Social Impacts. Overnight injections of migrant workers will not build healthy communities and can have severely adverse impacts on existing communities, especially those of indigenous nations on their traditional lands. Such development brings vices and long term displacement too often. Drugs, alcohol and associated violence spreads. Hunting becomes difficult when the land is threatened, leading to a further loss of culture and tradition. In towns like Fort McMurray there is no planning for the future, but merely consumption in the present. However transient the individuals may be, the populations will not leave, as “development” takes on a logic all its own. All levels of run away development are subordinate to that development, not social need.
First Nation Tour brings truth to France on Tar Sands Development
"First Nation's delegation spoke to EU parliamentary members, French government and French investors to address tar sands impacts on First Nation communities directly counteracting the Canadian Foreign Department's platform on Tar Sands Development."
CNRL project to cut emissions
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE
CALGARY— From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, May. 17, 2011 7:12PM EDT
Canada’s oil sands companies are dramatically expanding an effort to link arms on efforts to reduce the environmental impact of the oil sands.
Alberta fires prompt Shell to pull workers from oilsands mine site
By Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press –May 19, 2011
CALGARY — Shell Canada Ltd. said Thursday it was pulling non-essential workers from its vast oilsands mining operations north of Fort McMurray, Alta., as wildfire smoke drifted toward the site.
The winds had previously moved smoke north from the site, but overnight they changed direction and brought heavier smoke into the area.
Tar Sands development edging closer in Trinidad and Tobago?
RBC appears at Trinidad government forum extolling their record in Canada's tar sands
by Macdonald Stainsby
April 19, 2011
Mediacoop.ca
In December of 2010, Rainforest Action Network [RAN], issued a press release that was full of praise for the Royal Bank of Canada adopting a new framework around investments in companies involved in tar sands production.
Government failure on oil-sands royalties shameful, says AFL
"The Tories are allowing billions of dollars to slip through their fingers
while they say we can't afford to keep schools open," laments McGowan
EDMONTON, April 15 /CNW/ -The Auditor General's Report on oil-sands royalties confirms Albertans' worst suspicions - that the Progressive Conservative government cares more about the energy industry's bottom line than what is in the best interests of Albertans, says the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL).
Canadians Fight Tar Sands, Israelis Fight Oil Shale
April 12th, 2011
Tafline Laylin
Rachel Jacobson shares the story behind protecting the beautiful view from “Big Oil.”
Protesters demand halt to bank’s tar sands financing
Herald Scotland
cHRIS WATT and SIMON BAIN
20 Apr 2011
PROTESTERS yesterday hijacked a meeting of the Royal Bank of Scotland to demand an end to state-backed funding for tar sands oil projects.
Representatives of Canada’s First Nations visited Edinburgh to tell the bank’s annual meeting that oil extraction could threaten their way of life and cause untold environmental damage in the event of a spill.
Is There Such a Thing as 'Ethical Oil'? Canada Claims it Has Lots and the US Is Buying It
By Jason Mark, Earth Island Journal
AlterNet
Sunday, Apr 17, 2011
To get to the quaint village of Fort McKay in the far north of Alberta, Canada, you first have to pass through some version of hell.
It's no pipe dream
Politics has no place in Keystone review
For Calgary Herald April 10, 2011
Politicians on both sides of the border should cool the rhetoric over TransCanada Corp.'s contentious pipeline to Texas and get back to dealing with the facts.
Speaking publicly for the first time about the $7-billion Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, President Barack Obama contradicted his earlier message about the need for increased imports from friendly countries such as Canada.
Draft Land Use Plan Infringes Treaty 8
First Nations in Oil Sands Region say that the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan does not protect enough land and resources to sustain their traditional livelihood and creates legal risk for Alberta
April 8, 2011, Fort McMurray
