<P> Over 90% of Canada's coal reserves and 99% of its production are located in the Western provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan . Alberta has 70% of Canada's coal reserves, and 48% of the province is underlaid by coal deposits . The Hat Creek deposit in British Columbia has one of the thickest coal deposits in the world, about 550 metres (1,800 ft) thick . There are also smaller, but substantial, coal deposits in the Yukon and Northwest Territories and the Arctic Islands, which are even further from markets . The Atlantic provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have coal deposits that were historically a very important source of energy, and Nova Scotia was once the largest coal producer in Canada, but these deposits are much smaller and much more expensive to produce than the Western coal, so coal production in the Atlantic provinces has virtually ceased . Nova Scotia now imports most of the coal for its steel mills and power plants from other countries like Colombia . At the same time, the Western provinces export their coal to 20 different countries, particularly Japan, Korea, and China, in addition to using it in their own thermal power plants . Elk Valley Coal mine is the second biggest coal mine in the world . </P> <P> The region between New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, a distance of thousands of kilometres which includes the major industrial centers of Ontario and Quebec, is largely devoid of coal . As a result, these provinces import almost all of the coal for their steel mills and thermal power plants from the United States . Unfortunately coal from the Eastern United States is high in sulfur content, and this had contributed to a serious air quality problem, particularly in heavily populated Southwestern Ontario until they phased out the last coal fired power plant in 2014 . In Alberta the coal fired Sundance Power Station and Genesee Generating Station are the second and third largest sources of greenhouse gases in Canada . </P> <P> In 1858 James Miller Williams dug the first oil well in North America at Oil Springs, Ontario, preceding Edwin Drake who drilled the first one in the United States one year later . By 1870 Canada had 100 refineries in operation and was exporting oil to Europe . However, the oil fields of Ontario were shallow and small, and oil production peaked and started to decline around 1900 . In contrast, oil production in the United States grew rapidly in the first part of the 20th century after huge discoveries were made in Texas, Oklahoma, California and elsewhere . </P> <P> In 1914, Turner Valley became the first significant field found in Alberta . Eastern Canadian investors and the federal government showed little interest and the field was developed primarily by subsidiaries of U.S. companies . It was originally believed to be a gas field with a small amount of naptha condensed in the gas, but due to the lack of regulations, about 90% of the gas was flared off to extract the small amount of petroleum liquids, an amount of gas that today would be worth billions of dollars . </P>

Where does canada get most of its oil