The GM just recently had an analysis from Stats Can showing where the big salaries are in Canada, and not surprisingly it is in the oil and gas sector in the west. When our economy started to rebound earlier this year , it was due in large part to the resource sector. The huge transfer payments that Quebec gets some where past $11B, comes the oil and gas rich west, which explains their current anger.  We have resources which have allowed us to be the envy of countries around the world, and our strategy is to put as many obstacles in the way as possible to extract these resources. Perhaps oil is on the way out and new technologies will replace it, then all the more reason to make the money while you can. If you were holding a stock that if sold now would generate substantial profit, and you knew that eventually it would be worth little, why would you then hang on to that stock. That seems to be the current position, oil is going to replaced so lets leave the money in the ground.