Alberta Has Always Wanted Its Own Money Power

The Eastern Money powers still don’t understand Alberta, and the province is again taking the initiative to attract money men from abroad and turn Alberta into some North American version of Switzerland.

Long ago, the Alberta Socreds recognized the need to wring some money power away from Toronto, and ATB Financial is remains of the policies enacted by Bill Aberhart. Eastern bankers did not understand the risks involved with oil, and they still don’t. The solution seems to be to locate bankers with oil-types in one city to let them do their booze and coke fuelled deals more easily.

Times have changed, and so has the scale and scope of finance.

From the Calgary Herald: The Stelmachistani government Floats Idea of a ‘Western Financial Hub’.

The Stelmach government has launched exploratory talks with banks big and small on establishing a western-based “financial hub” that clusters more of the operations of the banking sector in Alberta and turns the province into a global financial powerhouse.

While the province looks for ways to pry some of the financial sector’s influence away from Eastern Canada, a new government-commissioned report recommends a series of fiscal reforms that would see Alberta and British Columbia create a joint pension plan.

While both moves would require sweeping systemic changes, the Alberta government and major financial players are already crafting a plan that would see the province snare more control of the financial sector and station it in their own backyard.

I initially caught wind of this development back in June, with the Calgary Herald’s coverage of the financial services industry in Calgary. The sector is booming, as global financial firms relocate to the city in order to grab a piece of the finance pie.

A financial hub makes sense, and is in line with Alberta’s historical roots. I’m betting CIBC or RBC would relocate to Calgary, as BMO, TD and BNS have the words “Montreal”,”Toronto” and “Nova Scotia” in their titles, which could pose a serious re-branding problem.