O Canada!

By Yim Sung-joon

``O Canada!” is the title of, and first words of the Canadian National Anthem. Canada is the second-largest country in the world in terms of total area, following Russia.

Although Canada is larger than the United States, its population barely exceeds a tenth of that of its neighbor at 34 million. Even Korea has more people.

Notwithstanding this, Canada is the world’s seventh strongest economic power, primarily due to its abundant natural resources and advanced technologies. Canada’s two biggest ethnic groups are comprised of British-Canadians (33 percent) and French-Canadians (27 percent), with the rest of its population comprised of immigrants from all over the world. Canada’s demographics are unique in that most French-Canadians reside in Quebec, and accordingly, they have fiercely maintained French tradition. French is one of its official languages, along with English.

In early October, I traveled to Canada to co-chair the 9th Korea-Canada Forum held in Calgary, an important city for the nation’s energy industry. This forum, which rotates between the two nations every year, is organized by the Seoul Forum for International Affairs and by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. This year, the forum added to its agenda the topic of ``Prospects for Deeper Cooperation on Energy and the Environment” in addition to the ordinary issues governing politics, security and the economy.

Attendees discussed the outlook for the development of green energy and safety measures for nuclear energy while reviewing global supply and demand trends and alternative energy issues. Representatives of the Korea National Oil Corporation, Korea Gas Corporation and POSCO were there, as they all have recently made large investments in Canada’s energy industry.

As a result of increasing oil prices, Canada has been receiving global attention due to its large oil deposits (in the form of oil sand) located in northern Alberta. It has been said that as much as 175 billion barrels of oil can be extracted, which would make Canada the third largest oil reserve after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The oil sand is covered with open-pit sandstone soil mixed with about 10 percent bitumen, a type of crude oil. The bitumen, extracted through refining procedures, becomes a kind of crude oil. As the oil sand covers 140,000 square kilometers, an area that is 1.5 times the size of South Korea, its potential for development is equally vast.

Up until now, the oil sand has mainly been extracted by leading U.S. petroleum companies, and thus, most of the oil has been sent to the United States through pipelines traversing the two countries. However, China, the world’s largest oil importer, has been aggressive in its efforts to get involved, with the Sinopec Group investing $4.65 billion and CNOOC Ltd. investing $2.1 billion in oil sand projects in the region. Japan and Korea are right behind.

The outcome of the investment by the three countries primarily depends on how fast the ongoing construction of pipelines to be laid on the west coast is completed. Enbridge, Inc., Canada’s largest gas and oil distributor, is expected to finish constructing the pipelines with a length of 1,172 kilometers in the next five years or so. Afterwards, China, Japan and Korea will be able to receive 525,000 barrels of oil a day.

Our nation has an extremely heavy dependence on energy imports from the Middle East, with 85 percent of its oil and 73.4 percent of its natural gas being supplied from there. Recently, social unrest is becoming pervasive in the region with the spread of the so-called ``Arab Spring.” In light of this, a more stable energy supply system should be explored by investing in Canada’s oil sand and national gas projects, which will eventually have a positive influence on our national interests.

In the meantime, Alberta’s energy minister has announced that approximately 75,000 jobs will be newly created in the coming years in oil sand-related industries. About 250,000 Korean-Canadians are living in Canada, and 30,000 students are there as well. Considering the growing figures for youth unemployment in Korea, I sincerely hope that the government can strengthen its ties with Canada, and find ways for our young and unemployed high-tech workers to move there.

The writer is a distinguished professor at the Graduate School of International Area Studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. A career diplomat, Yim is also senior advisor for Lee International IP & Law Group. He can be reached at yimsungjoon@gmail.com.