Chief Jim Badger said Sucker Creek First Nation is well prepared to deal with the single COVID-19 case since the individual was infected from a connection in High Prairie and is now self-isolating.NIAID-RML / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Despite the current COVID-19 and oil/gas malaise, Alberta has survived and eventually prospered after every economic downtown since it became a province in 1905, and even before that, through the boom-bust cycles of the 19th Century fur trade totally dependent on the whims of European haberdashery.
“Of course we’ll recover,” says a retired friend. “But will I be around to see it?”
BUY AT THE BOTTOM, SELL AT THE TOP
The bad news is the stock market crash a few weeks ago. The good news – never talked about – are the careful investors who kept a chunk of their holdings in cash and are now happily buying blue-chip stocks at a fraction of their 2019 prices.
For all the complexities, stock market investment follows a predicta ...
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The near empty parking lot at the Premium Outlet Centre shopping mall near the International Airport in Edmonton, April 17, 2020, is an indication of the economic impact of COVID-19 restrictions.Ed Kaiser / Postmedia
What’s going to happen?
After the pandemic, will recent graduates find decent jobs?
Will you have enough money to cover the mortgage and utilities? If not, will the banks/government cut you some slack?
Will seniors receive the same government pensions as in the past? Could private pension payments be slashed?
If I’m a businessperson, can I ride out the storm … or does all the blood, sweat and tears I’ve put into this enterprise end in bankruptcy … unless the government somehow bails me out?
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Let’s not kid ourselves. The economy — thanks to COVID-19, rock-bottom oil prices and wanton over-spending by Ottawa and Alberta in the recent past — is in horrible shape.
It’s worse than ...
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Downtown Edmonton is seen from Ada Boulevard near Rundle Park in Edmonton on Friday, Jan. 3, 2020.Ian Kucerak / Postmedia, file
The glass is half-full, not half-empty.
Never waste a good crisis.
From the ashes, the phoenix is reborn.
Positives can arise from this unprecedented economic emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, impossibly low oil prices and forever-delayed resource development.
The biggest positive? A shattering of conventionality.
For decades, Alberta made half-hearted efforts to innovate and diversify beyond oil and gas. It never really happened. It was too easy to make a ton of money from oil and gas.
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Today, these last few weeks, it has hit home. Either we drastically change, or we die.
Every other jurisdiction in Canada, and around the world, faces a similar challenge. If we are all rebuilding from ground zero, Alberta looks really good.
Our population is young, strong and talented, supported by excellent educatio ...
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PhotoMan - Fotolia
In this emergency pandemic, the federal government says it will spend about $82 billion over and above its 2020-21 $180 billion budget.
In Alberta, the province pegs the direct cost of fighting the pandemic at $500 million, above and beyond its $56 billion 2020-21 budget.
On top of that $500 million, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has announced a provincial government “investment” (i.e. repayable if all goes well) of $1.5 billion to get TC Energy’s Keystone XL pipeline built, plus $6 billion in loan guarantees, i.e. if TC Energy goes bankrupt, the government of Alberta is on the hook to pay its outstanding bills.
Where does all this money come from?
It’s borrowed! For years and years, both governments have been spending more than what’s coming in from taxes. Before the pandemic, Ottawa had accumulated $713 billion in debt, Alberta about $85 billion.
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Both governments cover their annual shortfalls ...
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This is the second of two guest columns for HicksBiz.com by my good friend Ron Hiebert - whose financial acumen I greatly respect.
Ron retired from an illustrious career as a financial portfolio and wealth manager at Scotia Wealth in the fall of 2019. For many years, he hosted a hour-long Sunday morning investment show on CFCW 840 AM radio, called Making Money. He is the author of Wealth Building. Many years ago, the two of us co-authored an introduction to investing, called Making Money The Old-Fashioned Way.
Fortunately, retirement has not dulled Ron's passion for all things financial. He continues as a financial commentator on CFCW 840 AM radio, with two Making Money Minutes mini-editorials a day, at 8:05 a.m. and 5:05 p.m. Those thoughts are amplified in financial podcasts with retired radio legend Gord Whitehead at the website letsmakemoney.ca.
In these turbulent financial times, I asked Ron if he would provide financial insight into just what’s happening out t ...
