Exporting Profits

The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) report, Exporting Profits: Alberta oil and gas workers fall behind, while American shareholders thrive, shows that Canada’s biggest oil and gas companies enjoyed a massive increase in profits during the boom years of 2021 to 2023 and yet the largest portion of the money went to shareholders, primarily American. Over the same time period, Alberta workers saw their share of the value generated by the oil and gas industry dramatically decline.

The report shows that from 2021 to 2023, the oil and gas industry made $135.2 billion in operating profits. This is a major jump from the previous boom years, 2011 to 2014, during which the industry collected $64.2 billion in operating profits. What is even more striking — and concerning — is that the share of money going to workers has dramatically declined.

During the 2011-2014 oil price boom, the workers’ share of the total value created by oil and gas was 52%, which plummeted to only 24% during the 2021-2023 boom. Furthermore, the report shows that even though our oil and gas industry is recording record profits and hitting record production levels, it’s employing 30,000 fewer people than it did ten years ago — and that doesn’t even include the 900 layoffs announced recently by Imperial Oil.

“The UCP government has put a lot of time and effort into lobbying for oil and gas to become even more profitable, but the wealth has bypassed most of us here in Alberta,” said AFL President Gil McGowan. “Rich American shareholders have never fared better while Alberta workers are left with the crumbs from the table. This is not responsible economic management. It verges on theft. These resources belong to us, not to the United States.”

Read the full report.