Taking action in support of our vital natural resource sector

Canadian Oil is Not "Dirty" - Canada's Petroleum Sector Ranks World-Class on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Metrics

What’s good for our oil and gas industry and its 500,000+ Canadian workers is good for our country and the global environment. Here’s why:

Of the world’s top oil reserve holders, Canada ranks #1 on environmental, social and governance metrics.¹ We are global leaders in reducing emissions intensities and were the first major oil and gas producing / exporting jurisdiction in the world to have carbon pricing in effect on large industrial emitters (Alberta, since 2007).²

Canadians have imported hundreds of billions of dollars of oil over the past decades from nations usually with lower regulatory transparency, environmental protections and standards for human rights.³ A vast majority of these imports are not subject to carbon pricing and are given a free pass by anti-Canadian oil and gas activists.

Canada’s oil and gas sector is the largest spender on clean tech and environmental protections in the country.⁴ The industry demonstrably understands the importance of taking action to reduce GHG emissions and its overall environmental footprint.

In 2017, oil and gas companies paid $1.25 billion in municipal taxes on upstream assets alone.⁵ Many municipalities in petroleum producing provinces rely on taxes generated by the sector, like Starland County in Alberta, for example, which gets about 80% of its annual budget from taxes paid by oil and gas companies.⁶ When these companies are hurting, so are the municipalities they support.

Canada's natural resource industry has the highest paying jobs for Indigenous, a higher indigenous employment average than the federal government, and spends more on Indigenous procurement supporting Indigenous owned business then any sector, including the federal government.⁷ These are well paying jobs for rural communities; we should celebrate them as our country recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, as we should for any other sector creating jobs and prosperity while protecting the environment.

To learn more about false and misleading claims by anti-Canadian oil and gas development activists, see:

• Debunking 5 Claims Made by Anti-Oil & Gas Activists in Canada

References:

_{1 – BMO Capital Markets – The 400 Billion Barrel Opportunity for Friendly Oil, and Canada’s Evolving Role}

_{2 – Government of Alberta – Albertans and Climate Change: Moving Forward}

_{3 – Statistics Canada – Canadian International Merchandise Trade Database}

_{4 – Financial Post – Innovation Energy: Oilsands step up to take on clean tech challenge}

_{5 – theogm.com – Oil Care = Health Care}

_{6 – CTV News Calgary – Rural municipalities fear proposed provincial tax changes for big oil and gas companies}

_{7 – Statistics Canada 2018, Government of Canada 2016}