Oil and gas ‘vital,’ poll says
Pipelines mostly backed, Keystone excepted
A new poll suggests a broad cross-section of Canadians see the oil and gas sector as vitally important to the national economy, an attitude that in turn appears to be driving up support for pipeline construction.
Almost nine out of 10 respondents to the HarrisDecima poll, 87 per cent, said they believe oil and gas development is economically important, while a clear majority — 53 per cent — ranked the sector as the most important in Canada.
The telephone poll of just over 1,000 respondents also found a majority of respondents support the proposed west-to-east pipeline from Alberta to Atlantic Canada, as well as the Northern Gateway pipeline to the B.C. coast.
A slim plurality of respondents, meanwhile, said they oppose the Keystone XL pipeline to the Southern U.S.
The poll lands amid rancorous debates over the three high-profile pipeline proposals that have generated loud public opposition, including major protests and demonstrations south of the border.
Against such environmental criticism, the federal Conservative government has budgeted $25 million over the last two years to advertise the importance and environmental responsibility of Canada’s resource sector, and talk of pipeline politics has dominated the governing agenda.
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and individual producers such as Cenovus Energy have also been heavily advertising the merits of their industry.
“The more importance you place on the role that sector plays in the economy, the more likely you are to support the construction of any pipeline,” pollster Doug Anderson of Harris-Decima said in an interview. “But it’s not true of everybody.”
Two out of three respondents were able to support at least one of the three pipeline options, Anderson said.
Women appeared to be less receptive to pipeline construction, even when they perceive an economic imperative for the industry.
The survey, conducted Nov. 7-11, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 per cent, 19 times in 20.
Curiously, high public perceptions of the oil and gas sector’s supremacy aren’t borne out by economic data.
Oil and gas are dwarfed by manufacturing in employment and share of gross domestic product, and the sector’s share of total taxable corporate income fell significantly between 2006 and 2011.
Economist Andrew Leach at the University of Alberta’s school of business has written convincingly Canada is not the “petrostate” claimed by critics and advocates alike.
As a share of Canada’s gross domestic product, the entire energy sector has actually fallen since 1997 to less than 10 per cent in 2013 from above 12 per cent, says Leach.
Rising public perceptions are good for the government’s goal of getting Canadian energy resources to foreign markets.
“I think people understand why we are supportive in principle of the movement of our resources to tidewater,” Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said.