Alberta Conservatives support Premier Ed Stelmach's proposed plan to charge the energy sector more money to develop the province's oil and natural gas resources.
The 450 party delegates showed their support after Stelmach shared his plan that royalties be increased 20 per cent, or $1.4 billion annually, beginning in 2009 during the party's annual policy convention in Calgary over the weekend.
"Change is never comfortable," he told the delegates on Saturday. "We need a bigger pie to create new jobs, new opportunities and to build for the future.
"As future generations look back on this decision, I'm confident they'll see we were fair and reasonable. Not greedy and short-sighted."
The proposal, which was made public after stock markets closed Thursday, was not welcomed by the energy sector. Industry and investment leaders had been warning for weeks that such a hike would hobble the energy boom that has made Alberta the fastest-growing province in Canada.
A leading Alberta economist, Mike Percy, dean of business at the University of Alberta, said he fears Alberta's reputation in the international business community could be damaged if the province "tears up" existing royalty contracts with Syncrude and Suncor, which currently run until 2016.
But Friday's stock market response was less dramatic than some experts expected. Enbridge, which operates the world's longest crude oil pipeline system, gained just over two per cent, while Talisman Energy slipped by only 0.41 per cent.
Other big oil and gas companies, including Suncor and EnCana, slipped slightly, but the declines did not come close to the bloodbath some analysts projected. The TSX energy index finished up 0.23 per cent.
with files from the Canadian PressRelated
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