One of the contentious issues in this federal election has been our country鈥檚 economic reliance on oil. Now that oil is in the tank, price-wise, some people are questioning if it was so wise to put so much of our economy in this fickle industry.
Indeed, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair said, 鈥淪tephen Harper hasn鈥檛 just put all our eggs in one basket 鈥� he鈥檚 dropped the basket.鈥�
That鈥檚 a curious notion. The implication here is that we depend so much on oil now, when it drops, the whole economy drops. Therefore one would infer we shouldn鈥檛 have so much of our economy dependent on oil.
We鈥檝e heard this song before. In Saskatchewan, since the province鈥檚 founding, the key industry has always been wheat 鈥� 鈥淜ing wheat.鈥� We鈥檙e the breadbasket, they said. Well that鈥檚 great. What happens when world markets don鈥檛 want to pay more than a pittance, when rail or dockworkers go on strike?What about when wheat midge decimates crops?
Diversify, we were told. Different crops 鈥� canola, faba beans, lentils, canary seed 鈥� anything but wheat. So we have, and we鈥檝e had some success in that regards. But it鈥檚 still farming, and drought, flood, pestilence, hail or frost, all put the crops at risk. And since farming is so much more efficient, with giant tractors, air seeders and combines, hardly any people are needed to farm anymore, so a lot of people needed to find other work.
What about mining? We developed, in Saskatchewan, a world-leading potash sector. In Alberta, they mine for oil, in these things called the oilsands. Hey, it鈥檚 not wheat.
Canada鈥檚 economy has, for generations, been dependent upon industries like agriculture, forestry, mining, fishing and manufacturing. We鈥檝e already talked about the perils of agriculture. What happens when softwood lumber policies and a shift to paperless offices shut down mills across the country? When was the last time you heard of a new forestry-related mill opening, anywhere in the country?
What about when the cod disappear? And finally, when the big automakers shut down factories in Ontario and reopen in Mexico, what then? There鈥檚 hardly any auto sector left in this country, compared to a few decades ago.
Yet it was precisely then that we started seeing a diversification in this country, not to different crops, but to a much more powerful industry 鈥� oil. My stepdad worked in Fort McMurray in the 1970s when the oilsands were first being developed. This was an entirely new industry. No one had done this before. Conventional oil production, at the time, was thought to be doomed to wither and die (remember 鈥減eak oil?). The oilsands allowed us to exploit what was hitherto a non-factor. Now they鈥檙e considered the third largest reserves of petroleum in the world.
Similarly, Newfoundland was the economic basket case since it joined confederation due to its reliance on fishing. Off-shore oil development, from just a handful of platforms, mind you, made Newfoundland a have province.
Diversification? What did we have left when the local pulp mill closed, the last cod boat tied up to the wharf, and the last Sterling truck rolled off the line? Thank God we did have the petroleum industry to buoy this economy. We can鈥檛 all work at Starbucks or Tim Hortons. Every Canadian can鈥檛 work in the service industry. The oil industry has been the diversification from the drawers of water and hewers of wood stereotypes we needed, as those sectors collapsed. Oil is what has kept the people, and the province, of Newfoundland and Labrador a铿� oat. Oil is what built Calgary and Edmonton into million-people-plus cities.
Was it wrong to develop the most valuable, versatile, sought-after commodity on the planet, one that we have more of than almost anyone else?
Or should we just leave it in the ground, and hope some-thing better will come along?
