Alberta celebrated its centennial this past summer without the level of public and government enthusiasm displayed in neighbouring Saskatchewan — which should not have surprised anyone. Albertans value their history all right, but the buzz in this province right now is all about the future rather than the past.

The Wild Rose province is experiencing what may turn out to be the greatest boom in its relatively short history. Over the past year or two, the usually understated economic outlook reports produced by Canada’s major banks have struggled to find superlatives to describe what’s going on. Royal Bank of Canada perhaps came closest to the truth when its economists gushed that residents of the red-hot Edmonton-Calgary corridor are managing to “combine American-style prosperity with a Canadian quality of life.”

But the real hot spot is a five-hour drive northeast of the capital, in the Wood Buffalo region around Canada’s fastest-growing city — Fort McMurray. For the uninitiated, Wood Buffalo is the giant Alberta municipality sitting on perhaps the largest potential source of oil on the planet (estimates vary from 179 billion to 300 billion barrels). The development over the coming decades will probably define the 21st century for Alberta.

Fort Mac, as it’s known in Alberta, has grown by more than half in the past six years, and the city’s population of 56,000 is expected to reach 80,000 by the end of this decade. The average home sells for $340,000 — one-third more than in Calgary and Edmonton — and this past summer, the resulting housing shortage saw migrant workers camping illegally in local parks; garden sheds reportedly were renting for $600 a month.

Just a few years back, it was thought that by 2022, business would invest $21 billion in Wood Buffalo, but the numbers have already far surpassed that. Some $45 billion has been committed to oilsands-related development over the next five years alone. If oil prices stay buoyant, the most optimistic estimates suggest investment could hit $80 billion.

Political opponents have criticized the Klein government for forgoing royalty revenue to kick-start all this activity, but the province is already making some serious money — $6 billion since 1996! And 2005 is likely to be the low point for payback to the taxpayer. Starting next year, royalties and corporate taxes will begin to climb. If oil averages more than US$30 a barrel, royalties and taxes could hit $4.2 billion a year by 2020.

Nor is the Alberta treasury the only winner, or even the major beneficiary. According to a recent study by the Canadian Energy Research Institute, the total value of the oilsands to the Canadian economy over the next 20 years will be a mind-boggling $885 billion. Ontario-based companies alone stand to benefit to the tune of $130 billion in manufacturing, engineering fees and other spinoff activity. Taxes generated by oilsands development over that same period will be in the region of $123 billion, says CERI.

And guess which government gets the largest chunk of that windfall? Not Alberta. Ottawa will rake in $51 billion, or 41% of the total. Other provincial governments stand to benefit to the tune of $11.5 billion.

The job-creation potential of the oilsands development is also spectacular. CERI estimates it can create 240,000 jobs by 2008, and half of those would be outside Alberta.

That’s the message Ralph Klein took to audiences in Ottawa, Quebec City and Halifax on speaking tour at the end of November. Hopefully people listened, because there’s been a lot of loose talk in the national media about Alberta’s unwillingness to share its energy bounty — and opinion polls during the summer suggested there is widespread public support for regarding this provincial resource as a national treasure. The irony is that it already is. IE