http://business.financialpost.com/
“The fact is that Canada’s only current world-class innovation and investment
clusters are oil and mining, both of which are under attack by politicians
at all levels. These sectors provide the highest salaries in the country
because they are world-class and their workers are high-tech trained in
science, engineering, technology, and IT.”
Canadian leaders cannot despise oil and pipelines and maintain high living standards. Without the goose, there will be no golden eggs. It’s that simple.
This week’s cancellation of another oil pipeline – from Alberta to New Brunswick – should not be a cause for celebration as it is in some minds. It represents Canada’s Peak Oil Divide moment as well as a tipping point in terms of the country’s future prosperity. Without new markets, Canada’s engine of economic growth will slow and never regain momentum.
It’s a known fact that the world lumbers toward a fossil-free future, due to exponential technologies such as solar. But to rush toward that as a nation – without anything to replace it – is foolish. Only countries without fossil fuels are well-advised to do this. Not Canada.
Canada should be doubling down on its resource potential in order to afford the transition to a fossil free future a generation or two from now. It’s irrational for politicians to support restrictions on resources and those that do must first provide an alternative economic model for a country whose population is very dependent upon government benefits.
Canada cannot subsidize itself into prosperity by plunging billions into Bombardier factories, dairy farms, bridges to nowhere, or by sprinkling a few grants to tech start-up entrepreneurs in the hopes one may turn out to be Steven Jobs.
For the rest of this column: http://business.financialpost.com/diane-francis/diane-francis-energy-easts-demise-is-canadas-peak-oil-divide-moment