There’s a new guy in the Alberta Venture editor’s chair
When it comes to business journalism, Alberta has an exciting story to tell
by Paul Marck
When it comes to business journalism, Alberta has an exciting story to tell
By Paul Marck
Please allow me to introduce myself … I’ve been around for a long, long year.
– the Rolling Stones
So, you, wonder, who is this interloper? The short version is, I am the new editor of Alberta Venture, and my predecessor, Mike McCullough, is headed back to the West Coast to pursue a fresh opportunity.
By way of introduction, I am a veteran business journalist in Alberta and from points elsewhere. I spent two decades at the Edmonton Journal, half of that time as a business writer. My copy also migrated onto the pages of the Calgary Herald and Financial Post. Before that, I worked at the Vancouver dailies and for my hometown paper, the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, and a host of weekly papers in Ontario.
Between all that and my new post at Alberta Venture, I toiled a couple of years in the communications realm, first working for a big Calgary-based utility company and then for the Government of Alberta. But during that time, being away from the journalism business, I had a gnawing feeling and a constant whisper in my mind’s ear that I should be doing something else. And that something else turned into a deafening crescendo that told me to get back to my roots, escape the dark side and resume doing what I know best.
So, here I am, and I could not be more pleased than returning to the trade of editing and writing stories about Albertans, now for our province’s best and most authoritative business publication. I consider my new job to be a great opportunity to voice the concerns and discuss the issues of Alberta’s business community — and make a difference, whether it be via informed opinion, need-to-know information, or spirited debate.
To me, Alberta is an exciting, vibrant province with many stories of success, struggle and triumph yet to be told. Canada’s energy independence, a great and growing portion of the country’s agriculture and agri-food supply, and opportunities in forestry, manufacturing and higher education depend on Alberta.
So, with those challenges ahead, I can assure you that we will continue to capture our province’s history on the fly and give context and meaning. My goal is to ensure that Alberta Venture always strives to be relevant, insightful and provides a vital service to our readers. And that is where you come into the picture. Tell us what you think.
Need an invitation? What do you make of Alberta’s new royalty framework for conventional oil and gas introduced last week by Premier Ed Stelmach and Energy Minister Ron Liepert? Why not tie the carrot of lower royalties to the stick of strong and enforceable land-use strategies, disturbance remediation and water restrictions?
Plus, incentives to pump non-renewable resources out of the ground at a time of low prices — at least in the case of natural gas — seem like a fire sale. But, from a business perspective, the new royalty regime is a dandy bit of gamesmanship. It lowers the costs of business, reduces the regulatory bottleneck and promises to get industry back on track with exploration and production, while stimulating job creation. So, government and industry are happily singing from the same song sheet again. The upshot being that the “Our Fair Share” equation tips decidedly in favour of oil and gas and away from the owners of the resource, namely you and I.
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