Hi everyone. This is our second blog for marks. Remember, you will answer TWO blogs only.
Please comment on the following:
The oil sector traditionally has been one of the largest employers in Alberta. Many of you may, in fact, obtain employment in that sector. The oil sands, however, has been responsible for considerable environmental destruction and decay. Do you think that the provincial government has more responsibility towards ensuring jobs for Albertans or ensuring the natural environment is protected? Consider your response from an economic and a social perspective.
Check out some of these links
Alberta Oil - BBC News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro0LWXPlTSA
Fort MacMurray Oilsands Boomtown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PI68l8e-bw&feature=related
Fort MacMurray
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-lS7janLzE&NR=1
Dirty Oil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XffxPhFxA64
Another Dirty Oil - this is a long one - but REALLY interesting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA_BBGuCs20
Econonmically, the oilsands are critical to Alberta's economy and contributes to a major chunk of employment for Albertan's. From an economic perspective, it would be economic suicide to cut jobs in this sector. Being that oil and gas employs such a large portion of the population, immediately spiking the unemployment rate would lead to a HUGE decrease in consumer spending over all sectors. However, there is an enviornmental factor to all of this. A good alternative is to employ MORE people to focus on reducing the oilsands enviornmental impact, that way we satisfy Alberta's employment needs as well as addressing the enviornmental impacts it causes. Therefore the provincial government has a responsibility to ensure that they keep the employment up, while doing the most they can do to reduce their enviornmental impact.
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ReplyDeleteAlberta’s population, employment percentage, GDP, exports, and investments have all grown considerably more than Canada’s as a whole over the past ten years. Over 30 % of our (Alberta) GDP is due to revenue earned from energy fields which in Alberta is oil and gas. Of our 76.8 billion dollars earned from exports 30.7 billion of that is from Crude petroleum. The next highest export at 14.2 Billion is Gas and Gas liquids. So basically what I am illustrating to you is that even though we are extremely wealthy compared to most provinces in this country, most of that revenue and benefit is due to the oil and gas industry. Over 18% of employment in Alberta is in the fields of farming, developing, and distributing Oil and Gas. Alberta also has the 2nd lowest unemployment rate as of 2010 at 5.6 % if you add 18% to that in theory we would have a greater unemployment rate than Mexico, no offence to Mexico which is a beautiful country, if you haven’t been I personal recommend a visit, but as I digress. According to Provincial Asset Debt ratio (which basically calculates whether or not the province is gaining or losing money) has Alberta the only province above 0 with a gain of 10.3 %, all other provinces in Canada including Ontario are in the negatives when it comes to Asset Debt Ratio. All of these factors help Alberta maintain a positive image and reputation while still being the economic power Canada as a Nation can fall back on. For those who disagree I would like to hear of another way to make all those equalization payments to Quebec so they can print everything in French and not English.
ReplyDeleteI can site my statistics to
- http://www.alberta-canada.com/documents/SP-EH_highlightsABEconomyPresentation.pdf
As the world's largest or maybe the last oid resource, Alberta's oil sands industry should keep producing as much as it can. Of course Canada and Alberta have responsibility to protect our environment, but talking about oil sand, environmental problems are just the opportunity costs that we have to cost. Benefits are way huger than the limited environment issue.
ReplyDelete1. As the global thirst for oil is still growing, the obvious demand for oil has increased dramatically. That creates a shortage of oil supply and pushs the price up over past three years, as we see. It shows every country that has the ability to produce oil a very huge chance of making enormous profit.
2.Facing the global energy shortage crisis and meanwhile willing to stimulate its economy, Canada and Alberta cannot ignore the plenty of oil sand resoure. On the other hand, water, land, mountains, such things are just small part of Alberta, we are not ruining a big part of our beautiful rose country. That is, the opportunity cost is not that big.
3. Checking out the benefits we get from our oil sand industry, we see a lot. First, it creates tons of job opportunities and thus enhence our provincial employment, like we see in Fort McMorry, a fast-growing town full of happy, highly-paid workers. Secondly, there are many related industries also benefit from oil sand development, such as transportation, service and retail, real property, rental business, truck sales, etc. Thirdly, oil industry is an inelastic industry, on which AB provincial and federal government can tax more to generate great revenue. It for sure will lead our economy to recovery or another booming. It will rich both Alberta and Canada.
So, although oil sand digging will destroy certain range of local land or environment, compared to its great economic and social benefits, I have reason to support that our government take responsibility to boom the industry. The only thing we need to figure out might be to balance the economic benefits with environment problems.
The provincial government should be responsible for both, ensuring jobs for Albertans and ensuring the natural environment is protected. Is this possible, maybe or maybe not, but you cannot ignore one or the other either. Granted in economic perspective, it will create jobs and businesses will be booming. As what you can see on those videos, the average age in the population for workers is in their 30’s and 20’s. Majority of them just finish high school, and the average income is around $80k - $90k. I suppose that they spend it as well for the looks of it. The prices of the house properties are like that of Vancouver, BC. The luxury expenses are high, due to high income of an individual. The more money they make, the more they will want to live frivolously and just live for the moment.
ReplyDeleteIt is also a great opportunity for foreign workers all over the world. They cannot be able to make the same amount of money the way they make it here, and to give their family a better life back home or the chance of getting their family to stay here permanently. More jobs available, more skilled workers needed to fill those jobs; this is where the foreign workers come in. As the economic grows, all sorts of jobs are being created, whether in the oil industry or in the service/labourer.
Government and private sectors are getting the financial benefits, so therefore they should be able to afford the expense of ensuring the natural environment is protected. They should go hand in hand, in my opinion. The problem is arising by the day; pollution, traffic, not enough housing facilities, more establishments like bars and casino are opening up, and with that crimes are starting to climb up, too. Natural resources are being compromised; the native animals are being force to move from their natural environment. This is just a start; imagine what it will become in a few years?
Since the past 5 to 10 years society has become more and more responsible with the environment. Governments across the world are signing treaties to ensure that the environment is being preserved. However, the more companies try to be more responsible with the environment the less profit they are able to collect. This is he case of the oil sands, the principal industry of the province of Alberta. According to the Canadian Energy Resource Institute almost every Canadian community has been touched by oil sands development through the stimulation impact it has on job creation and economic growth.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of jobs in the province of Alberta this industry is one of the most significant employers, they impact the livelihoods of more than 280,000 Albertans. This number is expected to grow over 500,000 by the next 15 to 20 years.
It is also very important to understand how big this oil sand industry is, this is more than just extracting the oil. Almost every business in the Alberta economy is affected by what happens with the oil sands. People expect the oil industry to do well, so the economy stays stable. On the other hand, we have the environment. It is clear how big the damage that the extraction of the oil produce to the environment. Hundreds of activists and environmental organizations are criticizing the energy companies that operate within the area where the oil sands are. They allege how bad it is not only for the environment in general but for the people surrounding the area. This is a very strong point; however, if we take a closer look to the people that apparently are affected by this, we can see that they do not mind thins at all. It seems that getting paid $50 per hour is more important that their own health.
The oil industry has brought and will continue to bring a huge benefit to the economy not only for Albertans but for all Canadians. In my opinion I respect the idea that the impact on the environment is a big problem due to the fact that the future generations will not be able to live as good as we are now. But sadly the environment is not going to provide food and shelter for the millions of Canadians that live in this land.
The fact of the matter is I beleive it would be the best situation for the government to have equal concern for both. The government should find a solution in their ability to resolve the enviromental issues we have to the best of their abilites, as well as ensure jobs for Albertans. We not only need to have concern for the environmental problems now but also for the many generations to come after us. It not only creates a huge amount of pollution, it also creates a decrease in land and therefore less living space for all animals. There are all kinds of negative aspects that oil sands have on our environment and its a growing concern for what the future holds for nature as well as health issues that will be sure to arise. Unfortuately there are also many positives that come from the oils sands. From an economic perspective, they have increased employment and have increased the number of positions available to workers. This has in turn caused the unemployemnt rate to drop dramatically from job opportuniites in Fort Macmurry alone. Therefore there are more albertans that are able to provide themselves and their families with daily neccesiites such as food and shelter and a stable life. This provides a huge advantage to the economy in the long term. It increases sconsumer spending when people are working annd are able to have the means to buy more goods and services. It creates more business opportunities. Oil sands arent just beneficial to the oil industry they also provide energy and many other factors to many organizations and industries. Therefore i beleive the government should do the best they can to balance the negative impacts to our environment while providing people with job opprtunites that support the whole economy. We need to care for the well being of not only our economy but the younger generations that we are paving the path for.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the provincial government has more responsibility to ensure that the environment is being protected because our planet is a precious resource and we need to take more action on preserving our resources, which we do not have an endless supply of. In the short run people who obtain employment in Northern Alberta are satisfied with their amazing pay and luxury that comes with that money, but in the long run we are hurting the planet in the worst possible way by demolishing a vast forest and creating toxic carbon emission. I can understand why the provincial government will want to supply many jobs for people because of the economic benefits it has on the now suffering economy, but the impact it is having on the environment is major and we need to consider our health and the future health of the World. 80% of green house emissions are from the consumption of oil, and I think that Alberta one of the main causes of this. We need to think about the future of our planet and not just the present fat pay check we are currently getting rewarded with.
ReplyDeleteThe government has a responsibility to both the people of Alberta and the environment that we reside in. After reviewing the material provided in the links, I have come to the conclusion that both could be obtained if the government were to place proper protocol and measures when it comes to monitoring the environment, the effects the oil sands have had not only on the climate, the wild life, the added emissions, but also on the people and their health. The fact that our government allows the big companies to record their own numbers when it comes to emissions and they can place their sensors anywhere they would like on the land and not in the place that they’re digging to seemingly reduce the recorded effect and to reduce the severity is disgusting. Profit is good and is it very good for our economy but the oil sands won’t be here forever and by the time people move on to cleaner resources, we will have destroyed our environment for money. It will have caused the world to be polluted; it will cause a disruption in wildlife and abolish the way of life for many of the Natives in northern Alberta. I think reducing the pay and capping royalties on these companies should have a positive effect on the environment. The companies should have to put money from their profits into rebuilding the destroyed land right away after taking it down. They should be held accountable for any and all violations when breaking the environmental law, no matter how much they help our economy.
ReplyDeleteThe government should be equally reponsible for ensuring the environment protection as for the employment growth in Alberta. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
ReplyDeleteThe increase in price of oil due to its high demand and the depletion of conventional oil has influenced the expansion of oil sands in Alberta. This is having a positive impact in the Canadian economy as most of the oil produced is exported to the U.S. As a result, GDP will continue to increase and more employment in Alberta is generated. on the other hand, the costs of these economic benefits are extremely high. As we can see from the videos, the damage caused to the environment is massive. Tar sands are the fastest growing source of green house emissions in Canada and global warming pollution is expected to quadruple by 2015(Documentary video) Also, forests are being destroyed leaving animals with no home, and most disturbing, indigenous people are dying from rare cancer due to the polluted environment they're living in.
Clearly, there hasn't been a balance between economic development and environment protection. Oil companies are trying to get as much as they can from these operation giving little importance to the harms they're causing. In my opinion, the government should take action immediately and try to find that balance even if doing so will sacrifice some economic growth. The government has the intelligence, capital and power to come up with ideas, solutions and new technology that will continue to produce oil to satisfy the rising demand in a more environmentally sustainable way; all that is needed is the will to do so.
The oil sand is a hot topic when concerning the economic and the natural environment.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that the provincial government has more responsibility towards ensuring the natural environment than ensuring on jobs for Albertans, and the natural environment is not protected.
From an economic side, the oil sand created huge employments for Albertans, people who working for the company is happy because they making thousands a day in Fort Mac Murray Oil sands Boomtown, its leading the business expansion in that area, for example: rental company become busy and rental fee getting higher than anywhere because who working at the company needs to living there; night club, casino, shopping mall everything needs flowing up, especially like Tim Horton, McDonald, and people line up in these stores. More jobs and population doubled growing. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p16818e-bw&feature=related) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-lS7janLzE&NR=1)
GDP goes up.
But, on the other hand, the oil sand need huge water to processing and also it producing huge amount green hour’s gas every day, affected on the land, air is smell and no more fresh air. With the big amount of money and profit, Albertans are exchanged larger land perpetual damage and water pollution. Animals moving away and fish are getting useless and resident loss their lives resources and no more fish and hutting. People facing health problems such as cancer relate diseases. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA_BBGuCs20) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XffxPhFxA64)
According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Production Accounting, Canada has the second largest reserve of oil in the world, the first being Saudi Arabia. Oil is used primarily as energy for transportation and heating, but is also used as feedstock for the petro-chemical industry. Since 2001, more bitumen has been produced from oilsands in Canada than from traditionally extracted oil and gas. The Albertan oilsands have generated thousands of jobs within Alberta. Unfortunately, the employment and wealth generated through oilsand production has had social and environmental repercussions.
ReplyDeleteEnvironmentally, the costs are high. Huge trucks will strip up to 75 metres of overburden from the land. Heat makes the oil less viscous so hot water is poured over the sands to separate the oil from the sand. From there, the oil is sent for further processing and the hot water is poured into open-air tailings ponds. If the overburden is more than 200 metres, the company will run a horizontal pipe into the sand and pump steam into the sand, a process which requires a vast amount of energy and fresh water that will not ever be recovered. Altogether, the oilsands industry extracts more than 10% of the Athabasca river flow and has displaced, interrupted and contaminated many acres of wildlife. The provincial regulatory board, the Energy Resource Conservation Board (ERCB) requires that all oil and gas companies reclaim land to its original state when production is finished, but it is not an economically productive venture so the companies will only do the minimum amount of work to meet the ERCB’s standards.
The environment is not the only cost of producing oilsands—the social costs are also high. Nearby Native communities have been devastated by the destruction of the lands. Fort McMurray, the town closest to the oilsands, has not been able to keep up with the infrastructure required for such a huge influx of population. The shortage of housing has created extremely high housing prices. Healthcare has been stretched thin and there has been an increase of the use of recreational drugs and alcohol. Given the disparity of pay between oilsands jobs and service jobs, service companies are having great difficulty finding employees.
Despite the environmental and social costs, the oilsands are an economic success story. Towns like Fort McMurray have no unemployment, and the major Albertan cities supporting the oilsands activities are also experiencing a boom. With economies around the world constantly expanding, the demand for oil products is ever increasing and companies like Suncor are increasing their production to meet the demand, and thereby obeying a simple mechanism of a capitalist economy.
The government can and should impose and vigilantly enforce regulations that help to curb the environmental and social damage done by the oil sands, but in the face of such great demand within a capitalist economy it would be difficult for the government to justify measures that cause unemployment.
Alberta is known to have the world’s biggest oil sand deposits in the whole world, which has benefited the province and the country in many economic prospects. The discovery of this resource has led many enormous corporate oil companies to invest into the oil sands such has Suncor and Syncrude, thus, creating a huge number of jobs, careers, and royalties for the province. The population of Fort McMurray has increased by 75% with incomes close to six digits and the city has the highest per capita income in Canada. The shortage for housing has increased the living costs and Fort McMurray has the highest price for average homes.
ReplyDeleteBut as we look closer into the oil sands, we discover that economic prosperity has come with hefty price. There are more and more arising issues when we look at the environmental and social impacts of oil sands production. Alberta has the highest emission of green house gases and as the production increase, the GHG’s do too. Oil sands are the largest growing sources. The production uses 2-4.5 barrels of water to produce one barrel of oil. The water is drawn from near by rivers such as the Athabasca River which has drooped several meters, and is known to be beyond toxic levels. Just a decade ago, the water was drinkable. Fort Chipewyan has reported several rare cancers in a town that only has a population of 1,200. The way of life for the native people who live in northern Alberta has significantly changed as the forests are disappearing; the rivers decrease and become toxic. The troubles don’t end here as the CO2 emissions are also three times as much as the production of conventional oil. Alberta has the second fastest rate of deforestation after the Amazon rain forest. Social issues increase as temporary workers that come from other countries are exploited, the housing market is beyond affordability and the worst is the health concerns to the people who have lived there from many generations. Quality of air and water has also been affected very negatively.
The oil sands have brought us an economic boom but for a very high price. Alberta’s government needs to step in and find a balance between economic prosperity and environmental impacts. As of right now, the environment should be protected in order to sustain these resources for the future. The government needs to do more to protect the environment, because currently it’s being ignored and that is being exploited at a very high rate.
