With respect to taxes and the oil companies, in terms of what has been happening elsewhere in the world, Hugo Chavez, as part of his oil revolution in Venezuela, raised the oil royalty from 1 to 16 per cent. They talked about that in the documentary that was shown on RDI last night. Also, in Canada in recent years, as is pointed out in a report release by the Parkland Institute from 1992 to 1997, entitled “Giving away the Alberta Advantage”, while other countries maintained high oil royalties, the Klein administration discounted oil royalties to such an extent that it deprived itself of almost $3.5 billion in revenues on a yearly basis. Another example is the announcement, on September 3, 2003, of the closure of the Petro-Canada refinery in Oakville. That decision may have been retaliation — unfortunately, we can only engage in conjecture on that — but that same year, Mr. Ernie Eves' Ontario government increased the tax rate for processing companies. Why would this have been retaliation? Because the announcement of the Oakville closure was made the same day the provincial Conservatives launched their election campaign in Ontario — September 3, 2003.
On June 13th, 2007. See this statement in context.