Fact is, Alberta's red-ink budgets have much more to do with real per-capita program spending being near historic highs. This also explains why so many Albertans "hiss" at the notion of a sales tax. To understand why the spending side of the government ledger deserves more attention, consider some statistics about Alberta's program spending, ones that take into account Alberta's population growth and inflation rate.

If there's one defining characteristic of natural gas that will shape the future of the Canadian natural gas industry, it is its abundance in North America. Supplies in Canada alone are expected to last at least 100 years at current levels of demand.

The Minister of Finance for Quebec issued his economic and financial update on March 28,2013. He says there is basically no problem because a loss of tax and royalty revenue is offset by increases in equalization.

A recent study lays the blame for the lack of success of shale gas in Quebec at industry's home page. A Canadian Press article more or less agrees.

I really thought the conversation on local natural gas development had moved beyond the mania of an availability cascade in Quebec. Everyone tells me I am optimistic and last week's report in La Presse proves them right.

When I talk about energy density, I tend to use cups as a comparison: how much energy is in a cup of wood chips, compared to a cup of ground up coal, compared to a cup of gasoline, or napalm. How much energy is there in a cup of wind, or a cup of sunlight?

Some people are calling the deal that transferred exploration licenses from Hydro Quebec to two Quebec junior oil and gas companies 'the theft of the century'. The terms of the deal are private. One President said he negotiated hard to get a good deal and he was satisfied with the result. This outraged opponents. When I said on twitter it was his job to negotiate a good deal, opponents said it only showed that Questerre was arrogant also.

After ten years of industry exploration and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment the Government is for a third time changing the rules of the game and ripping up their written contractual promises. Legislation is to be presented by Quebec's minority Government to add drilling to the existing moratorium on fracking. This even though no one would ask to drill a well if they couldn't frack it.

You may have heard about Petrolia having troubles drilling their well in the Gaspe due to special new rules made by the municipality. It shouldn't be a surprise that a municipality decided to make its own rules. The Government of Quebec won't tell anyone how it works or what the benefits are. It's like a national secret kept securely in the vaults of the BAPE.

On November 6, 2012, the citizens of the United States decided to maintain, essentially, the status quo: they re-elected Barack Obama as President, left the United States House of Representatives solidly in Republican hands, and left the United States Senate under the control of the Democratic Party. But as with all U.S. elections, there are implications for Canada, which, for better or worse, is usually pulled by the tides of American regulation and economic prosperity - or the lack thereof.

The decision of the past Government of Quebec to reverse course and order a BAPE review was a financial disaster for Questerre and others. Having lost much of our stock value due to well delays, we lost most of the balance, when the BAPE stunned us with its recommendations.