It has become difficult to initiate natural resource extraction projects in Canada. Construction-aggregate mining in southern Ontario has been subject to unpredictable and cost-prohibitive regulation, as are major pipelines in western Canada. Natural gas development is prohibited in eastern Canada because of fear of fracking; fracked gas is thus imported from Pennsylvania. The cost to our economy is significant in terms of foregone tax revenue and lost opportunities for rural Canadians, who might not aspire to urban life, and for the country’s professional engineering and geoscientific communities, which are “high tech” players internationally.
About the speakers
Maurice Dusseault is a Professor, Engineering Geology at the University of Waterloo and a registered professional engineer in Alberta and Ontario. He frequently works with governments and industry as an advisor and instructor. He carries out research in petroleum geomechanics (drilling, hydraulic fracturing, reservoir geomechanics), and is a world expert on new production methods, deep waste sequestration in sedimentary basins, and reservoir geomechanics.
Richard Jackson is a Fellow at Geofirma Engineering and Adjunct Professor, Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Waterloo.
