The risk existed when the price of oil was about $20 a barrel. That risk has now disappeared, and it's most unlikely, to say the least, that the price of oil will go down. The demand is increasing and the supply is decreasing, so why on earth do we need to talk about the risk? The people in Calgary are not talking all the way to the poorhouse; they're doing extremely well. So let's face the reality of today, not yesterday, as Mr. Stringham was trying to do earlier, and see whether we really have reached a point where the tax system needs to be brought into this century, because it currently belongs to a time when the price of oil was one-third of what it is today. That reality is gone, but people are still trying to make us believe that reality is still with us. This is an anachronism, and our backward taxation system is why we are laughed at in international bodies.
On February 27th, 2007. See this statement in context.