Exploring an Independent Alberta's Currency Options w⧸Brett Oland, CEO Bow Valley Credit Union
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
149.08684
Summary
In this episode, we discuss the possibility of Canada becoming independent from the United States, and what it would look like if that happened. We discuss the benefits and challenges of becoming an independent country, as well as some of the potential challenges that would come with such a change.
Transcript
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let's say alberta does become independent do we switch right away to
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to an american dollar do we develop our own currency like just maybe take us through some
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of the the major points that you would see from a from a banking economic perspective
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uh you know in the in the conversation of alberta becoming an independent state okay first first off
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i'll say as the ceo of bow valley credit union i do not have a position on this but if if i was
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going to become a separate country uh i think yeah you touched on a few few points there i would
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definitely transition to a u.s dollar first and basically be able to flip a switch and move
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everybody's canadian dollar account and and convert it into u.s or the equivalent effectively
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overnight because i i think it's important for people to to understand that alberta is effectively
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underpinning the canadian dollar because we are a resource-based country it might get wild
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in the canadian effects exchange foreign exchange if if alberta decided to depart so i think
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plans need to be sort of in place before a vote even happens around something like that so now
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my recommendation would be go to u.s dollar first uh because it's the most liquid and stable uh currency
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in the world it's it's still a dirty shirt but it's the least dirty shirt i would also recommend
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getting a line of credit with one of the bigger banks uh in the united states for say 500 billion
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dollars to give confidence to the people of alberta that we can pay our bills even though sort of day
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one under the value of freedom uh document that jeff rath and and the app produced we would be able
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to be solvent and and sustainable uh effectively day one uh with with our finances but a line of credit
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would go a long way for assurance as well as i think we would need a u.s swap line uh with with uh
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the u.s government the state department um to basically continue with trade with with our major trade
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partner the u.s and it makes a lot of sense because um a u.s swap line would allow you to trade oil and
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gas in in u.s dollars it's it's uh convertibility and again you'd probably need about a 500 billion
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dollar swap line minimum with something like that um if you eventually did want to transition to
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an alberta dollar uh what i would recommend is at first moving to the u.s dollar and then uh setting
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up the structure behind it uh with basically a reserve behind the dollar uh you you wouldn't need
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100 backing for the reserve but say 30 backing for the reserve and and that reserve would consist of
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about 50 percent gold uh 30 percent or 40 percent oil reserves and then maybe another 10 percent for
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bitcoin um to basically underpin and give confidence that the alberta dollar does have something besides
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government promises behind it part of the challenge is to to set up some kind of reserve structure like
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that you likely would need something like a central bank i'm not a huge proponent of central bank so
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you'd have to really scale back what their powers are and and their abilities to do behind that and
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maybe their only function is to make sure that credit doesn't grow too fast within the commercial
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banking sector uh meaning that commercial banks can't create loans to get to a place where there's a
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bubble um and and uh asset prices get goosed and basically ensure that the stabilization factor of the
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reserve of gold bitcoin and oil is is intact and that effectively the dollars uh produced are not
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outstripping the need for for production in in in alberta so anyway that's uh a few ideas that
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what i would recommend yeah yeah and it seems like that would be in line with um there are many who
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seek the they they see alberta independence as a good opportunity to set up more maybe checks and
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balances on a government side in addition to like a central bank that again was there to enforce
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to provide that confidence and level playing field on the financial side it's playing a slightly
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different focused role than central banks would be currently in a fiat system so yeah it would just
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need to be by design some really good focused direction when it comes to to some of these
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things yeah no and absolutely that that and that'll take time to set up as well and so that's that's
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maybe what you do during the transition period from from the u.s dollar