Few industries have the capacity to drive economic growth and employment through private investment and exports the way Canada’s oil and natural gas industry can. In 2019, the industry already supported 500,000 good Canadian jobs, and with the right policies supporting a sustainable, growing and competitive industry, it could do more.
A working group of experts from industry and government joined together in 2018 to conduct a study the economic impacts of a competitive oil and natural gas industry. Among other things, they found the right set of policies could create 120,000 new jobs and increase government revenues that could be used to fight the deficit and fund social programs, all with an emphasis on clean technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With Canada looking for a post-COVID economic recovery, it’s an idea whose time has come.
