Land

Canada's 'toxic secret' soon to be made public

Last Updated: Thursday, June 18, 2009 |
CBC News

Environmental groups have long called the tailings lakes in the Alberta oilsands Canada's toxic secret, but companies operating there will soon be required to disclose exactly what pollutants are there.

In April, a federal court ordered Ottawa to make the mining industry release a complete inventory of what material they release into the environment. Now companies in the oilsands will also have to comply, CBC News has learned.

Enbridge to Develop Pipeline System for Kearl Project
By Joe Carroll

June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Enbridge Inc., the biggest transporter of oil from Canada’s tar sands, plans to build a pipeline to haul crude from Exxon Mobil Corp.’s C$8 billion ($7 billion) Kearl project in northern Alberta to Edmonton.

The first phase will connect the Kearl oil-sands site north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, to Enbridge’s Cheecham terminal near Nexen Inc.’s Long Lake development, Paula Leslie, an Enbridge spokeswoman, said today in a telephone interview.

UTS eyes Fort Hills options as Suncor joins group
Tue Jun 16, 2009
By Jeffrey Jones

CALGARY, Alberta, June 16 (Reuters) - UTS Energy Corp (UTS.TO) has begun to plot out new ways to develop the delayed Fort Hills oil sands project but decisions must wait until Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO) closes its takeover of the operator, Petro-Canada (PCA.TO), UTS's chief executive said on Tuesday.

UTS, which has a 20 percent interest in the Alberta oil sands development, sees cost advantages in shifting some of the processing to Suncor's massive northern Alberta operations, CEO Will Roach said.

Exxon boosts pipeline to oil sands by 50%
Joe Carroll, Bloomberg
Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's biggest oil refiner, boosted its capacity to transport crude from Canada's oil sands to refineries in Texas and Louisiana.

Exxon Mobil increased the capacity of its 1,381-kilometre Pegasus Pipeline by 50% to about 96,000 barrels a day, the Irving, Tex.-based company said Wednesday in a statement.

TransCanada To Acquire Remaining ConocoPhillips' Interest in Keystone Pipeline; To Issue $1.6 Bln of Common Shares
6/16/2009

(RTTNews) - Tuesday, energy infrastructure giant TransCanada Corp.(TRP.TO: News ,TRP: News ) revealed an agreement to acquire Keystone Pipeline System through the acquisition of ConocoPhillips' (COP: News ) remaining interest in the project for approximately US$550 million plus the assumption of approximately US$200 million of short-term debt.

Defenders of the Land, Private Property Abolitionists-- By Shiri Pasternak

Indigenous peoples in Canada have marked the geographical limits of
capitalist expansion through more than five centuries of permanent
resistance. Due to the geography of residual Aboriginal lands, they form a
final frontier of capitalist penetration for natural resource extraction,
agribusiness, and urban/suburban development. While much of the focus of
the economic crisis has centred on foreclosures and job losses in the
manufacturing and service sectors, a renewed push for resources – e.g. tar

Consultation means nothing without consent
June 16, 2009

Three First Nation Band Councils released a joint statement last month in response to the newly proposed Ontario Mining Act, once again raising a critical issue that the Government of Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada has repeatedly failed to recognize: The right to Say NO.

In effect, the absence of this right (the right of consent) in the Ontario Mining Act or any other piece of legislation in Canada is an allowance by the government to molest Indigenous People.

Sinkholes surface along Keystone route
Kevin Bonham, Grand Forks Herald
June 17, 2009

A small series of sinkholes — some 30 to 40 feet deep that have swallowed a handful of 20- to 30-foot pine trees — developed this spring in the sandy soil of the Pembina Escarpment along the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline route, limiting access to a spectacular panoramic view of the Pembina Gorge from a North Dakota Forest Service lookout.

The first sinkhole was discovered in March on the pipeline right-of-way along the Cavalier-Pembina county line.

Federal Court Approves of Regulatory Proceedings as an Appropriate Method to Address Aboriginal Concerns

Source: Fasken Martineau - On May 12, 2009, Mr. Justice Barnes of the Federal Court released his Reasons in Brokenhead Ojibway Nation v. Canada, 2009 FC 484. The court upheld the Governor in Council's approval of the National Energy Board's issuance of Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity for the construction of three pipeline projects. The projects are the Keystone Pipeline Project, the Southern Lights Pipeline Project and the Alberta Clipper Pipeline Expansion Project.

Cree lawsuit would drain energy royalties
Native band says 15,000 oilsands developments planned on ancestral land
By Elise Stolte, Edmonton Journal
June 12, 2009

The amount Alberta owes First Nations affected by oilsands development could
easily outstrip all the royalties the province has earned off the resource
if courts rule in favour of native bands, said a lawyer for the Beaver Lake
Cree Nation on Thursday.

"We're all expecting an onslaught (of lawsuits) in the next little while,"
said Drew Mildon of Woodwards and Company. "People are reaching their limit
of patience."