EconomicsCanada: Oil Sands: Alberta's project censured, reformational controversy

BBC news [Dec21,2k10]

Canada oil sands, Alberta: 

Pollution monitoring is censured

A scientific panel has found Canada has "no system" for monitoring how Alberta's oil sands projects may be polluting local waterways.Continue reading the main story

Academic reports found that extraction plants were sending toxins such as mercury and lead into the water.

The western Canada oil sands are the largest source of crude outside Saudi Arabia.

The region is the largest single source of US oil imports, and produces over 1 million barrels a day.

Opponents say the process of extracting oil from the sands produces huge amounts of greenhouse gases and chemical waste.

The Oil Sands Advisory Panel was commissioned by former environment minister Jim Prentice in response to critisicm about water monitoring.

"Until this situation is fixed there will continue to be uncertainty and public distrust in the environmental performance of the oilsands industry and government oversight," the report concluded.

At a recent news conference, current environment minister John Baird promised to act on the panel's recommendations.

"For far too long we have heard concerns about the quality of water downstream from the oil sands," he said.

"We have heard the panel loud and clear and are ready to act."


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Reformational Christians have produced two contrary policy approaches to the Alberta environmental issue -- one prioritizing the Alberta's environment, as advocated by Dr John Hiemstra, retired political science prof at The King's University College, Edmonton; the other prioritizing opportunities for employment as negotiated with the tarsands industry, this position being practiced and advocated by the Christian Labour Association of Canada.


-- BBC materials posted by Politicarp