Brad Wall letter prompts some intrigue and irritation in Alberta

The latest chapter in the interprovincial feud between Alberta and Saskatchewan has been penned in the form of a letter, sparking plenty of reaction in our province.

On Wednesday, the Canadian Press obtained a copy of the letter written by Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall to Calgary-based Whitecap Resources, suggesting it relocate to his province.

Wall offered to subsidize relocation costs and unused government buildings for space, while also touting smaller taxes and suggesting other Calgary companies should do the same.

In a statement, Alberta Minister of Economic Development and Trade Deron Bilous said Alberta is already the best place in Canada to invest and do business.

“Albertans have no provincial sales tax, no payroll tax, no health care premiums and some of the lowest gasoline and diesel taxes in Canada. We pay billions less total tax than Saskatchewan,” Bilous said.

“Contrary to Premier Wall’s claim – businesses know the federal government will impose a carbon levy in his province. In contrast – our Made-in-Alberta plan secured the approval of new pipelines that will create thousands of good jobs in Alberta and Saskatchewan.”

Duane Bratt, political scientist and Chair in the Department of Economics, Justice, and Policy Studies at Mount Royal University noted there used to be billboards in Alberta asking former Saskatchewan residents to return home.

“But this is a direct letter to a Calgary-based oil and gas company saying please move,” he said. “That I find quite intriguing.”

It comes off the recent war of words between Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Wall following Saskatchewan’s budget, which was criticized by Notley for raising PST taxes, removing exemptions from that tax and cutting jobs.

Wall took to Twitter showing a cartoon of Notley on a ladder painting how high Alberta’s debt is going off the chart, adding “Premier Notley decided to give us some budgeting advice. Thanks, but no thanks.”

While Bratt said interprovincial feuds have certainly happened before, what separates this one is the political opposition to the NDP often praising Wall for his fiscal policies.

“I’ll be very interested to see the reaction of Wall’s supporters in Alberta, particularly his political supporters, who’ve been strangely silent on this fight,” he said. “If they’re also going to be encouraged by Brad Wall essentially trying to poach Alberta firms to move to Saskatchewan or are they going to use this as a bludgeon to bash Rachel Notley, which is I think more likely.”

While political parties haven’t yet commented on the Wall letter, the president of Calgary Economic Development has, telling CP his letter isn’t impressive.

“Brad Wall doesn’t have a concentration of head offices in an eight-block radius where you run into leaders and professional services and get deals done quickly,” Mary Moran said.

She also questioned the effectiveness of the proposal.

“I’m not a big believer, whether it be labour or companies, that it serves as well as a country to be poaching from one province to the other,” she said.

One of the obvious positives for a company to be in Saskatchewan would be the absence of a carbon tax, but Bratt said even if a company were to take his offer for that reason, there’s still the federal one to come.

He added comparing provinces isn’t always black and white either, noting Calgary’s population alone is bigger than Saskatchewan’s and if Alberta had a PST like its neighbour, our deficit would be substantially lower.