Canada Action and Rally 4 Resources held a rally at the legislature building in Regina in January, following truck protest parades held earlier in Estevan and Lloydminster.
“We know that resources are the bedrock of Canada’s national prosperity. There’s a lot of issues with pipelines and Canada not being competitive. We are making our voices heard, to make sure the entire country knows. We’re all Canadians, we’re all in this together, and we all win when the resources sector is strong,” said Rally 4 Resources organizer Cody Battershill.
“Our economy is losing $23 million a day on the discount on natural gas, and up to $100 million a day through the discount on oil. We are about all of Canada’s resources from coast to coast. That includes oil, natural gas, wind, farming, potash, uranium, diamonds, coal, agriculture, you name it.”
In December, more than 400 trucks joined a protest parade in Estevan to protest federal inaction on resource development, primarily pipelines. Similar events were held in Lloydminster and in Nisku Alberta.
“Everybody is so sick and tired of all the spending, all the taxes,” said Estevan organizer Darryl Shirley, co-owner of Estevan-based Bert Baxter Transport.
“We want to show the federal government that we are upset and this is just one small way to do it,” he said.
Estevan, like other Saskatchewan communities including Lloydminster and Kindersley, is dependent on its oilfield industry, said Shirley.
His business, which transports oilfield equipment, has seen the pinch of a downturn in that sector. It has dropped from a workforce of about 160 employees to 60, and several trucks in its fleet are parked
