Here in Canada, the federal election campaign has given rise to a phony discussion about how this country can meet its targets for reducing domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Instead of asking how Canada can contribute to a safer, fairer and greener planet, politicians try to out-virtue-signal each other by vowing to get tough on the oil industry.
What the politicians will not admit is that, whichever party wins the Sept. 20 election, production in the oil sands is likely to continue to increase for at least a decade or more. A June forecast by IHS Markit predicted oil sands output of more than 3.6 million barrels a day by 2030, up 650,000 barrels from this year. The completion this year of Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline and the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) by the end of 2022 will increase export capacity by almost a million barrels a day. And higher oil prices will encourage Alberta producers to fill it.