Carney announces creation of Canada's first sovereign wealth fund | CBC News

Tbf it can't be that hard. You just did.

We can thank Mulrooney and Chrétien for that. Canada owned Petro Canada and started selling it in 1991. Ironically the same year Norway started their fund. We had the same opportunity and chose to give it away

In Norway, both private and state companies exploit oil and gas. The tax rate on oil profits is 78%

I think what you meant to say, Canada decided to sell its petroleum crown corporation so that conservative Brian Mulroney could pay for his tax cuts.

Which is the concern with how this will be implemented. Huge possibility, based on our track record with oligopolies, that there will be “industry experts” assisting with the management of the fund so lobbying etc. will decimate any actual returns to the average citizen. Cautiously optimistic, but doubtful this will work as intended.

If they can legislate striking workers back to work, expropriate citizen's land through legislation, maybe they can come up with a legislation that in some form funds citizenry by the corporations' profits.

As far as I know Norway does not own most energy extraction or refining, they simply have a stake in it, because the sovereign wealth fund has to have a stake in every project by law. There is literally nothing stopping us from doing that in Canada, your argument is basically "we enjoy getting exploited so you can't compare"

Because under the Canadian constitution the feds have no right to natural resource revenues. It's up to each individual province.

Yes, and there has never been a crown corp ratfucked by subsequent leaders.. .

Just take a look at Alberta and you can see why this would be an issue

Really? Like Communist Alaska?

That would be a bad idea. A sovereign wealth fund is a great idea, if implemented correctly. The current administration is not concerned with the correct way to run financial programs.

End of the day that’s why (in my opinion) sovereign wealth funds are a bad idea. They allow politicians to exert control over industries that would probably be better run without that. I know the money generated is a good benefit, but the same effect can be achieved by taxing corporations more. Also, that way the state isn’t invested heavily in a particular industry and has motivations to prop that up relative to other national interests.

It is printing money by another name. And it is terrible policy.

As of right now, the understanding is it will be funded by the royalties, and taxes on these companies. They’re working out creating a way for citizens to “invest” into the fund as well. From what I understand it’s similar to opening up a GIC that’s directly meant for that fund. The government is providing 25BN initially to start it off and go from there. There will be more information when the Federals Government releases their Spring Economic Statement, which I think is tomorrow.

Not really. The article says that, this year, the government might get more income from oil than planned which will reduce the federal government deficit. However, that will happen with or without the newly announced fund. It is not clear yet how sustained funding will work. So far, Carney only says that it will be open for people and companies to invest in, but it is suspected that the core funding will come from debt.

>we should have been doing what the Netherlands did and investing all the money from oil back into the country instead of into oil exec pockets. The Groningen gas field funded some spectacular public infrastructure and land reclamation projects that have made the country one of the most affluent in the world. Except that nearly ruined the Dutch economy and destroyed their manufacturing industry. What happened in the Netherlands in the 1960's and 1970's coined a term known as "Dutch Disease" - where nearly every other sector of the Dutch economy suffered due to influx of money poured into the country from the Groningen projects. As a major commodity exporter Canada has always been teetering on the edge of Dutch Disease. The more they focus on resource exports the more pressure is put on the currency, and when you couple that with rising labor costs - you end up with a struggling manufacturing industry that cannot compete on the global markets. It's also highly risky to rely so heavily on commodities that have their prices controlled by external markets - if the price for those commodities goes down, your economy is screwed. There is a reason Norway set up their wealth fund to manage oil revenues and invest them **abroad**. Norway has treated oil and gas as a temporary revenue source, which will not last forever, and they've invested the money generated by it into other industries like technology, pharma, real estate, etc. What they didn't do was pump that money back into Norwegian infrastructure, or directly back into their own economy - because the Netherlands showed that's exactly what you *don't* want to do.

They do that with RRSPs, so there probably will be something similar. 

Hey, you never know? He did mention the CP Rail in the article. It's a long shot, but maybe?

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the money for the fund comes from where? Canada does not run surpluses

Yup read it and guess what, PP response was given as an update as PP had a news conference. So yes when I read it PP response was not printed yet. PP gave his response this afternoon, article was originally posted in the morning.

It's not describing what we invest in as Canadians.

Yes I know. Keeping it that way is the best investment. Esp. United.

Canada is over 41 MM now bud

Annnd you just cracked the code lol. Far too many people in Canada don't understand jurisdiction. Like, an absurd amount. 

Also, like... Canada is the highest educated country on the planet. Using our education system as a whataboutism is kinda wild, lol.