For many people, these words were great news — more bitumen would be refined in Alberta, at a new private sector refinery. Accounting for the value added through refining bitumen into diesel and other products, the "Bitumen Boondoggle" is now expected to be a net loss to Alberta taxpayers of more than $2.5 billion. Given that adding value to Alberta bitumen was broadly popular at the time, there's nothing too alarming to this point in the process. The Alberta government's involvement went well beyond providing the refinery with bitumen, even though that phrase is frequently used to describe the deal. So, in a sense, the Sturgeon Refinery contract is a multibillion-dollar bet against pipelines getting built.

Source: CBC News September 14, 2020 11:00 UTC