Special to Canadian Dimension April 9, 2008

The vast tar sands of northern Alberta have entered the global stage. In the context of U.S. concern about “energy security” and the five fold expansion of tar sands development proposed through the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) , the tar sands are no longer an issue only for Albertans. All Canadians have an interest, not only as global citizens, but also because of the big implications of tar sands development for our national economy and the environment. (http://www.environmentaldefence.ca/reports/tarsands.htm)

British Columbians have a special stake. Through the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA),(http://www.canadians.org/DI/issues/TILMA/index.html ) the public policies of Alberta and B.C. are proposed to be increasingly intertwined. And despite the priority the Campbell government says it has put on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from B.C., some of their actions show otherwise. The “northern energy corridor” announced in this spring’s Throne Speech and the $4 billion Enbridge Gateway pipeline to bring tar sands oil to supertankers at an expanded Kitimat port mean tar sands development is a big deal for our province too.

The dirty details about the giant scale of the tar sands speak for themselves: the second largest reserve of petroleum in the world ); Canada’s fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions ; the cause of rapid depletion and pollution of the Athabasca river basin ; the reason for strip mining of thousands of square kilometres of boreal forest;a huge consumer of natural gas ; and the likely cause of alarming rates of cancer in nearby Cree communities .

While it’s true that everything about the tar sands is ‘super sized’, their relative isolation makes the tar sands seem somehow surreal or otherworldly. But they are not on another planet. They are here in Western Canada, right now. Which is why a group of community, environmental and labour activists from B.C. paid a visit to the tar sands the week before Easter to briefly learn about the scale of the world’s largest industrial project.

The British Columbians were brought together by the Council of Canadians. They represented Check Your Head, the Institute for Citizen Journalism, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Greenpeace Canada, the Stop TILMA Working Group, and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

While in northern Alberta, the group not only flew over the huge strip mines that stretch as far as the eye can see, but also met with a variety of local residents.

Among them was Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and a number of elders, who told of the plague of cancer that is afflicting the community of Fort Chipewyan. Six residents of the tiny community of Fort Chip have died of cancer since January alone. Despite alarm bells raised by local doctor John O’Connor in 2006, the federal and provincial governments have still not launched a base line epidemiological study. Nor has there been any effort to move the water intake pipe for Fort Chip to an inland lake. The community currently draws its drinking water directly from the Athabasca River located downstream from the major tar sands plants. The visiting British Columbians were told it would be relatively easy and affordable to build a water pipe to the community from a nearby lake, but the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which also includes the booming city of Fort McMurray, cannot keep up with infrastructure demands. Neither the federal nor provincial governments have stepped forward to fulfill their responsibility to ensure safe drinking water for the Fort Chipewyan community.

The group also met with Monty Hillier and Emily Bird, the president and vice-president of CUPE Local 1505, which represents municipal workers in Fort McMurray. They learned about the significant public infrastructure pressures facing that community including the housing prices that make even Vancouver seem affordable, and the stresses of shift work for workers at tar sands plants. They were also told of the pride local residents feel in Fort McMurray and the concern about national media depictions of a town in crisis.

In Edmonton, the visitors from B.C. met with Gil McGowan, the President of the Alberta Federation of Labour who explained the A.F.L.’s recently released policy on oil sands development.

The core of the A.F.L.’s critique is that the tar sands are developing in a completely unplanned and uncoordinated fashion. Given the vast size of tar sands reserves and high world oil price, McGowan argues that Alberta could be in the driver’s seat to insist on environmentally sustainable development at an orderly pace. Instead, the Stelmach Conservatives pursues a de-regulated “development at all costs” approach which means refining jobs are being shipped to the U.S. in the form of raw bitumen in the staggering array of new pipelines to the south and west that have been approved or are proposed.

McGowan is a signatory to the “No New Approvals” campaign (http://www.sierraclub.ca/prairie/Media/2008/TarSandsPressRelease(January31).doc ), which calls for a moratorium on new tar sands approvals. Those supporting “No New Approvals” (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/no-new-approvals-on-tar-sands-developments ) point out that not a single tar sands application nor a single environmental assessment certificate has so far been denied by government.

The pace of tar sands development is a major economic issue since much of the current economic activity related to the tar sands comes from construction employment, rather than long term jobs in refining and upgrading. The construction boom has also led to a huge influx of temporary workers brought into Alberta through the controversial foreign guest worker program.. The Alberta Federation of Labour has made it a major priority to advocate for these temporary workers who are so often exploited and taken advantage of.

What conclusions did the B.C. activists draw from their brief visit? Amongst others:

• The proposed Enbridge Gateway pipeline and ‘northern energy corridor” are serious issues for British Columbians that care about global warming. This B.C. pipeline will take tar sands oil to supertankers at Kitimat. Those oil supertankers will then ply fragile coastal ecosystems in order to take bitumen to refineries in California or Asia. If the pipeline goes ahead, it will be an incentive for increased tar sands production. • British Columbians should sign on to the ‘No New Approvals’ campaign.(http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/no-new-approvals-on-tar-sands-developments ) Unplanned and unfettered development of new tar sands facilities will only worsen already critical environmental, economic and health problems. • British Columbians should press the federal government and local M.P.s to take urgent steps to resolve the cancer and water crisis facing Fort Chipewyan.(http://www.tarsandswatch.org/open-letter-premier-ed-stelmach-re-toxic-concerns-fort-chipewyan ) At a minimum, the federal government should get started on a baseline health study and move quickly on a new, healthy, water supply for the Fort Chipewayan community.

Blair Redlin is a researcher and project manager with the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

Caelie Frampton is the B.C. STOP TILMA Campaign Coordinator.

This article was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 and is filed under Canadian Issues and Politics, Climate Change, Energy, Environment, tar sands. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.