It's a very big concern. It's our major export and the government needs to bank on other exports.
No one wants to buy from Canada when the prices are equal to that in the US. It's a far smaller population and realistically the world doesn't need us for anything.
We need to expand to other sectors and show that we can do it better and cheaper than the southern counterpart. They need to invest in more products. We have banked on automobile and aerospace and gaming industry but that's a very small fraction of profit compared to oil which is an always-on export machine.
More assemblies and developments need to initiate here to ensure a strong economy, but no one buys from a strong economic country when you have alternatives in country like China, and with US now eyeing India, it's only a matter of time that a lot of industries will establish permanent HQs there, especially with lenient laws and regulations when it comes to human rights.
Canada is a country that can overtake US but US doesn't want that to happen and have a noose on their neck whenever that happens.
At least that's what it seems like, and it sucks for such a great country to bow down like that even if the two countries are practically brothers.