Eastern Canada Vulnerable to Oil Shortages
New Report Calls for Canada to Set Up Strategic Petroleum Reserves
EDMONTON
Canada is currently the most vulnerable country in the industrial world
to short-term oil supply crises, and we need to establish strategic petroleum
reserves to remedy the problem. This is the key finding of a report released
today by Alberta’s Parkland Institute in conjunction with the Polaris Institute.
Freezing in the Dark: Why Canada Needs Strategic Petroleum Reserves points out
the precariousness of current global oil supplies, especially given current
tensions in the Middle East, and fact that Canada imports close to 1 million
barrels of oil per day to supply the needs of central and eastern provinces.
“We are virtually the only country in the industrial world without strategic
petroleum reserves,” says Gordon Laxer, a political economist at the U of A and
author of the report. “The combination of our energy commitments under NAFTA
and the north-south flow of our pipelines virtually guarantees that Eastern
Canada will face shortages during global supply shocksthis puts Canadians at risk.”
Canada imports 40% of the oil it uses, with almost half of that coming from OPEC
countries. This makes Canada very susceptible on a volatile region for a
significant portion of its oil supply. And there are simply no pipelines or
infrastructure in place to get Alberta oil to Eastern Canada in case of a crisis.
“The sad reality is that our government continues to prioritize the energy
security of the United States despite the needs of Canadians,” says Polaris
Institute Director Tony Clarke.
Ricardo Acuña, Executive Director of Parkland Institute, points out that
“Albertans will argue that there is enough oil in the tarsands to supply for all
of Canada’s needs well into the future, but unfortunately people in Ontario,
Quebec and the Atlantic provinces do not have access to that oilit all flows
south.”
Beyond making the case for strategic petroleum reserves, the report goes into
detail about what function they would serve, what they would look like, and
where they could be located.
This study represents one part of the ongoing work being done by both Parkland
and Polaris to develop a Canadian energy security strategy which will meet the
environmental, economic and energy needs of Canadians over the long term.
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Freezing in the Dark: Why Canada Needs Strategic Petroleum Reserves (full report
and/or executive summary) is available on the Parkland Institute web site:
http://www.ualberta.ca/parkland