"Alberta̢۪s Oil Sands: Key Issues and Impacts | Mapleleafweb.com." Mapleleafweb.com | Canada's Premier Political Education Website!. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. .
Haggett, Scott, and Jeffrey Jones. "Oil Sands Truth | Oil Sands Truth: Shut down the Tar Sands." Oil Sands Truth | Oil Sands Truth: Shut down the Tar Sands. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. .
"Oil Sands and The Environment — UrbanWorkbench." UrbanWorkbench — Sustainable Designs for Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. .
solidsound. " YouTube - Dirty Oil - A Documentary on The Alberta Tar Sands ." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. .
Alberta’s main business sector is oil, for sure. This business has made lots of profit and offered many jobs to Albertans. Now, many people say oil will be exhausted soon then we need alternative energy, however there is no doubt that oil is still major energy all over the world.
ReplyDeleteFrom the supply and demand view, Alberta government needs to have more responsibility towards ensuring jobs for Albertans then can produce more oil efficiently. Now a day, many countries are so thirsty for oil, especially some countries which can’t produce oil by themselves. In this time, if Alberta produces more oil, get more money. However getting produces more oil, same time getting more attention to environment also, because anyway oil will be run out, but environment will exist until the end of world. So Alberta government needs to protect natural environment, for example more environment tax for Oil Company and some laws for protecting environment.
Oil business has two sides, however can’t ignore anything, so make balance between both sides is very important.
It is still a hot controversial topic and difficult to get a unique best answer for the both sides. Thus, keeping a balance is the best way to adapt. However, from my opinion, provincial government has more responsibilities to ensures employee jobs than environmental protection.
ReplyDeleteFrom economic study, Alberta ranks second, after Saudi Arabia, an approval global crude oil reserves. In 2009, Alberta’s total proven oil reserves were 171.3 billion barrels, or about 13% of total global oil reserves (1,354 billion barrels). Also, in 2009, about 136,200 people were directly employed in the mining, oil and gas extraction sector, including the oil sands. In 2008, the energy sector accounted for 30.8 % of Alberta’s GDP. That is a huge portion of the revenues and benefits for provincial government to provide more jobs for Albertans.
Basically, if government cuts the employ jobs that will immediately cause big unemployment rate in this section and lead to decrease expenditures and consumption in other ways. On the other hand, keep high employment rate in this section that will increase other related services employment rate and help other related businesses booming. Furthermore, federal government can get more taxes from it based on the inelastic industry.
However, protecting the natural environment still is a very important aspect for government. Therefore, applying high technology in the oil land industry is so necessary and serious to avoid the deeply destroy and decay. High technology requirements about Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and water usage are more technologies that must be used. Even though increasing the cost of oil product that relies on the high standards exploit technique, ensuring jobs for employment is government first to consider and response it.
Reference: http://www.energy.alberta.ca/OilSands/791.asp
It is a very questionable claim that the oil sands have caused considerable environmental destruction without proof being given. It also gives the impression that it is an either or situation, that is jobs or the environment. Unfortunately, there is no alternative to an oil based economy because so called green energy cannot provide the raw materials which we depend on, including the device on which I am composing this response.
ReplyDeleteWe would not prefer to return to earlier times when poverty was rampant. It is interesting to note that surrounding the oil sands are some of the most poverty stricken first nation reserves and the oil sand companies have some of the highest employment rates of Native Americans, thereby returning to the area the wealth from the ground. Most of the oil is not strip mined but is drilled for like regular oil and this has little long term environment impact.
In fact the most likely deleterious environmental long term impact will be the increased wealth of the region increasing the necessity for the items which are taken for granted in other parts of Canada. Inherent with this is the necessity to note that almost everything we need including food and clothing has a large energy requirement and this has to come from somewhere.
I feel the government has a duty to ensure all of its people have equal access to a good standard of living and this takes precedence over all. This does not mean the environment is unimportant but it should be balance against the needs of the people.
Oil sands activities increasingly contribute to economic activity in Canada. Significant investments in oil sands have repercussions not only in western Canada but also throughout the country in the form of spin-off benefits to related industries as business services, manufacturing, retail, finance and insurance. CERI estimates that oil sands and related activities could, contribute some $789 billion to Canada’s GDP & generate 5.4 million
ReplyDeleteperson years of work in Canada over the 2000-2020 period. While about two-thirds of the
employment impacts will be felt in Alberta,oil sands contribute to substantial job creation other provinces .The economic impacts of oil sands are also being felt in other ways. eg: Canadians from all regions of country are leaving regions where employment opportunities are sparse and moving to Alberta in order to participate in the development of the oil sands. The salaries they earn often sustain other family members who have stayed behind in their home community.Besides contributing to economic expansion, job growth and government revenue, the development of the oil sands has given rise to environmental and social costs. There are great environmental challenges, those involving the boreal forest, water use and treatment, greenhouse gas emissions, evaluation of cumulative impacts, land reclamation, etc. Issues relating to the local infrastructure (housing, roads, drinking and waste water), health services and the Aboriginal populations also generate numerous challenges. The social aspects also pose problems for communities at the heart of oil sands development. Social consequences of expanding oil industry is that traffic, pollution is increasing, long working hours, tough jobs which is not healthy in long run, drugs are readily available. Also because of depletion of natural resources recreational activities are scares.Alberta’s oil sands are an enormous economic and strategic advantage for this country. With so many new long-lived oil sands projects in the planning stages, it is critical that the right policy framework be put in place so that businesses can promptly make the necessary investments in innovative technologies that will reduce the environmental and social footprint of oil sands activities and help transform Canada into a true clean energy superpower. Governments have a role to play, both through the deployment of policy signals and through strategic investments, in making sure that such technologies are developed, brought to market and widely adopted in a timely manner.The oil sands can be an important component of a secure future for Canada, but only if the right policies and technologies are developed and implemented so that this resource can be developed in a sustainable manner.(www2.parl.gc.ca/content/). Economic benefits of oil sands in Alberta in cities like calgary are obvious which experienced boom ecause of oil sands but we need a balance between economic benefits & preserving environment(you tube-Environmentalists in Canada Question oil Sands Development). So provincial government is responsible for both economic well being by creating jobs and preseving environment at the same time.
As we all know, oil and gas industry is the supporting industry in Alberta. Firstly, from the employment perspective, if the government cut the jobs in oil sands, that means a lot of people currently working in this field will be unemployed and the people who are planning to go into that industry have to switch to another careers. The people who lost jobs will bring a big burden for the government since the government must send EI to this amount of people. Additionally, unemployed locals will have decreased purchasing power, which will have great negative effective for the other industry such as property, catering, travel, automobile industries, etc. From social perspective, the bigger unemployment rate is, the more unstable the society is. Unemployment can lead to crime, frustration and hard competition in other industries, which make people more stressful and gain more burdens.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, if Alberta gives up exploring the oil sands, the supply of oil will decrease and the price of the oil will go up. The increased price of oil will lead to the increased price of relevant industry such as automobile and civil aviation. Less people are willing to buy the cars and take the plane to travel. The high price of oil also results in the high price of products which are refined from oil such as rubber, fertilizer, pesticide, polyester, etc. Therefore, the price of oil going up will have great impact of many other industries.
Developing oil sands doesn’t mean that the government can neglect the protection of environment. Oil companies also take the responsibilities for the environment protection. Before the exploration, the company must undertake the assessment from the authority. If their operation doesn’t meet the national or international standard, the company is not allowed to operate. While during the operation, the companies must operate according to the international environmental standard like ISO14001. This will guarantee that the pollution is acceptable and controlling.
The oil sands are an important economic and strategic advantage for Canada. The development of the industry has had positive economic repercussions in Alberta and, indeed, elsewhere in Canada. In the oil sand , it is very common for a person to earn over $100K per year. The salaries they earn often sustain other family members who stay behind in their home community. These companies in the oil sands sector are generating healthy profits, which in turn also generates revenue for the Alberta Government in the form of corporate and personal income taxes, property taxes, and, royalties.
ReplyDeleteOn the other side there is increasing concern that this growth is causing unprecedented environmental harm to the air, land, and water. “Tar sands is a very much an earth destroying economy” Does making money mean more than being kind to the “mother earth”. Traditional life of the Natives is being destroyed. Just 10 miles away from a site, the community can feel the impact. The see more trucks, fences are put up, land is being wiped away; the area is being industrialized. They cannot drink the fresh water. The Smell is terrible. They just have to “go along with it.”The community has more health concerns including more drug usage, alcohol abuse, cancer, asthma, heart disease l First nations have lived off the land for many generations and it is now destroyed “it is just depressing, sad, disheartening.” What is left to be passed on the next generation?” Not only are the environment of the communities effected but the effect is felt globally. these impacts include Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage, the decreasing supply of precious natural gas and water , and Land Reclamation.
In my opinion the government has responsibility towards ensuring the natural environment is protected. Though Canada is increasingly characterized as an energy superpower, it risks also becoming known as a major polluter unless innovative policies and technologies are adopted by the relevant levels of government to reduce the environmental and social impacts of oil sands activities.
The Government Should Ensure Sustainable Development for Oil Sands Industry In Alberta. The oil sands are of great strategic importance for Canada. Oil sands production is offsetting the decline in conventional oil production from the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. This allows Canada to benefit from secure revenues derived from Canada oil exports and provide Canada a natural resources, which is the cornerstone to our modern life. The oil sector traditionally has also been one of the largest employers in Alberta. Many of us have obtained employment in that sector. Many of the world's current producing oilfields are maturing to the point of production decline. Of the existing 20 percent of the world's current reserves open to private sector investment, approximately half are located in Canada's oil sands.
ReplyDeleteThe rapid expansion of oil sands activities poses a number of important public policy challenges. While the development of Alberta oil sands undoubtedly provide an important stimulus to Western Canada and Canada as a whole, it also gives rise to environmental problems. The oil sands industry has been responsible for considerable environmental destruction and decay.
The provincial government, through the policy for industrial development and environmental protection, should stimulus technology innovation and ensure positive impact on sustainable development practices and the reduction of the industry's footprint on air, land and water. (1)Air and Climate Change: The challenge we all face is how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while demand for energy--and the amount of energy the world is consuming--is growing. Canadians expect the oil sands industry to do its part to help fight climate change. (2) Land Use and Reclamation: There's no question, from drilling one in situ well to mining, oil sands activity does change the landscape. (3)Water Use: Water is an important part of oil and gas production, and as Canada's oil and gas industry grows, so does the demand on water resources. Even though the industry consistently uses significantly less water than allocated by governments, production does have an impact on water resources, though significant progress has been made in reducing use of fresh water through alternative sources and innovative practices. Oil sands projects continually recycle about 90 percent of the water they use.
Constitutionally, the province has the ownership and management responsibility over the natural resources within the territory. So the provincial government has responsibility towards ensuring jobs for Albertans and ensuring the natural environment to be protected at the same time. The government should stimulus technology innovation and ensure positive impact on sustainable development through the policy for industrial development and environmental protection.
Oil sand reserves have brought economic prosperity to Alberta by creating thousands of jobs and generating billions of dollars in revenue for government. But they have also caused significant harm to environment in the form of destruction of forests, the natural habitat of animals and migratory birds, severe water pollution leading to deformities in aquatic life. Tar Extraction process emits more Greenhouse gases then conventional oil, contributing to pollution.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Government’s support for rapid development of oil sands means more jobs and higher disposable income but its overall economic and social impact is negative. Due to increased profits in oil sands many companies have withdrawn their investments from other sectors and moved to oil sector. This poses a risk for other sectors particularly forestry, agriculture and export based manufacturing sector that are already struggling due to Canadian dollar’s parity with US dollar.
Also the effects of distribution of oil sand income have been uneven. The conventional oil and gas industry has suffered due to increased investment in oil sands. Real Estate prices in Alberta have raised and general inflation rate is higher. All Albertans have to pay the increased cost of living whether or not they are employed by oil sector.
The creation of jobs and revenues is vital for Alberta government. But its opportunity cost should not be an endangered environment and compromised future of next generations. Alberta Government and oil companies are the main stakeholders; they have to make sure that oil sands are developed in an environmentally responsible way through proper use of technology and management. Canada has signed Kyoto Protocol and has an obligation to reduce Greenhouse gas emissions. Alberta government needs to strictly implement Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act to reduce the environmental problems. There is also a need to slow down the process of oil sands development to create balance in different sectors of economy. A sustainable growth of oil sands adopted with environmentally responsible strategy will benefit all, by creating more jobs and at the same time keeping environment safe.
(Reference http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/alberta-s-oil-sands-key-issues-and-impacts)
The Alberta government is responsible for ensuring its people are employed, and continue to create jobs for them.It is imperitive to ensure wealth in this province, especially when the nation relies on Alberta's rich industry to support other provinces. The responisbility of cleaning up tar sands and any depletion to the natural enviroment affected, lies in the hands of the oil companies, not the government. They get penalized by the government for not following specific guidelines as to emissions and toxins released and damage done resulting from drilling into the tar sands. Alberta has the largest resevoir of crude oil in the world, in the Athabascan oil sands. It is essentially a gold mine, and it is this government's responsibility to ensure we utilize and maximize the potential of what this area has to offer.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, it is vital to protect our enviroment and natural resources, however too much emphasis has been laid on this generation to repair the damages already done by those previous. And the government places the responsibility on our shoulders to fix the damage done, and preserve what's left for future generations.
There needs to be a balance between creating jobs and ensuring econominc stability and growth for the futre; as well as holding those accountable for preserving our province.
I do think that there has been times where the government has been short sighted in the effects the tar sand has had on our province, but has since taken extreme measure to ensure there is a balance between creating jobs and wealth in Alberta, and preserving our province for the future...and that's all we can hope for.
Over the last decade Alberta has experienced extraordinary economic growth due to the rapid expansion of the oil sand industry, especially in the booming towns like Fort McMurray and Calgary. Due to the excessive growth in oil sector it has increased the pressure on the province’s natural environment. As an economics student I would suggest that economics is all about maintain a balance between the wants and the scarce resources, in this scenario both the factors are a vital responsibility of the government. The government should maintain the balance between the growing economy by providing jobs and should also not harshly affect the environment.
ReplyDeleteTo achieve these standards the government should place strict standards and on the ground measures to protect our air, land, water and wildlife during oil sands development. For instance, the introduction of “Taking Action” plan which focuses on improving energy efficiency and decreasing renewable energy resources ensures us that the government of Alberta is taking effective measures to control the oil sands impact on environment. (http://environment.gov.ab.ca/info/faqs/faq3-Albertans_and_Climate_Change.asp)
On the other hand in terms of jobs, the oil industry is significant employer within Alberta, impacting the livelihood of approximately 239,000 Albertans. After analyzing the statistics it can be revealed that oil sands are not only providing opportunities for Albertans but are also creating a number of jobs outside the province. For instance the goods, materials and services used to construct and operate oil sand projects come from all across the country. (http://www.capp.ca/getdoc.aspx?DocId=159087&DT=NTV). Other than that the amount of money injected into the Canadian economy from oil sands directly affects the average Canadians, supporting the creation of new jobs across the nation.
The government of Alberta is well aware of the fact that climate change is an energy issue; the ultimate success relies on curbing global consumption while reducing emissions from production to use and also by realizing the fact that the oil sands help in boosting up the economy of not just Alberta and of the whole country as a nation by providing job opportunities.
I believe that the provincial government has a responsibility towards both. The oil sands have massive amount of employment; however, there doesn’t seem to be much emphasis being put on protecting the environment or even making the production of oil more environmentally friendly. With Fort MacMurray growing so rapidly in population it is evident that the oil sands are vital to the economy by not only generating money and stimulating the economy but by the amounts of people that are employed in this sector and rely on their job. Laying off people would only call for disaster as it would create a decreased supply which would result in sky high prices of oil, and while hiring more people would be beneficial because of increased supply, it would ruin the environment that much more and that much faster.
ReplyDeleteThe oil sands not only seem to be disrupting the environment but the lives of people who rely on the environment. The government needs to do a better job at protecting the environment and those that rely on it, as well as ensuring that there are plenty of jobs. Perhaps providing jobs that only focus on reducing the environmental impact of the sands, should be something the government and employers should consider.
The government should consider providing incentives to those companies that produce the least amount of greenhouse gases, which would , in my opinion, encourage companies to hire people that would aid them in achieving that. This way the government is ensuring jobs and is taking responsibility to reduce the negative impact that oil sands have on the environment.
