After a decade of exceptionally strong performance, the Alberta economy experienced large swings in activity in the 1980s and ranked among the most unstable in Canada and the United States. This detailed study of the course of the Alberta economy from the early 1970s to the late 1980s assesses the causes for this instability and explores ways in which federal and provincial government policies and market forces could lessen the volatile nature of the economy.
Alberta's politics are changing in response to powerful economic, social and political forces. The contributors focus on developments since the election of the Progressive Conservatives in 1971.
Alberta Formed Alberta Transformed is a two-volume set spanning a remarkable 12,000 years of history and showcasing the work of 34 of Alberta's most respected scholars. Volume 1 sets the stage from human beginnings in Alberta to the eve of Alberta's inauguration as a province in 1905, while Volume 2 takes readers through the twentieth century and up to the 2005 centennial.
Economic diversification remains at the top of the agenda for hundreds of regions around the world. From the single commodity economies of African countries and the Caribbean, to the many single industry regions of Europe and North America, as well as the oil and gas rich but volatile hydrocarbon economies. Economic diversification policies have been around for almost a century with varying degrees of success and failure. Economic Diversification Policies in Natural Resource Rich Economies takes a special interest in the policy experiences of a set of different countries that have extractive industries representing significant drivers of their economies and subsequently are significant contributors to government revenues. It explores twelve cases including upper-middle to high income economies such as Canada, Australia, Iceland and Norway, emerging economies such as Latin America, the GCC (Saudi and UAE), Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Russia, as well as the developing economy of Uganda. Each chapter provides a review of economic diversification experiences including policy environment, diversification strategies, desired outcomes, the role of government, and a critical evaluation of achievements. This book is suitable for those who study environmental economics, development economics and resource management.
The international competitive position of Western Canada and each of the four western provinces within a Canadian context are the focus of this study. Through trade profiles of major commodity exports and their spatial markets, a situational assessment of the region and its continued heavy dependence on natural resources is offered.
State of Struggle offers a unique perspective on Alberta’s recent political history. Viewed through the lens of feminist and anti-feminist efforts to gain political legitimacy, the book observes the consequences of Alberta’s oil and gas economy and the province’s peripheral location from the locus of Canadian political decision-making on the effectiveness of feminist efforts to both challenge and contribute to provincial governance. The book traces the dynamic interaction between the development of second wave feminist organizing and the shift from Alberta’s peculiar variant of a welfare state to its neoliberal form. Using archival data from feminist organizations and various provincial government departments as well as interviews with activists, policy makers and politicians, the book’s chronologically organized chapters offer a series of rich tales illuminating the transformations within both the feminist movement and the Alberta state from the election of Lougheed’s Conservatives through Ralph Klein’s second term of office. It is a kind of ‘we laughed, we cried’ drama composed of dialogues of the deaf, strategic missteps, organizational cunning and occasional policy change that is sure to leave readers shaking their heads in amusement, disbelief or outrage.
Combining statistical analysis and ethnographic study, Harry Hiller uncovers two waves of in-migration to Alberta. His innovative approach begins with the individual migrant and analyzes the relocation experience from origin to destination. Through interviews with hundreds of migrants, Hiller shows that migration is complex and dynamic, shaped not just by what Alberta offers but also prompted by a process that begins in the region of origin which makes migration possible, and helps determine whether migrants stay or return home. By combining a social psychological approach with structural factors such as Alberta’s transition from a regional hinterland province to its emerging role the global system, discussions of gender, the internet, and folk culture, Second Promised Land provides a multi-dimensional and deeply human account of a contemporary Canadian phenomenon.
Efforts to reform the Canadian constitution have only resulted in a serious impasse fostered by demands for change from Quebec and reticence from English Canada. This book looks at the potential for achieving reconciliation through a new partnership between Quebec and Canada in a series of papers that examine the stakes for both Canada and Quebec in opting for a modified relationship that is neither the status quo nor complete separation. Two papers in part 1 lay the conceptual groundwork concerning the constituent elements of partnership. Papers in part 2 deal with the economic union in the context of a renewed partnership. Four papers in part 3 examine issues concerning rights, recognition, and citizenship in a Quebec-Canada partnership. Part 5 broadens the discussion to the international arena and includes a comparative international scan of partnership models. The final part distils the two editors' separate conclusions on how to move beyond the impasse based on the studies presented.
Costly Fix examines the post-1995 Alberta tar sands boom, detailing how the state inflated the profitability of the tar sands and turned a blind eye to environmental issues. It considers the position of First Nations, the character and strength of environmental critiques, and the difficulties that environmental groups and First Nations have had in establishing a countermovement to market fundamentalism. The final chapter discusses how Alberta's new NDP government, in its first couple of years, has addressed the legacies they have inherited from the previous Progressive Conservative government on climate change, royalties, and the blight of tailings ponds in the boreal forest. Throughout the book, Urquhart demonstrates that too many actors have done too little to prevent Alberta's boreal forest from becoming a landscape sacrificed for unsustainable economic growth.
Alberta's oil sands represent a vast and untapped oil reserve that could reasonably supply all of Canada's energy needs for the next 475 years. With an estimated 300 billion barrels of recoverable oil at stake, the quest to develop this natural resource has been undertaken by many powerful actors, both nationally and internationally. Using research that integrates the economic, political, scientific, and business factors that have been influential in discovering and developing the sands, this book provides a comprehensive history of the oil sands project and a window on the nature of the complex relationships between industry, government, and transnational players. This book is the first comprehensive volume that examines the origins and development of the oil sands industry over the last century.
