"I think it's unfair for people to aim at any one particular sector. I think the whole economy in Al

Dan Healing , July 14, 2009, Calgary Herald, CALGARY - The Ed Stelmach government should take advantage of the slowdown in oilsands development new york city travel package in Alberta to regulate the pace of growth, thus reducing costs throughout the province for a host of businesses, says former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed.
But an oilsands industry spokesman said costs are a product of the general new york city travel package Alberta economy, not just oilsands, and it would be unfair to impose limits on one player in a large construction oriented sector
Speaking at the opening of a five-day international engineering conference at the downtown Calgary Westin hotel, Lougheed said the frenetic pace of oilsands development has hurt the province by making everything new york city travel package more expensive.
“I think there were many and are many projects on the go in Alberta — there is lots of construction work of all kinds,” said Don Thompson, president new york city travel package of the Oil Sands Developers new york city travel package Group in Fort McMurray.
“I think it’s unfair new york city travel package for people to aim at any one particular sector. I think the whole economy in Alberta was and is still quite robust compared to the rest of Canada and I think a lot of people would be quite happy if their economy was as buoyant as it is in Alberta.”
“That will be hard to accomplish in the short term because so many commitments have been made but I would hope in due course the new government in Alberta would move themselves more to a more uniform development,” he said.
“I think public opinion is changing and there’s a possibility that when the current slowdown comes to an end, they may reassess their view of that. But I have no sense that they’re going to do that.”
The oilsands hold an estimated new york city travel package 173 billion barrels of crude, second in size only to Saudi Arabia’s 264 billion barrel reserve, according to Alberta Energy, which estimates exploiting Alberta’s reserves will take at least 100 years.
Oilsands mining projects that are on hold include the $21-billion Fort Hills oilsands project and upgrader proposed by Petro-Canada, Canadian new york city travel package Natural Resources Ltd.’s Horizon second phase, Shell Canada’s second expansion of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, Suncor Energy’s Voyageur South and Total SA’s proposed Joslyn mine.
The IEA still sees Canadian production topping 3.8 million bpd by 2014, which is bullish compared to other sources such as the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, which in June forecast new york city travel package 3.3 million bpd by 2015 under its most optimistic growth scenario.