Alberta's clout in Ottawa is also growing. Stephen Harper, Canada's prime minister, and many close advisers come from the western province. The population of Alberta and neighbouring British Columbia has overtaken that of Quebec for the first time. Together, the two will be entitled to more members of parliament than the French-speaking province.

The oilsands have boosted Canada's profile in the US and abroad. McKinsey plans to hold its next global energy conference in Calgary. "It's fantastic to have a piece of the economy that is so focused on improving productivity," says Bruce Simpson, the company's managing partner in Canada.

Yet, for all the benefits, a frisson of nervousness has recently emerged that short-term growth may be taking precedence over long-term prudence. Mr Vander Ploeg estimates that the province's Progressive Conservative government has saved just 8.6 per cent of the C$120bn it has collected in non-renewable resource royalties over the past 30 years.

By contrast, Alaska has set aside about one-quarter of its resource revenues in "permanent" and "reserve" funds. Norway has tucked almost two-thirds of its North Sea riches into a rainy-day petroleum fund....

....The oilsands investment has created such a dire labour shortage that one coffee-shop chain prints a "now hiring" message on its paper cups. But soaring accommodation costs have expanded the ranks of the working poor. The Mustard Seed, a church-based community group, serves 14,000 meals a month in the capital Edmonton. Tim Seefeldt, its chairman, says: "The impression people have that a boom makes all problems go away is not true."