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Love that Tars Sands project
By John Bennett, Sierra Club Canada
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
My good buddy Brad asked me to expand on a comment I made in the Globe and Mail last week. I said governments have “never seen a tar sands project they didn’t love”. Or something like that. He thought it would make a great blog theme.
I’ll get to it.
I just saw that Imperial Oil (the Canadian branch of the world’s biggest oil company ExxonMobil) made a huge profit last year, and it took me off on a different tangent … or maybe not.
Every year the federal government loses more than a billion dollars because of preferential tax benefits to oil and gas companies. It’s a huge subsidy for one of the most profitable industries in the country.
Lately the Environment Minister and the Prime Minister have been touting Canada’s oil industry as “ethical”.
It is true Canada doesn’t have the human rights record of Saudi Arabia or Nigeria, but is that the only measure of ethics?
Yesterday Imperial Oil reported a 50% rise in profits ($800 million) for the last quarter of 2010 – a year that yielded $2.28 billion in profits.
Tens of thousands of Canadians are out of work and facing the end of their employment benefits. The demand on food banks is higher than ever. Families are struggling to make ends meet. Canada is running a deficit of more than $50 billion – building debt our children and grandchildren will be paying off for decades.
In these circumstances is it ethical for Imperial Oil’s shareholders to accept subsidies from the Canadian taxpayer?
Oil companies were originally granted subsidies and special tax concessions back when times were tough for the oil industry, and Canadian oil was finding it hard competing for investment dollars.
The situation as changed and the Tar Sands are sucking up investment like a sponge. Companies are climbing over top of each other to get in on the biggest boom in history.
As the other oil companies report their earnings, we will see billions more in profits. How do they justify sticking their hands in the taxpayer’s pocket in times like these? How can political leaders justify continuing to subsidize companies with billion dollar profits?
Why don’t politicians ever hate an oil or gas project?
John Bennett, Executive Director
Sierra Club Canada
(613) 291-6888
jb@sierraclub.ca
Tagged with: canada
