CEO of Petronas visits BC

[bob vernon]

The CEO of Petronas, the corporation that wants to export BC natural gas to Indonesia and other points in Asia, is in BC to shake down the province. Claiming that regulatory hurdles are in the way, taxes are too high, and royalties charged by the provincial government are too high, and BC wanting to use Canadian workers, he's threatening to cancel the deal.

As predicted earlier, BC is all in on this deal and will cave this week, reducing taxes and royalties to the point that the gas is basically given away. Petronas also wants to have foreign workers build and operate most of the infrastructure, cashing in on the jobs as well as the gas. From Christy's point of view, this deal must be done, even if it means giving in on royalties and taxes.

[Poindexter]

No jobs, no taxes and lots of negative environmental impacts. Sounds too good to be true, where do we sign up?

[bob vernon]

The shakedown continues this week. The Petronas CEO, Shamsul Azhar Abbas now threatens not developing their holdings in BC for 10 to 15 years unless they get royalty reductions and are allowed to bring in their own workers for both construction and operation at rates lower than what we pay in BC. This is on top of the demand to have the export tax reduced from 7% to 1.5%.

[flamingfingers]

The shakedown continues this week. The Petronas CEO, Shamsul Azhar Abbas now threatens not developing their holdings in BC for 10 to 15 years unless they get royalty reductions and are allowed to bring in their own workers for both construction and operation at rates lower than what we pay in BC. This is on top of the demand to have the export tax reduced from 7% to 1.5%.

WHICH is only payable after all their capital costs have been gained back. Christy and Coleman are wetting their pants to get this LNG thing going so that even a small, very small part of their election promises (LNG! TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS, PROSPERITY FUND, DEBT-FREE BC, JOB, JOBS, JOBS!) can start to be fulfilled in time for the next election that I fear for the future of the taxpayers of the province, the environmental burden and what happens when Petronas is really the fiddler of the tune the government dances to.

[lostsurferinbc]

Having TFW's do most of the construction phase at a lower wage? Where do I sign up!

[bob vernon]

If you are really a temporary foreign worker, you first have to go through a "recruiter". That's someone who has connections to the people in Ottawa who have to approve your entry into Canada. The recruiter will have you sign a contract so that you give him a few dollars each day while you're working. Then the recruiter will show his "appreciation" to whoever in Ottawa approved your entry into Canada by depositing a chunk of the money he's skimming from you into a numbered account in the Bahamas. The owner of the account is unknown, but could be anybody in Ottawa. Cabinet minister, assistant to the minister, party hack, or dirty civil servant. No audit of this account can be done because it's outside Canada. Just accumulating money and growing until the owner leaves office. There might be several of these retirement accounts.

There are about 330,000 temporary foreign workers in Canada at any one time. So the few dollars a day that you will contribute will be part of more than a million a day that is being skimmed. No wonder those people we elected would prefer to bring in temporary foreign workers than train Canadians for those jobs.

[bob vernon]

As predicted last fall, the gas will be basically given away. Petronas is getting a great deal. As the world price of gas falls, BC's royalties and taxes do too, thereby subsidizing Petronas. Christy will tell us over and over that we're all gonna be rich. Meanwhile the domestic rate you pay to heat your house will rise and that money will go to subsidize Petronas.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/b-c-lng ... -1.3080954

Notice this in paragraph 7.
"LNG prices in Asia and Europe are now hovering around $7 US, a huge premium to North American prices, which trade under $3 US. But as more supply flows into the market, prices are expected to drop."