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Teck withdraws application for $20B Frontier oilsands mine, citing debate around climate policy

CBC News

There's probably lots not being shared here. When I first learned of this project, I couldn't help wondering, "Why?" From everything I've read about the Tar Sands, I've come to conclude there's probably not a whole lot of money left to be made there. The Canadian government's been subsidizing Alberta for tens of billions of dollars for the past decade now. Not a whole will probably change in the near future, except for the continual inflation of costs to keep Alberta going. When it's all said and done, the Tar Sands will probably have drained 100's of billions of dollars out of Canadian taxpayers' hands, and there'll be nothing to show for it in government treasuries.

I thought for certain this development was one last ditch effort to drain some more free capital out of the Albertan and Canadian treasuries, but for the company to wind down the project at this point speaks that Canada and Alberta both wanted the other to bail this development out. There was nothing forthcoming, and so it dies, which is all well and good, as I never saw profit in its future except for debilitating government subsidies.

However, the federal government is keeping quiet on this. The Albertan government is bleating, blaming the federal government for this failure, but there was probably never any saving this project. The Canadian government's been bending over backwards for Alberta for two decades. Any further bending would break the federal government's back.

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