The Alberta oilpatch has been in disarray ever since global oil prices collapsed in the middle of 2014, causing thousands of job losses
OTTAWA — At a crowded lunch event in Calgary on Thursday, former prime minister Jean Chrétien downplayed tensions between western provinces and Ottawa. Separatist sentiments have persisted in Quebec and Western provinces for as long as anyone can remember, he shrugged. “I’ve had to live with that all my life,” Chrétien said. Former prime minister Stephen Harper, on the same stage with Chrétien, could not have been more starkly opposed.
That has in turn extended Canadian companies’ long dependence on U.S. buyers, and forced them to sell their oil at a steep discount compared to competitors. With little bargaining power, Canadian firms have had to sell their barrels for as much as US$40 less than their American counterparts. And those discounts persist today: the price for Western Canadian Select , a Canadian heavy oil benchmark, was trading at US$34 per barrel on Friday compared with US$55 for American blends.
At the same time, the Liberal government also passed Bill C-48, which bars oil tankers from docking along the B.C. coast north of Vancouver, eliminating any hope of building a new pipeline in the region while the legislation exists.Oil producers have also faced increased pressure from perhaps a more troublesome foe: environmentalist groups seeking to outright shut down bitumen extraction.
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