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Canada’s lack of oil pipeline capacity cost our national economy $20.6 billion last year, or 1% of Canada’s Gross Domestic Product, according to a new study by the Fraser Institute.

Even worse, the fiscally-conservative think tank says, a unique set of circumstances in 2018 meant losses in that year alone almost matched total losses for the previous five years combined, from 2013 to 2017, at $20.7 billion.

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The study released Tuesday, The Cost of Pipeline Constraints in Canada, 2019, by Elmira Aliakbari and Ashley Stedman, said our continuing inability to get Alberta’s oil to global markets has a cascading negative impact on our economy.

In September, 2018, for example, western Canadian oil production reached 4.3 million barrels per day, of which only 3.95 million barrels per day could be shipped by pipeline.

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Because of that, oil producers were forced to store millions of barrels of oil they could otherwise sell, and had to use rail transportation, where possible, which is more expensive.