Thursday, October 22, 2009

Canada Continues Resources "Fire Sale".

The South Korea's state owned oil company has purchased Harvest Energy Trust, a Canadian owned integrated oil and gas company. Harvest Oil has interests in the Alberta tar sands, natural gas and a refinery in Newfoundland. Undoubtedly, there are people in the business sector that will be elated, given that Harvest Energy has never been one of the big players in the Canadian energy sector.

Canada is the only major oil producing country that doesn't have a nationally owned oil company. On the other hand, under Harper, we have become a major source of resources for the foreign state oil companies. Our natural resources are being sold off like cheap suits at a bancrupcy sale. It seems everybody is standing in line to pick up Canadian resource companies. In a world of diminishing commodities, where will this leave Canadians? As the oil supplies from the middle east slow to a trickle, and our natural gas is whisked off to the US, we will become an economic colony. Our mines, energy and forests are well along the road to complete foreign ownership. Once control of the resources is gone, what will we have to offer our youth who will be looking for jobs in the future? Tim Horton's or MacDonald's are a poor substitute for INCO, Petro Canada or the auto industry. Natural resources are the basis for a diversified economy. The Conservatives are going to leave us a bleak future indeed. Consider where Africa is on the world economic stage. They have become colonies of the corporations that exploit resources. Canadians will be left with nothing.

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