(Em)Powering Canada

Despite a relatively small population, Canada is one of the largest consumers of energy in the world. A highly industrialized nation, as well as a vast northern one, Canada has come to depend heavily on energy resources at work, at home and on the road. In 2000, we consumed almost 11 billion gigajoules. To put that into perspective, 30 litres of gasoline provides approximately one gigajoule of energy.

	Hydro dam on the Ottawa River Photo: Gerald MacGillivray

Canada's prosperity is driven in large part by an economic engine built upon energy-intensive industries such as primary metals, manufacturing, chemicals and petrochemicals. Over the last 40 years, Canada has moved from a net energy consumer to a significant net energy producer just to feed this burgeoning industrial demand. Since 1967, primary energy production has outstripped consumption by 50%. Energy production in Canada totalled 15.8 billion gigajoules in 2001 (primary energy).

In 2001, Canada was the third largest producer of natural gas (9.4% of world output) and the 14th largest producer of petroleum (2.6%).

In 2002, oil and gas accounted for 77% of Canada’s energy production and added $23 billion (1997 constant dollars) to the Canadian economy. Alberta alone was responsible for 74% of this total. Since Canada produces more crude oil and natural gas than it consumes, roughly 60% is exported. The hydrocarbon trade surplus contributed $28 billion to Canada’s trade balance.

Natural gas was first discovered in southern Alberta in 1883. A discovery in 1890 at Medicine Hat uncovered one of Canada's largest natural gas fields, moving Rudyard Kipling to describe the town as "the city with all hell for a basement." Once secondary to crude oil production, natural gas seized the hydrocarbon production crown in the 1980s. Though traditionally centred in Western Canada, production has moved offshore as well. The Sable Island project off the coast of Nova Scotia commenced production from fields around Sable Island in December 1999. As of 2001, it was averaging close to 600 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. The project is the first offshore natural gas development in Canadian history and the first development of what appears to be significant gas reserves in Atlantic Canada.

As early as the 1830s, the diaries and letters of settlers in southwestern Ontario told stories of Aboriginal people gathering 'surface oil' by spreading blankets on pools of oil and then wringing the absorbed liquid into containers. Farmers in the region found oil where they drilled for water, and frequent seepages rendered the soil useless for cultivation. It wasn't for another hundred years that this 'black gold' would become valuable currency rather than a nuisance.

As of 2001, Canada was producing 2.2 million barrels of crude oil per day. Though the oil industry has traditionally focussed on the reserves of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, it too has set its sights offshore, with oil platforms such as Hibernia now tapping the ocean floor. Production in Hibernia averaged close to 150,000 barrels per day in 2001. By December of that year, it was producing 173,000 barrels per day.

The energy needs of Canadians are also met by the generation of electricity through coal, uranium and water power. In 2002, approximately 60% of Canadian electricity was provided by hydro-electric power. In fact, Newfoundland and Labrador (94%), Quebec (96%) and Manitoba (98%) produce almost all their electricity in this manner. Altogether, Canada generated nearly 577 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2002. To put that into perspective, one kilowatt-hour of electricity is enough to light a small house for an hour. At this rate, Canada's hydro-electric output could light more than 67 million homes 24 hours a day, all year round.

The remaining third of Canada's electricity is provided by coal and uranium. Coal mining in Canada, which began on a large scale in the Maritimes in 1826, generated 67 million tonnes of coal worth $1.6 billion in 2002. Uranium, used in the production of nuclear energy, is mined principally in Saskatchewan. Despite a recent decline in prices, uranium remains among Canada’s top 10 metal commodities in terms of output value.