Provincial government has both responsibilities of providing jobs for our people, and also ensuring the natural environment. However the oil sands industry provides work for about 456,000 Canadians, and invests over $1.7 trillion into the Canadian economy. Especially at this time when most people are unemployed the oil sand industry is making jobs available, and this helps our economic profit. The economic benefit of the oil sand industries is far above the ground in Alberta province, oil is a capital good that we require in our everyday life, and instead of us obtaining oil from Middle East, paying plenty of money, nowadays we have it in our own province, Alberta is the number one oil supplier in the world, satisfying our consumers needs.
ReplyDeleteThe oil sand industries are helping our economy, and providing jobs for our people. The opportunity cost, everything else is being sacrificed for oil production; more oil equals more jobs and more money. Economic benefits out ways the environmental disruption, the amount of money that one makes, in average is significant. For instance a high school dropout can make about $2000 a week.
Provincial government insists that the oil sand industries will reclaim the land, at the end of the operation. But Environmentalist believes that reclamation will not restore the land, at all damages are done. 50% of the landscape that has been disturbed is wet lands, and there is no way that they can replace it. However we have no evidence that that we will be able to replace the damages done to the wild life and the atmosphere. Even if we do have a solution for the disruption, the economic cost is very high. We could decrease the amount of damage that oil sand industries causing the environment by Government officials trying to allege the companies for any damage, caused to the land, having precise ways of operations, good environmental laws, and require them to use the latest technology, to lessen the damages that they cause.
However the oil sands industry are dedicated, and required, to work with local communities to reduce social impacts, and contributing to their economic benefits.
Alberta Oil and Gas sector is one of the largest job providers in The country. Alberta has one of the most booming economies because of it. In my opinion the provincial government must take steps to provide Albertans with both safe and secure job opportunities as well as protect our natural environment. As Although there has been a negative media impact portrayed on the oil sands, Albertans are glad they are around as they have provided many personal and economical benefits. The oil sands are prosperous which means the provincial government does not have to monitor jobs as closely as other provinces may. Both personal and economic benefits have come for Albertans. Individuals working in this sector are making more money at a younger age. As displayed in the video more money is being fed back into this economy causing the small town of Fort MacMurray to boom, new business have started and more people are moving there. This boom has been good to other businesses in terms of profits but hard for those companies outside to retain their employees as higher wages are just a drive away. The oil and gas industry has not only provided jobs in our economy but given other economical benefits for Albertans such as lower provincial taxes as well as all around lower fuel and natural gas prices. Although this is a great industry for the economy it does have an environmental impact on us. The processing plants generate mass amounts of green house gas emissions that are harmful to us and our environment. Although the provincial government doesn’t have to monitor jobs as much as other provinces, they must be very vigilant in their approach to addressing the environmental impacts. The provincial government must implement strict laws and introduce new technologies such as carbon capture systems to improve the quality of the environment, as well as we must be more conscience when it comes to tailings ponds, as many incidents were reported this year. The provincial government needs to step in and regulate all oil and gas companies by enforcing rules and regulations on all processing plants, they also need to come down and force penalties on the companies that are not following these regulations. This alone will create jobs as well as creating jobs in maintain efficiency and the environment (carbon capture mentioned earlier) In a sense the environmental factor is much more to worry about then creating jobs for the province of Alberta, but the government cannot forget that they still have a responsibility to Albertans in the job creation sector.
ReplyDeleteSteven R
Section J
I think the government should be equally responsible for the employment of Albertans as well as the protection of the environment. A significant number of Albertans are employed in the Oil Field, so if the government put more responsibility on the protection of the environment and said no the oil sands, thousands of men and women would be out of work. People would be forced to seek employment elsewhere which may drive a lot of people out of Alberta.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, the government should look after our environment, and take the necessary precautions to minimize damage to our environment.
Alberta Oil and Gas sector is one of the largest job providers in the country. Alberta has one of the most booming economies because of oil.However the oil sands industry provides work for about 456,000 Canadians, and invests over $1.7 trillion into the Canadian economy. And 76.8 billion dollars earned from exports 30.7 billion of that is from Crude petroleum. The next highest export at 14.2 Billion is Gas and Gas liquids. Albertans with both safe and secure job opportunities as well as protect our natural environment. As although there has been a negative media impact portrayed on the oil sands, Albertans are glad they are around as they have provided many personal and economical benefits. In Fort McMurray the population of Fort McMurray has increased by 75% with incomes close to six digits and the city has the highest per capita income in Canada. The shortage for housing has increased the living costs and Fort McMurray has the highest price for average homes. As we can see from the videos, the damage caused to the environment is massive. Tar sands are the fastest growing source of green house emissions in Canada and global warming pollution is expected to quadruple by 2015(Documentary video) Also, forests are being destroyed leaving animals with no home, and most disturbing, indigenous people are dying from rare cancer due to the polluted environment they're living in. Clearly, there hasn't been a balance between economic development and environment protection. Oil companies are trying to get as much as they can from these operation giving little importance to the harms they're causing. In my opinion, the government should take action immediately and try to find that balance even if doing so will sacrifice some economic growth.
ReplyDelete- http://www.alberta-canada.com/documents/SP-EH_highlightsABEconomyPresentation.pdf
solidsound. " YouTube - Dirty Oil - A Documentary on The Alberta Tar Sands ." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2011.
In my opinion, Alberta should continue working on its oil sand which is representing our greatest resource. According to government of Alberta, oil sand will satisfy Canada’s need for energy for the next 400 years. In addition, this sector will offer jobs for thousands of Albertans and Canadian. Of course, that will affect our life style by increasing the income, and as a result our spending will increase, as well as that will encourage the foreign investment in this sector and, hence, will lead to increase the GDP of this country.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, the industrialized world need secure source of energy. The unstabilized political conditions in the Middle East make it unreliable source of energy. Canada, with its stabilized political system and it location as a neighbor to the United States (the largest oil consumer in the world), is the candidate to supply the industrialized world with its energy needs.
On the other hand, and from social and environment prospective, the government should devote a reasonable part of our budget for the environmental researches to invent new technologies that recover oil from oil sand without releasing the harmful gases to the atmosphere and without creating those unpleasant tailing ponds.
To conclude, I think we need to equilibrate between the economical side and environmental side of the oil sand project.
Baan Muhsin
I would say that provincial government must give more importance towards our environment while ensuring employment for their citizens. Alberta’s environment is merely destroyed by extracting of oil from the oil sands – fresh waters are decreasing since 2003 because oil companies are using it to clean the so-called dirty sand and also, open pit mine holes are destroying the boreal forest, the bogs, the rivers and the natural landscape. New technologies should help us maintain the cleanliness and beauty of the environment. An example is the steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAG-D) that allows wells to be drilled from a single pad, making the environmental impacts easier to mitigate and to manage because the level of disturbance is much smaller.
ReplyDeleteSince Canada/Alberta is more like a Free Market System, I really think that the provincial government should be the one who must take an action to the environment before it’s too late. They should spend a reasonable amount on research and development to have a better way of extracting oil from the ground without damaging the eco system. Also, provincial government should set a regulation to oil industries to minimize pollution and thus, this would make oil companies take their part on caring the environment.
If the provincial government would consider those things, I think that it wouldn’t cause a huge decrease to the demand of oil industry because oil has a relatively inelastic demand – no matter how the price of oil goes up; the demand of oil would probably decrease by just a little percent and also, no matter how much tax is applied to the price of oil, people would still buy it. As a matter of fact, almost 40% of the total GDP of Alberta comes from Energy Products such as oils. This means, when people buy oil and the demand remains high, there would always be job openings/employment for Albertans in the oil industry.
The economical and social development of any area needs to be balanced in different sectors, without forgetting the social responsibility with the environment and local customs, to be able to become a steady, prosperous development. As Sheila’s example in class, an economy based on only one product is less likely to grow in the future. It also applies to only one sector of the economy. Unfortunately, as any development, it takes time to build up properly. Short and long term plans, with urban strategies need to be established, keeping in mind the commotion that is created in the meantime.
ReplyDeleteWith the Alberta Oil Sands development, the economy is being boosted in a specific sector, energy, which is highly dependent on external factors as oil price and US economic stability. This boom created an increase on the demand for some other sectors, as construction and some services, but again, as we saw in the last two years, as soon as the energy sector collapsed, so did the others. In the meantime, this development has created several issues in the area where it’s occurring; the environment and social traditions were disrupted and severely damaged. Most of the workers are young and inexperienced since most of the jobs required have low-qualifications required.
Some of the issues can be fixed in long term, but some other won’t. As we saw in one the videos, even the mayor of Fort McMurray is not aware of how the development of the city is occurring and higher infrastructure and eco-friendly technology investment is needed to get control of the situation, and many fauna has already fled the area. And it is still just beginning. The odds are that more companies will come to the area, creating even more migration, especially young in search for this new “gold-rush”.
The oil sands exploitation are providing enough funding, both to government (through taxes) and the private sector that exploits it to force these investments to happen, while protecting the actual and future jobs available. Taking advantage of the capitalistic / socialistic government in Canada and Alberta, the government should take a bigger part on promoting new technologies to extract the bitumen while generating the smallest impact on the environment as possible, and the promotion of the other sectors affected and new ones that can balance the economy in case the oil prices crash again or the US decides on banning the purchase of the “dirty oil”. Taxes are the way. Offer tax incentives for companies developing new ways of extracting the oil without harming so much the environment, to those who work hard restoring the already damaged areas, and to promote other industries and services to be part of the development of the city and its surroundings. This will also promote other kinds of migration making the urban living conditions more at ease with a traditional urban centre.
The energy industry has played an important role in Canada’s economic growth. Over the next two decades, production from the oil sands is expected to rise from 1.3 million barrels a day to 4 million barrels a day. More than $200 billion will be invested in the oil sands for new production over the next two decades. T his will create jobs and economic benefits not only in Alberta, but also in every region of Canada. For example, Fort McMurray today is the top employer in the region with many available jobs in oil sands and supporting industries experiences the economy booms. Fort McMurray attracts people from all corners of Canada and the world because of well- paid jobs, high income and stable work.
ReplyDeleteWhile production in oil sands has significantly increased, water used by oil sands mining operations continues to decrease, global warming pollution continues to increase .Land, that used for operations, has been distracted and wildlife has been harmed. Environmental impact is negative and huge.
In my opinion, both a healthy environment and a strong economy are very important for us, so the Government of Alberta should create strict laws and regulations to protect environment, to minimize environmental impact on water resources, to reduce life cycle greenhouse gas emissions and reclaiming land that was disturb. The Alberta Government should continually monitoring changes in the environment / the health status of Aboriginal people. Also, it is Governmetn's obligation to find innovative and integrated solutions to delivering environmentally responsible energy ,advanced technologies .In the same time it is Government’s responsibility to’’ keep their eye’’ on economic growth,so Government and businesses must work cooperatively together for the needs of all Canadians in the issues of energy .the economy and the environment.
‘’Technology aims to tackle oil sands environmental challenge’’, Can west New Services
‘’Responsible Development of Canada’s Oil Sands’’ Bruce March, President and CEO Imperial Oil Ltd
As we know, Alberta has one of the biggest oil sand on over the world, which is making most of the profit for Canada, and we also know that the environment is getting worse nowadays, so that it is the responsibility of the government to balance these two problems. In addition, the economy was really terrible in 2009, and it is getting heal up now, what is made the economy get better? It is because of the job opportunities of people, when the more people have better income, the more expenses they will make, and more taxes the government will get, which the make the better GDP. As a result, the oil sand industries in Alberta are giving a lot of jobs for people who are looking for them. For example, as we see in the Youtube videos, because of the employees, who are working in those oil sand industries, the business of the town nearby is getting better, more jobs are created for the people in town, so that they can make them a better life, such as buying house, buying car. Thus, tons of profit and job opportunities are showing up when mining the oil sand although it will destroy the environment, but in personal opinion, we should make the profit for ourselves first, and then we can spend the money to heal up the environment.
ReplyDeleteAlberta is the richest province to contribute to Canada’s GDP by creating more job opportunities in the Oil and Gas sector. Since the recession in 2007, it has been the primary task of provincial government to ensure more jobs for Canadians, and control unemployment rate in order to control inflation. Oil sands in Fort McMurray have been doing exactly that with contributing more towards creating jobs for Albertans. Alberta’s oil sands cover an area of 142, 200 km 2, of which 3.3 per cent can be developed through surface mining. The rest of the oil sands deposits are much deeper, and must be extracted using in situ methods. Roughly 1.25 per cent of Alberta’s boreal forest could potentially be disturbed by oil sands surface mining. As of March 31, 2009, there was 602 km 2 of land disturbed due to oil sands mine operations, which is about the size of the City of Edmonton. Creating jobs is important for circular flow of economy, so that recourses can flow according to the need. So it does make Alberta government more responsible to ensure jobs for Albertans having such a huge amount of work area for workers in the form of oil sands. Government of Alberta has a difficult task in hand at this time because even though they have to ensure jobs for the Alberta people they should also be responsible for protecting the environment because environment is what we breathe in and with all the forests being destroyed for surface mining purpose, there should be some changes in the way the work in being done in Fort McMurray, by using more environmental friendly machines, and by not taking everything for guaranteed. If the environment is destroyed then those high paying jobs will be of no use because no one will want to risk their health to work there even for some extra bucks. Jobs are important and also one’s primary need to obtain luxuries of life but those luxuries are not important when you are not healthy to enjoy them.
ReplyDeleteThis topic can be easily debated either way, economically or socially. From an economists view, it can be concluded that these oil sands are driving unemployment rates down. Not only Albertans are affected by the oil sands, thousands of people from other provinces and other countries are affected. From a socialist’s standpoint, the physical damage to the environment is obvious. Recently, famous director James Cameron has debated directing and producing a film based on how the oil sands are destroying the environment and increasing global warming. Both arguments present strong cases.
ReplyDeleteAfter looking at the articles and doing some research of my own, I have come to the conclusion that the oil sands are a blessing to Canada as the pros heavily outweigh the cons. The government of Alberta has more responsibility in creating jobs for Albertans. It is the provinces responsibility to ensure jobs are being created and it is the oil sands manufacturers to ensure it is done as economically friendly as possible. I know this answer sounds somewhat selfish and disregards the future of the next generation, but the reason Alberta is not in debt and has the lowest unemployment rate in the country is because we take advantage of our resources and keep the employment rate high. I believe that yes, we do have to clean up after ourselves and reduce our destruction to the environment. But the amount of good the oil sand has done for the people and families of Alberta is remarkable. Over 30% of our GDP is from the oil and gas industries. The natural resource oil will always be sought after, so why not dig up as much as we can while the world still needs it. History has shown us what can happen when a nations unemployment rates become too high. The consequences are severe and can permanently damage a nation. There’s no point in having a clean Alberta if many families can’t afford to live in it.
On a personal level, my family has been affected by the oil sands. If the oil sands project were to be shut down I’m not sure where I would be in my life. My family’s main source of income for the last 5-10 years was from the oil sands. I believe that the provincial government should be more concerned with ensuring jobs to keep the economic ball rolling rather than protecting the environment.
The provincial government here in Alberta has more of a responsibility with ensuring jobs for Albertans because the unemployment rate has increased by 2 percent. Although Canada is very concerned with the overall affect that the oil fields have on our planet, Alberta is trying to effectively and efficiently reduce the imprint that the fields will leave behind. Canada has been placed in the top ten countries in the world to produce oil. This means more jobs. The more oil we drill here in Alberta will increase the employment rate for Alberta, more jobs mean more income and the more income we have the more we will spend, therefore; it helps the circular flow of the economy and we don’t have to be concerned with recession or high unemployment rates. Alberta produces a lot of oil, and the more oil we have the more we can export, increasing the export revenue by billions of dollars every year. Alberta contributes the most to the GDP of Canada. Overall every country in the world strives for wealth and improving the standard of living. The environment is getting impacting quite a bit with the hundreds of thousands of well that have been drilled over the years, but can the world survive without oil? No that is why I’m supporting the fact that the provincial government in Alberta has more of a responsibility with ensuring jobs compared to the environmental impact.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Canadian statistics, one in 15 jobs in Alberta are directly related to energy, and almost 136,000 Albertans are employed in Alberta’s oil and gas extraction sectors. Under this condition, the oil sand industry has become the leading role which contributes a large amount of job for Alberta.
