It is truly as shame what is happening in northern Alberta. Oil companies turn oil sands into oil, but only by using huge amounts of energy and water in the process. It takes the equivalent energy-input of one barrel for every three produced. What they are doing has been accurately called environmental Armageddon.
Canadians don't own the oil - foreign oil companies do. Their motivation is to make the most profit for themselves and that requires being able to ship the oil out of Canada. Alberta's environment is not their problem.
If we want to get the most out of the oil sands a better use would be to produce electricity. If a steam-plant at the mill in Campbell River can turn saw dust into energy then it should be possible to do something similar with oil sands. It would no longer be necessary to extract the oil from the sand - just burn the sand directly to drive steam turbines to produce electricity. Electricity is much easier to transport than oil and the environmental damage would be lessened. There would still be emissions but they would be lower. The process would not require any water or natural gas inputs.
As long as the Canadian government keeps selling the oil sands to foreign oil companies don't expect the sands to be used for anything but oil, oil that will be shipped outside of Canada. Don't expect ordinary Canadians to benefit from this resource either - we will just be left with the mess when oil gets too expensive and the oil companies are long gone.
