Gord Ball
President of ACR 2010 – 2012
&
Vice President, Project Development & Execution
Syncrude Canada Ltd.
One of the best ways to mark the 75th anniversary of the Alberta Chamber of Resources is to reflect on some numbers. Thousands of members over the decades, for example, more than 60 presidents, six executive directors, and an untold number of lives changed for the better thanks to the treasures of the land and to the men and women who, across generations, toiled to extract and develop those treasures so that others might put them to use.
And to very good use: roads, houses, communities, the underpinnings of modern life and society directly and indirectly provided for, opportunities and livelihoods, the freedom to move, to communicate, to live, to hope—with good reason—for more. Resources literally helped build a province.
And they help keep it strong to this day.
The foundation of much of that strength lies in the work of the people who came before us. They carved a path to opportunity in their own time, and they handed us the tools to be prosperous in ours. We owe them a debt. And we have a responsibility—to build on the legacy, to learn from success and challenge, to do better if we can.
Certainly, we continue our efforts in those directions. A detailed reading of this 75th anniversary edition of the Resources Guide and Directory will help shed light on some of what we’ve done lately, even in the standards and plans set out for future progress—the development of a new strategic framework for the ACR and the publication of a major new reclamation brochure, for example. But I would like to point especially to the report of the ACR Resource Development and the Economy Task Force.
As an industry-wide initiative that is the outcome of intense discussion and study by some of the brightest and most passionate minds out there, the foundation is strong and the potential for progress is excellent. How does the resource industry, in a responsible and orderly manner, best build on 75 years of growth and success? This is the basic question and challenge that will occupy and, in the strategies and actions we develop and execute in response, guide us for years to come.
I am inspired and heartened by the rich and accomplished past of the Alberta Chamber of Resources. It is the foundation from which we, in our time, optimistically embark on an equally noble and adventurous next 75 years.