Canada's top civil servant, Kevin Lynch, surprised the locals in Fort McMurray, Alta. when he and some buddies flew in by helicopter for a tour of some oilsands facilities there.
Lynch's buddies, as it turned out, were, like him, the Clerks of various privy councils from other Commonwealth countries. Every two years, Commonwealth clerks get together for a conference and this year it was Canada's turn to host. Every other year that Canada has hosted this meeting, they've met in dull, old Ottawa. So this year, Lynch decided to go West and show off the economic powerhouse that is northern Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Lynch, like his boss the Prime Minister and many Alberta cabinet members, have been keen to counter some of the messaging from environmental groups that oil sands development is 'dirty'.
The latest salvo in that war was fired today by a Washington-based group, the Environmental Integrity Project.
Here's the piece I and my colleague Mike De Souza filed on this issue this afternoon:
OTTAWA – Environmental activists are warning U.S. lawmakers and consumers that Canada's oilsands are an environmental disaster, the latest salvo in a pitched public relations battle over Western Canada's resource riches.
Most of the petroleum that comes out of the oilsands developments in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan markets ends up in American markets. So, environmental groups who are trying to limit or clean up oilsands developments are taking their message to the United States in the hopes that U.S. federal and state policy-makers will prevent imports of what they call “dirty oil” from Canada.
“The environmental costs of tar sand development are staggering,” says a report released Wednesday by the Environmental Integrity Project, a Washington-based group. The report says oilsands production results in the release of harmful pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, sulphuric acid mist, nitrogen oxide as well as toxic metals such as lead and nickel compounds.
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