The mood in Canada’s oilsands is less celebratory than one might expect from an industry in the throes of north America’s biggest resources boom since the Klondike gold rush more than a century ago.

The bitumen-like oilsands deposits, located in north-eastern Alberta, have attracted investors, big and small, from around the world. By last year, the oilsands contributed 46 per cent of Canada’s crude oil output, nearly double their share a decade earlier.