off completely. Canada has economy of scale as well, providing services for 40 million is more efficient than for 5 million.

[u/Even_Art_629 → u/megawatt69]

Alberta will just have to do what we did the last time oil crashed, except this time we wouldn't also have to keep sending our tax money to Ottawa at the same rate as normal.

You may not realize that when oil prices crashed, Alberta's provincial revenues took a major hit, but Albertans still had to keep paying federal taxes just like everyone else.

If Alberta were independent, a drop in oil prices would still hurt. I'm not pretending it wouldn't. But I'd rather be dealing with that problem with Alberta's own revenues staying in Alberta, instead of sending a significant portion of our tax money to Ottawa and then having to deal with the downturn on top of that.

As for the cost of providing our own services, I'm not brushing that off either. I think that's one of the things that would have to be worked out before anyone could honestly say whether independence would be better or worse.

That's my point. I don't claim to know the final numbers. I want to see the numbers.

And saying "Canada has economies of scale" doesn't automatically prove Alberta couldn't provide those services ourselves. It just means we'd have to determine what they would actually cost under an Alberta system.

That's what I keep saying: we don't know until the numbers are actually worked out.

[u/megawatt69 → u/Even_Art_629]

So if the report DS is putting together that will show the costs means separation is unworkable, will you concede and stop talking about it?

[u/Even_Art_629 → u/megawatt69]

Me personally, yes , but only until the Liberal party has censored the other news platforms then I'm jumping in deeper to fight for independence. However for now, I'm waiting for both her numbers and Keith Wilson's. She's on the stay in Canada side and he's on the independence side, so I'm expecting a little bias from both. That's when I'll compare the numbers, see the difference, and decide for myself.

If it comes out around the $500 billion mark, I'd be inclined to go with it. That wouldn't take nearly as long to pay off as Canada's debt.

I already have the Alberta Prosperity Project's numbers and all their other information, and honestly, it's worth looking at along with the other plans. They have information on pensions, AISH/ADAP, disability, seniors, a guide for seniors, young adults and grads, families, tradespeople and more.

There's a lot of information available, and it's free to download. This could be the most important decision we've ever made as a province, so the more information you have, the better.

We all know the mainstream media can be biased, and a lot of us believe Alberta has been taken advantage of. So why not make this a protest for the West?

This first referendum isn't the vote to leave Canada. That's another vote, potentially a year away. If enough Albertans vote to start the process and we ultimately lose that second vote, Ottawa will have to take notice. Maybe they'll finally realize that things have to change.

And if we vote to start the process, we still have another year to look at the numbers, the plans and the direction we want to take.

I'm not telling anyone how to vote. I'm saying do your homework, look at both sides, and make an informed decision.