Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Labour / Migration

It is falsely assumed that big projects equal lots of jobs and, by extension, labour peace if not outright satisfaction. The size and scope of the tarsands means for incredibly dangerous work conditions-- some fatalities at the plants have already occurred. The products seldom get their "value added" in union-run locations, instead the heavy bitumen can be shipped to many different locations across North America for refining, denying benefits to the union. However, the Union does not represent the "guest worker", now being imported in increasing numbers as legislation is changed to make access easier, the term of exploitation last longer, without any new efforts or pathways to deciding to stay after helping tear up the earth.

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Greenwashing the globe

Adrian Parr believes that the sustainability movement has been hijacked

Mark Hopkins
Urban Living
October 15, 2009

Once upon a time, “sustainability” was a buzzword for hippies and
activists, shouted through megaphones with increasing frustration at an
SUV-driving, suburb-loving public. For a while, that uphill battle seemed
more like a downward spiral.

But things have changed: Now, sustainability is everywhere! Laundry
detergent comes in green bottles, leaf-patterns are plastered all over gas

Tar sands worker killed in accident

Oilsands worker killed in accident
By Ben Gelinas,
edmontonjournal.com
October 19, 2009

EDMONTON — A 22-year-old vacuum truck operator has been killed on a northeastern Alberta oilsands site.

Occupational Health and Safety said he had likely just finished cleaning out the tank of the truck, used to suck up drilling mud, at about 5 p.m. on Saturday when the door to the tank closed on his head. A driver was at the controls.

The man was working for Fehr Quality Contractors at the Statoil-Hydro plant near Conklin, about 300 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, OHS said.

On a cost basis, carbon-capture projects are madness

The small reductions gained by staggering per-tonne costs illustrate what
every independent analyst knows: The Harper government's 20-per-cent
reduction target will not be met

Jeffrey Simpson
The Globe and Mail
Published on Monday, Oct. 19, 2009 5:50PM EDT

Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes so many spending announcements, flying
like Mary Poppins on speed around the country to distribute billions of
dollars, that the news media have given up analyzing any of them.

EPA Backs Opponents of BP’s Whiting Refinery Expansion Plan

EPA Backs Opponents of BP’s Whiting Refinery Expansion Plan
By Tina Seeley and Paul Burkhardt

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it has granted part of a petition by environmental groups objecting to BP Plc’s expansion of its Whiting refinery in Indiana.

The EPA said in a statement today that Indiana regulators must re-evaluate the emissions calculations for BP’s plan to expand the facility to refine high-sulfur Canadian crude oil.

Offset Promoting Partner of the Canadian Boreal Initiative: Nexen calls for tripling production in Tar Sands.

Nexen says oilsands to triple production
Cities Commit To Cut Emissions

By Dan Healing, Calgary Herald
October 8, 2009

CALGARY - The Alberta oilsands will triple production to three million barrels of oil per day, Marvin Romanow, president and chief executive of Nexen Inc., predicted Thursday, adding he's confident it will happen but is a little hazy on the timeline.

More Fear Mongering in the Tar Sands, Courtesy of G & M.

Protests in oil sands raise anxieties

Oil companies say activists are most at risk, but one security specialist warns the oil patch is a sitting duck for terrorists

NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE

CALGARY — From Monday's Globe and Mail
Published on Monday, Oct. 12, 2009

The parade of Greenpeace protesters marching through the heart of Alberta's oil sands in recent weeks has provided an embarrassing glimpse at the state of the industry's security, says a former special forces operative who has helped safeguard Canada's nuclear plants.

NWT projects to be promoted to the feds

Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Monday, October 12, 2009

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - In what the GNWT is calling "a big step forward," the NWT Chamber of Commerce has successfully pushed three key NWT infrastructure developments with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, which will now lobby for those projects - as well as reforming the NWT regulatory regime - with the federal government.

"Don't react as protesters want" -- corporate spin on recent actions against tar sands

This unsigned editorial is not in the slightest endorsed by this website, but reproduced for your information.

-M

Don't react as protesters want
Edmonton Journal
October 7, 2009

How should industry, government and ordinary Albertans deal with Greenpeace protesters trying to put a spotlight on an industry they view as an environmental crime?

Demand their arrest?Ignore them? Maybe even learn from them?

Northern Alberta economy braces for next boom

Northern Alberta economy braces for next boom
By Archie McLean, Canwest News Service
October 3, 2009

The economic slowdown has been good for Fort McMurray. But with things picking up again in the oilsands, many wonder if they’re prepared to weather the next boom.

FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. — In recent years, simply treating employees well wasn't enough to keep them serving customers in Fort McMurray.

Reaching far and wide for workers

Reaching far and wide for workers
Canada broadens scope to alleviate skills shortage

By Derek Sankey, For the Calgary Herald
July 25, 2008

The new reality for Canadian companies looking to recruit workers increasingly means casting a wider net across the world while government and education leaders lead the charge overseas in the face of economic restraints.