We could all pat ourselves on the back if we were serving the environment and the greater good of a sustainable earth. But no, we’re not
If you haven’t been reading the business pages, you might not know that Canadian ingenuity has developed a stunning new business model: producing expensive oil and giving it away cheap.
The gap between Canadian and U.S. oil is nudging US$50 a barrel. Alberta gets around US$26 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate is in the neighbourhood of US$72. The discount is so juicy that China has started switching away from Venezuela towards bargain-basement Canada. That tells you something — even claptrap, broken down, corruption-riddled Venezuela can’t undersell Canada’s sad-sack inability to peddle its oil.
If the brainy entrepreneurs who figured out how to extract a valuable commodity from Alberta’s challenging oilsands had known the result would be treated like a loss-leader at Walmart, they might have directed their creativity elsewhere. Most countries recognize that natural limits on resource supplies dictate that they be husbanded carefully, for maximum advantage.
Not Canada: we might as well hand out free oil at roadside stands with every 50-cent glass of lemonade. The next time Chrystia Freeland takes to lecturing Russia or Iran on their failings, the obvious comeback is easy: “And how much do you get for YOUR oil, Miss Bossypants?”
The reason for the price gap is no secret: Canada can’t ship the stuff because of inadequate pipeline space. The shortfall is due to politics. A plan to build a pipeline to New Brunswick couldn’t get past premiers in Ontario and Quebec. A proposal for a pipeline across northern British Columbia was scuppered by the Trudeau government.
For the rest of this article: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/kelly-mcparland-canadians-are-suckers-just-look-at-our-oil-exports