Story of the Week: March 2021

The notion that building subsidized wind turbines and solar panels in Canada can replace the jobs, incomes, exports and tax revenues of a long-profitable sector is folly. From Newfoundland to northern British Columbia, there are 300,000 people directly employed in the oil and gas business with 650,000 spinoff jobs.

The latest World Energy Outlook expects Canada will be a key supplier, with oil sands production projected to increase 13 per cent by 2030 and 11 per cent by 2040. This is largely in line with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers’ (CAPP) analysis of forecasted Canadian crude oil production.

Indigenous people in Canada’s oil and gas sector have lower unemployment rates and higher incomes. As well, the oil and gas industry pays Indigenous Canadians better than any other major industry.

Despite producing only 0.3 per cent of global GHG emissions, Canada’s oil and gas sector accounted for 52 per cent of environmental protection spending by all Canadian industries between 2000 and 2016.

“Even during the 2016 downturn, the oil and gas industry’s share of Canada’s GDP was twice the size of the automotive industry and more than four times the size of the aerospace industry.”