Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach recently ordered an increase in royalties on oil and gas.

Stefan Schulhof, Calgary real estate adviser, said it's about time. Schulhof stands with a majority of Albertans who back a plan to increase taxes on energy companies by as much as 20% to help ease a shortage of roads, schools and hospitals. The industry is ''crying wolf'' while reporting record profits, said Schulhof, 53. ''I just don't like the way oil companies are playing games with people's heads.''

Stelmach's decision on royalties could dominate an election if he decided to call a vote seeking a tighter grip on power for the Conservatives, reported Bloomberg. ''This has the potential to be the defining moment for Stelmach, '' said Harold Jansen, an associate professor of politics at the University of Lethbridge. ''The companies ratcheted up their pressure and rhetoric, which increases the political payoff for him if he shows that he stands up to them.''

The province's auditor-general earlier this month estimated at least C$6 billion is needed to replace or repair hospitals, schools and roads. Albertans, meanwhile, said Calgary-based EnCana Corp. and other oil and gas producers need to contribute more. To stress, approximately 88% of respondents in a Leger Marketing poll support higher royalties.

''It's not being tough, it's being fair,'' said Tom Shanks, 42, a foreman at a fabricating shop near Edmonton. ''There's money to be made in Alberta and somebody's going to make it. If it's not these companies, let them go'' because others will replace them.

With 25 years of experience, Shanks said he isn't worried about running out of work even if higher royalties stifle growth adding other industries need skilled tradesmen. He estimated his annual income in recent years averaged about C$100,000.

In 2006, EnCana earned a record $5.65 billion. Stelmach, 56, a former farmer, has pledged to make a decision on royalties this month. He will address the issue “in a general way'' as part of a televised speech scheduled for tomorrow, spokesman Tom Olsen said.

Stelmach will respond to a report by a government-appointed panel that last month called for higher royalties to bring in C$2 billion more a year for the province, whose annual budget is about C$33 billion. The government's share of oil-sands revenue would increase to 64%, from 47%, and its take from conventional oil and gas wells would rise 5 percentage points to 49% and 63%, respectively.

According to an analysis by Wood Mackenzie, an Edinburgh-based consulting firm, the proposals would lower the global ranking for companies' return on investment in oil-sands projects to 73rd out of 104, down from 61st.

“The status quo is not an option,'' Stelmach said Friday in Calgary. Royalties must provide a fair economic rent'' for Alberta's natural resources, he said.

EnCana, North America's biggest publicly traded gas firm, and other Calgary-based producers such as Petro-Canada and Talisman Energy Inc. have taken out newspaper ads or issued public letters to lobby against the proposals, which they say will derail the province's economy.

If Albertans are “upset with regards to the number of Porsches driving around, this isn't the way to solve it,'' Tristone Capital Inc. Chief Executive Officer George Gosbee said. Tristone, a Calgary-based investment bank that works for the oil industry, spent more than C$100,000 on newspaper advertisements. The proposal will have ''catastrophic'' impacts on jobs and provincial revenue if implemented, Gosbee said. Porsche Canada may not anymore be that pleased.

''I'd be lying if I didn't say it was OK money,'' said Schulhof, a real estate adviser at 20/20 Group Inc. ''It's just not enough compared to the increased cost of living. Slowing the rush to develop Alberta's oil-sands may allow time for new technology to reduce the environmental impact of exploiting Alberta's tar sands. The pendulum has swung too far in a boom direction, so we need to calm down. You can't always be rape, pillage and plunder.''