ReplyDeleteThe tendency of the future gasoline price will be gradually moving up; meanwhile, the price of gasoline is also inelastic. This will provide one of the best opportunities for government to encourage the oil companies to increase their investment and pump up more oil. That will create more job positions for Albertans and the tax income from the oil industry will allow the provincial government to invest more money in education and health care.
However, more and more people are concerned about the environmental pollution caused by the oil sand industry. Actually, the phenomenon between the oil sand industry and the environment issue is quite similar with the automobile industry and air pollution; they always come up together. Economic theories describe this kind of relation as complementary. Consequently, the Alberta government needs to achieve two targets at the same time, which is to ensure that our environment is spoiled as little as possible and continue to increase oil sand producing.
In order to boost our economy and diminish pollution simultaneously, first of all, the government must complete its own monitoring system to ensure the oil sand company activities are obeying the laws. Secondly, the government should enforce its laws by completing proactive inspections of particular facilities and audits of industry activities. Finally, the government must develop a range of enforcement options to ensure compliance, including administrative penalties, enforcement and environmental protection orders and prosecution.
Following the economic quickly increasing in the world, the pollution is more serious. One of the pollutions is coming from oil sands. More people than even have taken an interest in the region and they are concerned the environment impacts.
ReplyDeleteAlberta’s Oil Sands is the second largest source of oil in the world after Saudi Arabia, Government of Alberta through response to development within high technology and significant investment, they expect to increase from 1.31 million barrels per day in 2008 to 3 million barrels pay day in 2018. Our life need energy fuels everywhere: lights, cars, heats etc. Worldwide energy consumption rise more than 50 percent by 2030. We need more energy to meet our demand. Oil and natural gas companies employ 500,000 people directly and indirectly across Canada. They make money from their work for life.
The provincial government should be responsible for not only ensuring jobs for Albertans but also ensuring the natural environment. The provincial government is trying to find a better way to balance both sides. An association was built that has a multi-layered process to ensure environmental laws are followed. By law Oil industry is required to monitor environmental impacts and report the result to government. Climate change is one of the most often mentioned environmental issues for the oil and gas industry. The provincial government has required Oil sands companies to provide a secure source of energy, reduce the impact on the environment and provide economic benefits to society by developing new technology.
Some people maybe get high salaries and benefits from Oils and Gas Company. So they thought they have a good quality of life. So far, pollution, global warming and ozone depletion can lead to more poverty when the economic growth is not distributed equally, some anxiety such as unpredictable crisis due to encroach on ecological balance, and then harm to people’s health and consumer goods. Does their quality of life really improve? Growth may not be sustainable.
All we know energy can’t recycle, in other world, when we use the oil today, tomorrow we do not have more fuels to use. Until one day in the future, all energy will die out, leaving nothing. What our posterity will use? Bring benefits to our posterity. Don’t excessively exploit! Protecting the earth, protecting our home!
(http://www.capp.ca/energySupply/Pages/default.aspx#3eOmnX7Zf4Og)
(www.capp.ca/canadaIndustry/oilSands)
(http://www.oilsands.alberta.ca/legislation.html)
The Government is responsible to the citizens of the country or area that it governs over, so while it is critical for the population to be employed, it is also critical for the government to maintain environmental sanctity for future generations. As I write this, one out of every 15 jobs in Alberta is directly related to energy, with 136,000 of these coming from the oil sands (Government of Alberta, 2011). For every $1 that is invested in the oil sands, there is a return of $9 to the Alberta economy that has lead to the safe guarding of Albertans livelihoods and lifestyles while much of the world has been thrown into a recession that has not been seen since the Great Depression.
ReplyDeleteWhen comparing the oil sands to other energy production techniques, it is clear that the technological advances that have been introduced to this industry are huge. It uses less water, less energy, and actually leaves a smaller footprint than other more supported types of energy. While there have been mishaps like the migrating duck incident, there have been no major catastrophes that are similar in scope to the BP pipeline bursting in our ocean.
At the moment, a sleepy little trading post has been turned into a breeding ground for vices with people making more money than they can spend. Traffic jams and big trucks are creating more of an environmental impact than the oil that is being dug out of the ground. Houses are being built as fast as possible, and this is eating into valuable environment for wildlife. Little is being done to safeguard these natural environments from a population of our youth that is more interested in making an average of $91,000 per year.
I believe that the government needs to govern the spread of Fort McMurray and the environmental impacts of the people that are now living there as a way to make big money, more than the actual mining of oil in order to retain the environment for future generations. While Oil Companies have panels and watchdog organizations watching their every move to ensure they are not destroying our environment, no one is paying any real attention to the employees on their time off.
http://www.oilsands.alberta.ca/FactSheets/The_Facts_v5_FINAL.pdf
Economically, the oil sands are essential to Alberta. Oil is one of the reasons that Alberta is able to respond to the turn around in the economy for the better. The oil sands give countless jobs to the people of the province. Especially with the recession that we have had as a nation, it is nice for the people of Alberta to have an economic sector that is not going to be short of need. People need gas to do many things, mow their lawns, drive their cars, ect. The government even as a whole needs the oil sands. It gives funds to the government through other provinces or out of country buying the oil.
ReplyDeleteIn a social stand point, it looks bad on the province to keep the oil sands. There are many studies out there pointing out all the flaws within the industry. Sadly, if you think about it, almost everything we do in this world is leaving a carbon footprint. Any day that we drive ourselves to work or school, among other things, we are effecting the environment. We live in a society where people automatically want to be eco friendly, but they don't take into consideration what they put into the environment everyday.
To conclude, I believe the oil sands are critical to Albertans, whether their jobs, to the economy, to the government. Alberta won't be as well off as it has been without them.
Alberta oil and gas sector is a huge provider of employment. Nothing is going to change about that, but something definitely needs to be done about the environmental impact. They are trying to reduce the ecological footprint these oil fields leave behind, but is it enough? If they really want to make a difference they need to spend a decent part of their budget in trying to change the way we extract the oil so that there is less pollution produced from this process.
ReplyDeleteOil sands account for 55 percent of Canada's crude oil production, and alone have generated over $70 billion for the Canadian economy (2007), twice that of the auto industry. With current oil sands reserves of 170 billion barrels and another 145 billion barrels that could be developed in the future. It is clear that fossil fuels will be a huge component in the future.
It has been noted that all of the oil sands and mines do not emit as much carbon as coal fueled electric facilities in at least half a dozen of US states. Overall the coal fired US industry is responsible for over 64 times as much GHG emissions as the Canadian oil sands. This does not excuse any of the issues regarding the oil sands but it does show the need for balanced monitoring.
The Alberta government has put in steps to improve the environmental over sight of this problem and monitoring of the oil sands. Also governments have made data publically accessible. I believe the government is trying, but they definitely need to take more steps to ensure more environmental protection.
The Oilsands play a huge part in Canada’s economy and to take this way would greatly increase unemployment rate which would lead to decrease in consumer spending over all sectors. It would diminish one of our main trading goods to the US and foreign countries.
ReplyDeleteThe government needs to also look at the environmental factors. With health issues increasing and natural habitats being destroyed, our world is basically going to the dogs. There needs to be people employed solely on focusing on how to reduce the oilsands environmental impact.
Although the money being made is great, it is not always going towards items or services that are positive. For example a person without an education at the age of 22 living at home, making 80,000 per year, is spending the majority made on drugs and alcohol. I agree with Farah in the way that a wage cap should be implemented. I also think it should be mandatory that people must have some sort of education, whether it be a grade 12 diploma or post secondary. Education is important and should be stressed, what if the oilsands ceased to be tomorrow, most of these people would be forced to work at minimum wage jobs due to lack of education and once again the unemployment rate would skyrocket.
All of these things considered in the short run, the way things are going is fine, but years down the road I feel that as long as there is no control and proper monitoring of the usage of the natural and greenhouse gas emissions being produced, we will surely run out of oil as a resources and possibly see our wildlife and our life cease to exist.
The Federal Government gains financially from all the work that is being done at the Oil Sands so considering the pros and cons of the oil sands may help to answer your question.
ReplyDeletePros: Employees earn excellent wages being employed at the oil sands and will inject money earned back into the community which means the economic benefits are substantial. Extracting the oil from the sands means we do not have to get our oil from Saudi Arabia, it would not need to be imported which allows the companies to be more in control of pricing oil. Canada is the #1 supplier to the U.S. The oil sands has increased jobs in the community and in other places in the world i.e. refineries. Tar sands have brought the worlds major importing countries to us. One billion will be invested in the area in the next 10 years. Population growth and rising energy consumption. Once the land is no longer useful reclamation efforts begin to create similar eco systems to the land prior to this use.
Cons: The land is being destroyed and animals are being scared away. Increase of drugs and alcohol in the area. Climate is being disrupted due to green house gases, 3x more carbon emission than conventional oil, stinking haze, toxic chemicals, pollution levels are rising at dangerous rates. Global warming pollution, methane and sourgases, arsenic and mercury have also been found in the area. Animals are drinking from polluted trailings ponds and these ponds are leaking into the earth and other water ways. Fort Chipewan - 1st nations people are feeding off the land and their health is deteriorating. They can no longer drink the water in the area. Some health risks are Asthma and rare forms of cancer. This is also disrupting their natural way of life. Their culture is dying from the destruction of the land. Loss of habitat in the Boreal Forest due to the oil sands development.
We all use oil. The more consumers demand oil supply will increase and the effects of the work in the oil sands will also increase. It is very important that the government starts to think of new sources of energy and ways of stabilizing the climate. Such things are Wind energy and hybrid cars is a good start but if they do not start to be more involved and responsible to the environment the local and global impacts may be irreversible in the long run.
J. Pogson
I do believe that the Alberta government has a duty to ensure that our natural resources are protected. The output of greenhouse gases has raised major concerns within the province and the major issue is that the oilsands is causing concern with environmentalists. Fort McMurray hauls about 400 tons of product per day. We are looking at wetlands being destroyed and the cost to replace is extraordinary to replace what the province has dug out,
ReplyDeleteCompanies are now maturing and investigating trouble spots. For Example, Suncor Energy has been recognized by many in their attempt to restore natural resources back into the land they once dug up (http://www.suncor.com/en/newsroom/2482.aspx?id=3714). As an oil giant I believe they are encouraging and raising the bar for other companies to look into environmental effects of major projects and keeping up with environmentalists. Socially as it stands the smaller oil companies are looking at the examples set by the tycoons, I believe that there is evolution evolving as we are coming out of recession.
The oil sands in Northern Alberta play a tremendous role in the Canadian Economy. It has created a large amount of employment for Albertans. With the economy in recession and the fact that there is no substitute for oil, the oil sands of Alberta only created more jobs with high job security. For the moment, this is what the government needs to focus on; getting money moving around within the economy. The more people earn, the more they can buy. The more people buy, the more businesses sell. This creates jobs in other industries. The oil boom in Fort McMurray has increased the population by 75%. This will have increased construction of housing and infrastructure. The videos talk of major traffic; this is only going to lead to the construction of new roads. The oil sands also create jobs for individuals working in the environmental sector. This will create new discoveries and innovations on how to make the extraction of oil more efficient with a lesser impact on the environment.
ReplyDeleteAs the economy climbs out of recession we can slowly start switching the focus to a more environmental side. But as for right now, as every nation is doing, we need to get the people working, the money pumping, and the economy booming.
A call, the provincial government in Alberta should have more responsible for either environment protection or a focus of oil sands development, is released for social perspective by various media. In my opinion, there are pros and cons.
ReplyDeleteBecoming a strong economical province is challenge to face by the government. Alberta is building a stable political system, developing abundant natural resources, and creating more jobs for Albertans. So now what does media says? The word of “more oil equals more jobs equals more money” is from FortMcMoney.com. It sounds that today Fort McMurray is best known for the association with the oil sands industry, also it is called boomtown. It attracts people from everywhere across Canada, North American and around the world. Town population is growing up too fast to pass 100 thousands. There is 7 days and 24 hours operation on the oil sands and associated production to fuel largely the global demand for oil and energy.
Consequently, critical pollution from oil sands development arises for environment protection. With on the spur of oil sands development, Alberta is already counted as one of top greenhouse emissions in the world. The government realizes share responsibility with industry and consumers of by hydrocarbon products to protect our planet and to improve living conditions. From the website of environment.alberta.ca, it highlights “Alberta invests $2 million for Climate Change Action Centre” in attempting to improve environmental performance. Province is building a stable political system to create any related jobs and benefit from oil sands employment over longer term, and working in partnership in addressing climate change issues by using new technology like carbon capture and storage, and creating environment sustainable projects like water treatment-recycling project.
As the result, I have to say, the provincial government has more chargeability for working with Albertans across the province to ensure a balance between the economic, environmental and social values of Albertan province, and move Alberta towards a clean energy future.
I believe that the government main responsibility is to keep its employment rate at its lowest and to keep government spending at the lowest possible levels. I believe if the Government decided to put the environment ahead of this then our employment would rise to an uncontrollable high and our government spending would lead to our budgets in deficits in trying to keep up all the social programs that we need, with the reduced social programs our already weakened economy would go into a recession with the economy and spending slowing down. Our oil is a major trading component and with the loss of this our ability to trade for all of the consumer goods that we trade for.
ReplyDeleteThe government first job is to the welfare of the country but that does not mean they don’t not have to put in any effort towards the environment.
Canada has the world’s largest deposit of oil plus gas and most of the oils sands are located in Northern Alberta. The oil and gas companies are working 24/7 due to the high demand of oil. The continuous extraction of oil has negative effects on our environment. I believe we should focus on other sectors for employment and try to open environmental friendly jobs because any environmental damage is irreversible; the things done cannot be undone.
ReplyDeleteThe extraction process itself generate huge amount of green house gases; mining release carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air which is the greenhouse gas and will result in global warming.
Oil industry also paid highest wages to attract more workers; more oil will be extract with more labour and more oil means more profit. Workers need high wage rate; corporation wants to maximize their profit but the question is who wants to live in save and sustainable environment. The mission of the human race seems only to have more money and profit; anyone can earn highest paid wages but for how long? Real face is that we cannot buy back the land and earth from money.
Companies are extracting the oil at much greater pace then they are planting the trees. Trees take decades to grow and still no one can restore the land back. More than half of the land that is mined is wet land and right now there are no plans for wet land because environmentalists don’t know how to do it and the economist cost of doing it is very high.
We should find a balance between economic benefits and preserving the environment before it’s too late. Right now it is affecting other species but many generations will have to pay for current boom once the impacts hit the human race. Earth is priceless and there is no corporation whose profit holds greater importance than Earth.
The tar sands of Canada are obviously an extremely touchy subject for many. On the one hand we have bleeding heart environmentalists crying foul every time a company tries to take a resource from the Earth (for the benefit of mankind I might add). On the other hand we have greedy corporations who only want to maximize their profits.
ReplyDeleteAlberta is by far the richest province in Canada because of the oil industry. It would be like shooting yourself in the foot if the Alberta government were to somehow limit, or even stop, projects like the one in the tar sands. Of course they also have to consider is that what these oil companies are doing is damaging to the environment.
Developing an alternative to oil products is loudly trumpeted by many, but the truth of the matter is most of these alternatives are just as damaging to the environment. Battery powered cars: What happens to the batteries that are disposed of? Where is all the extra power coming from to charge the batteries (Coal power plants, dams, nuclear power plants etc; all of which have their own ethical dramas)?
The damage done to local ecosystems and indigenous native people's cultures is regrettable, but if we do not continue to extract oil from the ground then essentially we are bleeding ourselves white as a society. I would also like to point out for many, the idea that we are permanently damaging the environment is ridiculous; this is exactly what the whole issue comes down to: Different opinions on major scientific issues. If two people have firmly opposing beliefs on a certain subject, then they will never compromise with each other.
To conclude I would say that the Alberta government should not interfere with the tar sands project - unless of course they decide they don't want more money.
Developing Alberta’s oil sands provides benefits for all of Canada. The goods, materials and services used to construct and operate in-situ oil sands projects, mines and upgraders come from across Canada. Many of the components —, such as tires, trucks, gauges, valves, pumps, etc. A large portion of the economic spinoffs from oil sands development relates to employment that is generated outside Alberta. The impact of the income associated with people who make the materials, goods and services used by the oil sands sector generates significant taxes to other governments in Alberta.
