Editor, The Times:
“Alberta's nearest refinery cost levelling out at $8.5 billion” – an item way in the back of a Vancouver newspaper.
This project has been in the pipes for at least 10 years. However my friend in Cumberland, who keeps track of everything oil, pointed out that information on this proposed super refinery was very hard to come by.
A couple of years back there was a concerted effort to promote the idea that no more refining should be done in Canada.
No, all of Alberta's tar should be pushed down the Northern Gateway – Keystone Kops XL or any other pipeline, to be refined elsewhere – in the deep South of the U.S. of A or in China.
Certain organizations, such as the Fraser-Macdonald-Laurier 'think tanks,' pushed this idea right to the limit. On the pages of the Financial Post some columnists made a case that all of Canada's resources – logs, minerals, bitumen – should be shipped raw – no refining, sawing or whatever.
In the words of John Michael Greer in "Decline and Fall," Canadians should participate in the 'looting' or their own resources.
As everyone knows, there has been great anguish in the oil patch. Our great ally Saudi Arabia, in its campaign to destroy the fracking industry, has drastically lowered the price of oil.
However (and you don't hear much about this), the one sector that is making money, due to the low price of raw oil, is the refining sector. It is going 'great guns,' to use an old expression.
So there is an obvious reason why Alberta's newest refinery, despite its $8.5 billion price tag, is going ahead.
Sure puts the lie to what those Calgary petro-thugs and that useless bunch at the CPPA (Canadian Petroleum Producers Association) wanted to do.
Also it's more in line with what the Rachel Notley NDP government has expressed – although one has to ask why did Notley show disappointment at Barack Obama’s turndown of that Keystone Kops' nonsense.
That decision of Obama's Democrats was one of the best things that's ever happened to Canada.
Dennis Peacock
Clearwater, B.C.