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My good friend Ron Hiebert retired as a financial advisor from ScotiaWealth in the fall of 2019.
Fortunately, he has not lost his passion for all things financial. He continues as a financial commentator on CFCW 840 AM radio, with two Making Money Minutes mini-editorials a day, at 8:05 a.m. and 5:05 p.m. Those thoughts are amplified in financial podcasts with retired radio legend Gord Whitehead at the website letsmakemoney.ca.
In these turbulent financial times, I asked Ron if he would provide financial insight into just what’s happening out there. He happily responded with two guest columns for Hicksonbiz.com.
Here’s the first.
Investing In A Pandemic
By RON HIEBERT
The one question on every investors mind, at this point in late March, 2020, is when will the Coronavirus be contained?
Knowing this will determine how long this bear market could last and when to start investing again.
Best Case Scenario - The world mobilizes effectively against the Coronavirus as per the exam ...
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The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 novel coronavirus which was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China, is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, on Jan. 29, 2020.supplied / Reuters
I am, sadly, deeply pessimistic about Alberta’s future.
It’s not about the COVID-19 virus. Public health measures backed by massive emergency government spending will hopefully spare us from the worst of the global pandemic.
The fear is how much the virus will cost – i.e. the consequences of the grinding of the provincial, national and global economy to a near-halt.
In Alberta, those costs are layered on top of the existing five-year collapse in the price of oil and gas prices, from $100 US a barrel to $50 US, and now a collapse of the collapse to $20 US.
These body blows are on top of the relentless pressure to kill the oil and gas industry entirely. Alber ...
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Two styles of Nara Chicken - Korean fried and soy-garlic - delivered by SkipTheDishes. Photos by GRAHAM HICKS EDMONTON SUN
Nara Chicken and Tonkatsu
8712 150 St.
780-540-0088
narachicken.com
Home delivery by SkipTheDishes.com
SkipTheDishes – reliability and speed – 4 of 5 Suns
Nara Chicken and Tonkatsu take-out food – 3.5 of 5 Suns
SkipTheDishes-delivered Nara dinner for two, excluding beverages, tips and $4.49 delivery fee: Basic $30, loaded $50.
Drastic times call for drastic measures.
Like using SkipTheDishes restaurant delivery for a Weekly Dish review!
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
While those SkipTheDishes TV ads aired during Oiler hockey games (remember those?) are well done and star Mad Men’s Jon Hamm as a comedian, the usual restaurant experience is still as much about ambiance and socializing as it is about food.
But there we were on a late-afternoon Friday, seven of us from two houses, self-isolated together but for visits to the grocery stor ...
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Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, founding director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology in a lab on the University of Alberta campus. The Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology is involved in the critical work to help stop the spread of the novel Coronavirus on February 10, 2020. Photo by Shaughn Butts / Postmedia
University of Alberta researchers, as they have done before, are hot on the trail of finding both a vaccine and a treatment for the COVID-19 virus.
Distinguished virologist Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, famous for developing the drug lamivudine for treating Hepatitis B, is working with the equally well-known Dr. Michael Houghton, testing anti-viral compounds for possible effectiveness against COVID-19.
In 2003-04, Dr. Houghton developed the leading vaccine candidate for the SARS outbreak. SARS – also of the coronavirus family — subsided before a vaccine needed to be mass-produced
At least eight research groups at the University of Alberta are working around the clock on ways to stop this global pandem ...
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The Royale Burgers' Big Cam burger, simple and elegant. Photos by GRAHAM HICKS / EDMONTON SUN
Royale(TEMPORARILY CLOSED)
10145-104 St.
780-504-1180
royaleyeg.com
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
Dinner for two, excluding beverages and tip: Basic $25, loaded $50
As if -18C wasn’t bad enough, the wind was whistling down Jasper Avenue during the Friday, March 13 lunch hour.
Restaurant after restaurant, while open at that point, were deserted. Downtown workers were on the cusp of realizing the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. One suspects closure, or take-out-only, will be obligatory for all restaurants.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Royale Burgers itself voluntarily closed its doors on March 16 because of the pandemic, until further notice.
Restaurants were empty, until I turned the 104 Street corner and walked into the still-new Royale Burgers, with the intent of trying its Downtown Dining Week special (also since cancelled), being R ...
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