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Oilsands generate significant economic benefits for Quebec: CAPP study

Last Updated Jun 27, 2017 at 5:34 pm MDT

(Photo by Chelsey Harms/660 NEWS)

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) calls the study eye-opening.

CAPP looked at a 12 month period between 2014 and 2015, and found the country’s oilsands generate a significant amount of economic benefits for Quebec.

The analysis shows 16,200 jobs, $1.25 billion in GDP and $215-million in government revenue.

It comes as many citizens and politicians in that province are vocal in their criticism of the industry and its pipelines.

Jeff Gaulin, VP of Communications for CAPP said it’s impressive, considering there are no oilsands operations actually in Quebec.

“I think that the results will be surprising for some people in the business community, particularly in Montreal,” he said.

“When you look at nearly half of the $1.2 billion in GDP that was created in Quebec, half of that was in Montreal — and when we looked at the study we did it in a down year. Imagine what those results could be like in a good year.”

Gaulin said Quebec is an important partner, and critical to the development of the oilsands, adding the answer to ‘what’s in it for me?’ is quite clear.

“But that’s only one part and we need to talk about the innovation going on in the oilsands, the technology that’s being developed to reduce our environmental impact, so, that Canada’s oilsands can be the energy of tomorrow,” Gaulin said.