A little boy asked his father, “Daddy, how much does it cost to get married?”
His father replied, “I don’t know son, I’m still paying.”
My question as a Canadian is, “How much does it cost Canada to buy oil from Saudi Arabia?”
Curiosity led me to do some research, and I discovered Canada imports 80,000 barrels of oil per day from Saudi Arabia at a cost of roughly $2 billion a year, equivalent to the amount our nation spends on our military annually.
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An energy economist had this to say, “Alberta crude oil is not interchangeable with the stuff coming from Saudi Arabia,” and went on to explain that only complex refineries can process it. He also claimed that even a pipeline wouldn’t guarantee refineries would buy Canadian oil because they’re looking for the best price. He concluded, “We could be completely self sufficient if we wanted. It’s just a question of how much we are willing to pay for it.”
Yet this energy economist neglected to factor in the approximately 400,000 barrels of light oil Saskatchewan is capable of producing every day, oil that is easy to process. More than enough to replace the 80,000 barrels imported daily.
Another energy economist claimed Saudi oil imports would be easy to replace, but would cause substantial harm to the Canadian economy. This observation came as a result of Saudi Arabia recalling thousands of students from Canadian universities, at an estimated loss of $2 billion a year.
Why did they recall their students?
Because a Canadian official dared to criticize their human rights record, and the Saudi’s claimed her words were “a major, unacceptable affront to their laws (Sharia Law) and judicial process.”
And what exactly is their judicial process?
Let me give you some examples:
Female workers from Bangladesh, who returned from working at Saudi Arabia as house maids, reported being beaten daily and tortured (doused with boiling water), and some never received payment for their work. Saudi government officials brushed their accusations aside saying “the women faced torture because they failed to cope with the foreign culture and environment.”
Another example of their judicial process is the death sentence administered to anyone who decides to become a Christian.
It appears that an affront to their judicial process isn’t such a bad thing after all. But Saudi’s are clever, as was evident in 2005 when they donated $20 million to two prestigious American universities to help change America’s perception of their way of life. It has been observed that such donations not only promote a Saudi point of view, but also shut down any criticism of them.
The president of fhe Foundation for Defense of Democracy concluded that the most important thing Canada can do to encourage change in Saudi Arabia is to get rid of our “dependence on oil as a strategic commodity so we’re not as dependent on the Saudi’s as we are now.”
So, why are we buying oil and financially supporting a country whose laws and judicial process are completely unacceptable, when Canada is capable of being self sufficient? You will have to come to your own conclusion about this. As for my initial question, “How much does it cost Canada to buy oil from Saudi Arabia?” The answer is, “We don’t know, we’re still paying.”
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