Energy Security in Canada
Energy Security in Canada
• IF OUR NAFTA PARTNERS CAN HAVE
NATIONAL ENERGY PROGRAMS, WHY
CAN'T WE?
Gordon Laxer
Professor of Political Economy
University of Alberta
Article available online at:
• http://www.canadians.org/publications/CP/2005/spring/CP_summer_
05_energy.pdf (PDF format), or
• http://www.canadians.org/publications/CP/2005/spring/NAFTA.html
Energy Security in Canada
• The USA and Mexico, Canada's North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
partners, each have a policy of oil energy
independence and public ownership.
• While our NAFTA partners are looking
after their own energy security, Canada is
the only NAFTA country prevented from
doing so.
Energy Security in Canada
WHY?
• Canada is required to continue oil and gas
exports to the USA even in times of
shortage.
• Under the Proportionality Clause negotiated
in the 1993 FTA, Canada can cut exports to
the U.S. to deal with shortages only if it cuts
the same proportion of supplies to
Canadians.
Energy Security in Canada
• Canada currently produces about 40 per cent
more oil than it consumes and so should not have
to worry about shortages.
• Yet, because of NAFTA, Canada has put itself in a
position that is as precarious as that of the United
States, relying on imports of oil from offshore.
• Canada now exports 70 per cent of its supply to
the U.S., and imports almost 60 per cent of the oil
it consumes.
Energy Security in Canada
• The Mexicans were smart and got an
exemption from energy sharing in times of
shortage.
• A national energy policy for the U.S. and a
continental energy market for Canada is a
“raw deal for Canada”.
• Instead of negotiating further integration
with the U.S., why not push for a Mexicanstyle exemption for Canada?
THE END OF SUBURBIA
Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The
American Dream
Video Presentation, 2004
THE END OF SUBURBIA
Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The
American Dream
Notes from website www.endofsuburbia.com
Since World War II North Americans have
invested much of their newfound wealth in
suburbia. It has promised a sense of space,
affordability, family life and upward mobility. As
the population of suburban sprawl has exploded
in the past 50 years, so too has the suburban
way of life become embedded in the American
consciousness.
• But as we enter the 21st century, serious
questions are beginning to emerge about the
sustainability of this way of life.
The End of Suburbia explores the American
Way of Life and its prospects as the planet
approaches a critical era, as global demand for
fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply.
• World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of
fossil fuels are upon us now, some scientists and
policy makers argue in this documentary.
Questions to consider:
• What does Oil Peak mean for North America?
• As energy prices skyrocket, how will the
populations of suburbia react to the collapse of
their dream?
• Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums
of tomorrow?
• What can (and / or should?) be done NOW,
individually and collectively, to avoid The End of
Suburbia ?
End of Suburbia
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3uvzc
Y2Xug
Escape From Suburbia
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZRmw
hrkVSA&feature=player_embedded