Social Impacts

New report finds elevated arsenic risk in Fort Chipewyan

By MATTHEW HEINDL
Fort McMurray Today staff
Friday November 09, 2007

A new study that claims high levels of arsenic and mercury are in the Athabasca River has many calling for a halt to oilsands growth, but two Alberta government departments are not supporting its findings.
More than 70 people in Fort Chipewyan met Wednesday night to hear Dr. Kevin Timoney of Treeline Ecological Research deliver his findings on river sediment deposits downstream of the oilsands.

Thanks to global warming, pollution, population growth, and
privatization, we are teetering on the edge of a global crisis.

by Tara Lohan

AlterNet (October 11 2007)

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, the Hungarian biochemist and Nobel Prize winner
for medicine once said, "Water is life's matter and matrix, mother and
medium. There is no life without water."

We depend on water for survival. It circulates through our bodies and
the land, replenishing nutrients and carrying away waste. It is passed
down like stories over generations - from ice-capped mountains to rivers
to oceans.

Suncor Production Numbers-- Year to Date

CALGARY, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Suncor Energy Inc. reported today that production at its oil sands facility during October averaged approximately 260,000 barrels per day (bpd). Year-to-date oil sands production at the end of October averaged approximately 233,000 bpd. Suncor is targeting average oil sands production of 240,000 to 245,000 bpd in 2007.

By RENATO GANDIA, SUN MEDIA

High levels of cancer-causing toxins are being found in areas downstream of Fort McMurray's oilsands, says a study commissioned by residents of Alberta's oldest community.

Waters in Fort Chipewyan contain high levels of arsenic, the fish are contaminated with high levels of mercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons - another pollutant - are higher than they should be, said Kevin Timoney.

Timoney is the ecologist who studied the waters and sediments in the Peace-Athabasca Delta near Fort Chipewyan, 610 air km northeast of Edmonton.

New York Times
November 9, 2007
Rising Demand for Oil Provokes New Energy Crisis
By JAD MOUAWAD

With oil prices approaching the symbolic threshold of $100 a barrel, the world is headed toward its third energy shock in a generation. But today’s surge is fundamentally different from the previous oil crises, with broad and longer-lasting global implications.

Just as in the energy crises of the 1970s and ’80s, today’s high prices are causing anxiety and pain for consumers, and igniting wider fears about the impact on the economy.

A look at Alberta's new housing plan

Martin Lussier
Gauntlet News

November 08, 2007

Rental vacancies have been lower than 0.5 per cent in Calgary.

Premier Ed Stelmach announced the government would be undertaking a 10-year plan to address homelessness in communities across Alberta last week. This announcement couldn't come at a better time for some, as the 2006 Homeless Count of Calgary identified over 3,400 people without homes. Stelmach pledged to build 11,000 affordable homes over the next ten years, 4,000 of which are to be built in Calgary.

Wed, November 7, 2007
Report tackles sex trade
Edmonton Sun
By FRANK LANDRY, CITY HALL BUREAU

Prostitution is a growing problem in Edmonton, fuelled by the city's red-hot economy.

That's among the findings of a new report commissioned to address the problem.

The document calls for "safe housing" for active prostitutes and for those getting out of the sex trade. It also calls for tougher penalties for johns.

Alberta's tar sands to supply South Dakota's oil projects
Pipeline, refinery would tap into Canadian crude
Oct 23, 2007 04:30 AM
Dirk Lammers
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SIOUX FALLS, S.D.–As oil hovers around $90 (U.S.) a barrel, the race is on to tap more heavily into the world's second-largest oil reserve, and South Dakota – a major ethanol producer that typically sits on the alternative side of the fuel industry – is finding itself at the crossroads of two major oil projects.

Poor public image has cost oilpatch billions
'We have to regain out voice:' Producers group
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post
Published: Wednesday, November 07, 2007

The general view of the oil sector -- some of it showing up in its own opinion polls -- is that it's greedy, crooked, environmentally and socially irresponsible, unneeded and, technologically, a dinosaur.

Yet the industry can sincerely assert that it is generous, environmentally and socially responsible, honest, essential and smart.

Review panel hears final recommendations on Mackenzie pipeline
BOB WEBER
The Canadian Press
November 6, 2007

In two years of hearings in 26 northern communities, a panel reviewing the potential environmental and social impacts of a $16-billion natural gas pipeline down the Mackenzie Valley took in enough submissions to block a herd of caribou.