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Now, on first glance, my reaction was likely a mirror image of many Albertans who lived through the Don Getty era – what a glorious way to waste $17 billion.

But these are different days and, to quote economist John Maynard Keynes, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”

So, after some reflection, and despite knowing in my bones it would likely end in an epic disaster, I think it is an idea worth considering. At least it offers a suggestion to end the current pipeline standoff that is paralyzing Alberta, and which will do the same thing economically to the entire country in years to come, even if the nitwits haven’t realized it yet.

The Heritage Fund has long been dead in the water. Any money made is siphoned off quicker than Montreal can dump raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River. Essentially, we’re left with enough in the kitty to provide four months of provincial spending – hardly the panacea of future security Peter Lougheed envisaged in starting the darn thing 40 years ago.

Already, the NDP is using it to make so-called strategic investments in certain industries, so we know many millions of dollars will soon disappear.

Anyhow, I love the delicious irony of the NDP actually succeeding in diversifying our energy economy – into refining.

Yes, we’ve tried this before and it hasn’t worked, but it looks absolutely pointless repeatedly going on bended knee to the rest of this country to ask permission to allow pipelines through their patch. And expecting the feds to force the issue is a hope equally doomed. Not only is it pointless, it’s becoming demeaning – do the people in Quebec and B.C. want us to beg in order to fund development that might actually provide some economic growth for a country so dependent on the energy business?