Western Canada Miners (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: A Vickers Vedette replica at the Western Canada Aviation Museum, Winnipeg, Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Canada Geese (Photo credit: haansgruber)

Canadians won’t work at B.C. mine for years while Chinese do the job

Harper government will back bill to force unions to throw open books

NDP labour critic Alexandre Boulerice called Bill C-377 an assault on the rights of Canadian workers similar to what’s being seen in the U.S.

F-35 fighter more dangerous to governments than any potential enemy

Wrong aircraft, wrong price, delivery delayed indefinitely, overly complex and unreliable,...what's not to like ?

Hundreds of students protest school labour strife

Oil price gap costing Canada billions

Oil produced from Alberta's oilsands sells for up to $50 a barrel less than oil that Canada needs to import

The wide gap between oil’s global benchmark price and what Canadian producers can get for their oil is costing Canada $2.5 billion a month, according to new research that sees the spread remaining for years even if new pipelines are built.
Normally, the price gap between Brent North Sea oil and Western Canada Select oil is $10 to $15 a barrel, says Charles St-Arnaud, an analyst at Nomura Securities. But currently, that spread is a near-record $50 a barrel.
“The significant spread is due to a lack of possible export markets for Canadian oil and this situation will likely persist until Canadian oil manages to flow into export ports or areas of demand in North America,” St-Arnaud says in his report.
He notes that Canada imports more than 40 per cent of the oil it consumes, even though it is a big exporter of oil. “This is the result of the pipeline network that brings oil from the Western provinces to the U.S. Midwest, with no branch bringing oil to the eastern part of the country.”
The oil Canada imports is priced at lofty Brent levels, while Canadian producers have to sell their oil at a big discount. “Oil flowing from Canada to the U.S. is viewed as oversupply, depressing the price for Canadian oil,” he says.

Oil glut in the U.S.

The surge in oil production in the U.S., refining disruptions and a pipeline network that isn’t quite up to the job are all combining to force down prices for Canadian producers, with the result that the larger-than-usual price gap is now costing Canadian producers $30 billion a year in lost revenue.

( They tell me NDP policies would put Canada in the poorhouse. That would be an improvement. The situation almost reminds me of the fiasco when the West chose to sell to the East at a high fixed price - and the world market exploded - after which Trudeau was blamed for acquiescing to western demands ! We need to stop this mess yesterday. )

Why Canada just pumps out cheap oil

davwal2012/04/20
at 8:58 PM ETMaybe it's time for Canada to follow Argentina's example and nationalize the major oil companies . Private ownership is pillaging Canada's resources it the global drive to maximize corporate profits. The corporate solution to the global economy is bankrupting millions across the world. Canada is a wealth country yet the elderly are facing cots in their pensions while other programs are being slashed. We need to reverse the unfettered drive to globalization and use our resources for the long term benefit of Canada. It's time for a new National Energy Program.

( PetroCanada was privatized. We can't depend on continuity of government policy in the face of political pressure and institutional fraud - let alone the games corporations play in paid power politics. What is left ? )

Dyer: Declining sperm count no threat

In the 15 years between 1989 and 2005, according to a study just published in the journal Human Reproduction, the sperm count of French men fell by one-third.

Most other scientific studies in developedcountries in the past 20 years have also found falling sperm counts. There is no comparable research on the trend in developing countries, but it is at least plausible that this may be a global phenomenon.
We are passing through the astounding total of seven billion humans beings, on our way to nine or 10 billion.

opit

Loss of fertility = loss of population increase. As to why there is a list - which starts with Monsanto seeds which kill young mice and are now implicated in loss of at least one cattle farm due to sterility in cattle fed GM corn.