Re-Imagination Part 2
Again with thanks to Ben Mulroney for his November 10th article that has inspired this group of posts we look at the second area of Canada that is in need of rethinking. That of our natural resources.
I live in Southern Ontario, close to Lake Erie, in a region dotted with open pit mines. We live on a limestone shelf that requires only a small depth of digging to reach. This limestone is then blasted and crushed to make the gravel and other base stone for the construction of our roads and buildings. One of the prerequisites for the building of a society, sand and gravel pits dot the Southern Ontario landscape, active ones usually blocked from view, discarded ones becoming camp grounds with swimming holes and signs warning of the dangers of the depth of water.
Many a fortune in Ontario has begun with a farm being converted into a gravel pit. Sand and gravel though do not travel well and are not a localized phenomenon. Our building blocks come from limestone, but in Florida this aggregate is dug out of the buildup of coral and shells that make up the strata of the Florida peninsula. The crushed shells are much sharper then the crushed limestone which means walking barefoot on the roads and sidewalks in Florida is less comfortable then Ontario, tires in Florida last less then Ontario for the same reason.
Other discoveries have been made in Southern Ontario such as oil in Petrolia Ontario and it’s possible to see the wells for gas that exist in Lake Erie when you are out fishing. There is also the world’s largest salt mine that is accessed in Goderich Ontario that runs for miles under Lake Huron. Havelock Ontario is known for its Nephaline deposits. Useful minerals all, none of which will have a great impact on the growth of the GDP of our country.
Having some of the world’s great deposits of oil and gas, diamonds, gold, iron ore and copper and nickel have driven the growth of Canada. We have immense deposits of coal under the BC mountains and in the high arctic. Rare earths, which aren’t that rare it seems, are found in abundance in Northern Ontario. Quebec has immense hydro electric installations providing power for much of the eastern United States. Coal, oil and gas can all be found beneath the Maritime provinces in varying amounts. a huge untapped gas deposit sits under Quebec.
Saskatchewan gives us oil and gas, potash and uranium. Manitoba make Crown Royal and has a significant portion of its land mass as the Canadian Shield. This a corpucopia of gold, silver and other minerals such as lead, copper, nickel and zinc. Our northern territories all have vast mineral potential particularly Nunavut and the Great Northern Archipelago that make up the Queen Charlotte Islands.
All of these resources and mare need to be leveraged for the benefit of Canadians. Leaving some in the ground because of some social /political nonsense masking as science only weakens us. Politicians know this, or must sense it I am certain. Many billions of people around the world do not live in countries blessed with the abundance we have. I can only begin to guess that the peoples of those countries would like to use what they have better, most require energy to grow their economies though.
While Canada has many varying deposits of extractable and saleable resources the one that singularly can help the most folks is our energy. Natural gas, oil and coal that we have in abundance can be used to lift many nations out of poverty by helping them develope and energy infrastructure not dependent of communist of socialist largess. The development of the energy infrastuctures of some developing countries is the story of China’s Belt and Road initiative stealing their future. Canada can help free those countries with our energy. While at the same time paving the way to a sustainable future here in Canada.
The energy deposits in North America are formidable. The largest current I am aware of is the Green River deposit with 3-4 trillion barrels of oil which is 10 times the deposit in the tar sands. There is a deposit of oil and gas along the edge of the rockies in Canada which our government has pegged at somewhere near a half trillion barrels which likely means double or triple that amount. The amount of energy this represents is staggering. Alberta’s oil alone represents somewhere between 50 and 100 trillion dollars of value which if developed and sold to the world market could provide a balanced budget and all the social safety net perks a country could want. Plus pay for the military to defend it.
We would also have more than enough money to use our mineral resources here at home in high tech and manufacturing and then selling these products at great gain. Taxing these businesses and creating a further development fund to drive tech innovations would help bring back the brain power that keeps going where the money is. We have the energy to develop a massive AI infrastructure, we ust need the will to take it out of the ground.
When I was young, our governmet held up Sweden as a country who’s people we needed to strive to emulate for their physical health.Today we need to look at their neighbour Finland and emulate their development of their oil and gas resources. The wealth that it has created for the people of Finland is remarkable. How it has changed the education systemallows Finland to attract brilliant minds to complete masters and phd degrees with no cost. The expectatiopn is then that the students will stay and add to their country because they found they loved it. This is a model Canada should follow.
Canada should not have to choose. A proper stewardship of our resources would allow for the best healthcare and a strong military. Free tuition for post grad students and an influx of intellect outstripping anywhere else. With a sovereign wealth fund in place we could have showered the US President with praise and finances. And likely would not be in the perilous trade position we are today.