Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

Considering Western Canada’s continued dependence on crude and semi-processed resource exports, it could be argued that Albertans ought to find more sustainable and profitable ways to process their natural resource wealth. The speaker will briefly consider regional development challenges in Western Canada before turning to Western Australia, a booming resource-based economy that shares much in common with Alberta. This presentation will explain how the Kwinana industrial complex on Cockburn Sound has been in operation for nearly 60 years. Initially based on an Anglo Iranian oil refinery which came on stream in 1955, Kwinana has become a large and densely-interconnected industrial zone with the largest harbour on Australia’s Indian Ocean coastline. Just 30 km south of Perth, it features a wide range of large-scale resource-processing refineries and processing plants (oil, gas, nickel, alumina, titanium dioxide, chemicals, water and electrical power generation). The speaker will discuss the Kwinana success