Dear Editor,
A lot of social justice and environmental organizations throughout the world are not applauding Prime Minister Marc Carney or Premier Danielle Smith for their recent agreement to build another pipeline to the West Coast. First Nations and the B.C. government are against this, and Carney assures Canadians that Alberta will have to implement carbon capture to offset the environmental impacts. We have yet to see if the Pathways carbon capture program will net any positive results, or whether it is greenwashing by the petroleum companies.
I hate to say it but it appears that the federal government is postponing their climate goals in favour of economic goals. I struggle to put this in perspective, due to the multitude of issues we face in these tumultuous times.
While Canada is the world’s fourth-largest crude oil exporter and supplies about $85 billion to $100 billion of U.S. imports, despite Trump’s assertion that they need nothing from Canada. They purchase our crude at a low price, refine it and sell it at a profit. In the 1970s, Premier Peter Lougheed’s government had proposed the idea to refine the tar sands crude at home in Alberta so it would maximize the value from the oil sands. This would have kept the refining capacity on home soil along with the majority of the profits. But it never happened.
In addition to purchasing our crude oil cheaply, American investors and equity owners control roughly 59 per cent of Canadian fossil fuel assets, meaning a substantial portion of profits from Canadian resources ultimately flow to the U.S. So even if we build another pipeline to tidewater in order to export to Asia and other non-USA places, we are still assisting the USA companies who already own the majority of the profits from the tar sands. But it is what it is.
Several major U.S. oil and gas companies operate in Alberta, including ExxonMobil Canada. The parent company owns roughly a 69.6 per cent stake in Imperial Oil, which is a massive Canadian integrated energy company. Imperial operates major oil sands and holds a significant ownership share in Syncrude. Other companies include Conoco-Phillips, Murphy Pol and Chevron and Ovintiv.
Additionally, U.S. institutional investors hold majority ownership in Alberta’s “Big Four” domestic producers – Canadian Natural Resources, Suncor Energy, and Cenovus Energy-which control the vast majority of Alberta’s oil sands production.
The only operating crude oil pipeline to tidewater in British Columbia is the Trans Mountain, which is owned by the Government of Canada through the federal Crown corporation, Trans Mountain Corporation. For natural gas, the Coastal GasLink pipeline is the primary route to the coast. It is owned by a partnership consisting of TC Energy, investment firm KKR, and the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), with an equity stake being acquired by select Indigenous communities along the route.
Because the largest oil sands producers are majority foreign-owned (predominantly by U.S. shareholders), a large portion of these corporate profits (60 per cent) leave Canada. This should be all the evidence we need to have our government change the situation in favour of Canadians for our collective future. We should cease and desist seeking foreign investment in favour of Canadian owned investment for our resources. But that’s another chapter…
Paul Strome
Antigonish