Goldman Sachs yesterday - so it isn't an April Fools Day joke - reported crude prices may hit US$105 in the next few years with a possible "superspike" coming at US$135 per barrel.
Some implications:
- Provincial government oil revenues will exceed even the most optimistic projections. No amount of fudging by the Finance Department will hide the dollar bills sticking out through the windows and poking under doors.
- Newfoundland and Labrador will become a "have" province for a decade or more.
- The January deal will only be worth $2.0 billion not the scads more predicted by Danny and his boys.
- The province is ultimately faced with a serious political question for the first time in its recent history. We have to decide whether or not we want to blow the whole wad on everyones' wish lists or do something practical and productive with it.
It will be time for a genuinely new approach to politics.
