Labour / Migration

2009 January 25 - The Integrity of Creation and the Athabasca Oil Sands

A Pastoral Letter on The Integrity of Creation and the Athabasca Oil Sands to The Faithful of the diocese of St. Paul on The Occasion of the Jubilee Year in Honour of St. Paul by
†Luc Bouchard Bishop of St. Paul in Alberta, Canada
January 25th, 2009

The Integrity of Creation and the Athabasca Oil Sands

“Faced with the widespread destruction of the environment people
everywhere are coming to understand that we cannot continue to
use the goods of the earth as we have in the past. . . a new ecological

Canada delusional about oil
Jan 26, 2009 04:30 AM
David Crane

There is this Canadian delusion that the Alberta oil sands will give
us special influence with the new Obama administration, that energy is
our trump card in the Canada-U.S. relationship because, it's argued,
the United States desperately needs our oil. It fosters the false
belief that we can get concessions from the U.S. in other areas by
producing more oil.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has talked of Canada as an "energy
superpower"; Environment Minister Jim Prentice talks of Canada's

This past summer, myself and friends were able to "tour" many of the projects in the Athabasca mining region and south of Fort McMurray (one of many places) where SagD/In Situ operations rule the day. These are albums belatedly created from that trip. This does not comprise anything remotely coming towards an exhaustive set of the multiple projects.

(you do not need to have a Facebook identity to see these albums).

Photos are from the land and the air.

Opti-Nexen's Long Lake (North) Project & CP's Surmont Project.

Campbell's Global Warming Game
Talking 'climate for change' at the Vancouver Board of Trade.
While eagerly enabling tar sands and freeways, he's cooled out green foes.
By David Beers
January 26, 2009
TheTyee.ca

"Let's be honest," Michael Ignatieff told young followers last week in Vancouver. "We got killed at the doorstep with the Green Shift."

The new federal Liberal leader is clear that campaigning on a carbon tax was suicide.

But in British Columbia, Premier Gordon Campbell is sticking with his own carbon tax as he leads his BC Liberals into a May election.

Canada oil boom shifts on sands of time

Canada's five-year-long energy boom has ended, but how deep and how painful the resulting bust will be remains to be seen.

By The Economist
January 22, 2009

Look west from the office towers of the energy companies that dominate Calgary, and the view is spectacular: Rolling prairies rise to tree-clad foothills, with the jagged, snow-capped peaks of the Rockies on the horizon.

The scale and scope of the political shift in Canada as a result of Ignatieff taking power is not really yet understood.

From ten years ago, where only the Reform Party and then after that, The Alliance, would openly support the US military adventures around the world we now have both the top party and the opposition who are:

Completely pro tar sands, completely pro-Iraq War, unquestioning of Israel and advocates of torture on prisoners.

World running out of oil, says ex-CEO
Jim Buckee warns of $20-a-litre fuel
By Richard Foot, Canwest News Service
January 15, 2009

Consumers shouldn't get too comfortable with cheap gasoline, because the planet is running out of oil and prices will go "sky high" --as high as $20 per litre--as petroleum reserves dwindle in the coming years.

That's the view of Jim Buckee, the British oilman who was CEO of Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc., one of Canada's largest energy producers, from 1993 to 2007.

Activists push policy change for oil pipeline
TORONTO STAR GRAPHIC

At present, oil is piped to Sarnia from Alberta through pipelines that pass through Saskatchewan, Manitoba and numerous U.S. states, and from foreign distributors through Line 9 via Montreal. Enbridge's proposed program would reverse the flow on Line 9 from Sarnia to Montreal to carry oil from the tar sands through Ontario and Quebec to Portland and on to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The project would also require the flow on the Portland-Montreal Pipe Line to be reversed. Embridge does not own this pipeline.

Stalled upgrader receives approval

By Dan Healing And Dina O'Meara, Calgary Herald
January 21, 2009

Provincial energy regulators have approved plans for an Edmonton-area upgrader associated with Petro-Canada's proposed $24-billion Fort Hills integrated oilsands project--even though the company has deferred the project indefinitely.

In a news release Tuesday, the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board announced it had conditionally approved the plan by Petro-Canada Oil Sands Inc. to build and operate the upgrader in Sturgeon County north of Edmonton.

Suncor shelves expansion amid first loss in 16 years
Falling prices, rising costs prompt cuts

By Dan Healing, Calgary HeraldJanuary 21, 2009

Suncor Energy Inc. is "downing tools" on the $20.6-billion Voyageur expansion underway at its northern Alberta oilsands operations as it reports its first quarterly loss in 16 years, blamed on falling commodity prices, production setbacks and higher costs.