A flurry of positive economic reports extolling the benefits of rapid bitumen development and the Northern Gateway pipeline base their conclusions on poor data that "are misleading and misrepresentative of economic reality," says independent economist Robyn Allan.
The reports "present an illusion of economic well-being" created from rapid oil sands growth by omitting key trends such as oil price shocks and by using inappropriate economic models, adds Allan, a retired financial economist and former CEO of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia.
The 56 year-old economist describes the reports "as quantitative billy clubs to beat back public inquiry," designed to discourage real debate about costs and benefits.
"No corporate executive or corporate board would make a decision to expand a project based on the sort of flimsy and one-sided information presented in these studies," adds Allan, once rated by the National Post as one of Canada's top 200 CEOs.
"Why are politicians passing off reports as a business case for a pipeline when no one in business would rely on data based on only one scenario and with no sensitivity analysis over a 30-year time period?" asks Allan.
