I'm hauling freight once in awhile to Fort McMurray, Alberta, been there 2 weeks ago, temperature outside below -40 F, but it's a crazzy economic boom , due to oil sands exploration, Big $$$$ in any jobs, You see signs "Hiring now" all over, huge need of workers in any kind of jobs from simple services,oil field to IT: they are paying over 20$/hour for a simple coffe shop workers, but the cost of living is very high, modest houses cost over 500 000$, monthy rent over 1500 $ for a simple apartment,but everybody makes $$$ there.
There are 175 billion barrels of proven oil reserves here, enough to satisfy the North American market for next 100 years. That’s second to Saudi Arabia’s 260 billion barrels, and it's located 600 miles north of Montana/US border. I wonder why Exxon doesn't invest more $$ there, not arguing with Chavez,