Mr. Speaker, the reason for the Nexen sale was to bring in capital to develop the resource.
That seems like a good idea, but the problem is that if we sell the resource, it no longer belongs to us. That is problematic. Could the government not have considered using the dormant $500 billion in the accounts of the companies that have benefited from significant tax breaks in recent years? I wonder about that.
That way, the money could have been invested more gradually, through tax credits or some other way. That would have given the labour market in Alberta time to absorb all these investments. Obviously, when they come in with massive amounts of capital, the human resources to handle this development will not be there.
What will the government be facing?