"Low Oil Prices Take Their Toll on Canada. Are Oil Sands in Trouble?"

"Plummeting oil prices are bad news for much of Canada, which runs its economy largely on oil. But cheap oil has some positive benefits for Canadians, too."

"Canada’s economy, lately driven in large part by oil, is a classic example of the old see-saw axiom: Downward pressure in one place creates upward pressure in another.

In this case, the bad news of low oil prices for the provinces of Alberta, Newfoundland and Saskatchewan, which until recently were enjoying an oil boom, becomes good news for Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

Alberta is a good model for what’s begun to go wrong in Canada. Already, three huge oil companies have canceled oil sands projects there: Shell of Britain at Pierre River, Statoil of Norway at the Corner oil field and France’s Total at the Joslyn mine. And more cancellations are expected as what feels like a non-stop drop in oil prices drives even more energy companies to postpone or even cancel projects."

Andy Tully reports for the Christian Science Monitor January 7, 2015.