Price of Canadian oilsands crude plunges to lowest level on record — and could be headed to $0
The cost of buying a barrel of Canadian oil fell to less than a Barrel of Monkeys on Thursday as the oil price again crashed to record levels.
Western Canadian Select (WCS) was selling for $6.45 US a barrel Thursday, down $2.84 US from a day earlier. That's below last week's record when it sold for as low as $7.63 US a barrel.
In the last week the NDP government has taken a host of welcome steps to deal with the Covid-19 crisis in our province. There are a number of glaring exceptions to this, however, especially including Horgan's conntinuing refusal to actually require social distancing when that policy comes into conflict with the economy. Mining and construction are explicitly exempted from this, having been designated as essential services yesterday by the Solicotor-General.
The news that Ireland is nationalizing its healthcare system for the duration of the coronavirus crisis inspired observers including Rep. Ilhan Omar to call for the same approach in the U.S. as the world’s largest economy faces the disease.
A 2014 report warned that reforms to the NHS would make it vulnerable to pandemics – by making staff redundant, undermining public health and defining spare capacity as waste. It was ignored.
“Sick… guess we didn’t move quick enough after all…” — Stephen King, The Stand.
The Covid-19 Shock Meets an Impending Economic Recession
As of March 2020, the world is back to the future. The global financial crisis of 2007-08, which escalated into a global financial meltdown in September 2008, was supposed to be the big bang crisis, a once in a lifetime event. And yet, here we are again.
Some Canadian organizations are asking the federal government to focus any bailout of the oil industry on workers and families, not corporations.
The request comes in an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, released Tuesday morning and signed by environmental organizations, faith and labour groups that the signatories say represent about 1.3 million people.
“Giving billions of dollars to failing oil and gas companies will not help workers and only prolongs our reliance on fossil fuels,” the letter says.
