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.
Fort McMurray feels duck glare 'unfair'
Carrie Tait, Financial Post // Saturday, May 17, 2008
CALGARY - Christopher Allen Van Moorsel was crushed by a giant dump truck at an oilsands operation April 26, an accident that received a smattering of attention in Alberta. The national press ignored it.
Three days later, roughly 500 ducks died when they landed on a toxic tailings pond at another oilsands operations. International media from as far away as Turkey covered the story --for days.
Alberta oil sands affecting drug habits in Newfoundland
BY PAUL HERRIDGE
The Southern Gazette (Nfld)
Sergeant Wayne Edgecombe, of the Burin Peninsula District RCMP Detachment, acknowledged cocaine use in rural Newfoundland was a rarity two decades ago.
Not anymore.
Since the oil boom in Alberta exploded a couple of years ago, and people from this province began regularly travelling back and forth on shift rotations, the situation has changed dramatically.
Cocaine has joined marijuana as the drug of choice in Newfoundland and Labrador, some might say even overtaken.
Temporary foreign workers see exponential growth in Alberta
Apr. 30, 2008
Richard Gilbert // staff writer
Alberta is experiencing an explosion in the number of temporary foreign workers (TFW) in the construction industry, but official statistics may underestimate the number of these workers in the country.
“Alberta has seen exponential growth in the use of TFWs for construction,” states a study recently released by the Construction Sector Council (CSC).
The study investigates the impact that the workers have on Canada’s construction industry.
Foreign workers pull disappearing act: employer
Updated Thu. May. 15 2008 10:25 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
The foreign worker program is causing big headaches, says one Calgary employer, who complains that 20 of his employees pulled a disappearing act soon after arriving in the country.
Calgary business owner, Owen Colbourne, has brought in 31 foreign labourers to work at his manufacturing and consulting company in the past 18 months.
Work- place deaths up 24%
154 Alta. workers died on job last year, 30 more than in 2006
Archie McLean, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Friday, April 18
EDMONTON - Alberta workplace deaths jumped 24 per cent in 2007, but injuries fell slightly during the same period, new provincial statistics show.
A total of 154 people died on the job or as a result of their work last year, which is up from 124 in 2006, which was a 15-year low. The government says the number of deaths last year is consistent with the rates from the past 10 years.
Imperial fears year delay to Kearl oilsands project
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post Published: Thursday, May 08, 2008
CALGARY -- Imperial Oil Ltd. said in Federal Court Thursday its $8-billion Kearl oilsands project faces a delay of a year or more if a key water permit pulled by the federal government isn't quickly re-instated.
"It took nine months to get this piece of paper," lawyer Munaf Mohamed, of Fraser, Milner Casgrain LLP, argued before Justice Douglas Campbell. "What
is sufficient in terms of the sting of the lash?
Change in activists' tactics poses serious threat to 2010 Games: analyst
By Stephanie Levitz, The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER - Changing tactics by Canadian activists pose a serious threat to security
at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, security analysts say.
The usually fragmented, single-issue groups are converging and organizing in ways
never seen before in Canada, said Tom Quiggan, a former security consultant with the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Where there's usually a lull in protest activity in the years leading up to
Oilsands suck dollars from cleaner oil and gas
Dave Yager, For The Calgary Herald
Published: Sunday, May 04, 2008
There's a giant sucking noise emanating from northeast Alberta that gets louder as oil prices rise.
Called the Athabasca Tar Sands, its rapid development is draining imagination from the Stelmach government, flexibility from labour markets and diversification from Alberta's economy. It has also sucked Edmonton into a hopeless global environmental confrontation.
The hottest housing market in North America, driven by oil
By Marshall Loeb, MarketWatch
Last update: 7:38 p.m. EDT April 21, 2008
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- A boom of unprecedented dimensions is sweeping Canada's spectacularly scenic western province of Alberta, the Texas-sized territory with a population of 3 million that is home to a pair of world-class cities -- Calgary (population 1.2 million) and Edmonton (population 1.1 million).
I swear I'm not making this up. It's real. Got a problem employer in the Temporary Foreign Worker program where they can send you home tomorrow? Having trouble with English? The Alberta Government wants you to ask your boss to help translate a complaint against him/her. Isn't that wonderful? Problem solved, now go back to bed you idiots!
I really, really wish I *were* making this up.
-- M
Foreign workers should ask boss for language help: minister
April 22, 2008 // Edmonton Sun
