When the tide goes out in one part of the world, it comes in another.
A decade ago, explosive growth in the tar sands attracted workers from every corner of Canada, unintentionally costing thousands of workers in tourism and manufacturing their jobs as the value of the loonie soared.
Today, the tide has turned and jobs are being redistributed away from the tar sands towards businesses which can thrive with a devalued Canadian dollar.
Rather than attempt to resuscitate the tar sands, far better to view the low price of oil as a market driven opportunity — a golden opportunity — to transition workers into industries such as manufacturing, tourism, infrastructure repair, construction and green energy projects, which do not threaten the planet.
If Canada is to do its part to limit warming to less than 1.5 C, the Alberta tar sands and their attendant pipelines must be allowed to die a natural market death as low oil prices weed out the most expensive, GHG intensive operations on the planet.
Our only concern should be to do everything possible to help yesterday’s oil workers transition to other fields.
The tide has turned, and it couldn’t have come at better time.
Mike Ward
Duncan