Alberta’s Resource Reality: Free Markets or Subsidized American Profits?
We own the resource. Why do so many of the benefits flow south of the border?
I believe in free markets and responsible resource development. But what we have in Alberta’s oil and gas industry isn’t a true free market — it’s a system that too often prioritizes rapid export and foreign shareholder returns over the long-term interests of the people who actually own the resource: Albertans.
Peter Lougheed: The Last Premier Who Put Alberta First
The last Alberta premier who truly stood up to the oil and gas industry was Peter Lougheed. In the 1970s, Lougheed fought hard against both Ottawa and the major companies. He demanded fair royalties, pushed for more upgrading and petrochemical processing inside Alberta, and created the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund so future generations would benefit from our non-renewable resources.
Under Lougheed, Alberta extracted maximum value for its people and used that wealth to build excellent public services — hospitals, schools, universities, and infrastructure that we still rely on today. He proved you could attract investment while still putting Albertans first.
The Post-Lougheed Shift:
After Lougheed, that Alberta-first approach largely disappeared.
In the late 1990s under Ralph Klein, regulators approved the Alliance Pipeline — a project specifically designed to ship unprocessed wet natural gas (rich in valuable natural gas liquids) directly to the Aux Sable plant near Chicago. The American and international interests behind it knew exactly what they were getting: the high-value liquids stripped and processed in the U.S., while Alberta got faster export volumes and lower netbacks for producers.
Alberta already had the industrial base and capability to expand in-province petrochemical processing. Instead, we chose the path of quickest export. This pattern continued in later decades with royalty reductions and export-focused infrastructure.
The Bigger Picture: Who Really Owns Alberta’s Oil Patch?
Recent data from the Alberta Federation of Labour (2025) shows the scale of foreign control:
· The four largest oil sands producers (CNRL, Cenovus, Imperial Oil, and Suncor) represent ~80% of production.
· These companies are on average 73% foreign-owned, with 60% American-owned.
· Between 2021–2024, these four companies paid out $79.7 billion in dividends and share buybacks — nearly three-quarters of which went to foreign (mostly American) shareholders.
In plain language: Albertans own the resource in the ground, but when the profits are made, a massive share flows straight out of the province.
I’m not against foreign investment or international markets. Capital is needed. But when foreign shareholders consistently capture the lion’s share of the upside while Alberta bears most of the downside, we have to be honest: this industry is not currently structured to serve the best interests of Albertans or Canadians.
Peter Lougheed showed us a better way is possible. We can attract investment and demand maximum value for our own people. It’s long past time we returned to that Alberta-first approach — smarter royalties, more in-province processing, and policies that actually put Albertans first.
The resource belongs to us. The benefits should too.
I just read a small article on the National Energy Programme under Pierre Trudeau and I can certainly see why it caused an uproar in Alberta. Two things to note: that programme died 41 years ago under Mulroney; it appears to me that since the days of Peter Lougheed (rightfully doing his best for Alberta) much of the diminution of Alberta’s oil and gas sector has been caused by successive Alberta governments.
Which is highly unfortunate as most of the profits from this sector flow right out of Alberta for company profits and further profitable gas extraction.
It’s a shame, the resource belongs to Alberta, hopefully there is another Peter Lougheed in your future. I’ll stay right away from any discussion on pipelines.
I now know why Alberta governments keep lying like Pinocchio. If they ever stopped, their noses would quit growing and they’d have nothing left with which to spite their own faces.
Not only do they ship way too much of the profit elsewhere, selling off non-renewable raw resources with no benefit to future generations, they also leave Albertans holding the bill for the cleanup.