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Calgary & Alberta Economy

Rogers will need western Canadian offices, so they'd be smart to keep Shaw Tower.


Does anyone know that, due to this merger, will they allow current Shaw users to break their contracts? (since I am not interested in being affiliated with Rogers or the ongoing oligarchic monopolization of the Canadian telecom market)
 
Shaw's Calgary head office will be Rogers base of operations in Western Canada, but I imagine there will be duplicate positions that will be eliminated. The CBC article says it should create 3000 jobs, so maybe it's a good thing? https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/rogers-signs-deal-buy-shaw-1.5949825

You will be required to honour any contract, Shaw as a legal entity will still exist for a few years after this. There really isn't any other option though, Rogers and Shaw were the 3rd and 4th largest telecoms (now the 2nd combined) but the top 4 own about 90% of the telecom market.
 
Enbridge Line 3
Those that have been following this development (me), knew this had to happen. Construction in Minnesota is gaining media attention, thanks to Jane Fonda and local indigenous communities. You can always count on the media to get involved with this guaranteed protest formula....
Celebrity + Indigenous Groups = Major Cause for Concern
Keystone XL is dead. Line 5 has been threatened and now this. No question, these protest groups have been galvanized by Biden's election. I have not heard if Trudeau has asked Biden to intervene on behalf of Line 5 but he better be paying close attention to Line 3 as well.
If these two pipelines are shutdown, Canadian oil industry is in for more hurt. 😲
 
Line 5 at least is protected by treaty. The existing Line 3, maybe, since it connects to Line 5 as part of a system. The replacement? I thought the court challenges were nearly exhausted, but it is not protected by treaty.

Certainly if the USA keeps playing with the pipelines, it might violate the energy proportionality clause which I am not sure is in force anymore - depends on transition provisions - that energy flows cannot be unilaterally altered.
 
Mountain Man said:
Shaw's Calgary head office will be Rogers base of operations in Western Canada, but I imagine there will be duplicate positions that will be eliminated. The CBC article says it should create 3000 jobs, so maybe it's a good thing? https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/rogers-signs-deal-buy-shaw-1.5949825
Click to expand...
I don't see how a mega-merger can result in more jobs than if they both have been run as separate companies. These press releases with jobs numbers are just the first part of the marketing strategy as they try to get regulatory approval. Perhaps some jobs will shift around and Calgary might benefit from that, but net job growth compared to two separate companies seems unlikely.

The best local example of where consolidation and mergers creates or destroys jobs is the history of the Canadian oil industry. Had the whole industry been aggregated for decades to 1 or 2 mega firms Calgary would be an entirely different place as a result of the elimination of many of the multiple, duplicate head office jobs that made this place so wealthy.
 
JonnyCanuck said:
Enbridge Line 3
Those that have been following this development (me), knew this had to happen. Construction in Minnesota is gaining media attention, thanks to Jane Fonda and local indigenous communities. You can always count on the media to get involved with this guaranteed protest formula....
Celebrity + Indigenous Groups = Major Cause for Concern
Keystone XL is dead. Line 5 has been threatened and now this. No question, these protest groups have been galvanized by Biden's election. I have not heard if Trudeau has asked Biden to intervene on behalf of Line 5 but he better be paying close attention to Line 3 as well.
If these two pipelines are shutdown, Canadian oil industry is in for more hurt. 😲
Click to expand...
I wouldn't be too worried, there's pretty much zero chance of stopping Line 3 at this point. People can protest all they want but all permits and approvals are in place. It should be finished by the end of the year.
 
JonnyCanuck said:
Celebrity + Indigenous Groups = Major Cause for Concern
Keystone XL is dead. Line 5 has been threatened and now this. No question, these protest groups have been galvanized by Biden's election. I have not heard if Trudeau has asked Biden to intervene on behalf of Line 5 but he better be paying close attention to Line 3 as well.
Click to expand...
Don't expect our Prime Minister to put up much of a fight. Trudeau isn't really a fighter, not much of a leader as a matter of fact. His official statement and conversation with Biden about the Keystone XL was two sentences voicing his disappointment for the now dead KXL project, and the rest congratulating him becoming President and stating his support for anti-oil&gas policies (I'm not kidding. Read it).

Even if Justin put on his fake look of concern, Canada is pretty powerless and weak against the United States. We'd have to use more than a few weapons in our arsonal, and I don't think our Liberal government would care no matter how important Line 5 is to Canada. Radical environmentalism is becoming increasingly dangerous for meeting the real needs of Canadians.
 
darwink said:
^ a response like that, ask yourself, what did Harper do for Keystone XL when he was in office? His claim to fame was the modern equivalent of 'taking a piss on my rug' between LBJ and Pearson.
Click to expand...
No question, Harper pissed off Obama on Keystone XL. Regardless, neither Conservative or Liberal governments have moved the ball much on pipelines in the last 15 years to the detriment of the Canadian economy. The ball has been in Trudeau's court for 6 years. Yes, he bought TMX but killed Northern Gateway and for all intents and purposes, Energy East too. At the end of the day, the energy industry needs much more pipeline capacity over the next 10 years than we currently have, if we are going to keep up with global demand. The benefit ? How about jobs, exports and increased GDP? I have said this before in this forum ... we still have to pay for things ... so where is the revenue going to come from?
 
Yeah, need to get Line 3 done. Then work on making as much money as we can over the next 25 years of carbon emitting oil sands exploitation, hopefully pivoting to non carbon emitting resource exploitation of all kinds.

With Eavor, No. 1 Geothermal, and Proton Technologies, we hopefully have the gillmer of an entirely shifted industrial base. Using our resources as feedstock to make the most carbon neutral and energy efficient plastics, other chemical feedstocks and hydrogen anywhere.
 
But this time is different, very different! The global players pulling out of Alberta and the huge lack of investment is testament to that. We would need a very strong boom just to fill the empty space we have, let alone build more. The problem is we have a downtown core for a city of 4+ million people in a city with less than half that population, mostly supporting an industry with a limited future. Hence the push to diversify into tech. Oil prices recovering may take a bit of the sting out, but it won't solve the problem.
potatopizzafan said:
no idea, but it seems like many people think they can predict the future. Much like they predicted housing prices to collapse because of Covid..... I'm always skeptical of future predictions when they are based on the notion of "this time its different" as that tends to not be the case. Maybe i'm just an optimist 🤷‍♀️
Click to expand...
 
Mountain Man said:
But this time is different, very different! The global players pulling out of Alberta and the huge lack of investment is testament to that. We would need a very strong boom just to fill the empty space we have, let alone build more. The problem is we have a downtown core for a city of 4+ million people in a city with less than half that population, mostly supporting an industry with a limited future. Hence the push to diversify into tech. Oil prices recovering may take a bit of the sting out, but it won't solve the problem.
Click to expand...
Yes it is different. Most of those oil & gas jobs are not coming back to downtown even if the price of oil stays between $70-$100 per barrel, for these reasons.
1. Many of the jobs were to support new oil sands projects either in the implementation or planning stage. For the completed projects, those jobs are gone. There are no major projects being planned so those hires will not happen
2. O&G producers, drillers and service companies have been merging or in a few cases going out of business altogether. For the surviving companies, they have got leaner. That is a net loss of jobs likely never coming back.
3. The pandemic and the work from home phenomenon has raised the question ... 'Just how much downtown office space does or will a company need?'

A recovery in oil & gas will not be the saviour of downtown, or the solution to the high vacancy rates.
 
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