A report commissioned by the Alberta government says the province would be entitled to more than half the assets of the Canada Pension Plan - $334 billion - if it were to exit the national retirement savings program in 2027.
A report commissioned by the Alberta government says the province would be entitled to more than half the assets of the Canada Pension Plan - $334 billion - if it were to exit the national retirement savings program in 2027.
It’s a public asset in the sense that its existence helps the rest of the province with things like groundwater, flood control, and air quality. It’s also a potential source of food/agriculture for the province, though that part is just private enterprise and not guaranteed.
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Not really. Land being removed from the Greenbelt would allow it to be developed and paved over, minimizing it’s worth in all of those aspects.
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Who owns it doesn’t matter. What matters is that it isn’t paved or developed. Pavement and digging basements reduce the land’s ability to absorb water, which can cause flooding and reduce groundwater availability in surrounding areas.
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It’s only a public asset as long as it’s untouched (i.e. not paved or developed). The Greenbelt laws keep it that way.
Think of the Rocky Mountains as a public asset. I don’t know who owns them, but that doesn’t matter. They are a public asset as long as they exist, but if someone is allowed to flatten them, or carve the faces of dead prime ministers into them, they are no longer an asset to the public. Both of those are much more difficult to do than it is to build a house or a parking lot, so I’m not terribly worried about that scenario unfolding, but it’s the same idea, just bigger.