We need a sliding scale that recognizes the fixed costs of exploration and production. We're trading long term wealth for some short term jobs, and we're getting the shaft. We could raise corporate taxes, which are zero for firms that have no profits. Perhaps a combination of sliding royalties and progressive corporate taxes?
The drilling and on-land business might be competitive, but at the macro level, the oil business is dominated by a few players. I know there are economies of scale and and vertical integration works in the business, but the reality is, at the "big league" level, there are too few firms for the industry to be truly competitive.
The other thing we have to do is stop down-stream stripping of natural gas. Those are high-value-added jobs that need to remain in Alberta. No raw products should move through a pipeline. Natural gas is not in short supply right now (long term, probably, but not in the immediate short term) and we need to maximize the benefits of the industry.
As for pension plans and dividends reaped from energy producers, that still does leaves many, many Canadians out of receiving benefits from the energy business. How many single parents waiting tables at Humpty's or passing your double-double through the drive-through window have stock portfolios, mutual funds, or pension plans? Practically none. It's easy for the upper-middle class to think everyone is like them, but they seem to forget the large numbers of people that fall well below the line in terms of economic ability to share in those methods. Those also tend to be the people that could benefit the most from long term government wealth if we used it to subsidize post-secondary education and other programs designed to enhance socio-economic mobility. We also need that money to invest in alternative energy sources and other basic research (and to realign our public institutions away from all research and development) that is long term thinking.
But, we don't think long term. Alberta is filled with massive house, boats, Seadoos, trucks and SUVs and the bankruptcy rates when the oil biz coughs are horrendous. We live in a society of selfish now-thinkers that, when setting policy, ignores the needs of others, including our future selves.