Oil Sands

Yes, the world needs Alberta’s energy resources, said Premier Ed Stelmach. But even more, it needs the technologies we’re developing to lessen the environmental impact of using that energy.

“Significant resources come with significant responsibilities,” the premier told a national audience of employers at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton this evening. “Globally significant resources come with globally significant responsibilities.”

Speaking to the National Buyer Seller Forum, the premier said Alberta’s drive for reduced emissions, improved habitat reclamation, greater alternative and renewable energy sources and more sustainable development are “challenging issues that take vision and innovation at all levels.”

But they are not, he stressed, optional: “These are issues that must be tackled to ensure sustained prosperity.”

The National Buyer Seller Forum is an 11-year-old event that started as a venue to help Alberta energy industry operators and suppliers connect to supply-chain employers elsewhere in Canada and beyond. It has been and continues to be heavily promoted by other Provinces as a major business opportunity for their home-grown industries to land manufacturing and service contracts in a rare, growing domestic market. My colleague Jac MacDonald of Alberta Finance and Enterprise does a better job than I of explaining what it’s all about here.

-David Sands