Health

Fri, July 4, 2008
Fort St. John ready to handle oil and gas boom
By LAUREN KRUGEL, THE CANADIAN PRESS

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C., -- Whose motto is "The Energetic City" -- will be able to avoid many of challenges that have become synonymous with the oilsands boomtown of Fort McMurray, Alta., said the city's mayor.

Two enormous natural gas finds in northeastern B.C. -- the Montney Trend and the Horn River Basin -- have piqued the interest of a number of big U.S. and Canadian oil and gas names and sent a massive amount of investment pouring into the region.

Indigenous people ask G8 for climate talk inclusion
Fri Jul 4, 2008 10:53am EDT
By Yoko Kubota

SAPPORO, Japan (Reuters) - Indigenous communities from around the world urged G8 rich nations on Friday to help them participate in global climate change talks, saying they contributed least to but are most affected by global warming.

Clad in colorful traditional robes, 26 representatives from countries including the United States, Canada, and Japan, along with some 400 students, activists, and academics, met on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido.

Despite what they write below, CLAC is not a "union", but an anti-union bosses association of workers. Nonetheless, this article is the first time that the two killed Temporary foreign workers names have been released to my knowledge. Their widows had recently made it known that only 12 percent of their husbands wages have ever reached them, long after their deaths at the hands of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd's speed ups in construction. Take the following "labour" press release with a major grain of salt.

--M

Widow of worker killed in Alberta finally gets compensation

Workers are suddenly leaving Alberta, heading to Atlantic Canada, but will it last?
By James Foster
Times & Transcript Staff // Saturday July 5th, 2008

A new report shows an exodus of people from Alberta and an influx into Atlantic Canada, the reverse of a long-standing trend that has troubled New Brunswick for a decade.

Many Maritimers are heading home from Alberta as they find that the quality of life in the Atlantic region and Metro Moncton is top notch. Here some Metro Moncton residents enjoy the water feature in front of Moncton City Hall.

Issues - New ERCB directive on toxic tailings is a huge step in the wrong direction

RICARDO ACUÑA / ualberta.ca/parkland

The Alberta Government, along with their friends in the oil industry, have recently embarked on a major campaign to educate Canadians and Americans about the fact that extraction of oil from Northern Alberta’s bituminous sands is actually an environmentally friendly and ecologically sound process.

Fish death in oil patch

By GABRIEL ZARATE, SRJ Reporter 02.JUL.08

Alberta Environment is investigating an unexplained fish die-off in a reservoir in the Athabasca oil patch. The reservoir was built in the 1970s to divert the waters of Beaver Creek away from a nearby Syncrude oil sands mine, which is no longer active.
“There is no evidence that the incident was caused by contamination from that site,” said Alberta Environment spokesperson Cheryl Robb.

Come to Canada! But only if you've got a job

Stories of Canada looking to poach British citizens are wildly exaggerated. We're only interested in professionals who can help us dig up oil.

Heather Mallick
guardian.co.uk, // Wednesday July 2, 2008

Pissed-off workers of Britain, Alberta wants YOU.

I beg your pardon? Alberta. It's a western province of Canada. The Rockies? Edmonton? Calgary, had the Olympics in 1988? A variety of scenic spots named after various homely minor Royals of the Victorian era?

Rental crisis fund hits $43.5M
Province pays 10,000 claims a month
Kelly Cryderman, Calgary Herald
Published: Tuesday, July 01, 2008

A provincial emergency fund designed to help renters in dire straits has ballooned to more than six times its original size -- going to $43.5 million from the $7 million announced by the Stelmach government.

More than 62,000 requests for emergency cash were granted in less than a year following the spring 2007 unveiling of the Homeless and Eviction Prevention Fund.

Monitoring office faces delay

Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Monday, June 30, 2008

RADILIH KOE'/FORT GOOD HOPE - The Yamoga Land Corp. in Fort Good Hope is moving forward with plans to open an office that will monitor the activities of oil, gas and mining companies exploring around Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake, despite difficulties finding staff for the office.

Foreign workers deserve protection
Calgary Herald
Published: Sunday, June 29, 2008

The measurement of success for all employment programs, in particular one aimed at easing Alberta's labour crisis, is whether it's a win-win -- for the employer and the employees.

With that in mind, judging from the numerous reports of abuse -- including the latest revelations of exploitation of 120 Chinese workers paid a fraction of what they were owed for building tanks at a northern Alberta oilsands site -- it seems the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is failing miserably.