(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

People's Voice Editorial, July 1-31, 2008

Rarely mentioned in media coverage of skyrocketing fuel prices is the even steeper climb in energy profits. A recent industry magazine report found that fourteen of Canada's top oil and gas firms racked up $6.4 billion in profits for the first quarter of this year. Privatized Petro-Canada was the big winner, with $1.1 billion profits. Putting it in perspective, that's about $200 profit per Canadian during the first three months of 2008 alone. In percentage terms, profits for these companies are up more than 33% over the same period of 2007.

     Since then, oil prices have soared past $135/barrel, and drivers are paying nearly $1.50 per liter. Total annual profits for the entire energy industry in Canada could easily top $50 billion for the year 2008, or $1,500 per capita. Every time oil prices go up at the expense of working people, the Toronto stock exchange rises, so the rich get richer while the rest of us get poorer.

     No wonder the majority of Canadians support public ownership of energy resources. Think what such staggering profits could provide: enough low-income housing to end homelessness, universal, free child care, a huge increase in health care workers, and much more.

     Not least, public ownership would allow the peoples of Canada to make crucial decisions about the nature of the industry, which is pumping out vast quantities of greenhouse gases and fuelling the the deadly U.S. war machine. Exploitation of the tar sands in northern Alberta is killing workers and destroying vast swathes of the province, with particularly devastating effects on the Aboriginal peoples whose territories are being gobbled up.

     It's time to follow the example of Venezuela, Bolivia and other countries, where energy resources are seen as vital to conserve and to help improve the lives of working people, not as a source of mind-boggling windfall profits for the ultra-rich.