As you can see below oil sands cover an extremely large part of Alberta and that resource is going to be extracted. The question is how? The two most common ways of separate the oil from the sand in the Alberta Oil / Tar Sands is to boil it or put it under pressure while still in the ground. Oil that is on or near the surface is scrapped up by massive loaders and transported to ‘upgrader’ facilities that separate…
Take a look at the Canadian oil production forecasts below notice that the predictions from 2010 have been UNDER-estimated. As you can see even with the 2014 oil price collapse oil sands production just kept chugging along. Some have speculated that the tar/oil sands are like any other extractive industry and they will naturally produce less over time because the ‘easy’ oil is taken up first, leaving the more difficult and expensive oil to later years. Oil Sands production has…
In a word, yes. While conventional oil production in Alberta has been at the same level for years, Alberta’s oil sands have hit yet another production record and the oil will move one way or another. As you can see in the chart below, Canada is out of pipeline capacity so that leaves, truck and rail. On October 18, 2018 the CEO of CP Rail said he expects to “match or exceed its record 2014 pace of 110,000 crude carloads…
There is much hype on the so-called “non-market” clause in the USMCA (aka. NAFTA 2.0): ‘Astonishing’ clause in new deal suggests Trump wants leverage over Canada-China trade talks: experts SOURCE Chinese embassy in Canada condemns ‘US veto’ clause in North America trade deal SOURCE Beijing attacks USMCA clause seen as blocking efforts to expand trade with Canada, Mexico SOURCE Alarm bells ring over non-market economy clause SOURCE and it many political opponents wrote things like: Conservative MP Michael Chong accused…
There are many quotes from the Alberta United Conservative Party that effectively say, the Alberta NDP caused their own oil pipeline mess by empowering those that oppose the oil industry: How was someone like Tzeporah Berman named co-chair of the ‘Oil Sands Advisory Group’ given her clear positions BEFORE appointment? Outrageous that the NDP ever chose to validate and raise the profile of someone like Tzeporah Berman – Jason Kenny Source Before we go any further, you should know my personal…
We have two versions (full and highlights) of Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s speech to the Alberta Teachers Association conference in Edmonton in which she explains that the Trans Mountain Pipeline will not cause increased carbon emissions because: The demand for oil will increase through 2045 and that demand will be met by the environmentally disastrous Russia’s, Nigerian’s or Venezuelan’s if Canada does not produce it Unlike nearly every other oil producing jurisdiction on the globe, Alberta has set carbon emissions limits…
It is conventional wisdom that large vehicle sales (like pickup trucks, large SUV’s and full size sedans) crash when the price of gasoline spikes. This is an “proof” offered by some on the left that carbon taxes reduce consumption. We wanted to find out if this is true and what is affecting the trends. Take a look at these two tables. They show average vehicle fuel economy of VEHICLES ACTUALLY ON THE ROAD in several different categories along with the…
In many parts of Canada and United States there is a drive to a minimum wage of $15/hour. Some places like San Francisco and Alberta have already at that historic rate. While all but the most ardent on the political right have little issue with very existence of a minimum wage, the question has been what should it the minimum wage be? You can click the map to the right to see the minimum wages that are being paid in…
Nearly two years ago we wrote an article in our sister site URTech.ca explaining that Machine Learning and AI companies are increasingly putting their resources in the area along Canada’s 401 highway through heavily populated area’s of Quebec and Ontario. The so called Toronto – Montreal Corridor actually extends from Waterloo Ontario to Montreal, but no-one outside of the region knows where Waterloo is so we just say Toronto, Montreal. Today we are astounded by the variety and quality of education,…
In case our detailed article on the budget and buildings was too much, this simplified version explains the Calgary 2026 Winter Olympic bid in pictures and graphics: CLICK ON ANY GRAPHIC TO MAKE IT LARGER 1: Calgary 2026 Olympic Venues CLICK ON ANY GRAPHIC TO MAKE IT LARGER 2: Calgary 2026 Olympic Budgets CLICK ON ANY GRAPHIC TO MAKE IT LARGER 3: Calgary 2026 Olympics Scale & Timeline CLICK ON ANY GRAPHIC TO MAKE IT LARGER 4: Calgary 2026…
The first rough budget, presented to City Council in the summer of 2017, for the Calgary 2026 Winter Olympic Bid was CDN $4.6B. (Click the pie chart to the right). After spending about $30 Million on a more formal evaluation, a more thoughtful budget of CDN $5.23B was presented to Calgary Council in September 2019. Here is a breakdown of the proposed spending. NOTE: Be sure to skim through Calgary 2026 Winter Games Construction, Scale, Support & Budget In Pictures What Calgary…
On September 12, 2018 the City of Calgary authorized a plebiscite (special vote by citizens) to decide if Calgary should proceed with it’s Olympic bid so we decided to find our how far off the final official budgets were from the actual costs. The numbers are staggering. Below is a table we constructed that includes the “final budget” numbers and budget overruns for every Olympics since 1976. UPDATE: Sept 19 2018 Calgary 2026 Winter Games Construction, Scale, Support & Budget In…
This question of support for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project by Rachel Notley’s Alberta NDP and Justin Trudeau’s Liberals has been bandied around for a few years now. The answer is obvious. Trudeau’s liberals bought the pipeline for $4.5 Billion dollars and Notley’s NDP said they want to buy in. Further, both of them have spent more political capital on this one issue than any other. Do the math! For those that still believe that Trudeau and Notley are secretly…
Pictures say a thousand words and that has never been more true than with the images used to explain the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) project. News sources typically use massive stacks of pipe or gigantic multi-tier above ground pipelines as their backdrop for reporting on TMX. Humans ingest and trust what they see much more than what they hear. The reality is that the Trans Mountain Pipeline EXPANSION is just 61cm (24″ inches) in diameter that is buried underground…
The recent Federal Court decision holding up the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project makes for great political debate and emotional exaggeration but is not nearly as onerous as many people are make out. Put simply the decision said just two things: Consultation that has already been COMPLETED needs to respond to concerns, not just acknowledge them There needs to be a short study of the impacts of Tanker traffic in the Vancouver area Neither of these are hugely difficult or…
For many years I have argued that the solution to high health care costs with universal access is “Single Payer” with “Private Providers”. In other-words, the government collecting taxes from everyone for prescribed services though provided private health care companies that compete for those dollars through their own hospitals, clinics, home care… . And before you get your twitter-rage up, yes, I know that “prescribed services” is a particularly thorny phase that will cause many to recoil, but I think we…