Alberta is going through a crisis. Oil prices have fallen substantially, with no imminent recovery, and many people have been laid off. Albertans seem to be at a loss on what to do.
Before I started working at the Canada West Foundation, I worked at a museum in Alberta, and I have never been more grateful for the Alberta history I learned there. While I find this economic crisis concerning, history suggests the province can get out of it. We have done it before.
Let’s look at the history of another non-renewable resource in Alberta – coal. The discovery of coal by the Belly (now Old Man) River spawned a massive industry, and Nicholas Sheran established Alberta’s first commercial coal mine way back in 1874.
By 1914, Alberta produced more than 3.5 million tons of coal, with more than 8,000 people directly employed in the industry, and the industry grew into the 1920s and 1930s. However, by the time Canada was firmly in the grip of the Great Depression the price of coal was falling, and it never recovered.
The desire to keep the industry going led to modest momentum and expansion, up to the Second World War. All that changed in 1947, when oil was struck at Leduc No. 1, heralding the entry of oil into the economy.
Oil was obviously a better source of energy than coal. It offered an economic advantage, was easier to extract than coal, and was far more efficient than coal. For those reasons, 1947 was the beginning of the end of the coal industry. The decline of the coal industry did not have any major long-term impact. In the short term, it wasn’t pretty: People lost their jobs and coal towns were abandoned.
The coal industry responded in a pragmatic way. While the industry declined in general, some surface-mining operations continued. It wasn’t until 1967, with the first commercial oil sands operation, that coal finally became a minor industry.
The coal industry managed its decline from the status of a pre-eminent industry by seeking cost-effective new processes that helped create a softer landing. As jobs gradually disappeared, more people and resources transitioned into the oil and gas industry. This could be done today, as oil and gas transitions to new forms of energy.
The parallels between the history of coal production and oil production are numerous. Oil became preferred over coal because it was cheaper, cleaner, and we have a lot of it. Renewable energy sources are expected to displace oil for the same reason oil overtook coal: renewable energy is cheaper, cleaner, and we have a lot of it. The very region where coal was discovered in Alberta is now known as the windiest area in Canada.
If there is one thing that should be taken away from the story of the rise and fall of coal in Alberta, it is this: When the coal industry fell apart, Albertans did not wait stubbornly for coal prices to get better – they moved on. One of the great things about Albertans is the resilience in their DNA; the ability to work hard, suffer through hard times, and come out of trials and tribulations stronger than ever.
Resilience is a wonderful quality; it is toughness, or the capacity to recover from tough times quickly. You only have to look at the disasters of the recent years, such as the High River flooding and the Fort McMurray fires, to know that Albertans have resilience in spades.
There are still some people who think they can stubbornly wait until things return to the way things were. If history has taught us anything, it is that things very rarely return to the way they were. Stubbornness should never be confused with resilience. Albertans can do better than this.
As a child growing up in Alberta, I heard references to the Alberta Advantage. Until recently, I thought the advantage was oil; it isn’t. It is all of us. We can fight through hard times, we can make the tough decisions, we can work harder than we ever thought we could. We are the Alberta Advantage. It is time to act like it.
– Sarah Pittman is a research intern