Coal And Canada's Industrial Strategy
Authors: Garnet Garnet T. 
Published: March 2010

Introduction

NEITHER the federal government nor Canadian industry has enunciated an over-all industrial strategy for the nation - and there may never be such a statement, because it is virtually impossible in practical terms and because there are many who say that such action would be most objectionable in our free-enterprise system.

However, there are many dynamic industrial subsystems and inter-relationships in Canada which, collectively, could be said to represent an over-all industrial strategy, working toward the achievement of national goals.

This concept immediately raises the question of what goals. In turn, this question is at the root of some of Canada's fundamental problems.

On one hand, the nation's free-enterprise system is dynamic and ever-changing. This dynamism derives from industry's continuing efforts to do things better and at less cost within the context of a constantly changing environment, in the generation of wealth.

On the other hand, it appears that the general view of Canada's governments today, unlike during the post World War II era, is that continued economic growth deserves much less emphasis than does equality of income.

Government concerns now seem to be:increasing attention to income distribution rather than to income creation;increased regionalism and provincialism, both in outlook and in policy initiatives;recognition of Canada's high vulnerability to the international economic environment;increasing reliance on ail hoc and piecemeal policy responses to deal with transitory or short-term political concerns.

The problem is simply that governmental objectives, while laudable in humanistic terms, appear more and more to ignore or run counter to the production of the wealth which they are so keen to distribute for the greatest good of the greatest number.

All of the above has a direct bearing on Canada's coal and its future role as an energy source for all other industry. The coal industry itself is an increasingly important producer of wealth for Canada. It is also an important producer of energy and hydrocarbons, and must be relied upon to a dramatically larger extent to provide a significant share of Canada's needs for decades to come. These needs must be met to enable Canada's other industrial sectors to carry out their own strategies, and to enable the people to continue to live and work in acceptable ways.

Canadian Coal in the World Context

Coal represents the largest resource of fossil energy in the, world, estimated as 11 million million tons, with a present resource-to-demand ratio of 3760 Technology, October-December. 1977, Montreal years. Coal resources which are classified as reserves amount to about 1.9 million million tons, and correspond to a reserve-to-demand ratio of 500 years. The, reserves which are now considered recoverable are given as 0.5 million million tons with a reserve-to-demand ratio of 200 years. This last ratio refers to immediately economic recovery; the 1974 World Energy Conference predicted that ratios of this kind will remain stable for several decades, as new economic reserves are generated.