June 9, 1998
ATB FINALLY GETTING INTO SHAPE
Ralph wasn't talking about little green men or crop circles when he spoke at the Banff-Cochrane Tories' annual blowout. "As visions go, it's not earth-shattering," Klein told his Rocky Mountain high PCs. "In fact, it's rather boring." "But in pursuing this vision Albertans have turned their province into the envy of the nation." This is clearly different from Liberal leader Nancy MacBeth's gloomy view of her home province. MacBeth has been distributing a dour document at the doors in the McClung byelection that claims, "Our faith and hope for the future has become unsettled in Alberta." Yes, it hurts so bad to be an Alberta Liberal these days. It wasn't the pursuit of happiness that led to the Alberta turnaround but the "pursuit of good government," Klein said. "Albertans found the courage and the vision to say to their government, enough. "It's time to get back on track, live within our means, keep taxes low and get out of the business of being in business," the premier explained. "Those were your orders and we acted on them." Stopping the interventionist empire that was started under Peter Lougheed and Don Getty has been a painful process. With the exception of the odd grain terminal, most of the Alberta taxpayers' capitalist adventures are behind them. With one major exception. The Alberta Treasury Branch remains the Klein government's sacred cow. The soul remaining remnant of the Social Credit government's funny money policies of the 1930s, the government-owned financial institution is something that even the premier's back-to-basics approach to government has dared not mess with. He couldn't for political and practical reasons. After the decision of the Lougheed government following the retreat of the eastern chartered banks after the post-NEP collapse of the Alberta economy, the ATB became the province's lender of last resort. Because of a series of dubious loans - plus the demise of the real estate market in the 1980s - ATB was saddled with a massive deficit. Until that was worked out or absorbed by the government, ATB was in no shape to be privatized except on a fire-sale basis. Now there's light at the end of the tunnel thanks to the efforts of ATB's new board of governors under chairman Marsh Williams and CEO and president Paul Haggis. Last week Haggis announced a hefty $85.5-million profit thanks to the robust economy. Even more interesting, the accumulated deficit has been whittled down to just $66.5 million. Granted, much of the profit came from successfully extracting the Edmonton Oilers from Peter Pocklington's clutches - which Haggis admits was a "difficult and long process with an inordinate amount of public profile." With a new risk-management team in place, ATB's portfolio of bad loans has been reduced from $582 million last year to $414 million. And Haggis is now bold enough to speculate in his annual report about what life could be like if ATB was severed from the government's apron strings. "If it is decided that Albertans might participate directly in our success through share ownership, then we must be ready so the government has that choice," the ATB's $281,000-a-year president said. As well as turning a profit, ATB is already operating like it was an honest to goodness Toronto Stock Exchange company, Haggis said. And provincial Treasurer Stockwell Day is now hinting that ATB customers and Albertans, generally, may soon be consulted about the way Haggis is clearly headed. "Albertans have a strong feeling about Treasury Branches," Day said. "But there's also a strong feeling that the government should be out of the business of being in business." It's pretty obvious that the days of the ATB, as we know it, are numbered. Next Story: WE TAKE AMERICAN INTERVENTION FOR GRANTED Previous Story: ROSENBERGER LOOKS PRETTY DUMB NOW
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