ReplyDeleteThe oil sector traditionally has been one of the largest employers in Alberta. The more people will get job, then than will be increase the demand and supply . That will be help the growth the economic. But the governments have made data publically accessible. The government is going to put in steps to improve the environmental over sight of this problem and monitoring of the oil sands.
I think that the provincial government has more responsibility towards ensuring jobs for Albertans because the oil sector traditionally has been one of the largest employers in Alberta. In the past few years, Alberta is a development province about oil, so it push the economic at here is raising such as: houses were increasing double, businesses, lots of jobs, salaries… Many people moved to Alberta to look for jobs. If the provincial government think the oil companies has been responsible for considerable environmental destruction and decay , this may cause a lot of people will lose there jobs. In addition, the oil companies have controlled by others may reduce development in production. From a social perspective, natural environment is protected , its seem good for every body ‘s health. If the provincial government decide to protect a clear environment, society in general may lose because of the reduced product and the oil companies would be harmed significantly by reduced profits and cause a lots of people become unemployed.
ReplyDeletePhuong Quach
I think the Government has a huge responsibility towards protecting the environment. The Government has shown slight concern for the long term environmental effects of mining the Alberta oil sands. In 2008, they announced a strict set of regulations. Facilities emitting over 100,000 tones of green house gas (GHG) per year are required to lower their output from previous years by 12%, awarding fines of $15/ton to all that do not comply. These funds help support research and development of new technology aimed at lowering CO2 emissions. That is a good start but GHG emissions are not the only environmental factor to consider. The new GHG regulations were a band-aid solution for a much bigger issue: our dependence on crude oil.
ReplyDeleteWe as a society need to reconsider fueling our lives with oil and transition to clean sources of energy. This is a lengthy and expensive process. As in any production shift, Canadians will have to sacrifice resources in order to produce clean energy. To halt production of Alberta’s ‘dirty oil’ and invest solely in clean energy would send the Canadian economy into recession. With the U.S demand for over 1.9 million barrels of oil per day and a projected $15 billion dollars investment the Canadian government stands to gain a projected profit of $70 billion. It makes sense financially however the environmental opportunity cost may be greater than we are lead to believe. Canada is investing in an unsustainable way of life and needs to assign more resources to the development of, and societal conversion to clean energy. While the Oil Sands project creates a boom in Alberta, and as clean energy technology advances in other parts of the world, it would be smart to reinvest in our nation’s energy production needs for the future.
Christina McWilliam
The provincial government has more responsibility towards ensuring the natural environment is protected because the environment provides us air, water and food. If we destroy it, we essentially destroy ourselves. We have a moral obligation to protect other species and our environment. If we don't then we won’t be able to maintain our current population and also environment may hold secrets (like cures to diseases) that we won't ever find if we don't save it now. Field Studies show that as the planet degrades, so do our chances of survival as a species. We eat vegetation and animals. The animals and vegetation depends on other organism to survive, which depend on other organisms, so on down to the tiniest plant and animal on the planet. When that chain is broken, the system stops and everything up the chain dies out, leaving us without food, which means we die out after we eat the last survivor.
ReplyDeleteThings that effect our environment are the green house gases, oil spills, pollution. The green house gases can cause global warming which can lead to many disasters. For example with more heat trapped on Earth, the planet will become warmer, which means the weather all over earth will change. All over the world, weather changes will affect the kind of crop that can be grown. Plants, animals and even people may find it difficult to survive in different conditions. Alberta Environment has been monitoring the water quality in the oil sands region since the early 1970s. In the 1990s they increased monitoring efforts by establishing and joining the Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program (RAMP), which is for monitoring aquatic environments in the oil sands area for potential effects of all activities on the region’s rivers and lakes. RAMP is an environmental monitoring program that assesses the health of rivers and lakes in the oil sands region of northeastern Alberta. RAMP works to identify long-term trends, regional issues and potential long-term effects related to industrial development. It also Collect environmental data so that we can better understand the nature and impact of oil sands operations. The quality of the natural environment is directly related to people’s quality of life. If the government doesn’t protect natural environment then our coming up generations will suffer a lot and soon the world will end. The earth is just like a machine. If you don’t take care of it and use it wisely it will eventually die.
I believe the Government has a large responsibility towards protecting the environment for the future of mankind. This unfortunately is not really the case with the oil sands. The oil sands are not only destroying the environment but are also destroying the land around as well. I think that the government needs to focus more on the environment. I think this because the jobs will always be there. They will always need people to run the oil sands so that is something that the government doesn’t need to touch. With people making around 90 to 100 thousand dollars a year in Fort McMurray there will be an endless supply of workers wanting to go there to make money. The environment is a sector that the oil sands oil companies aren’t concerned about so that is something that an outside voice needs to get involved into. In 2008, the government announced a set of regulations. Companies emitting over 100,000 tones of green house gas per year are required to lower their output from previous years by 12%, not doing so corporations will be given fines of $15/ton to all that do not comply. In my opinion this isn’t enough. The government needs to not only fine the company but it needs to help find a better and cleaner way for the oil sands. The price of oils is currently on the rise. Oil hit 100 dollars per barrel. Oil companies are now producing more and more trying to keep up with the demand of the consumers. This is driving the price of gas up so the large oil corporations are making more and more money. The government needs to set a regulation that a certain percentage of all money that they make in a year to helping protect the environment. The provincial government should be concerned about the jobs in Alberta but they should be even more concerned about the environment.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the government has the responsibility to secure the jobs in the oil sands. I believe this way because of the fact that Alberta is so heavily into the Oil Sands that it would be crucial if you took away the jobs because the economy is in a recession and there is already such a high percentage of unemployment why would you want that number to increase? The Oil Sands has been Alberta’s number one employers in the past few years, and we were the only province out of debt because of it. Sure there are environmental factors, even then the Oil Sands production has got a lot of criticism about the environmental concerns and they have been working hard to get the approval of everyone, but the problem is the Oil Sands aren't going to go away why wait to use them due to environmental factors, why not just use all the people you have employed now and work on it other than firing the majority of your staff to get environmentally friendly now? The Oil Sands helps Alberta a lot, but it also helps the country as a whole in trading it to the U.S. and many other countries.
ReplyDeleteIn conclusion I strongly feel that the government should secure the jobs in the Oil Sands instead of ensuring that the natural environment is protected. It’s Alberta’s number one employer in the past few years, we are in a recession and we don’t want the unemployment rate to rise because it’s already high enough the goal is to lower the number and the Canadian government has brought in programs to do that, and it doesn’t only benefit Alberta, but it benefits Canada as well because it’s the number one trading goods to the U.S. and other countries.
The oil industry is the reason for the success in Alberta. During tough economic times where Canada and the United States were close or in a recssion the oil industry continued to create jobs and stimulate the economy in Canada and especially in Alberta. With all of the success of the oil industry coming from Fort McMurry people are going up there to work for a significant wage. The problem with people moving there is the money stays within Fort McMurry and Alberta. The government needs to focus on how they can take this money out of Alberta and spread it around the rest of the country so other provinces aren't having trouble trying to create jobs for their citizens. The provincial government of Alberta should be concerned about improving the economic conditions in the province and the country before focusing on new methods on how to become more environmentally responsible while producing oil. Although the impact on the environment is important to many Albertans and oil companys, it is currently not the best interest of the people. Albertans and Canadians are looking to improve their current economic condition and as long as these jobs are available, Albertans are going to take them to support themselves and their families.
ReplyDeleteAlberta’s oil sands have been one of the largest sources for oil in the world. With this in mind, the provincial government has provided many job opportunities in the oil and gas industry. As times passes, oil sands have provided many jobs and benefited Albertan and the government. However, it is clearly shown that there are environment issues in the oil and gas industry such as water consumption used for the production of oil. Oil sands require high quantities of water in order to produce one barrel of oil which requires around 2 to 4.5 barrels of water. With extremely high quantity of water to produce a barrel, it is said that oil sands uses more water per year than an entire city of Calgary. With this, it is an opportunity cost in the oil and gas industry. They are sacrificing the natural environment in exchange for providing jobs for all and creating profits. These results in the growth of the economy and making many profits from other countries that cannot provide or produce oil for themselves. Aside from providing jobs for Albertans, the provincial government is responsible for protecting the natural environment. Therefore government role here is to try to maximize the outputs and minimize any impacts on the environments.
ReplyDeleteOverall , the provincial government is responsible for the both job creation and protecting the natural environment. Therefore the provincial government should have a balance between the two. They should have job creations and being eco-friendly which both side’s facts should not be ignored.
Yes, I think that it is the government's responsibility to both ensure jobs and to ensure protection of the environment. This is because people who have jobs would help the country in terms of economy. More money is gained through people working and having jobs. The government should also ensure protection of the environment because ensuring the environment because it will cause distress amongst the people.
ReplyDeleteIn conclusion, ensuring both jobs and the protection of the environment would help the economy grow as well as improving the mood the people about their government.
Alberta has more tar sands reserves in the world and produces more gas and oil in the world which is priced in billions only next to Saudi Arabia. No doubt oil and gas sector is in boom time right now and is creating more jobs in the province but it is the responsibility of the provincial government to restore the environment which is being destroyed by the emission of tar sands. Individuals working in the oil companies are making huge money and there are more jobs in that sector because it is a 24 hour business. According to ecologist Provincial government overlooked the environment problems in the area and they have also lowered loyalties to the oil companies. Natural habitat and environment is being greatly affected due to tar sands and production of oil. Land is being destroyed, ponds and lakes are filled with waste products. There is a lot of emission of green house gases due to tar sands and pollution level are rising which is impacting global warming the most. According to a study there is 780% increase in emission of (GHG).
ReplyDeleteIn conclusion Provincial government and the companies have taken inadequate safeguard measures towards ensuring good environment and haven’t restored any of the land and lakes. Most of the people in community are now suffering from asthma and are not even getting clean environment to breathe in. Provincial government should minimize the effect of amount of green house gases in the air and ensure the Albertans with safer environment to live in.
Because Alberta is so heavily involved with the oil and gas industry, the provincial government is able to reap many benefits from the abundance of oil therefore must be responsible for the negative impacts it has. The provincial should attempt to control the situation as much as possible. Environmental sustainability is very important they must attempt to limit the damage from the oil sands. Although Alberta’s unemployment rate is at 5.9% which is an increase from 5.5% of last year, this is a serious concern for the Albertan government. The oil sands will always be a problem; they have been around for a long time and aren’t going anywhere. During this time of economic downturn securing jobs for Albertans is more important than the environment. Once the economy begins to pick itself back up, Alberta can begin to focus on the impact of the oil sands. Fixing the oil sands is a long and lengthy process and is not in the best interests of Albertans, the people of Alberta are looking to improve their economic position not the air they breathe, they are thinking of themselves before the environment. It is the provincial government’s job to aid them in this process. In conclusion the oil sands are a serious economic problem, and are the responsibility of the Albertan government but the economic recession has hit Albertans harder than expected and many have lost their jobs. Securing job’s for Albertan’s is a higher priority then the environment.
ReplyDeleteI believe the Alberta government has both a responsibility to ensure jobs for Albertans and environmental protection. If one of the two is ignored it will affect all of us. I think what should be attempted is to find a balance between both sides. The oil and gas industry in Alberta provides the Alberta government with a large tax base and also employees a large percentage of Albertans. This is something that we can’t ignore and must consider. If the Alberta government were to create large environmental reserves (limiting land used for production) or implement high environmental reclamation fees than it would increase the costs of production for the oil and gas companies and this would affect the profit they make. If their profit is lowered than they may be forced to lay off employees and cut production which would affect the entire economy in Alberta. Considering oil and gas are goods that have inelastic demand consumers are more likely to pay a larger portion of government taxes. This would be something similar to the taxes on alcohol and cigarettes. The reason I outline this is to illustrate an opportunity that the government has. If the Alberta government chose to impose additional taxes that the consumer will ultimately pay, this increased tax base could be used towards tax incentives for companies that are involved in research and development in green energy initiatives and more efficient oil sands recovery processes. Maybe there are ways that we can find that lower the initial environmental impacts of recovering this type of oil. We are all aware of the fact that oil and gas are nonrenewable resources and it is our own ignorance to think that it will last forever. Now is a better time than ever to start to look at other alternatives. If the Alberta government is at the forefront of this research than it will have the potential to benefit our economy in the long run.
ReplyDeleteThe provincial government should be more focused on protecting the surround area and the overall environment of the Tar Sands than on ensuring jobs for Albertans. The tar sands will always provide jobs, the impact that it has on the environment will not change this, whether they are the number one polluter in Canada or they are attempting to be “greener”. Canada is obligated to reduce their green house emissions and be more environmentally aware through the Kyoto protocol. The emissions from the tar sands alone are expected to be over 141 megatonnes of green house gases by 2020; this is double the amount of emissions produced by all cars and trucks in all of Canada. It also takes 3-5 barrels of fresh water to make one barrel of oil from the tar sands. I believe that jobs are already secure at the tar sands. People are being paid well and most enjoy what they do; people are satisfied. Shutting down the tar sands is not an option but reducing their impact on the environment and becoming more efficient is. The government needs to make a plan and strategy on how to minimize the ecological footprint being made by the tar sands. With the proper steps we the government will be able to regulate the impact being made and may still be able to provide jobs through other environmental efforts; pay people for planting more trees, give them an alternative. Overall the government needs to focus on the environmental aspects of the tar sands but I don’t think this will impact the jobs. The tar sands will always be one of the top employers and will not run out of job opportunities for many years.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the provincial government has the responsibility to maintain a healthy balance of both the economic and environment of Alberta.
ReplyDeleteAs we understand, Alberta economic is heavilly relying on the oil business, it provides jobs to many Albertans. This business, however is damaging our environment, it is poluting the land of Alberta and damaging this planet.
I think that there is no perfect solution to this situation, considering the best interest for Albertans, stopping the oil business will cause the economic to plunge, alternatively, continuing the oil business will cause damage to Alberta environment.
I think the Alberta government should put more restriction on the oil business, and make them to pay a % of their profit to some environment organization.
I believe that the provincial government is not protecting the natural environment.
ReplyDeleteThe oil sand gave Albertans employment, by increasing the unemployment it would lead to big consumer spending. I think a good idea is spend more time on hiring people that focus on the environment that the oil sands has impacts in our city. Provincial government should keep employing people, but at the same time the government should try harder or emphasize on protecting our natural environment.
The bottom line for anyone today is money. If they have money they THINK about the effects on the environment. This is the case for the government as well. If the big issue in the country/province is unemployment then that is what they will focus on to keep the opposition parties off their backs. The government will do whatever they have to in order to get people working. Doesn’t matter what sector that is. Also when more people are working more money goes to the government in taxes and less money goes out in unemployment. The government is receiving tax money from these big corporations in taxes as well.
ReplyDeleteIn the end the government does what the people bring forward as current issues. If the public focus is shifted to something else then the environment is put on the back burner. I don’t think the oil sands are the problem. The problem is the world’s addiction to OIL. The BP disaster in the gulf caused a lot of environmental damage as well. There are so many oil leaks every year with deep sea oil drilling around Canada. Even with so many other alternatives out there why are we still fixated on oil? One word MONEY!
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I have recently watched a documentary which is called Petropolis: Aerial Perspective on the Alberta Tar Sands and here some facts that I have discovered.
ReplyDeleteAlberta’s oil sands or the tar sands are the world’s second largest oil reserve. The project could eventually industrialize an area the size of England. Per day, tar sands operations release as much carbon dioxide as all the cars in Canada. Enough natural gas is burned to heat 4 million homes daily. Processing one barrel of bitumen requires approximately 3 barrels of water. The toxic water is then pumped into giant tailing ponds alongside of the Athabasca’s river shore.
As I know that the oil sands are the main source of income not only for the government of Alberta as well as for businesses and individuals that work in the oil and gas industry. So, the economic impacts are:
• GDP;
• Employment and labour income;
• Government revenues (as taxes paid by businesses, personal income taxes, royalties, etc.)
Generally the oil from the oil sands is more expensive than from conventional sources, but demand has been growing due to high oil prices. Technological progress is reducing the cost of oil sands extraction. Less than 10 years ago nobody could imagine that the oil sands problem would be so important. At that time the production of oil from oil sands was so small because of low oil prices.
On the one hand, the oil and gas industry is very harmful for the environment, but the money that people make there and power what they have will never stop them to make more money. This industry earns enough money to pay any fines to the government. I read that some oil company paid a fine that was less than all annual library fines paid in Calgary and Edmonton. Is that not ridiculous?
