Alberta is the Canadian province generating most of the country’s revenue with one industry: oil. Alberta is home to the Athabasca oil sands, which is known to be the second biggest oil reserve in the entire world. The province of Alberta thrives on its oil industry, and generates more revenue into Canada than any other industry. The Canadian dollar, in fact, is affected more by the country’s oil industry than any other. This has made the Alberta oil industry into its own culture, politics and economy.
The recent controversy over Alberta’s wealth of oil is that the money generated by the oil industry largely stays within Alberta. The country’s socialist mentality hardly extends to the distribution of money that the oil industry of Alberta brings in. Critics of this policy wonder why a valuable natural resource such as oil does not generate revenue that circulates throughout Canada more than it does. Oil workers take their hard earned money outside of Alberta, of course, but there is no federal regulation on oil funds that distributes that revenue to other provinces.
Conservative supporters of this practice claim that the separation between provinces is beneficial in distinguishing different jurisdictions of economic regions and keeping the money close to its source. Liberal critics of this practice claim that the distribution of oil money through out Canada is far more in tune with its other socialist policies, such as health insurance. The controversy boils down to a debate over separatism verses socialism.
It is the opinion of this blogger that Alberta’s wealth of finances be circulated throughout Canada to boost the country’s economy and share one of Canada’s most valuable natural resource with its countrymen. A naturally occurring substance such as oil should belong to the economics of an entire country rather than being hoarded within one jurisdiction. Canada would benefit enormously from a reevaluation of where the financial prosperity of Alberta is distributed.
The substance abuse that comes from the oil industry, unfortunately, is a common problem. Concerns of not being able to combat it properly without the proper support in place, is something that should be enhanced upon through professional intervention focused on mental health.