Indigenous nations have protected the earth on their territories for thousands of years. With the government of Canada ignoring their sovereignty, nations not only see massive theft of resources that could help alleviate social problems, but their exacerbation through their further alienation from their own lands, often accompanying being overrun by development and southern workers, while having no self-determination during this process. In the south of Canada industrial farming displaced many nations with often genocidal results. In the north, a modern equivalent of that fate is only just beginning, wrought on by industrial oil and gas drilling schemes (among many industrial plans) that are condemning entire societies, languages and cultures to a precarious future, becoming minorities in their lands for the first time.
Unshackling the Mackenzie
McCrank offers blueprint to untangle NWT’s cumbersome regulatory regime
By Gary Park
For Petroleum News
Editor’s note: TransCanada’s proposed gas pipeline route from Alaska’s North Slope to Alberta gas hub does not go through the Northwest Territories.
Canada’s northern territories are a step closer to a simpler system to regulate development of their minerals, forestry and oil and natural gas.
Red tape ties up Mackenzie plan
Herald News Services
Published: Friday, July 25, 2008
As the Alaska pipeline clears political hurdles and marches forward, Canada's own multibillion-dollar plan to tap Arctic natural gas reserves in the Mackenzie Delta remains in regulatory limbo.
The fact wasn't lost on Northwest Territories industry minister Bob McLeod.
Tar Sands Industry Poised to Pollute Canada's Largest Freshwater Aquifer
CALGARY (July 24, 2008) – The Métis Nation in northeastern Alberta has
discovered that many of Alberta's in situ tar sands projects sit immediately
below a vast groundwater channel system that flows into the Athabasca River.
Given the accidental steam blowouts that have already occurred in the
region, the potential for pollution of Canada's largest freshwater aquifer
is very real.
"We are deeply concerned about these blowouts," says Rick Boucher,
Despite the tone of the article below, there is much opposition in the community to this development, opposition whose voices need to be heard.
--M
Reservation officials discuss oil exploration
Business News - Native Business News
New Town, North Dakota (AP) 5-08
The chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes sees new opportunities in oil exploration but says it may come at a price.
A few quick notes on this:
TransCanada-- otherwise known as TCPL-- is a major sponsor of the 2010 Olympics destroying Vancouver and the lands of "BC". TransCanada is also a massive construction conduit for the expansion of the tar sands/tar pits up to 5 MILLION barrels a day (more than any other single country in the world minus Saudi Arabia for daily delivery). These plans are enunciated and spelled out in the SPP's round of talks from Houston, 2006.
TCPL is promoting the expansion of *both* northern pipelines for gas, and finally gave up the competition charade:
ATTENTION: ALL NEWS EDITORS
==> Pictures attached of 2nd Protest Against PNWER Summit
==> No Smooth Sailing for PNWER Elites: Marina Entrance Blocked by Activists
==> Activists cite lack of transparent process and public consultation in
PNWER decision making given wide scope of policy impacts from 2010 Olympics
to oil and gas mining
Wednesday July 23, 2008 Vancouver- A group of activists blocked access to
the Westin Bayshore marina today to protest the Pacific NorthWest Economic
Region (PNWER) summit. In doing so, they prevented delegates from boarding a
Alaska House OKs gas pipeline license for TransCanada Corp.
11 hours ago
JUNEAU, Alaska — The Alaska State House of Representatives has approved a state license for a Canadian company to pursue a natural gas pipeline project that could unlock 130 million cubic metres of North Slope gas reserves daily.
The House backed the plan on a 24-16 vote Tuesday. A reconsideration vote is planned Wednesday, but that's usually a formality. If approved then, the bill will go to the state Senate, which must approve or reject it before Aug. 2.
Alberta First Nations and Allies Deliver Message To Investment Symposium in Calgary:
Dirty Tar Sands Oil Is A Risky Investment
Groups Dare Investors to Drink Community Water
CALGARY - July 16 - Members of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Mikisew Cree First Nation and environmental and social justice advocates traveled to Calgary today to the Oil and Gas Investment Symposium hosted by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers with a message for the hundreds of investors from the United States and around the world that Canada’s Tar Sands are a risky investment.
The Pentagon's Toxic Legacy
July, 01 2008 By Jeffrey St.Clair and Joshua Frank
Oil sands boom swamps the Canadian wilderness
Environmentalists want tougher laws to halt the damage, writes Tim Webb
* Sunday July 20, 2008
Todd Dahlman scoops up a handful of oily sand and smiles. 'This is the
money - it even smells like money,' says the manager of Shell's Muskeg
River oil sands mine in the Athabasca region of North Alberta in Canada.
We are standing in the middle of a pit 50m deep that giant diggers
have hollowed out of the earth. Some 150m beneath our feet lie almost
a billion barrels of oil.
