Oil sands

Time for the fine print or a closer look at some of the stories in the news this week.

Well, in a pretty quick sign of how soon policy can shift business interests, the federal government's green light of the new Pacific Link pipeline from Alberta's oil sands to export markets just last week has clearly increased interest in the resources of that region.

This week, oil sands giant Synovus Energy said it will acquire its smaller rival, Athabasca Oil, for $5.7 billion.

It increases its commitment to Alberta's oil sands, and that includes some undeveloped oil potential of Athabasca's.

Meanwhile, Suncor Energy is selling its interests in offshore Newfoundland oil assets to UK-based Ithaca.

It's a move that also allows Suncor to focus its attention on its oil sands assets, including investing in them to make them more productive.

Given how recently there was talk about locked-in assets in the oil sands and projections of falling global consumption globally, it's a pretty serious about-face for the resource and the

region.

That's just the way it is.

And when I first started in media, I remember going to the oil sands in Fort McMurray, the infamous oil sands, to do a story and just find out more for myself about what it was really all about.

And if you haven't seen it in person, and probably most of you have not, it's hard to describe because it's kind of, it's impressive.

And when I say impressive, it's, it's monolithic.

And I went to the oil sands in the dead of winter early, early, early in the morning, so it was dark out.

It was about minus 30, minus 35.

It was so cold there were ice crystals in the air.

And it's just this massive sort of field, uh, this operation that kind of goes as far as the eye can see with, you know, artificial lighting everywhere and people working 24/7 and driving these huge earth-moving vehicles that were as big as, like, small walk-up apartment buildings.

I believe most of the people on the band work in the mine or with the mining company.

I know up at the Oil Sands, they employ something like 1,800 Aboriginal people.

And most of the people there, I think, are quite satisfied.

I understand they have very nice homes.

They make good living.

They have real jobs.

And I remember years ago in Calvin Halen's book, Dancing with Dependencies, he was talking about how the Oil Sands people were interested in helping Aboriginal people gain very high educational standards, like in engineering and the sciences.

These are very difficult subjects for everybody.

What they need to do is because we need our tea right now.

The reason we are not in a diesel crisis in the United States is because of Canada's oil sands.

That great pipeline going into our Gulf Coast refineries and the Jones Act is keeping us moving right now as a country.

Even though we're at $6, it is $13 a gallon equivalent in Europe right now.