In a recent speech, Former Premier Frank McKenna said shale gas has the potential to bring in 7 billion dollars in royalty and tax revenues.
McKenna says the potential of a shale gas industry also has spinoffs in the knowledge sector where at the University of Alberta over 1000 university students are working in research.
He says they are engaged with corporate partners to develop new technologies for extracting these resources in the most environmentally sensitive way possible.
He adds this province must demand equal treatment from the Feds for these revenues in the same way the offshore revenues are assessed in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.
While laying out the potential of a shale gas industry, McKenna did qualify the statements in his speech saying his has no vested interest in the success of energy projects in this province.
