For better or worse — better for the companies, worse for the people who work for them — the oilsands industry has come a long way on that front. Suncor’s announcement this past June that all of the ore at its signature base plan was now being moved by more than 100 autonomous haulers is yet another example of the extent to which the business of oil and gas extraction is being de-manned. If you’re wondering why the industry and its political proxies spend so much time attacking Ottawa, it’s because they don’t want Albertans looking too closely at who’s actually responsible for the jobs being lost. A hundred autonomous haulers working around the clock represents several hundred well-paid jobs that no longer exist — and are never, ever coming back.