Canada can’t lose focus on energy projects – by Gwyn Morgan (Globe and Mail – October 21, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

A recent Credit Suisse report offers a startling snapshot of the relationship between American and Canadian personal wealth. For 2013, U.S. median personal wealth sits at $44,900 (U.S.), while in Canada it stands at $90,300. Part of that dramatic difference is thanks to Canada’s relatively untroubled housing market in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, but the fundamental factor is the country’s robust economic performance.

And Canada achieved this thanks to its rich endowment of natural resources. While both countries have lost manufacturing jobs to China, new Canadian jobs were being created to supply China’s appetite for energy, metals and lumber.

Canada is the world’s sixth-largest oil producer, third-largest natural gas producer and third-largest producer of hydroelectricity. In mining, it is the top potash producer, second-largest uranium producer, third-largest aluminum producer and ranks as one of the world’s top five producers of other key minerals and metals.

In 2011, the resource sector employed 1.6 million people, directly and indirectly, and generated $233-billion in export revenues, according to Natural Resources Canada.As well, companies plan to invest a staggering $650-billion in hundreds of Canadian resource development projects over the next decade.

A study by economic research firm Informetrica, cited in a Natural Resources Canada report prepared for a meeting last year of the country’s mining and energy ministers, noted that the cumulative 10-year impact of these projects would add a staggering $1.4-trillion to Canada’s GDP and create an average of 600,000 new jobs per year.

The projects are aimed at fast-growing Asian economies; however, as the report warned, “Canada has a significant opportunity to capture these new markets … but we face stiff opposition. To fully realize Canada’s tremendous resource potential and planned investments, governments must continue to collaborate and put in place the most effective measures to enable investment and responsible resource development.”

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