In the weeks following the release of the final report and recommendations of the Alberta Royalty Review Panel, the public relations machinery of the oil and gas industry in this province has been working at a frenzied pace.

Although the industry's negative response to the report was entirely predictable, their overreaction is breathtaking, along with their determination to convince the Stelmach government and the public at large that implementing the report's recommendations would spell disaster for Alberta.

By using words like 'draconian', 'extreme', and 'radical', industry is working hard to convince Premier Stelmach that what is needed is some sort of compromise between the report's recommendations and their own desire to maintain the status quo. Even a cursory read, however, is enough to show this report is far from draconian.

On the contrary, this report — drafted by a group of high-powered execs, corporate consultants, and mainstream economists — is clearly a compromise. In fact, its recommendations fall far short of what Albertans have said they want, and what groups like the Parkland Institute have been calling for for close to a decade.

For example, one of the report's most flawed recommendations is that no changes be made in the practice of only charging a royalty rate of 1 percent until a project's construction expenses have been paid off.

Although this policy may have made sense 20 years ago when there was little-to-no industry interest in the oil sands and the price of oil was low, there is no reason for it when oil is at $80 per barrel and international corporations are literally lining up to buy oil sands leases.

Industry would have us believe that there is tremendous risk involved with oil sands projects. The realities are: that we know where the resource is; the cost of production is less than $25 per barrel; the demand for the resource is virtually guaranteed; and the market price will go nowhere but up in the foreseeable future.

Where exactly is all the risk?

The panel's recommendation to increase the base royalty rate from the existing 25 percent to 33 percent is a step in the right direction, but still grossly inadequate. Although this move would increase Alberta's total share (royalties and taxes) of tar sands revenues by some 40 percent, it would still leave the province firmly entrenched in the bottom half of jurisdictions around the world in terms of rent collection.

With countries like Norway and Venezuela obtaining 78 percent and 90 percent respectively, Alberta is far from being a leader in this regard. And contrary to industry threats of late, these countries are experiencing no shortage of oil companies wanting to invest in their resources.

Likewise, the panel's report does very little in the area of incremental royalties and taxes. Even with full implementation of its recommendations, it projects a decline in government revenue from oil and gas of almost $4 billion dollars from 2006 to 2016: this despite increased production, increased demand, and increased prices.

Other jurisdictions recognize that increased oil prices are not the result of anything the industry has done to add value, but rather a reflection of the increased value of the resource itself. As such, the lion's share of those increased prices should go to the owner of the resource, not the company we are paying to extract it for us.

There are many other areas where the recommendations of the review panel fall far short of what Albertans have expressed they want and what Albertans deserve. Even the provincial Auditor-General is raising questions about Alberta low-balling its share of oil and gas revenue.

In response to the extreme reaction from industry, Premier Stelmach has now decided to gather further feedback before making a decision on how to proceed on royalties.

It is imperative that, during this process, Albertans speak out just as loudly and persistently as industry about the fact that the report's recommendations are timid and conservative, and that they do not go far enough.

Regardless of anything industry might have to say, the panel's recommendations are the absolute bare minimum that should be implemented with regards to royalties. However, if the Premier does not hear this message from Albertans, then we are likely to end up with even less than that.

Let the Alberta government know your opinion by clicking on at the URL below.

Ricardo Acuña is executive director of the Parkland Institute, a non-partisan public policy research institute housed in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta.

YOUR VIEW What do you think? Are the recommendations in the Royalty Review Report reasonable? Do they go too far? Or too little? Share your views with other Albertans here.