Athabasca and the surrounding area had better not be camera shy, because the attention of the province, the nation and perhaps even the world will be on this area in the coming years.
Speaking at Athabasca University’s Community Breakfast last week, Alberta’s Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk highlighted the crucial part Athabasca has to play in the future of more than one important industry.
Anyone with a map of Alberta can discern that Athabasca is, perhaps, “the centre of the province”, as Lukaszuk noted during his turn as keynote speaker at the event.
But the Deputy Premier had more in mind than simple geography when he made that bold statement.
While speaking to those assembled at the breakfast, Lukaszuk pointed out, correctly, that Athabasca is blessed with an ideal geographic location.
But this community has far more going for it than being well-placed on a map.
The area is also a key player in the energy and resources sectors, and that role will only grow in the coming years.
We will inevitably experience more growth connected to the oil sands, given our proximity to them. As that industry continues to grow, more and more businesses will get involved, drawing more and more workers north to ply their trade.
And one cannot forget the ever present and continually healthy lumber industry that flourishes in our community. There’s no reason to believe that industry will become any less valuable to the world any time soon.
Then there’s Athabasca University itself, for which Lukaszuk and his counterpart in the Legislative Assembly, MLA and Minister of Education Jeff Johnson, had nothing but compliments. Education is perhaps the most important resource of all, as schools like AU welcome students to expand their horizons and ultimately equip them to enter the workforce.
It’s rare for a community of this size to be home to one of the country’s biggest universities (in terms of student population), but this one is, and as the Deputy Premier noted, when today’s energy sources are no longer feasible, the world will rely on the kind of research and knowledge that is being cultivated at facilities like AU to determine what the future of energy will look like.
Of course, the Deputy Premier was well aware of his audience at last week’s event, and skeptics could argue he simply told them what they wanted to hear. But there’s no fudging the facts, and Lukaszuk was right on the money when he pointed out Athabasca’s already important role in the province and the nation at large.
A betting man would probably like the odds of that role getting even bigger in the years to come.
