Editorial
As it has been for decades, the oilpatch remains the biggest economic driver in Alberta, generating more revenue than any other industry, creating jobs and funding heath care, education and other social programs.
In West Central Alberta, the oil industry helps support infrastructure through taxation and jobs, representing an important part of the economic well-being of the area's counties and other municipalities.
Yet as the Plains Midstream oil leak on the Red Deer River near Sundre a year ago shows, there are also significant risks associated with having oil transported to market from the oilfields in the region.
When hundreds of thousands of litres of sour crude oil poured into the river from a ruptured pipeline, it created an environmental disaster of the first order, impacting residents all along the waterway, impacts that in some case continue to this day.
The investigations into the Sundre spill and into other recent spills elsewhere in the province are ongoing, with Albertans anxiously awaiting the findings and hoping that similar spills can be prevented.
Despite the spills, the fact remains that for the petroleum industry to function and thrive, the oil itself needs to be transported from the oilfields to customers in Alberta, Canada and other countries, in particular our neighbour to the south.
As such, making the transportation of oil both economically viable and environmentally safe is an ongoing challenge that must be met, for the sake of this region and for Alberta.
Wild Rose Conservative MP Blake Richards, whose riding includes a large part of West Central Alberta, has come out in support of a proposal to build a massive new pipeline from Western Canada to the East Coast.
The TransCanda Energy East pipeline project would see more than a million barrels of Alberta and Saskatchewan oil transported to refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick every day.
“For Albertans, currently forced to take lower than global market value for our resources, increased pipeline capacity is the key to unlocking significant investment, growth and long-term prosperity,” said Richards.
“At the end of the day we must explore all available options. Without pipelines to open new markets, our provincial and federal governments are losing billions in potential revenue, our economy stands to forfeit billions more in investment, and thousands of high-paying, quality jobs will not be created.”
The oil industry is and will very likely remain vital to the economic health of Alberta and this region for many years to come. As such this proposed new pipeline project is worth supporting – conditional, of course, on it being environmentally sound.
