The ‘de-manning’ of Canada’s oilsands sector

For more than half a century now, the oilsands have been a powerful magnet for capital, controversy and global concerns about climate change. After beginning as a government-funded science experiment and evolving into one of the global oil and gas industry’s most prominent (and polluted) frontiers, the sector that accounts for less than three per cent of Canada’s GDP somehow managed to capture more than 90 per cent of its political attention. Now, with renewed promises from both federal and provincial leaders to build more pipelines and get Canadian oil to global markets, the oilsands are being counted on to kick start another economic boom.

That’s the political talk, anyway. In reality, they’re already in the midst of a decline phase that began more than a decade ago — one that will almo