Canadian Energy Centre
A Matter of Fact: How the oil sands benefits Canadians
SAGD oil sands project in northern Alberta. Photo courtesy Cenovus Energy
From the Canadian Energy Centre
By Deborah JaremkoIndustry contributes $9 billion to $10 billion per year to government revenues across the country
The oil sands industry in northern Alberta is one of Canada’s most important resources.
The industry provides reliable energy supply as well as jobs, taxes and government revenues that help pay for services like roads, schools and hospitals across the country.
Here are the facts.
Government Revenues
Using Statistics Canada data, CEC Research calculated gross revenues to federal, provincial and municipal governments from the oil and gas industry between 2000 and 2021.
This includes personal and corporate federal and provincial income taxes, indirect taxes, royalties, and crown lease payments.
Over the last two decades the oil and gas industry, including the oil sands, contributed $578.7 billion to governments across the country.
Of this, the oil sands sector itself contributed an estimated $195 billion to $210 billion, or about $9 billion to $10 billion per year.
That’s enough revenue to pay for three new hospitals every year, considering the new hospital and cancer centre being built in Surrey, B.C. comes at a cost of $2.88 billion.
Government contributions from Canada’s oil sands sector are expected to rise over the coming decades.
Under a conservative scenario where the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price benchmark averages US$60 per barrel, Canadian government revenues from the oil sands are expected to rise from US$12.1 billion in 2023 to US$19.4 billion in 2050.
That would mean an oil sands contribution of over US$420 billion to Canadian governments over the next three decades.
Boost to the economy
The oil and gas sector broadly accounts for about 5.5 per cent of economic activity in Canada, averaging $104 billion in annual GDP between 2016 and 2021, according to Statistics Canada and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP).
Over that period, the oil sands alone contributed about 3 per cent of Canada’s total economic activity, or an average $54 billion per year.
Jobs
In 2020, Canada’s overall oil and gas industry supported nearly 600,000 jobs across Canada, according to the federal government.
The oil sands sector alone supported 166,000 jobs across the country that year, according to analysis by Prism Economics and CAPP.
Suppliers across the country
The oil sands may be located in Alberta, but it is supported by companies across Canada. In 2019, more than 2,300 companies around the country did direct business with the oil sands, including 1,887 in Ontario and Quebec.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s campus in Nanjing, China
From the Canadian Energy Centre
Canada inches away from first large-scale LNG exports
The world’s leading producer of semiconductor chips wants access to Canadian energy as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly advances.
Specifically, Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) produces at least 90 per cent of advanced chips in the global market, powering tech giants like Apple and Nvidia.
Taiwanese companies together produce more than 60 per cent of chips used around the world.
That takes a lot of electricity – so much that TSMC alone is on track to consume nearly one-quarter of Taiwan’s energy demand by 2030, according to S&P Global.
“We are coming to the age of AI, and that is consuming more electricity demand than before,” said Harry Tseng, Taiwan’s representative in Canada, in a webcast hosted by Energy for a Secure Future.
According to Taiwan’s Energy Administration, today coal (42 per cent), natural gas (40 per cent), renewables (9.5 per cent) and nuclear (6.3 per cent), primarily supply the country’s electricity.
The government is working to phase out both nuclear energy and coal-fired power.
“We are trying to diversify the sources of power supply. We are looking at Canada and hoping that your natural gas, LNG, can help us,” Tseng said.
Canada is inches away from its first large-scale LNG exports, expected mainly to travel to Asia.
The Coastal GasLink pipeline connecting LNG Canada is now officially in commercial service, and the terminal’s owners are ramping up natural gas production to record rates, according to RBN Energy.
RBN analyst Martin King expects the first shipments to leave LNG Canada by early next year, setting up for commercial operations in mid-2025.
Cenovus Energy’s Sunrise oil sands project in northern Alberta
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