Jim Carter: Alberta oil sands pioneer

Published on June 13, 2025

Honorary Bachelor of Technology in Management

In the late-1980s, the owners of Syncrude, one of Alberta’s earliest oil sands operations, told its executive team that they weren’t putting any more money into boosting production capacity. 

They’d keep the operation afloat, but that was it. 

Jim Carter was among that executive team, at the time as vice-president of operations. Today, he understands where those owners were coming from. Mining bitumen wasn’t offering much of a return back then. 

“It was probably less than they could get in GICs at the time,” says Carter, who’d ultimately spend 28 years with the company, 10 as president. 

Carter and the team wondered what could be done. They couldn’t change the price of a barrel of oil – but what about input costs? In consultation with the company’s nearly 5,000 employees, they set a vision that would not only reinvent Syncrude but revolutionize the industry in ways that would benefit current stakeholders and future generations alike. 

They retrained and redistributed staff, laying off none. They introduced processes that cut energy usage and costs. They’d even renegotiate royalties and taxes with provincial and federal governments. In time, not only was Syncrude able to reduce costs to $12.50 per barrel, but it boosted production from 54 million to 74 million barrels per year. 

The effort fostered a new era that would make Alberta one of Canada’s most powerful economic engines. It was a transformation that testified to the strength of Carter’s style of leadership, focused on innovation, growth and community building. 

Cornerstones of community 

Throughout it all, Carter emphasized the value of education, as his parents did with him. 

He grew up on a Prince Edward Island dairy farm, near Charlottetown, as a middle child of five siblings. They attended a one-room schoolhouse and, every night, their mother insisted they do their homework. It paid off. “We all went [on to get] at least one degree out of that one-room school,” Carter says of the kids. 

They also developed a committed work ethic, thanks to farm life. “You have to milk the cows twice a day, every day of the year – really good training for running an oil-sands company,” says Carter. “Being the CEO of any company is a seven-day-a-week job.” 

Be it from the classroom, cow pasture or corner office, Carter learned another valuable lesson: the importance of providing opportunities. 

To him, it just made sense. Supporting individual success and contentment would benefit the whole. Carter saw the potential for that wherever he looked. 

He was involved, for example, in saving the University of Alberta’s once-threatened mining program, ensuring a source of the skilled labour Syncrude needed. Carter did the same through initiatives to bring members of local Indigenous communities into the company’s workforce. As part of the board of Fort McMurray’s Keyano College, he was in charge of building the Keyano Theatre & Arts Centre. 

Like education, these were meant as cornerstones in a foundation for future growth and prosperity. 

“We were building a company, we were building a community, and we were building an industry.”

And it wasn’t just for Alberta. “The whole idea that we had was: This is going to be a nation-building endeavour.” 

A lifetime of innovation 

Carter officially “retired” in 2007. If he wanted, the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame inductee would have much to be nostalgic about, including advancements in technology that reshaped oil sands mining. After all, says Eric Newell (Honorary Degree ’00), an early Syncrude colleague and lifelong friend, “He is considered one of the giants of the oil sands industry.” 

Under Carter’s guidance, for example, Syncrude convinced Caterpillar – in part by providing actual specifications – to build 400-tonne trucks to boost efficiency over 320-tonne models previously in use. 

Syncrude also developed a novel system to crush bitumen ore to introduce it into a hydro-transport pipeline and pump it from mine to extraction plant. En route, separation of oil and sand would naturally begin, significantly reducing energy demands during processing later. 

Were Carter to pick a project he’s most proud of, it’s the completion of Syncrude’s upgrader expansion. Brought online in 2006, the project led to the production of 350,000 barrels per day. 

Carter is still driven to make an impact. Since his days with Syncrude, he has led boards for Epcor, Clark Builders, ATB and a council struck by former Premier Ed Stelmach to advance carbon capture and storage. He’s still chairing the board for Finning and an advisory committee for the U of A’s dean of Engineering. 

He’s also still creating opportunities. After joining Newell in 1997 in cofounding Careers, a not- for-profit dedicated to guiding youth toward successful career paths, Carter remains as chair. 

“He is the embodiment of NAIT’s vision, promises and core values,” says Newell. 

When Carter does pause to look back, it’s through the lens of an engineer who’s taken pride in progress. He gravitates toward ground-level comparisons, likening himself to a grader operator clearing winter roads for mining crews – a perhaps unintended variation on his role as trailblazer. 

“It was a long journey doing all of this but a very exciting one,” says Carter. “And one where you can turn around at the end of the day and look back and say, ‘Geez, we got a lot done.’”