On the other hand, this industry creates a lot of money for Canada. Alberta is one of the richest provinces in Canada. People who live here get a lot of benefits such as free health insurance, low unemployment rate, low taxes, more expensive houses, but it make sense because people make more money as well as low of supply and demand has an influence on property prices. A lot of people move to Alberta because of these benefits and high paying jobs; so demand on property has been increasing, but construction company are not able to increase their outputs.
I believe that the government cannot or does not want to change the current situation of Alberta’s oil sands. First, after recent recession the economy needs the constant inflow of capital. Secondly, the poor environmental laws allow oil and gas companies pay fines and keep making the money. Finally, many social programs and projects that the government runs are financed by the oil and gas industry.
I think the provincial government has a responsibility to allow drilling for oil with the least amount of environmental impact. The oil industry is very large in AB, and shutting this down would be detrimental to the whole province. At the same time we don't want to turn a blind eye to the industry and let them tear that part of the province up. There has to be regulations put in place to ensure that there is an equal balance between profiting off the oil, and protecting the land. I also think there is a fair amount of negative attention brought to the oil sands that is unnecessary. An example of this was when there was dead ducks found in a cooling pond. This should not have happened, but in reality there is so many bigger problems than this that go unnoticed. For example the wind turbines kill a lot more birds on their migration routes than the cooling ponds ever will and nobody writes about that in the paper or talks about it.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the provincial government should be more focused on protecting the environment than ensuring jobs for Albertans. I think that if the provincial government was more focused on protecting the environment, more jobs would be created in order to implement new technologies focused on helping the environment from the toxic affects of the oil sands.
ReplyDeleteThe oil sands give off carbon dioxide, which harms nearby farmers crops. CO2 also harms the forestry and fishing industries nearby the oil sands. So if the government focused on protecting the environment, they could also help save these industries by reducing the environmental impact given off by the oil sands.
The oil companies also have a social responsibility to try to reduce the health effects of the oil sands on humans.
From my point of view, the government should have more responsibility towards ensuring jobs.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, oil sands drive rapid population growth around Fort McMurray. The 2010 Municipal Census for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) shows that the population of Fort McMurray expanded rapidly to 76797 in 2010 from about 42600 in 2000. This represents an average annual growth rate of 7.4 percent and an overall growth rate of 80 percent since 2000. In this situation, the government should ensure that more people have jobs so that they can make a living. The more people have jobs, the more stable the society is. If there are more people getting jobs, the government spends less money and attention on ensuring their living. Because housing, health services and so many things that relate to unemployed people could cost the government more than it expects. On the contrary, government then can pay more attentions on other aspect, such as education, medicine and transportation. Secondly, if more people have jobs, the mental states of them will become more stable as unemployment has negative effects towards people. In order to make a living or satisfy themselves, people may come up with some extreme methods. For example, robbery and hunting. Those people then become the unstable part in the society and the government has to spend more on it in order to cushion the situation.
Economically, employment can boom every field in the society. When more oil sands are mined as there are more employments around the relative work, more energy can be used. The economy will grow due to the development of energy relative industry. Trade of oil sands and products from oil sands will stimulate the growth of economy. When more energies are being used, the feedback is huge as those energies encourage the development of fields which utilize it. Although the opportunity costs are reducing oil sands and damaging the environment, which may create future lack of energy and destruction of environment, what we can get are that economy grows fast and the technologies develop. When technologies of utilizing oil sands are developed, the utilization of oil sands will be more effective and then oil sands can be mined longer, which means the remaining of resources in the future. As a result, there are more benefits in the future.
However, the government should not ignore the environment. At this moment, the environment still plays an important role in the society. The destruction of environment will destroy the land of living people as well as the wild life. And the wild life may go to human habitat in order to live, which in a way, disturbs the operation of the society. The growth of the economy stimulates the development of environmental technologies and the technologies could help improve the environment. In a word, the attitude towards the environment is that worsen it first, then recover.
For the past few years Alberta has depended on the oil sector. From an economic perspective without the oil sand industry, we wouldn’t have what we are thankful to have right now. Its Alberta’s jobs to be environmentally friendly but it is also Alberta’s job to keep jobs for others, the oil sands supply many jobs for Albertans and if they stopped there would be a huge unemployment rate therefore having a decrease in consumer spending affects our economy all in all I suggest that the government continue producing as much oil and gas as it can because it’s the governments job to decrease the unemployment rate. We also need the amount of energy supplied by the oil to run many other different businesses needed for Alberta’s economy. It would be a huge opportunity cost loss that we would regret. Alberta has been given an advantage of having oil sands, oil has a huge economic profit everyone in the world right now everyone needs the supply oil and as Alberta one of the places that produces it the demand will be very pricy to buy oil from us making Alberta gain a chunk profit. As the government they should continue working on finding environmentally friendly ways to decrease the amount of pollution oil industries consume but shouldn’t stop the work of oil industries. In the state Alberta is in now we need the extra money to recover back. By removing the oil sand industries it would be harder for Alberta to come back into that booming stage we were in a few years back. All in all even though oil sands are hurting our environment and damaging part of the land we would be no where if we stopped the production of oil sands many people will lose their jobs and go into another depression. The government can also just hire and work more towards environmentally friendly way for all industries to work towards being green but realistically if we lost the production of oil Alberta wouldn’t be as we are today.
ReplyDeleteThe oilsands industry is an essential resource to not only albertas economy but to the Canadian economy as a whole. Not only generating income through taxes as well as creating jobs in the labour market, the oilsands create what has become a essential resource in the modern world. Due to the Increasing demand for oil, as well as increasing prices has generated a need for the oil sands. Just 20 years ago the idea seemed ridiculous using 3 barrels or fresh water just to produce 1 barrel or crude oil. Now due to inflation the need to extract this resource has created itself. I believe that it is the responsibility of the Alberta government to continue to monitor the environmental effects of the oil sands while continuing to let them operate and create employment opportunities as well as an essential resource for Canada.
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ReplyDeleteThe government does not have any obligation to make sure everyone is employed, but they do have a responsibility to ensure the economy is in good shape. Therefore both ensuring there's jobs for albertans should be considered and natural environmental issues should be protected .
ReplyDeleteThe government only cares about the health of the economy and you need both the firm and the household to do well for the economy to prosper.
Creating jobs in the economy, ultimately increases the amount of cash that can be thrown into the circular flow and thus increase the amount of consumption and purchasing power of the average household. Oil sands and oil production produces pollution, the more you dig up, the more pollution that is given off. Oil and gas is a scarce and non-renewable resource where once you use it all up, it’s gone. pollution can be seen as a cost of oil production and in economics it's defined as a "negative externality". If you have pollution that increases health care costs, environmental protection costs, etc. You have to take all those opportunity costs into consideration. As the Alberta government, they need to measure the net effect of creating jobs and stimulating the economy with oil sands production and also the negative externality costs of pollution and related costs.
The government seems pretty reluctant to accept the responsibility to the environment and the health of the people in the area of Fort McMurray while they are more than willing to support the multi billion dollar oil industry that is pumping the waste into tailing ponds that leak and get into the water system. It’s clear that living in Alberta we see the benefits from the industry, which is great economically. Alberta is thriving and Fort McMurray has virtually no unemployment and a housing boom but at what cost?
ReplyDeleteIt’s obvious from watching the last movie ‘Dirty Oil’ we have much more to think about than just costs as the pump. Canadian oil sands have outsold hostile suppliers from the Middle East but it’s a big environmental sacrifice because the method used creates enough greenhouse gasses in one day as 1.34 million cars. If it’s true that they are making at least 50% of each load a truck brings. 2 tons = 1 barrel that’s a huge margin and the income should had a portion going towards proper reclamation like wet lands rather then up lands which they say were much easier and do not support the wild life. Even as the CEO of Syncrude stated “Reclaiming the land is expensive but necessary” they need to take those words and put them into real action not just a public relations stunt.
The federal gov’t needs to step up and realize that their actions are reflecting badly on Canada’s image. The oil sands are not going to last forever and looking the other way by allowing corporations to record their own carbon emissions is a merely playing with the inevitable. I’m not saying that we have to shut down factories and immediately buy some solar panels and a wind turbine, but the federal and provincial governments need to acknowledge the facts and enforce better regulations on the treatment of waste, carbon emissions, and reclamation of the lands. Sure profits increasing will equal financial security, job increases, and economic stability. It is only because suppliers are trying to meet the demands of Canadians, Americans and every other countries Canada trades with. They need to direct some focus on other sustainable resources because they are only think of the now, and not the future, because what happens when it runs out? The damage will be done and the only blame can be ourselves.
We as a country need to look out for the interests of the people by and that’s done by providing jobs and the resources to sustain us. However, when the cost comes down to the damage to our health and the environment around us you cannot only think In terms of profit.
Linda Lem
Alberta is the city of oil resource in abundance was found in recent years. Many oil companies pay attention to it and plan to invest here; so the exploitation and production industries of oil become the major industry and capital economic income in Alberta. As good lost as found, when oil industry brings a great opportunity of business, the environment is harmed. Which one we should select between environment protection and employment? Are there methods best of both sides? In fact, we should not give up one of sides, we need to try our best to make the both sides benefit.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, use the clean way to produce oil from oil sands. Due to oil production will cause a lot of water, land and air pollutions. Government should support research and development new technology, training technical talent and the introduction of talent and technology. For example, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a good method to reduce CO2 emissions. We should introduce this technology and train relevant technical staff. Even though the cost of production will be higher, the profit is considerable for the rising oil price in today. Moreover, reducing environment pollution that is reducing cost of maintain environment. That will make sense from economic perspective.
Secondly, develop other industries in order to keep employment gradually. Tourism is a nice advice because it can protect environment and increase employment. Visitors can come here to enjoy the beautiful natural scenery in summer; they can ski here in winter. We can make Alberta as a ski resort. Meanwhile, accommodation, transport, shopping, restaurants and even whole province’s economy will thrive.
Thirdly, develop environmental and sustainable energies. We have already known wind, solar and biogas energy, etc. these energies have already used, but they have not used a wide range yet. Government should strongly support and promote these energies. In the begin stage, the cost of researching and using these technologies will very high, but these cost will decrease gradually because the technologies will mature gradually and these resources are sustainable and environmental. These are very economic energies for long-term run. If snow or ice as a new energy can be used, it certainly is a good new energy for Alberta because it has long winter.
In a word, Alberta should make a sustainable development direction between employment and environment from economic and social presipective.
Alberta is the city of oil resource in abundance was found in recent years. Many oil companies pay attention to it and plan to invest here; so the exploitation and production industries of oil become the major industry and capital economic income in Alberta. As good lost as found, when oil industry brings a great opportunity of business, the environment is harmed. Which one we should select between environment protection and employment? Are there methods best of both sides? In fact, we should not give up one of sides, we need to try our best to make the both sides benefit.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, use the clean way to produce oil from oil sands. Due to oil production will cause a lot of water, land and air pollutions. Government should support research and development new technology, training technical talent and the introduction of talent and technology. For example, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a good method to reduce CO2 emissions. We should introduce this technology and train relevant technical staff. Even though the cost of production will be higher, the profit is considerable for the rising oil price in today. Moreover, reducing environment pollution that is reducing cost of maintain environment. That will make sense from economic perspective.
Secondly, develop other industries in order to keep employment gradually. Tourism is a nice advice because it can protect environment and increase employment. Visitors can come here to enjoy the beautiful natural scenery in summer; they can ski here in winter. We can make Alberta as a ski resort. Meanwhile, accommodation, transport, shopping, restaurants and even whole province’s economy will thrive.
Thirdly, develop environmental and sustainable energies. We have already known wind, solar and biogas energy, etc. these energies have already used, but they have not used a wide range yet. Government should strongly support and promote these energies. In the begin stage, the cost of researching and using these technologies will very high, but these cost will decrease gradually because the technologies will mature gradually and these resources are sustainable and environmental. These are very economic energies for long-term run. If snow or ice as a new energy can be used, it certainly is a good new energy for Alberta because it has long winter.
In a word, Alberta should make a sustainable development direction between employment and environment from economic and social presipective.
Fenna Lai 524029
I believe that the federal government has a responsibility to each province to make it as profitable as it can be. Having lots of work available in Alberta has greatly strengthened our economy providing businesses with the opportunity to grow in turn providing even more jobs for our residents. From working in the oil fields I have come to realize that the responsibility of being environmentally friendly and proving ethical work strongly relies on each individual company.
ReplyDeleteThe government’s responsibilities are to ensure that the guide lines are met such as proper disposal of toxic waste, while still allowing the gathering of natural resources to continue and allowing an opportunity for each company to create its own public image. A perfect example of this comes from Suncor and their program to plant new trees in areas that have already been processed for oil. These acts of environmental concern show that the company does realize that oil extraction is “dirty business” but that the company is willing to help with the environmental recovery of the area. Having Suncor plant trees in already mined areas also creates opportunity for tree planting companies/businesses to make a profit by being sub-contracted to complete the re-forestation projects.
Therefore I believe that a government’s priority should be to provide a strong economy with low unemployment rates for all of its residents.
The provincial government has an equal responsibility towards ensuring jobs for Albertans and ensuring that the natural environment is protected.
ReplyDeleteFrom an economic point of view, Alberta’s government needs to do their best to ensure jobs for it’s citizens. Oil and gas is big business in this province, and most other businesses are somewhat dependant on this industry. Alberta must capitalize on this resource because it does not really have other options. It is also a proven fact that the world needs oil. It can do this by investing in the oil sands, offering the oil companies subsidies as well as paying attention to how their royalties compare to that of the other provinces that also have this natural resource at their disposal. One also needs to consider the infrastructure surrounding the oil sands development. It is not just oil that comes out of the ground, it is the cities and roads that need to be built to accommodate all the workers that actually work in the oil sands. This proves my point that other industries in Alberta like construction and road building depend on oil and gas.
Looking at this situation from a social perspective, Alberta needs to recognize that even though people want and need oil, they (consumers) are still concerned with the social and environmental ramifications that come along with this industry. Alberta needs to ensure that they are equally as concerned with social responsibility as well as economic responsibility. It can do this by doing a better job of policing the big oil companies. A one million dollar fine means nothing to a large oil company. Alberta needs to have a better plan in place for dealing with tailing ponds. Alberta needs to do a better job of cleaning up the dirty oil, (pun intended). The western world is more sensitive to environmental concerns and should lead by example. The hard part is convincing the big oil companies to concentrate a little less on just profit and a little more on bettering the planet, or at least slowing down the damage.
The provincial government has some very big shoes to fill but this writer believes that it can have the best of both worlds.
This is global issue, not only Canada or North America all country around the world has to take similar kind of action to reduce this environmental degradation. As part of this world the Canada government and the province of Alberta should be equally responsible for ensuring the environment protection and ensure employment for their citizens. Also we have to have a concern for the other generations who are going to come after us, not only for today but also for tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteIn generally it depends, which means there is a limit for everything. Whatever we are doing in this plant, it has its good side and bad side nothing is perfect. This both things they are very important for the wealth of the nation. Therefore, as both of these things go together and have advantage and disadvantage; the government has to balance them. As we live here in Albert, Canada yes we can say a lot about oil sand emission, but have we ever think what is going on in the other part of the world? If we think that way, maybe we can say we are better than others, at list we are aware of what is going on.
In all direction the government has great responsibility to control this, sometimes when we compare the level of growth here in the province of Alberta it looks like a bit faster than other provinces, at the same time the level pollution also higher than other area. By taking all this in to consideration the government and concerning body has to come out with appropriate solutions. As Emissions from the oil sands will increase from time to time, the oil industries also have to take steps to balance environmental concerns with other issues. They don’t have to focus only on their profit. In addition to government and oil industries as a citizen of this country we have to do our part as much as we can to save our environment.
In generally, I can say that the government should do the best they can to balance the negative impacts to our environment while providing people with job opportunities that support the whole economy.
Whenever there are socio/economic disputes at hand there are always points to be made from both sides. I, for one believe that it is important to keep a relative balance between ensuring jobs for Albertans and also keeping the environment healthy; while I believe the latter of the two is the least important. The big question here is: how much damage are the oil sands actually causing? and if you take a look at this on a global scale you will find that as a whole it actually is not that bad. It is much, much more important to keep our unemployment rate as low as possible and with a heavily reliable resource like the oil sands, we need to continue to see an increase of jobs in this work field as it is really what made Alberta what it is today.
