Alberta welcomes climate improvement

Vincent J. Curtis

6 Dec 2018

RE: Close Canada’s oilsands (by Thomas Walkom, The Hamilton Spectator of this date)

Spoken like a true Central Canadian: Ontario has a problem, and the solution is to devastate Alberta’s economy.  Thomas Walkom is probably too young to remember the National Energy Policy of Pierre Trudeau.  Ontario had a problem with soaring gasoline prices, and the answer was to devastate Alberta’s economy for years by having a “made-in-Canada” oil price.  Alberta still remembers the NEP.

The present Central Canadian problem is a fetish about climate change, and Walkom recommends shutting down Alberta’s oilsands projects, which employ scores of thousands of people and provide the Alberta treasury with billions of tax dollars.  After complaining about the environmental impact of oilsands exploitation, he then argues that resistance is futile because the world is “awash with cheap shale oil.”  Shale oil and gas are obtained by fracking, a process once loudly condemned by environmentalists but now embraced in this case.

When it comes to climate change, Walkom and many others need to take a Valium.  Even Walkom’s World is going to need fuels and lubricants.  For its part, Alberta would welcome climate improvement.

By analogy, Walcom would argue that Ontario’s wine industry should be shut down because its products are not of the quality and cannot command the prices of French or California vintages.  The market is large enough for Ontario wines, and for Alberta bitumen, if they can be brought to the right market.

Once again a Central Canadian problem is solved by devastating Alberta.

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