“No matter how much we reduce output from our oil and gas sector, there will always be another country to fill the market void.

“Other countries, regardless of our own environmental concerns, will continue to extract oil and natural gas at the expense of economic growth and business opportunities in Canada.”

The majority of Canadians (59 per cent) agree either strongly or somewhat with that viewpoint, according to a new survey conducted for public policy firm secondstreet.org.

“While many Canadians support efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, we thought it would be interesting to examine if people have thought more deeply about this concept – what happens if Canada keeps its oil in the ground?” says Second Street study author James Skinner.

He says the survey results illustrate that Canadians understand our country’s role in global energy production.

“Data from both BP and the [U.S. Energy Information Administration] suggest the world would not go without if Canada scaled back its production. Instead, the world would simply purchase more oil from other nations, as the two organizations expect global demand for oil will continue to rise for decades to come.”

Recent explosive growth in the U.S. is a perfect example, Skinner says. Despite Canada’s continued abandonment of resource projects such as the Teck Frontier oil sands mine, since 2008 U.S. crude oil production has surged 140 per cent while gas output has grown 55 per cent.

That growth has meant a lot of job creation south of the border. The U.S. — which is now the world’s largest oil and gas producer — added 95,000 oil and gas jobs between 2009 to 2018 compared to just 1,610 new jobs in Canada, according to Canadian Energy Centre research.

Skinner says one should also note that Russia is currently proceeding with a significant new oil project in the arctic that is expected to cost US$157 billion, or approximately $219 billion Canadian.

“For perspective, that’s roughly 10 times larger than the $21 billion Teck oil sands mine that was shelved in Canada earlier this year,” Skinner said.

The public opinion survey was conducted by Leger Research with 1,538 adult Canadians between March 13 and March 16, 2020. Respondents were drawn from Leger’s research panel, which Second Street says has proven to be a representative sample of the broader Canadian population.

For full survey findings, click here.

There’s a story from Vern Janvier’s childhood that has played a big part in who he is today.

“Back when there was not much here and we were living a traditional, subsistence lifestyle, my grandfather was hunting with his family in the bush, and one of his daughters – my aunt – got really sick,” he says, recounting a painful part of his family’s history.

“He tried everything he could, but he didn’t have any medicine to give her and she ended up passing away. He had to carry her body for two days back to the community. That’s why my grandfather always said that we need to be partners with the others who are here – for the health of our people, we need the money that brings stability and opportunities for our people.”

Janvier says his grandfather’s words have guided much of his life, first as he pursued jobs on natural gas projects in northern Alberta in the early 1980s, then as a successful entrepreneur in the oil and gas services industry, and now as chief of the Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation, located 120 kilometres southeast of Fort McMurray.

“The forest, the rivers, the land, is still very important to us for hunting and fishing and the traditional aspects of our culture, but those things are not how we make our living and pay for all the needs of our community,” he says. “Now we own drilling rigs, we run camps – we have a lot of employment and the industry is what has taken us into the future.”

Janvier is supportive of Teck Resources’ proposed Frontier oil sands mine, which is awaiting a regulatory decision from the federal government. Although it would be located approximately 200 kilometres north of his community, Janvier expects the project will generate much-needed opportunities for the community-owned companies that may service the project.

“The decline of the industry up here is kicking us hard,” he says. “A lot of the work has disappeared and that has affected us a lot because we rely on it for health care, to build houses for our community, for buses to get our children to school, to send our kids to university.”

Janvier points to Cenovus Energy Inc.’s recent decision to invest at least $50 million over the next five years on improved housing for his reserve and other First Nations and Metis communities near its oil sands operations as one example of how the industry is working to improve relationships with Indigenous people and maximize the benefits of oil and gas development for those living closest to it.