Hello Chestermere! This past week 35 000 Cambodian Canadians held events all over Canada to commemorate the 27th Anniversary of the Paris Peace Agreement. In 1991 a comprehensive agreement was created to end the horrific conflicts in Cambodia. The hope was that democracy could endure with fair elections, to promote reconciliation, and the ability to be able to exercise self-determination. This is a people who suffered under the Khmer Rouge, a communist regime led by Pol Pot, as they decided to create a so-called “agrarian society”. This odious regime transformed their own citizens into slaves, and killed an estimated 2 million people. All pictures and documentation of the horrific details of this time in Cambodian history have been destroyed, and the youth are only recently receiving historical information about the atrocities their families endured during this regime. Many live with the trauma of seeing loved ones murdered, and those who lived through atrocities and extreme violence find it difficult to heal because of the destruction of the historical record.
Since 2015, many in Cambodia have continued to lead in projects that tell the authentic stories about the “killing fields”, the mass graves, the enslavements, and death. This awareness is necessary, and as a society they have shown courage by teaching this horrific story to acknowledge the genocide, the national trauma and to help with healing. It was an honour to attend, and to speak with these truly amazing Canadians. There are several great documentaries about this and I would encourage you and your families to watch “Land of the Wandering Souls” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgZrrZNVfZw )which documents Cambodians today under their present dictatorial regime. It gives a great deal of insight into this world, the historical trauma, and people who are fighting suppression.
On the oil price front aka “The Great Alberta Oil Giveaway” I would like to talk about the fun world of differentials with respect to our incredible oil and gas. Most of the information that I am sharing with you comes from a really great article by William Lacey that Peter Tindall sent to me from the BOE Report. (https://boereport.com/2018/10/19/lacey-stop-being-indifferent-about-differentials/ )In a nut shell, there are many things to look at when considering a differential, but what is most important to know right now is how abnormal these differentials have been. A differential is basically the difference between what we reference which is usually West Texas Intermediate–this is our comparative baseline, and then compare that with what we are selling which are 2 types, the Mixed Sweet Blend (MSW-light oil) which generally has a $5 differential, and Western Canadian Select(WCS-heavy oil) which usually comes in with a differential of around $20. There are a ton of factors that influence these numbers daily, like how they are transported, the desire for our products, quality, weather, infrastructure and many other things that lend to the volatility of the price, but there is usually a “return to normal” but not recently. So what is happening? Right now the MSW differentials are at Cdn$38 per barrel, and the WCS is at Cdn$61 per barrel, and this is a result of not having pipeline capacity. Our assets/production are stranded, and storage is running out. William Lacey states that” we are leaving $125 million on the table every day”. Mr. Lacey goes on to say, in the case of WCS, “Looking at 2019, the markets say that differentials for WCS will remain stubbornly wide at roughly CAD $40 per barrel translating into an opportunity cost of CAD $20 per barrel, $60 million per day or $22 billion per year.” This is lost money from our pockets that is going south of the border. What does that mean for us? That is loss of royalties, the loss of investment capital into our resources and the loss of great jobs! This means we cannot pay down our debt, and it means we can not build schools, or roads or help people in need. We are handcuffed by our own governments, and this is not acceptable! When are our governments going to realize how blessed we are, and start promoting our incredible resources, instead of wealth destroying policies that impact every person in our country! You can read the full article on my Facebook page.
Another interesting article this week was done by Erica Alini with Global news ( https://globalnews.ca/news/3434447/over-half-of-canadians-are-200-or-less-away-from-not-being-able-to-pay-bills/ )
She speaks about how “more that half of Canadians are living within $200/month of not being able to pay their bills” and many more are not able to make their payments at all. The question we need to ask ourselves is “do we know how the interest rates affect our debt repayments?” With the Bank of Canada implying that there is a rate hike on the horizon, this is very important to know. A 1% point rise in the interest rate, is a 33% increase in a variable mortgage rate if it goes from 3-4% as is the example used in the article. On a $400 000 mortgage that is close to an extra $4000 dollars per year. We have to be ready for these increases, and many of us are not. Please read this article. It is well written and provides some tools for understanding these complexities that create great anxiety, and sometimes seem out of our grasp.
I would finally like to thank some incredible people for their tremendous help, invitations and advocacy this week. First of all I would like to give a big shout out to my friend Ron Warrick who took me to many farms, stock yards, feedlots, and local businesses to meet some of our wonderful farmers, ranchers and small business entrepreneurs. Thank you so much! To the many who put the Chamber Small Business Week together, you all are amazing and put together an impressive small business week. Congratulations and thank you for including me in your events. Thank you to the Whitecappers for inviting me to their first big fundraiser, and to the communities of Langdon, Indus and Strathmore for their invites to many events this week that we have posted on Facebook. Thank you to the Amra Sabai Association of Calgary for inviting me to the Durga Puja 2018 celebration, a Hindu festival that celebrates the worship of the goddess Durga. What a great showcase for our vibrant Bengali community! With over 800 in attendance, this was a tremendous success and I am grateful to have attended and participated. It is such an honour to represent you and as always we love to hear from you!
