When Canadians debate the place of the country’s oil industry in a carbon-constrained future, the conversation usually focuses on Alberta and, to a lesser extent, Saskatchewan. Often overlooked is Newfoundland and Labrador, where offshore drilling accounts for 5 percent of all of Canada’s oil production and just under a quarter of its light oil.
Oil also contributes indirectly to the province’s economy. While statistics are fuzzy, a large percentage of the fly-in, fly-out workers in Alberta’s oil sands are Newfoundlanders.
I met this week with Andrew Furey, the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, in his office at the legislature that has a commanding view of St. John’s. Mr. Furey, who became premier in 2020, has a number of distinctions. He is the only Liberal premier in the country at the moment, he is an orthopedic surgeon who still practices the minimum number of days necessary to maintain his medical license, and he is a founder of a group that provides medical aid to Haiti.
