Alberta is a place, where natural resources such as oil and natural gas are present. Unfortunately, these resources are non-renewable and are starting to run out. In twenty or so years’ time, Alberta will be a lot different than it is today. If we don’t start planning for the future when there is no oil, then our economy will collapse and many people will lose their jobs, displacing them elsewhere in the country or the world. But, if we do plan for a future without oil, then we will be better off both environmentally and economically. To start with, our government should pressure these large oil companies into cleaning up those toxic tailing ponds. If the oil companies start to clean those ponds now, it will cost less in the future for us to clean them up when the oil companies leave our province. I also believe that our government should fund programs that involve ways to produce energy from renewable sources, such as wind or solar power. In order to better prepare ourselves for the future, we need to also diversify our economy, so the oil industry isn’t the primary source of our wealth. I also believe that if we do find other sources of wealth in Alberta, our standard of living will roughly stay the same, even though we may not be as wealthy as we are now.
No matter how much we diversify our economy, jobs will still be lost from the oil industry as the oil runs out. Some of us will stay and get through the transition and others will leave, pursuing a better life elsewhere. I plan to leave Alberta, mainly because my career currently has more potential elsewhere in Canada, yet I also do not want to stick around in 20 years’ time, just in case our government doesn’t decide to plan for our future. So, I do not want to struggle in a failing economy and experience those hardships in 20 years’ time. The only way to prosper in the future as we do now is to diversify our economy, so we don’t have to experience the hardships of a world with less oil.
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