Dude, can you just answer one thing: WHAT IS IT that you have against the tech sector? Are you a frustrated developer or just blissfully ignorant to the fact the well paying, high-skilled tech jobs will be the future of ANY developed economy and Edmonton (or Canada, as a whole) is no exception to that?
Also, Calgary's economy is far from being in a more dire situation than Edmonton's. Right now, they're about the same s**t, with the difference that THE FUTURE PROSPECTS for them are increasingly better than ours, thanks to the inaction of our own people, from politicians to entrepreneurs AND the excessive negligence of the UCP (United Calgary Party, it could well be its actual name) towards Edmonton, while they spend the big bucks to save Calgary from ruin. And, again, economies do not need to be exclusively reliant on one industry or the other and local business, especially in the food and hospitality, are what keeps most cities afloat when things are bad (hence why Covid hit everyone so hard) so kudos for the brewery's on 99 St, I hope we see more stuff like this around the city (Alberta Ave, for example, could very well use such an initiative). But bringing in jobs like the ones Calgary has been landing this year: R&D tech jobs, especially, is what will bring tax revenue, grow the economy and replace O&G as the main driver of the economy. That's what will bring us the prosperity, the welfare...
And in case you still doubt that O&G will be a thing of the past in no time (I'd wager less than 15 years), get the reaction of people to the wildfires and the smoke, this past week, all around the world. Climate change is freaking real and FINALLY people are, in general, getting that we need to do something in regards to that or else we're all gonna die (pick your choice: drowned in a flood, burned alive by wildfire, lung cancer from pollution, heatstroke, starvation... people will die, in lots, from phenomena that didn't even were regularly recorded 100 years ago). Getting rid of fossil fuels is a HUGE part of that change and the technology industry is in the forefront of developing the stuff that will get us out of that hole (or do you REALLY believe that tech industry is just like, programming videogames and maintaining streaming services?). So pardon us for complaining that the CoE and the Province of Alberta should be doing more to land some of these in Edmonton, or for pointing out that we need some of these to help kickstart our economy after a brutal pandemic, or for simply wanting Edmonton to thrive, prosper and evolve.
And you mentioned before, in one of your comments, that I was aggressive, or angry, I don't remember. YOU BET YOUR A** I AM. I have absolutely ZERO patience with the kind of discourse that you're bringing in. It is because this sort of mentality that Edmonton has been taking hit after hit, not only when compared to Calgary, but even much smaller and less capable cities, such as Halifax (which is about 1/3 the size of our population and even less than that of our economy), for example. I am also angry that we have a lot of people, including a huge majority of those involved in the O&G industry, that refuse to accept that, while we might have several paths to the future of our economy, NONE of them pass through O&G. They'd rather fight against an initiative that would see them use all of those skills they have in other industries, especially low-carbon energy (hydrogen, solar, wind, NUCLEAR) than accept change.
And for anyone who is from O&G that might be reading this and is not necessarily a forum contributor: THIS IS NOT A PERSONAL ATTACK! Oil & Gas workers ARE NOT EXPENDABLE! No one wants to get rid of you and make your families starve. We, the people who want changes in our economic direction, want to INCLUDE YOU in this, and even more: we know we CAN'T DO IT WITHOUT YOU! We'll need your skills to build and operate our hydrogen (and hopefully nuclear) power plants, to maintain our solar farms, to take care of remote wind farms (like only someone who's been working in the oil rigs would know how).
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PS: I'm over sensitive with the whole environment issue after spending 3 days in the hospital with supplementary oxygen because of how the smoke triggered my worst ever asthma crisis, earlier this week.
