Canada is a country rich in natural resources. A good part of its economy is driven by the efficient utilization of natural resources. At the provincial level, every Province and Union Territory is unique as far as their economic drivers are concerned. For the province of Alberta, due to its thriving oil and gas industry, both economy and population saw a huge growth in the recent times, which has been beneficial for the province. Growing population means incoming technical immigrants from all around the world, and growing economy means availability of more funds for social welfare, and research and development. However, growing population and economy also have their own distinctive challenges. Growing population needs large investment in municipal infrastructure, and growing oil and gas industry needs large investment in environmental products and services for restoration of disturbed land; maintaining air and water supplies safe, secure and clean; and keeping ecosystem healthy.
In Alberta, environmental products and services is the core business of nearly 1330 companies. Annual revenue from these products and services is over $2.8 billion (Sited below). Nevertheless, environment industry is not the primary industry in Alberta. It is the secondary industry that provides support to the primary industries like energy (oil and gas), forestry, agriculture and mining in the form of natural resource management, and by managing the government regulations which are designed to safeguard the environment & public health. In return, it gets economic support from the primary industry.
In the recent past, the environment industry in Alberta grew at a fast rate because of the growth of the oil and gas industry. But 2008 onwards, oil and gas industry started declining because of the drop in the oil prices. Ripple effects were felt immediately across the environment industry. Major funding to environmental projects either stopped or got reduced substantially. This made the technical manpower to look beyond the environment industry and move to either other industries or other provinces. In the present times, the provincial government, with the help of the federal government is trying to support this industry by putting public money for rehabilitation of old oil and gas well sites and associated facilities under Alberta Site Rehabilitation Program. The allocated money can sustain a small portion of the industry for a short period of time. As there are no indications of revival of oil and gas industry in the near future, the environment industry seems to remain negatively impacted. However, as the saying goes ‘every dark cloud has a silver lining’, these low and slow times will help the environment industry to re-learn and re-align, and move forward.
https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/fd0a0502-e054-4ecb-9ff3-8711effc47ad/resource/c33e
84f5-a010-4f36-80a1-928fe590d4d7/download/environmental-products-and-services-profile.pdf
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