X

Wealth Wasted

By Jay Taber

As reported in The Tyee, the Alberta Tar Sands bitumen proposed for shipment to China via Port Metro Vancouver would be more wisely and profitably piped as oil through existing pipelines to underutilized refineries in Eastern Canada. Compared to Norway’s oil resource management, the Province of Alberta, says reporter Mitchell Anderson, has failed miserably. Where Norway has used its oil profits to provide full employment and healthcare, free university tuition, universal daycare and 25 days of paid holidays per year, Alberta — which collects petroleum rents for 70% of Canada’s production — has posted its seventh consecutive deficit, frittering away $20 billion in past oil wealth without saving a dime.