ReplyDeleteYes, they certainly could improve the production process and create a more efficient method of extracting oil from the sands, which is already what Cenovus Energy is doing by creating specialized methods of drilling the oil up from the sands. In conclusion I believe that the oil sands are more than important to control Alberta's economic structure as well as the employment sector.
Athabasca Oil sand continues to be a capital factor of almost a third of Alberta’s GPD (Gross domestic product) brining in millions of dollars into the province, accounting for roughly 47% of Canada’s exported goods. Without a doubt there has been an unprecedented amount of environmental damage done, however the Athabasca oil sands account for nearly 20% of all the oil that is supplied to the states, creating an endless number of jobs; currently there are roughly 10,442 workers living around the oil reserve alone. Considering these facts, what are the benefits of preserving such an area? In the long run a national reserve will only consumer more resources then it returns, and does not really provide an practical use for society other then tourism and pleasing the people that prompt the Kyoto project.; Undomesticated land will only hinder the working society as well as development. Yes, we can be sentimental about keeping certain areas green. However, no matter where you go eventually these areas will be somehow processed and used to advance civilization. I feel that the provincial government should continue to expand the oil sand explorations in northern Alberta, as they are responsible for ensuring that Alberta continues to produce a large number of jobs for the well being of its people.
ReplyDeleteIt is one of the most important responsibilities for the government is to ensure the high rate of jobs in the country or in the province. It is also become their responsibility to keep running the growth of the economy and the insurance that every citizen gets jobs and social services. Alberta is the richest province in Canada because of its oil and gas industries. This industry creates thousands of direct and indirect jobs across the country; on the other hand it creates huge negative impact on the environment. Alberta has the largest reservoir of oil sand for crude in the world located in Fort McMurray Alberta. Fort McMurray has the highest par capital income in Canada and highest median home price. The development of oil sand is one of the largest projects in Canada that has enormous economic impacts.
ReplyDeleteThe concern of this industry is growing too fast which is creating high paying jobs that are giving us standard life style and power of purchases, at the same time it is creating huge amount of pollution in environment (heat and toxins). There are guide lines for the oil companies to flow the right way of restructuring oil sands. If they failed to follow the guidelines they will be penalized. Government of Alberta wants to keep the industry growth for prosper of the province and for its employments market.
The recent budget of Alberta province shows that the budgeted program expense in 2011-12 is $38.4 billion (Government of Alberta, Alberta.ca). In the energy sector the budgeted program expense is $445 billion, the program includes bio fuel and carbon capture and store (CCS). For the environment purpose budgeted program expense is $290 million which is $121 million to address climate change and the rest for clean air program, monitoring, science and reporting.
As a student of Economics, I think the oil industry should grow with the control of the government of Alberta. The world is now experiencing very bad recession and the Middle East is suffering from serious political problem. This situation will bring the oil price up which could be a great opportunity for Alberta to produce more oil in profit. About the concern of environment is opportunity cost, if we are more care about the environment and keep monitoring on the oil and gas companies to refill the land and plantation can help us to keep our environment well. The ruling government is more favorable to the business on economic perspective. They think the growth of business will create more jobs and the people will be more able to buy product and that will run our whole economy up.
The oil sands are becoming the largest industrialized project in human history. Alberta’s oil sands are the second largest source of the oil in the world after Saudi Arabia. With the consumption of oil increasing dad by day the Alberta’s oil sands play a major role in the world’s economy. Alberta cover’s over more than 149 thousand sq km – an area larger than England. It holds at least 175 billion barrels of oil. The government of Alberta is equally responsible for the booming economy as well as the harm on the environment.
ReplyDeleteFort McMurray having the highest per capita income in Canada is the booming town in Alberta. In the past decade the population in Fort McMurray has increased by 75%, the average income is around $91,000. The major question is has the need of oil become more important than the need of fresh water? The oil sands mining operations use up to four barrels of fresh water to produce one barrel of oil. As the consumption of fresh water increases there is also more and more amount of carbon emissions in the air which makes the environment polluted. The provincial government should ensure that with the amount of oil extracted from the earth and the use of fresh water should not affect the environment and the neighboring communities. Also, the government is responsible for the better health of its people as well as the environment as a whole. Native people residing in the nearby communities are being affected by having rare cancers due to the polluted environment. The wild life is also being affected due to the same reasons.
As every coin has two sides, on a personal opinion I believe that the oil sands in Alberta have both advantages as well as drawbacks. One of the biggest advantages is that the oil sands in Alberta ensure more oil in future. But the drawback is that the amount of oil produced here is at the cost of the safety of the environment resulting into ill health of its people as well as the wild life. Even though land is reclaimed but the environment is still affected, it does not restore the land as it was before. Looking at a social point of view the culture of the aboriginal natives is dying as well. With Corporate money-interests causing health effects to local populations, and the people's complaints to the government. It is the duty of the government to take special measures on the rising problems.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBePqKw7tyk
http://www.energy.alberta.ca/OurBusiness/oilsands.asp
http://www.energy.alberta.ca/OilSands/791.asp#Economics
http://h2oildoc.com/home/about-the-film
Politics is a dirty game, and the environment is a complex political issue. The Albertan government has to find balance between regulation of the oil sands and the desires of the oil sands producers. Remember, it is the desire of the government to stay in power by satisfying Albertan voters, and the desire of oil companies to deliver the most value to shareholders. With increased environmental regulations, the cost of oil sands production will go up which will upset the oil industry and in turn affect Alberta’s economy which will likely upset Albertans.
ReplyDeleteIn 2007, the Stelmach government raised royalties which raised the cost of production. Oil producers responded by publicly announcing they would reduce investment in Alberta oil production by billions of dollars and invest in more attractive options outside of Alberta. That meant fewer jobs in Alberta for Albertans. There was a public outcry which resulted in the Stelmach government re-evaluating the newly implemented royalty scheme.
The environment is very important, and in my opinion should be protected first and foremost. I would rather see a company make a billion less and take better care of the environment; however, as regulations increase, the oil companies will respond by decreasing investment which will affect the economy and upset Albertans. Ultimately, It is up to Albertans to draw the line in the sand.
When it comes to the oilsands in Alberta, every move is scrutinized, and there are questions of intensions. The provincial government has a massive responsibility to provide jobs for its people and keep a good economic conditions if it is possibly in their control. At the same time, responsibility lies to keep the province they live in beautiful, so are the oilsands counterproductive?
ReplyDeleteAt this point, looking from an economic angle, there must be a lot of credit given to the boom it has created in Alberta. In current economic times not being as stable, this is extremely important in creating jobs for people. The population of Fort McMurray is 100,000 and rising, and many of these people are employed by oilsand companies. I believe this is necesarry, because many of these people may not be able to find jobs, and are able to earn $50/hr. This is not only important to the people of the province, but creates a boom in Alberta as a whole.
The province need not be close minded and only look at their economic responsibility. They cannot deny any bad media they may have recieved from onlookers that consider what they are doing terrible. They must recognize that changes as to how they are drilling may need to be considered. They could impliment regulations as to protected areas such as a portion of wetlands. They should also place responsibility on companies to ensure they restore land, and have strict consequences for those who do not abide.
At this point, it is not realistic to stop drilling in Alberta, because of the impact it would have on thousands of people and their livelihoods. They do need to make improvements on the environmental concerns to satisfy on lookers and preserve our planet. This will take time, but will improve the way people see Alberta.
-Kim Samson
There is no doubt that the Alberta government has the responsibility towards for the oil sand project. However, we should not ignore how big benefit oil sand brings. According to the result from Government of Alberta (Economic and Investment Information, 2010), the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers estimates that capital investment in the oil sands was nearly $10 billion in 2009. Almost 136,000 Albertans are employed in Alberta’s mining and oil and gas extraction sectors. Oil sands development creates jobs outside of Alberta: 23% of oil sands-related employment is outside the province. That rises to 28% for construction-related jobs. All this statistic shows that oil sand project in Alberta plays a very significant part in the whole economy of Canada.
ReplyDeleteSo, in my opinion, even though oil sand project may cause responsibility of environmental destruction and decay, we should consider it from economic development but not simply environmental protection.
The oil sands are a major factor economically for the Albertan economy. They provide a very large portion of job for our province. I do not think that the government should shift from providing jobs to ensuring that the natural environment is protected. The environment is sadly the opportunity cost for the oil sands and for providing jobs for individuals who are a part of that industry. But it is a necessity that we continue development in the oil sands. They are a huge economic benefit for the province. If the focus was shifted more towards protecting the environment then it would result in the loss of a number of jobs and would cause an extreme amount of high unemployment in Alberta. This would also result with instability within the economy since the oil sands are such a large factor. From and social prospective the government could use a portion of the oil profits in order to expand research and development within the oil sands. That research could be used to help develop ways to extract oil with reduced emission so the environment will not have to be harmed as much. The oil sands are critical not only to the economy of Alberta, but the economy of Canada; the oil sands keep citizens employed, and keep money flowing through our economy.
ReplyDeleteWell reality is, in order to make money and be profitable in Alberta, the oilsands must exist. No matter how hard everyone tries to protect the environment, it just not possible to have both.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't to say my personal opinion is pro oilsands and profit, but I definitely would like to see the environment being protected. Now saying that, Canada is a large country and has a lot of land to offer. So we do have a beautiful country full of beautiful scenerey and landscapes that just have nothing around. So the oilsands are a small area in regards to the whole country.
Even with the new Alberta Bakken Oil Play which is bringing in new drilling techniques which seem to be less harsh on the environment, Alberta will still be creating more jobs and keeping Alberta's economy high.
Economically, continuing to work and strip the oilsands in Fort McMurray is beneficial for Alberta's job market and for the economy. Alberta is the richest province in Canada and it would be nice to keep it that way. Keeping Alberta rich, keeps Canada in a higher economy. I believe the provincial government should push for jobs in the oil industry and continue the taxation they have on oil industries. As long as the laws and protection acts are being met, we can't really complain.
First of all, the oil and sands industry has a huge impact positively on the Albertan economy and it is the sector where most of the provincial income is generated from. However, it also has a huge impact negatively on the environment because of the pollution created from the operations. Also, most of the population in Alberta is hired on this sector. If we say the provincial government should stop or eliminate the employment on this sector or slow down their operations in order to save the environment, then a lot of employees will lose their jobs which will result in massive reduction in customer power of purchasing as most of Albertan is working in this sector as well as the employers themselves will also result in huge drop in the provincial economy. Because of that, the provincial government should consider another option rather than cut these operations of oil and sands industry. I suggest if the provincial government focuses more in hiring more people to reduce the harm to the environment caused by these operation will be more efficient way because employees will keep their jobs on one hand and on the other hand the companies which working on the oil and sands business won’t be forced to stop their operations and after all the province should have a stable economy or maybe a growing one and the environmental concerns are met.
ReplyDeleteOil sands have its pros and cons. Alberta's economy thrives mainly in oil sands. "The Canadian Energy Research Institute estimates that, in total, oil sands production and development activities could generate about $123 billion for governments in Canada during the 2000-2020 period, mainly in the form of corporate and personal income taxes, property taxes, and, in the case of Alberta, royalties." http://cmte.parl.gc.ca/content/hoc/committee/391/rnnr/reports/rp2614277/rnnrrp04/09_chap_4_eng.htm
ReplyDeleteOne of the consequences of oil sands and possibly the biggest is the environmental impact. According to the article "It will take more than rebranding to make tar sands oil "ethical"", the oils sands contribute to about 5% of Canada's greenhouse emission. http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/2011/02/it-will-take-more-than-rebranding-to-make-tar-sands-oil-ethical/?gclid=CLrO_dfgtacCFQkFbAodcUGCAA
Despite the fact that oil sands have a great impact in the environment, the economic benefits the province is reaping from it considerably large for the province to just throw away. In my opinion, the government of Alberta has more responsibility to ensure that Albertans have a job. During the past few years, some residents of other regions across Canada moved to Alberta in order to find a job or better jobs. The money that they make in Alberta is sufficient enough to support their loved ones that either decided to stay or moved with them to Alberta.
The revenue that the province collects from the oil and gas sector is what keeps the economy of Alberta going. It helps fund social benefits and programs, build bridges, etc. Without the oil sands, Alberta's economy will shrink considerably. It will also affect Canada's economy as a whole. Based upon these facts, the benefits of operating the oil sands outweighs the consequences.
However, the province should not completely ignore the environmental impact of the oil sands. It should enforce policies and develop technologies to better extract the oil sands and in turn the environmental impact would be less.
Alberta’s oil sands are the second largest resources in the world.
ReplyDeleteThe government has responsibility towards balancing the economy and energy. Because oil sands boom, Alberta is experiencing a huge and expensive oil rush, and Fort McMurray is at the centre of it. Alberta became a rich province which has paid off its debts and has such a budget surplus and also lots of people are employed from oil sand development.
Apparently oil sands development has an impact on the natural environment. So provincial government has more responsibility towards ensuring the natural environment is protected. It has a big impact – not unlike large-scale hydroelectricity or hard rock mining projects. The oil is bound up in black bituminous sand close to the surface. But even though the reserves are so huge and so obvious the sands have to be steam heated to release the oil. The oil sands production, which requires large amounts of energy and water to extract the bitumen from the sand, is said to produce on average at least three times the greenhouse gas emissions of conventional oil extraction. It was not a lake, bit a tailings pond-a store for toxic waste from the oil sands extraction process, made up of water, clay, sand, residual bitumen and heavy metals. Most of the ducks died, killed by the slick of oil on the water's surface- (http://newsbbc.co.uk/2/hi/7763365.stm).Nowadays, the pace of investment and development in the oil sands has increased quickly over the past few years. As a result, more people than ever have taken an interest in the region and they are concerned about the environment impacts of the projects currently operating, so the provincial government has more responsibility towards for Alberta natural environment is protected whenever now or in the future.
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ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I believe that the provincial government has more responsibility towards ensuring jobs for Albertans than protecting the environment. It is important to know that Alberta contains the second largest proven concentration of oil in the world. By neglecting the natural resources that are available in the country, Canada’s economy would definitely decline. It is important to understand the opportunity cost of investing in these oil sands in Alberta that will generate a great amount of profit, thus; creating more jobs for people. Through import and export, Canada will eventually be able to help our neighboring country, United States to recover from the financial crises they are currently facing. The provincial government definitely needs to ensure the jobs than protecting the environment at this point in time. Although, it is evident that is destructs the environment, it also important to understand that without the use of such valuable natural resources, the economy will only experience depression. Therefore, the provincial government should decide on ensuring jobs in the oil sands as it is the most essential resource needed.
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ReplyDeleteAs with the current economy, I think that provincial government has more responsibility towards ensuring Albertans with jobs. It seems quite evident due to the fact that Fort McMurray has a “current population of about 60 000 and an average income of $91 000.” OilPatchKids (Poster). FortMcMoney.com Drt2Oil.com [Video]. (2009, April 10). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-lS7janLzE&NR=1. The population has grown 75% over the past decade meaning people must be going there for employment opportunities. There seems to be no job shortage in Fort McMurray except perhaps housing and wildlife. The digging and stripping everything down to bedrock has scared the entire natural habitat away. All the young folk currently living in Fort McMurray have no interest in bettering the good for the animals that have been scared off. If the provincial government had more responsibility over the well being of the environment, there would have been a change by now. The government would have focused more on how to attract the wildlife back and possibly tone down the way of life in Fort McMurray. I think at the rate that the oil sands have been worked, there will be none left of it in a decade leaving Fort McMurray in a deficit. It could possibly go into a recession after all the oil has been stripped away because it seems to have or almost reached its peak in the business cycle. Therefore, I believe that the provincial government is more involved in providing jobs rather than caring for the environment.
ReplyDeleteSabrina McKendrick - 529869
ReplyDeleteThis is an extremely difficult question to choose a side. On one side the provincial government needs to focus on the responsibility towards ensuring jobs for Albertans because the more people who have jobs the better our economy will be (both for individuals and our province). It is important in ensuring that people have jobs because when people generate income they will spend the income. This in turn puts money back into the economy and the money will continue to circulate through our economy. This will help us to move up out of this recession and stabilize the Canadian economy. It also is generating a ton of money for our province and ensures that we don’t go into debt. Alberta is the only province in Canada that doesn’t owe the federal government (Provincial Sales Tax anyways), which is way we don’t have PST (even though all providences don’t have PST because it’s been combined with GST into HST). It’s because of our oil sands that Alberta is doing so well.
