EthicalOil
 

Oilsands: opening doors in Ontario

February 13th, 2012  |  By: Kathryn

Critics of Canada’s ethically produced oil often try and make it seem like the oilsands benefit only Alberta while the rest of the country is shut out. They smear an entire province along with painting the industry with a negative brush. Mike Hudema, for example, a Greenpeace campaigner calls Alberta “a rogue province that is setting all the other provinces back.”

The real picture is that the oilsands are a key industry and vibrant job creator that employs Canadians from coast to coast,  and pumps billions of dollars into our economy annually—which pays for social programs like health care and helps builds schools and hospitals.

Oilsands driven job opportunities are booming, and many of these jobs are being created outside of Alberta. In Ontario, where the crippled manufacturing industry has left thousands of people out of work and struggling, new opportunities for manufacturing oilsands equipment are sprouting.

A Reuters article published over the weekend detailed some of the incredible ways that Ontario’s struggling manufacturing sector is reinventing itself—thanks to demand created by the booming Western energy sector. Companies that once built cars and auto parts are now building equipment for oil sands work. There are 255 companies in Ontario that are now supplying the industry with gear and services.

A recent study showed that oilsands demand for products, technology, and manufacturing from Ontario companies and suppliers will amount to $55 billion over the next 25 years. That’s a lot of jobs.

Ontario isn’t alone in benefiting from the energy boom, thousands of Newfoundlanders have found good paying jobs in the oilsands and producing ethical oil on the east coast. That’s great news for a province that’s seen some some very hard times over the years.

Canada’s ethical oil doesn’t just advance the values of social justice and fairness; the oilsands also drive key economic growth and jobs coast to coast that benefits all Canadians.

  • Kleiniken

    The oilsands operations in Alberta create jobs all over North America, especially so in Canada. Welding fabricators, machine shops in Ontario produce parts for the oilsands, pay good wages and boost the economic growth of all regions, In the US oilsands production keeps refinery workers employed.

    Continentally the oilsands reduce co2 emissions by requiring less imported oil and as is pointed out you don’t have to worry about environmental concerns or blood oil as it comes from Canada which has high environmental, labour and human rights standards.

    As shallow oil deposits become rare, projects like the oilsands, facking and horizontal drilling projects become more important. We are not running out of oil any time soon but the deposits are larger, deeper and more labor intensive, which is why oilsands development is so important if we hope to maintain out standard of living.

    Another key point is that oilsands oil improved energy security in North America. OIlsands development In conjunction with fracking and horizontal drilling has enabled North America and the US to become a net energy exporter for the first time in 60 years! WE NEED MORE DOMESTIC OIL PROJECTS LIKE THE OILSANDS NOT LESS!

  • Me

    For anybody landing on this PR propaganda page, Beware. It is misleading, inaccurate, and a waste of time in the search for the ancswer to climate change, job creation. Oil production increase – as in Alberta in recent years – fits the global curve that jobs and social services are cut. Look at the current healthcare transfer payment cuts, the police state laws being enacted, calling envirnmentalists, enemies of the state, and privacy advocates, child pornographers. The fact in Albarta is that recently oil sands dirty profit rose 317%, income up 38%, one-tenth, healthcare costs for burgeoning immigrants from other provinces and abroad, up only 28% in same period, quality falling fast, and education for smart energy and future technology (not 19th C grunt oil mechanics) up only 2%.

    Ethical oil, socalled, requires the maintenance and creation of conflict elsewhare (Harper wants 65 F35 fighter jets, and is building billions of dollars of military vessels) in order to remain relatively ‘ethical’. With no socalled conflict oil, there is no moniker of ethical oil, hence aggression and oppression in other oil producing countries, many of which, Syria and Libya, had until recently billions of dollars of investment and billions of profit sharing dollars with dictators. those profits from Suncor and PetroCanada invested in the oil sands. So where is the real conflict? Whare are the ethics?

    The only profit history shows for publics is waking up in a clean and habitable world. Corporate profits are way up in oil and what trickles down….? Well we know what trickle means. Nada.

  • http://twitter.com/CavesofAltamira Jeremy Nathan Marks

    I’m sorry but I’m not convinced by a PR job that simply repeats “Ethical Oil” like a litany in a prayer. And I’m also not convinced by a PR job that claims that criticizing the oil sands is equivalent to smearing the province of Alberta. That is ridiculous and objectively false. You are suggesting that all Albertans believe in the “Ethical Oil” myth and that is false. You are also suggesting that the needs of the oil industry are identical to those of all Albertans which is also false. And you are also trying to convince residents of other provinces that what is good for the industry is good for them as well. Again, where’s the proof?

    How does it advance the cause of social justice and fairness when the Harper Government simply dismisses those who oppose expansion of the oil sands project as “Enemies of the Government of Canada?” Where is the actual debate about the ethics of so-called “Ethical Oil?” How do you have a debate about the future of this country’s natural heritage when the government vilifies anyone who doesn’t simply accept as fact that the tar sands are good and that the oil production is ethical?

  • Pingback: Kathyrn alberta | Jamesandjenniferclare

  • Shmizer

    Our petro dollar and the tar sands killed manufacturing in Ontario

  • sheila gee

    See this smart fancy lady…well on the Saudi Peninsula you couldn’t. she would be just another chunk of property. In beautiful and free Alberta, shes the mayor of a petroleum hotbed and a former industry professional. Shes one of 3 power house mayors in the province, Melissa Blake of Wood Buffalo (Fort Mac) and Linda Osinchuk in Strathcona County (upgrader country to the rest of you) are the other 2. http://www.albertaisenergy.ca/gale

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