Not much to talk about, really ? . Peppercorn, I understand the basic dynamics of what is happening . In light of all we know of forest die off happening, climate change and the disruption of air currents as noted by Paul Beckwith , you have a population of people operating on a business as usual basis ( no slur of these people , I had family there too ) and politicians CUTTING funding for firefighting drastically prior to this wildfire that just wiped out a key Canadian city . We have had an unusual weather pattern that may not be precedented but the need for vigilant fire protection this year was entirely predictable and not acted upon . I was an urban planner and from that background my instincts are these cities were planned in an era when the fire risk was lower ( that goes fro flood,drought, earthquake , wind storms as well ) , and we need to be looking at things like fire risk far more seriously in our planning for development and disaster management more carefully. The bigger picture I think is we need to look at the tar sand production and optimize this resource with an understanding of the environmental cost . Canada has an opportunity to control it carefully for revenues and utilize it to produce needed products rather than crappy disposable plastic stuff shipped back to us from asia. We are not going to stop consumption in its tracks and economically people are dependant on this industry far and wide but i do think it could be taken in hand and utilized better and instead of being a raw resource Canadians could benefit by utilizing it here to produce neccessary products for domestic use and export because I do believe our influence on the environment and subsequently climate , is one facet in this disasterous wildfire that simply has not been planned for , is not being looked at carefully enough nor brought up much in the conventional media and further impacts globally are not really factoring into the economic picture .
The social dynamic of the plight of those directly in this line of fire and the public response is immediately in front of us and foremost in importance but i hope that is not percieved as the the end of discussion.

Like Peppercorn, I don't really take issue with much of your comments regarding decisions that might have been better planned. I don't, however, agree with your economic point of view. Perhaps it is a simple matter about who develops the resource. We the tax payer do not develop the resource, entrepreneurs do; either individually or by owning stock in a publicly traded corporation which does the developing on behalf of investors. If there were a viable business case to be made for upgrading the resource locally, it would have been done so and if the economics of that become more favourable, it will be done in the future. Similarly, when the public's demand for inexpensive plastic products manufactured abroad declines, so too will the demand for our raw resource. I believe that the Alberta government is right to look into the environmental cost of producing the OIL sands (I've been up that way and it's not tar), and if the electorate wish to endorse a government which chooses to price carbon then I defer to majority wisdom. I would not wish to see a government invest our taxes on a venture to "take in hand and utilize better" the resource as I don't know that any government has demonstrated a competency at this. I'm probably wrong on that last point as I have not spent a great deal of time researching the efficacy of crown corps the world over. Perhaps it would be worth the public's while to pursue the matter but given to polarity of opinion regarding carbon intensive industry today, I think it to be a non-starter.

My thoughts on the matter.