North Americans fear a widespread energy shortage during the next five years but the vast majority don't even know where their supplies come from now, according to a new survey.
A poll conducted by Ipsos-Reid, on behalf of the Canada Institute of the Washington D.C.-based Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, found that two-thirds of Canadians and Americans are worried about electricity shortages.
A similar number of Canadians and three-quarters of Americans are also concerned about gasoline shortages.
But both groups have a limited knowledge of Canada's oil reserves.
A small percentage of those surveyed know that Canada has greater oil reserves than Iraq, Iran and every other country expect Saudi Arabia.
And only two in 10 Americans and fewer than three in 10 Canadians are aware that this country is the largest supplier of imported oil and petroleum products to the United States, the survey showed.
"Canadians and Americans alike don't know very much about the sheer scope of Canadian oil resources. They don't know very much in general about our energy relationship," Tim Moro, senior vice-president of Ipsos North America Energy Practice, said yesterday.
The poll comes as the Canada Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center holds a two-day conference in Calgary to discuss Canada-U.S. relations, with a focus on energy issues.
Tonight, former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed will receive an award for public service, and Richard Haskayne, chairman of TransCanada Corp., will be honoured for corporate citizenship.
Mr. Moro said that energy appears to be one of the top issues that Canadians and Americans want their federal governments to address over the next year.
The Canadian part of the poll was conducted from Feb. 16 to Feb. 19, and was based on a randomly selected sample of 1,059 adults.
In the United States, the poll was conducted from Feb. 20 to Feb. 22, and 1,000 Americans participated. The results are considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
