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CALGARY — The stream of traffic between Cold Lake, Alta., and nearby oilfields has slowed to a trickle.

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The oil and gas sector will see 100,000 job losses by the end of this year, including 40,000 direct jobs, as a combination of policy uncertainties and low crude oil prices decimates the sector, the head of the country’s oil and gas industry group says.

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“It’s definitely a noticeable slowdown,” said Mayor Craig Copeland, who has been hearing from hotels, restaurants and retailers that business is down about 30 per cent year-over-year in the oilpatch’s bedroom community.

It’s not much of a surprise, with crude prices spending most of the year under US$50 a barrel and sinking below US$40 a barrel this month. Most analysts expect the doldrums to stretch well into 2016.

It’s also not getting any easier to build market-opening pipelines and political upsets in Ottawa and Edmonton have put many in the industry on edge.