On the negative side it is doing serious damage to our planet, but in our society who hasn’t in their own way done something horrible to this planet? Every day when I drive to school I am destroying my planet. It’s tough to say that it’s bad or good because it is both. It vastly improves our economy as well as our whole countries economy, but it’s destroying it environmentally. I think that the Alberta provincial government should take all the measures necessary to keep it as clean and environmentally friendly as they possibly can without sacrificing jobs.
Which comes first- the chicken or the egg?
ReplyDeleteEver since Alberta became the leader of the oil world, Alberta’s conservative government has been racked over the coals for allowing this province to thrive on the resources that the land has provided. Political groups, environmental groups, NGO’s and corporations have been pushing each other and the government on which topic is most important- government’s responsibility towards employment or government’s responsibility towards environmental sustainability.
Both areas are important, and neither should be compromised over the other. The government has made it quite obvious that they think the same thing, as they have recently signed the BRIK agreement with Calgary’s Northwest Upgrading Inc. This agreement is to allow the government of Alberta the ability to process barrels of bitumen, allowing more control and profit to go towards the province. However at the same time, Northwest Upgrading and its partners Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (CNRL) and Enhance Energy have developed the world’s first facility to capture and manage the destructible and environmentally unfriendly gases- the most important being carbon dioxide (CO2). This initiative will create over 8,000 jobs in the next 30 months and this is only for the first of the three phase project.
Looking at the links provided for this blog, they make very strong points in confronting the environment re-building project, and how economically inefficient this would be. Corporations are also being confronted with the issue of “corporate social responsibility” (CSR). What we saw with the BP Gulf Oil Spill was a corporation taking the initiative to clean up their mess, in addition to government assistance. Alberta is quite capable of doing the same thing- except in helping to re-build the Alberta wetlands when environmentalists find a way to do that. The current “tree planting” and grasslands projects are a very positive start, and one the government has supported and not overlooked.
It is with these points, that the government has accepted responsibility towards both ensuring a high employment rate in Alberta, and environmental sustainability. One should not be considered a higher priority than the other because really, it all goes back to the chicken and the egg.
This blog was written using the sources provided in the initial question posed, in conjunction with the press release dated February 16, 2011 at northwestupgrading.com. Northwest Upgrading Inc. has recently been named the Northwest Redwater Partnership Inc.
we all love all mother nature, and we should have balance the usage and protection over our nature.
ReplyDeleteGovernment controls tax over the economy from time to time, they raise the tax rate when in the economy expansion period, and lower the tax rate when in recession period, just to make sure to have stable economy system.
We should have apply the same logic to the oil sector. When the economy is in the expansion period, government could spend more time develop a new area that could be leading the economy, such as our Alberta Beef, let the agriculture be the leading source of Alberta, instead of oil secter, and do some evironmental protection. when economy is in recession, that's when we put oil sector into big deal.
Use the oil sector the way like tax rate, decrease the usage of our mother nature when in expansion period, and properly increase the employment rate from oil sector when economy hits recession priod.
Agriculture in Alberta could be seasonal, like the condition said on http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/general/progserv.nsf/all/pgmsrv31 , but we could get more use of warmhouse booth technology to overcome the seasonal challange.
The oil sands have undoubtedly provided tremendous jobs and continue to do so. The economic stimulation is most benefits not only the city’s economy but also the province. But to what cost. The environmental damage it is doing to the plant does not compensate for the economic benefits provided to the city. Green house gas and decay of natural habitat are serious issues we face not as a province, but as a plant. I believe it is the responsibility of the province to put absolute pressure and clear regulation with severe consequences on the oil companies to follow all environmentally safe procedures. I am aware as a democratic country holding a large supply of the world’s oil we have an obligation to supply the demand but to the same extent I believe it gives us a greater responsibility in assuring the world we, as a province, are preventing as much environmental damage as our technology allows. Fossil fuels will be a primary energy supply for at least another decade and there is plenty of work to stimulate economic growth thus it is the least of the provincial governments worries especially in Fort McMurray.
ReplyDeleteHearing and studying about the oil patches has led to very many questions on what the provincial government is doing. I personally think that the provincial government is more focused on the responsibility of giving people jobs. This is because they tend to pay employees a lot of money. There are so many younger men, which are going to work in the oil patch instead of going to school right out of high school. They are either going to work in the patch because of the money or to make money so they can go to school. If the government cared more about the harm that is being done to the environment and worried less about employees, our environment would be better. Doing research you will find that if someone is away from home, that the company will provide that worker with housing. It is also said, “The more oil, more jobs equals more money.” This can cause damage to more wetlands and have tailing ponds take over certain lands. The less tailing ponds and rigs we have would cause less pollution and destruction on the environment. Although the government is spending time to try to figure out a more friendly way to recover the tailing ponds.
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt, it is most definitely more of a responsibility to the provincial government to ensure that our natural environment is protected than to ensure Albertans have jobs. The government needs to stop putting people first and start protecting our wildlife. Roughly 65 percent of the land has been disturbed due to oil sands mining, and only a fraction of a percent has actually been certified reclaimed. The chain reaction this has caused is unbearable. The amount of wildlife that is living within the area has certainly been affected by the pollution that seeps through the ground from the tailing ponds and into the water and earth. The Native American people that are still living off of the land are having a difficult time with trapping and fishing because the fish themselves have become contaminated, causing mutations and deformities. The amount of rare cancers (typically formed due to water contamination) and disease that were found in Fort Chipewyan, just miles from the mining, were coincidentally named unrelated to the oil sands. What our government needs to do is put in place a safe, clean, renewable energy infrastructure. The resources and financial capital is there, it’s just that there’s a lack of political determination. We need leadership in pointing the nation in the right direction. If Roosevelt managed to motivate his country in contributing towards the manufacturing of war aircrafts in 1942, there is no reason that we can’t do the same thing today, except our war is fighting to keep the earth alive. Interestingly enough, licenses have been issued to actually increase oil production while in fact we should be trying to reduce it. There are many alternatives to producing energy. We need to start looking at these new sources of energy, such as geothermal energy and wind energy.
ReplyDeleteThe government should balance environments protection and economic growth.
ReplyDeleteFrom economic perspective, oil sand brings high employment rate and increases the GDP of Alberta. In 2009, Alberta’s total oil sand reserves were171.3 billion barrels. The Alberta government collected more than $3 billion in royalties from oil sands projects. Also, in 2009, about 136,200 people were directly employed in the mining, oil and gas extraction sector, including the oil sands. In 2008, the energy sector accounted for 30.8 % of Alberta’s GDP. (http://www.energy.alberta.ca/OilSands/791.asp)
In other hands, Oil sands development has an impact on the environment. Tar sands need more energy and water to get the oil out of the ground. For example, Oil sands mining are licensed to use twice the amount of fresh water that the entire city of Calgary uses in a year. Processing the oil sands uses enough natural gas in a day to heat 3 million homes. Producing a barrel of oil from the oil sands produces three times more green emissions than conventional oil. (http://stoptarsands.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/tar-sands-destruction-set-to-grow/ )
It is the provincial government’s responsibility to ensuring jobs for Alberta; People need work to bring food to the table. At the same time the authority also must ensure the nature environment is protected. Such as, Tax the oil and gas company special environmental tax; the Oil sands project have to follow the mandatory rules, like fixing the destruction lands; Or if there is no ideal solution to protect the environment , the provincial government need to limited total amount of the oil sands projects to keep a balance between the economic and environment.
In my opinion,the Alberta government has both a responsibility to ensure jobs for Albertans and environmental protection. As thw oil sand is the main resource in Alberta, oil industry produces more jobs than other areas for Albertans. As it is strong area for Albertans to have jobs, the government should make sure that this industry keeps Albertnas to have jobs. Also, government should maintain the natural environment as much as they can. We can not avoid to harm our environment in order to develope oil sector. However, we can minimize the damages for our natures.
ReplyDeleteAs a result, The government should stimulus technology innovation and ensure positive impact on sustainable development through the policy for industrial development and environmental protection.
The debate on if the world but more specifically Albertans should be more focused on jobs or the environment has been going on ever since the oil sands were first started. The fact of the matter is that if production was shut down not only would hundreds of thousands of people be out of work but the entire world economy would go into a vicious downward spiral. The oil sand is where the world gets most of its money. I had worked on the oil sands for two years, and most press given out about the environmental effects are greatly over exaggerated. With that being said, oil production in northern Alberta is taking its toll on the environment and something needs to be done to protect the planet. In my opinion the answer is very simple. Slowly wean off of oil production while bring in another industry that would not cause us to lose out way of life (driving, Flying ect.), and create an equal amount of revenue, keeping people working while not harming the environment. That industry is the Hemp industry. Not has hemp been proven to being able to power cars it can be used for paper cloths and obviously smoking. It costs cigarette companies pennies to produce cigarettes and the cost they sell them for is approximately two dollars. The reason for tobacco prices being so high is taxation. Illegal selling of marijuana is in the billions every year; imagine if the government could tax that price. So let’s stop throwing gardeners into jail while oil tycoons are making millions upon millions by destroying the home every human has made their home.
ReplyDeleteAlberta is considered to be the richest province of Canada because it has oil based economy. Alberta has world’s largest oil sand reserves located in Fort McMurray. Alberta is facing a less issue of unemployment as compared to other Canadian provinces. In the oil business sector workers can get a job with excellent wage rate of $50 per hour which is three times bigger than the normal wages rate of all over the Canada. Oil sector works continuously 24 hours a day, 7days a week without break and each worker have overtime there. “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PI68l8e-bw&feature=related “ Because of these economic activities and prosperity, many oil field professionals and engineering sector people from other provinces moved to Alberta especially in Fort McMurray. So oil sand sector development not only creates economic benefits for the province but Canada as a whole.
ReplyDeleteExtraction of Oil sand also has some negative consequences on environment. Now the question is whether it is a reasonable choice to get better GDP or economic benefits at the expense of polluted environment. Of course hazard effects of sand oil for human beings are not acceptable. Extraction creates green gases that causes pollution on the surface which could result various health issues for the local population residing there. That pollution causes acid rains, contraction of the ozone layer that may spoil human lives. That’s why sand oil mining are sometimes called dirty oil.” “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XffxPhFxA64 “
Chris bordo environmental agency Alberta said that, for getting economic benefits for the province from these natural reserves, we are doing our job responsibly to clean the environment caused by this extraction and agency is improving all the time. That’s the encouraging attitude of the agency. Of course economic development and environment protection cannot be trade-off. In my view, the government of Alberta should have a balanced responsibility towards preserving environments and economic benefits. No doubt, oil sand extraction will enrich the province but equally important to preserve the natural enviroionment as well as to clean and safe environment for our future generation.
Both environment and Alberta's oil sands industry are important for Albertans and provincial government. Whereas there’s no drought in past few years environment of Alberta is badly affected by oil sands. And the problems like oil sands leaking contaminants into Alberta watersheds, air pollution, land pollution arises in the surrounding areas of industry. This is polluting Alberta’s environment. Today worldwide governments and agencies are working on environment and nature saving, as almost every thing is destroyed by human. This also results to migrating of animals and birds.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Alberta’s oil sand industry is very important for its economy. As Over 30 % of Albertas GDP is due to revenue earned from energy fields. Around 76.8 billion dollars are earned from exports, 30.7 billion of that is from Crude petroleum. The next highest export at 14.2 Billion is from Gas and Gas liquids.
From this I have come to the conclusion that both environment and oil sands are equally important for the future of Alberta. The government of Alberta need to take proper measures and protocol. So that chances of disaster at oil fields can be reduced and controlled. As oil industry waste not only pollute environment but also affect on all the living creatures around. The fact that Alberta government allows the big companies to record their own numbers when it comes to emissions and they can place their sensors anywhere they would like on the land and not in the place that they’re digging to seemingly reduce the recorded effect and to reduce the severity is disgusting. So I can say that oil sands are very important for Alberta as they are making good money and its all economy is hold on that. So the Alberta should keep working on oil fields but with proper measures so that they can protect nature, as environment in which we live is more important than money. Whereas today’s world is all money based.
Fort Mc Money
ReplyDeleteBy Zach Barkauskas #441354
Today Fort Mac is considered to be the biggest boom towns in Canada, largely due to the vast oil sands that we use today to fuel Canada and USA populations. Fort Mc Murray in the last decade has had a 75% increase in population which currently is about 60,000. The average monthly income is roughly $91,000 with the Real estate hovering around $700,000 for a single family house. This is a direct relation to the profitability of the oil sands. The provincial government and the US view the profitability to far out way the economic consequences. In the last decade we have extracted enough forest to match the size of Florida and are producing over 3 times more carbon emission then conventional oil. With this type of energy intensive production we are producing 1 barrel of oil out of 2 tons of oil sands. In my opinion we need to take a closer look at the long term effects of the oil sands on the environment and realize the profit of today could ruin the lives of the next generation. From an economic prospect the ability to find a stable source of resources within Canada is a solution to the vulnerable state of trade with the Middle East. It is estimated that over 100 billion dollars worth of investments will happen within the next 15 years. This leads me to think that the provincial government has more responsibility for consideration towards ensuring jobs for Albertans today and less consideration for the long term effects on the environment. Also being in a capitalist society is all about money.
As a parent the future of my child is one of my biggest concerns. I am always looking for ways to help my kid build up his abilities and skills. I believe the component of Children's Arts Tax Credit is a good idea to encourage parents to help develop their creativity. Language programs, public speaking, tutoring, among other programs would bring many opportunities for children's future.
ReplyDeleteThe arts are crucial in our country and community, therefore it should be available for anyone. By improving the accessibility of this we are supporting education.
Even though parents can only claim 15% of the expenses, it is still an excellent plan to persuade parents and inspire our new generation; although I agree with this, I don’t agree with Harper lowering taxes for big corporations; leaders from the liberals and the NDP didn’t support this idea. "We find that the priorities of this government are not the priorities of ordinary Canadians, Ignatieff said.This is a government that doesn't seem to be listening to what Canadian families are telling us, he said. We're forced to reject this budget." (Fitzpatrick, 2011). It is illogic to cut taxes saving lots of money to large corporation, but instead compromising the needs of Canadians. As Jonathan Kay in the Literary Review of Canada showed in the “Wealth imbalance issue is not about envy” said “As income inequality becomes a larger and larger threat to our economy and society, politicians eventually will cast about for solutions” (McQuaig and brooks, 2010,), and this is exactly what is currently happening in the Canadian government.
By rejecting Harper’s idea, Canada will have a faster economic growth, and the money receiving from those big corporation, could be use to provide more money to seniors, single parents, education, health care, disability, unemployment, Children’s art tax credit, Caregiver tax credit, etc.
I am excited about the component for Introducing Children’s Arts Tax Credit to support Canadian families. As a parent, I spent over $1000 on arts program for my child every year. I think this policy not only help family save tax but also improve the Canadian education quality. in the same time, it also encourage Canadian families to spend the money on the good thing.
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree and support our finance minister’s plans to stay on track with the current budget he has drawn out.
ReplyDeleteThe conservatives have made it possible within the new budget, to cover the most essential programs such as providing extra income for the poorest retired of the country. Not only did hey find place in the budget for that request which most Canadians can understand the importance. The finance Minister did not stop there they are also excusing student loans for nursing students as well as doctors which was one of the Liberals and NDP main campaigns this time around. I’m sure we have all seen the stats that they are poring out on the TV. Commercials there’s 1 doctor for every 5,000 patients or something silly like that. Sure all of those programs are important but all programs also can carry out an immense cost if it’s not planned properly.
Yet somehow our finance minister was able to fit in the most essential programs and still project that we will be out of our deficit within the next few years. At which point not only our economy but the economy of other leading countries will be more stable and once again on an incline.
I have heard of some of the ideas that the liberals, the NDP and the block have come up with, such as granting student something like $1000, per semester, per student, not only does it seem like they are trying to buy votes but you don’t see them releasing how much that’s going to cost the country. Though it is a nice idea, it’s just not economically feasible to take on such a huge added debt when were already in a deficit. We can all agree that more government funded programs would be great but at what cost? No one wants taxes raised and no one wants higher interest rates. So with the tools that the finance minister has available to be able to provide the extra programs and still dig us out of debt and avoid the added expense of an election. The finance minister’s allocation of funds is being put into the right place, towards the Canadians that need it the most during this recession.