As part of our testimony before the National Energy Board hearings on various bitumen export pipelines, we have contracted with economists to do the kind of calculations that we've heard from the Conference Board about induced job creation and multiplier effects.
Our analysis has suggested that if the same volume of bitumen that is planned to go down the Keystone XL pipeline, or the Northern Gateway pipeline, for example, was instead to be upgraded in Alberta or other parts of Canada, it would create literally tens of thousands of jobs. In the case of Keystone XL, it would create about 41,000 jobs, and in the case of the Northern Gateway pipeline, 28,000 jobs.
These are jobs that we're essentially just flushing down the pipeline because we're allowing other nations to add value and create those high-value jobs.
On the subject of value added, we've heard from a lot of people in the industry that the economics don't add up. I think one word we have to keep coming back to in this discussion about value adding is “pace”. Right now it's the Wild West in the oil sands. Basically every project that comes across the provincial government's desk is approved. The result is that it drives up cost. We have so many projects chasing a scarce number of resources that it actually drives up the cost, drives down productivity, and makes the more desirable value-added projects less economic. By not setting a reasonable pace, we're actually pricing ourselves out of reach for the kind of development that would actually be in the longer-term best interest of Canadians. That pace also is what's driving the call for an increased number of temporary foreign workers.
Basically we're creating a situation in which some employers.... I won't mince words here; some of the bottom-feeders can't attract high-quality staff people, so they use the temporary foreign worker program. That's what we see over and over again. These employers use the program not as a last resort but as a first choice, and in the process they displace Canadians.
These are not just isolated cases. We're talking about case after case, and it will just get worse as work in the oil sands heats up.