Bubblin' Crud

I hope Alberta is happy. For years they sucked off the teat of Ontario, accepting millions of dollars in 'equalization' payments until they struck it rich in natural gas, tar sands (nice try on rebranding to oil sands...it's tar ya bastards) and everything else that is bad for the environment. Then, they circled the wagons and refused to share their new found wealth with the rest of Canada. Except, their new found wealth isn't really wealth after all. It's an illusion. And as far as I'm concerned, they can stuff it up their bitumen.

Say these three words to any Albertan over the age of 20, and watch the veins pop out of their forehead - national energy policy. No way were they gonna share their royalties with the rest of us losers. But look at 'em go now, selling themselves, along with OUR WATER down the river to America. All those pipelines they're building...they run to the good ol' US of A. And for every barrel of oil produced, the Alberta government collects a whopping royalty of $1. $1!!!! Oil is selling for over a hundred bucks a barrel! Even worse, for every 1 barrel they produce, they use 8 barrels of water, OUR WATER, to extract crude from that crud. If that weren't bad enough, it takes 1 barrel of oil to produce 2 barrels of oil from the tar sands. WTF? Who the hell is doing the books in Alberta?

Clearly, no one with a sense of sustainability. Or who can add for that matter.

Alberta's all about the tax base. It's all about those feeder industries - pipe makers, heavy machinery builders, Tim Horton's and Wal-Mart - that are helping fill the coffers with money, as their natural wonders are rapidly being turned into moonscapes. Never mind that the number of homeless is growing exponentially in this boom province, that thousands are living below the poverty line while Suncor and Exxon rack up profits. Never mind that dozens of native people living in remote settlements in northern Alberta are contracting rare, never before heard of bile duct cancers. It surely has nothing to do with the open pits of water and bitumen sluice that dot the landscape along the newly paved highway into their villages. We should be ashamed that it took this kind of environmental degradation to pave a lousy highway.

Well, this too shall pass (how naive a statement is that??!!). But when it's over, and you're all living with Mad Max in your self-constructed dystopia, don't coming knocking on Ontario's door. Been there, done that. You're on your own.