For most of the past 10 years, the Canadian oil sands region has been associated with the word "boom." Fort McMurray, the unofficial oil sands capital, has enjoyed a huge bull market in real estate as high oil prices generated tons of jobs and investment.

Now that oil prices are below $45 a barrel, the oil sands region is bleeding jobs and money. An estimated $100 billion in capital spending has been wiped off the books. Producing a barrel of oil from the oil sands is much harder than, say, sticking a straw into the Arabian desert. Costs are running from $35 to $50 a barrel for production. If oil remains below $45, expect to read more stories like this in the future…

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