Professional sport is a big business in Alberta. In the hockey arena and the football stadium, the province has deep attachment to its athletes and its teams.
Recently, an old sport has ignited new passions in the province. It's not played on ice or gridiron, but in the newspapers, across the table at Tim Hortons and in the corporate boardrooms. The sport is Alberta's energy sector.
The first team - Team Industry - has some elite athletes, including EnCana, Nexen, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Suncor. Supporting players are the industry associations, such as the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the Petroleum Services Association of Canada. The supporting players never win MVP trophies, but they show up for every game and give 100 per cent.
The other team - Team Fair Share - is made up of those with little sympathy for the oil and gas industry. They see the corporate bonuses, hear of record profits, watch the massive office towers going up in Calgary - and shed not a tear. They have no real marquee players, but they have passion. Their creed: The energy sector has been given a free ride in Alberta for too long.
As the game begins, Team Industry comes out swinging with a compelling case that energy is the lifeblood of the economy. Few can deny that oil and gas has made Alberta an economic titan. By some estimates, energy extraction - both directly and indirectly - accounts for as much as 50 per cent of provincial GDP. Don't wreck a good thing! Team Industry fans go wild.
But Team Fair Share gets on the scoreboard with a couple of quick points. Crude oil has hit $100 a barrel, and the shares in most of these all-stars are touching record highs. The game evens up.
Team Industry's coach pulls the referee aside and points out an unfair play. Natural gas - not crude oil - has been the primary wealth generator in Alberta over the past decade. Gas prices are in the tank at the moment, and the sector has seen a big drop in drilling. The ref sides with Team Industry. The game gets interesting.
A setback for Team Fair Share, but they come out charging with social and environmental concerns. Many Albertans actually want to slow the pace of development in the energy sector, particularly in the oil sands. Fort McMurray has been straining for years under the pressures of massive inflows of people. Most are young, male, single and making a lot of money - a combination that can have explosively negative social outcomes. And when the TV documentaries show the environmental degradation and greenhouse-gas emissions of the oil sands, Team Fair Share starts chanting ... nah-nah, hey-hey-hey, goodbye!
Team Industry isn't out yet. They press in with a stunning offensive drive - a reminder of how much the energy sector contributes to the public purse through corporate taxes and resource royalties. It's the reason why Alberta has been able to crawl out of debt years ahead of schedule. And where do you think all the money for the new schools and university libraries and medical research labs comes from?
Team Fair Share counters with a trump card. The hydrocarbon molecules in the ground belong to the people of Alberta. Full stop. Energy companies should stop acting like the resource is theirs.
The fans in the crowd are fairly evenly split, and some nasty names are called. A beer cup is thrown. Pushing and shoving ensues.
Unlike hockey or football, this game never really ends. There are halftime shows and periodic rain delays. Fans on both sides suspect the game is fixed. Occasionally, the scoreboard breaks down and expert panels are called in to fix it. But eventually, the players get back to the game, the fans start throwing beer cups, and Alberta's passions are fuelled.
The fact that the game never ends seems to suit Albertans just fine. No one ever really wins - but with so much at stake, no one can ever bear to lose, either.
The opinions expressed are Todd Hirsch's own. This comment was adapted from an article in Policy Options magazine. Mr. Hirsch is a Calgary-based senior economist at ATB Financial