Things can only get better for Canada

For Canada's oil industry, 2017 will surely be an improvement on last year's annus horribilis

First came the sub-$30 oil prices. Then, in May, it was the turn of the fires. The inferno that engulfed Fort McMurray in May shut in 1.3m barrels a day of production for almost three months. The combination means Canada's total average oil output in 2016 will post a 1% decline, not rise by 1.5%, as the country's regulator, the National Energy Board (NEB), had forecast. The industry suffered another hit in June, when Canada's courts overturned the NEB's approval for the 0.55m-b/d Northern Gateway pipeline to British Columbia's west coast. The ruling said the federal and provincial governments had failed to consult aboriginal groups. Prime minister Justin Trudeau, who opposes more oil-tanker