The crash in crude prices has spurred thousands of job losses, billions in spending cuts and countless other cost-saving measures across Canada's energy heartland.

And now the ripple effect from lower oil prices is prompting one industry executive to declare Alberta has slumped to a new level of economic despair.

“I think we’ve gone beyond a recession, and more of depression [in Alberta],” said Mullen Group CEO Murray Mullen in an interview on BNN.

He added that the latest commodity price collapse at the start of 2016 was “the nail in the coffin for the industry for the next bit."

This is consistent with what at least one other guest has told BNN in recent months.

Money manager Tim Gramatovich of Peritus Asset Management also used the d-word in reference to the state of Alberta’s energy industry last month.

He said he believes it will take years, even decades, for Alberta to recover from the crash in crude.

Meanwhile, Mullen likens the difficulties facing the oil and gas sector to those back in the 1980s.

“A lot of people didn’t make it through the 80s,” he said.