Think-tank wants to see a tar sands slow-down

By Ileiren Byles

Hugh McCullum and Gordon Laxer address the media.

The current rate of development in the province's tar sands is dangerous, unsustainable and risking the energy security of Canada for the benefit of American interests, said Parkland Institute director Gordon Laxer and journalist Hugh McCullum, who authored the report Fuelling Fortress America: A Report on the Athabasca Tar Sands and U.S. Demands for Canada's Energy. The Parkland Institute, along with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Polaris Institute, co-sponsored McCullum's work.

"The Bush regime is very much focused on the tar sands as the strategic salvation for their domestic and military needs," said Laxer. "The other partner in NAFTA, Mexico, they're looking after their own natural gas and energy needs. But, in which country do you think the people are most likely to freeze in the dark? This is not just a case of not being able to get to Wal-Mart. For Canadians, this is life or death."

Canada is locked into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), complete with a proportionality clause that says Canada must export a majority of its energy in perpetuity.

"How much time was spent on energy discussions in the last election?" asked McCullum. "I think it amounted to about half a page in the Tory policy book, but it is the single biggest issue, with the exception maybe of water, in the world."

During the last election, all parties talked about cutting back on energy usage for environmental reasons, said Laxer, "but if we cut back in Canada, all we do is free up more oil for export to the U.S. According to NAFTA, Canada must export the same percentage of oil and gas that we did in the last three years. If we cut back on exports, we have to cut back on production."

After Hurricane Katrina devastated the New Orleans coast, Alberta helped out by increasing oil production and exporting more to the U.S., said Laxer. "We could not do the same thing if there was a disaster in eastern Canada. We are prevented from looking after our own family."

Athabasca Tar Sands

"The price of doing business the way in which we are doing it now is turning the northern third of Alberta into a war zone," he said. "When you fly over the area, you see the boreal forest and muskeg has been stripped. You fly through steam and see 400-ton trucks tearing the ground out. There's the constant stink of oil and the stink of money."

Larger communities won't be able to escape the social impact of this destruction either, said McCullum. "Go to Fort McMurray. It's kind of a joke, a bad joke. When I was in Nova Scotia, the people I met there all joked about how they were all going to the tar sands. You can get crystal meth there for cheaper than anywhere. The social impact there - in any boom town - is just horrendous."

Policy-makers in Alberta and Canada need to put their heads together and start making priorities that focus on Albertans and Canadians, said Laxer. "We need to take a pause, a breather. We're not calling for existing projects to be stopped," he said. "We're dealing with a labour shortage, housing shortage, roads are inadequate and we cannot take on any more."

Source / Credit: University of Alberta