Alberta’s oil wealth fuels tensions in Canada

With the increase in world energy prices, Alberta’s growing capacity to attract professionals and investors, and to shape Canada’s economic agenda. is stirring resentment elsewhere in the nation, sparking a fight that could do more to shake national unity than 40 years of separatist strife in French-speaking Quebec.

Alberta’s oil riches, and what to do about them, have become a campaign issue in Canada’s Jan. 23 national election. The province’s oil sands contain reserves estimated at 175 billion barrels, surpassed only by Saudi Arabia. The oil will generate $543 billion (U.S.) in additional income over the next 20 years, three times its gross domestic product, according to a report by the Canadian Energy Research Institute.

The Buffalo News