Listen to my piece on CBC Radio One about a new strategy by oil sands companies to combat labour shortages:http://www.cbc.ca/homestretch/episode/2010/11/25/oil-sands-2020-labour-shortage/
Showing posts with label Oil sands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oil sands. Show all posts
Monday, November 22, 2010
CBC Radio: Oil Sands Labour Shortage
Listen to my piece on CBC Radio One about a new strategy by oil sands companies to combat labour shortages:http://www.cbc.ca/homestretch/episode/2010/11/25/oil-sands-2020-labour-shortage/
Sunday, June 21, 2009
International Student Energy Summit
Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico, delivered a rousing keynote address in Calgary last week at the International Student Energy Summit (ISES). He declared a need for “re-energizing” NAFTA and for wholesale fiscal reform in his home country. He encouraged and applauded the leadership of those in the room, and talked about political decision making as an exercise in applying ethics. His remarks were well delivered and engaging, but not surprising.What was unexpected though, were the hard-nosed questions in response from audience members. Students from Mexico, Columbia, and Alberta, Canada stood at the microphone and asked how can fiscal reform be achieved, what particular strategies can be applied by foreign investors to create business opportunities without sparking the lingering resentments of those accustomed to Western exploitation, how democracy and free markets can become compatible in Latin America, and whether it was fair for carbon emission standards to apply equally in the developing and developed world. Fox immediately became an artful dodger, speaking in eloquent generalizations.
Yet the lunch was still a highlight for many of the 300 plus student and young professional delegates who gathered from around the world for the three day conference. A dinner and social at Ranchman’s Cookhouse had many of them ‘mingling’ late into the evening on day two; a gala dinner with keynote speaker Jeremy Rifkin, president of The Foundation on Economic Trends, gathered everyone together on Friday night.
Among the other speakers were: Dr. David Layzell, executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Environment and Economy (ISEEE), Dr. Pierce Riemer, secretary general of the World Petroleum Council, Dr. Michael Klare, author of "Resource Wars" and "Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Petroleum Dependency", Dr. Gustav Grob, executive secretary of the International Sustainable Energy Organization, and Sabrina Sullivan of Deloitte Consulting LLP.
A panel on the future of the oil sands took place on Friday morning, featuring Bill McFarlane, past president of the Canadian Heavy Oil Association, Matt Fox, senior vice president of Oil Sands at Conoco Philips Canada, author Andrew Nikiforuk, Jennifer Grant, policy analyst for Pembina Institute, Calvin Duane, manager of regulatory and environmental affairs at Canadian Natural Resources Limited, and Wishart Robson, senior advisor for safety and climate change at Nexen Inc.
“This the world’s largest energy project and the world’s largest engineering project,” said Nikiforuk of the oil sands, “We have failed to manage our part of the value chain, and as former Premier Peter Lougheed says, we have failed to capture our fair share.”
Not surprisingly, industry representation disagreed. “Industry sees themselves as on the front lines, providing a highly desirable resource which supports the rest of Canada with billions of dollars,” said Duane, “Yet we are besieged on every side.”
As with the end of each session, a student organizer of the conference provided a summary of the panel discussion. “That was probably the best panel I’ve ever heard,” she said, “I got like fifteen text messages while you were speaking and I was like, this is awesome!”
Published in National Post, June 20 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
How the oilpatch was stirred up by the Academy Awards
The road to the Academy Awards is paved with black gold, it seems. At least in Alberta.
Downstream, a Canadian documentary about cancer rates among residents living south of the oil patch, was recently added to the longlist for an Oscar nomination. While the shortlist nominations did not include a nod to the film, its early recognition sent giddy shock waves through the film industry here, and a mess of panicked PR bungles through an enclave of corporate energy giants and government representatives.
The film behind the buzz is a 30 minute documentary revolving around Dr. John O’Connor, a physician living in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta. For six years, the doctor has been making a public fuss about rare forms of cancer in the small town, which he claims are linked to the toxic tailing ponds from nearby oil sands development. For his trouble he was charged with four counts of professional misconduct and forced to move far away from the community, to Nova Scotia. The charges have recently been dropped, the water from tailing ponds tested, and a second – but very slow – peer review study of the situation is currently underway by the Alberta Cancer Board.
The documentary has already been screened at select locations in California, and a slew of film festivals from around the globe will show a full-length version of the film next year. Although very few Canadian have yet to see it – including those interviewed for the film – rumors are flying fast and furious.
Last month, the first response from Alberta Minister of Culture Lindsay Blackett was that “it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense” to fund a film “that’s going to be negative” of the province. “If I’m going to invest money in a film, the whole idea is to show Alberta in a better light,” Blackett said during an on-camera interview with CBC. The Minister retracted his comments six days later, saying his comments were in response to a hypothetical question, and that “no censorship or creative oversight is on the table, and it won’t be in the future.”
But the damage had already been done.
Actors unions cried out. Skittish staffers of the Alberta Film Commission denied it ever happened. The Los Angeles Times reported that “it might be impossible to fund a film in the future that is critical of local government policies and programs” and a tribal council member for the Chipewyan First Nation, whose plight is explored in the film, told local indie magazine FFWD, “The Culture Minister is not supporting the general public of Fort Chipewyan. We pay our taxes too.”
The vilified Minister made amends with locals, but the sandstorm speaks to a much larger communications malfunction. The Oscar buzz arrived soon after a carefully crafted admission by Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) that most Canadians don’t feel all warm and fuzzy about their work. That looks now to be a radical understatement. The same day Minister Blackett’s comments were made public, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation requested a judicial review on the granting of oil sands leases from the province. And soon President Barak Obama will make his first official visit abroad to Canada, including a tour of the developments - America’s closest, and largest, supply of energy. For its part, CAPP is promising a “different conversation” – read: revved up public relations campaign - this year.
Leslie Iwerks, the film’s Los Angeles-based writer and director, says Americans are apathetic and ignorant of what their energy costs in human terms. “I understand that it’s big business and they need to feed the US appetite for oil,” she says of the industry, “But you see the environmental impact and the energy it takes to get at it, and it’s pretty eye-opening. It’s big government, it’s people not caring, it’s massive environmental destruction, it’s doctors getting charged with counts that aren’t necessarily true, and it’s a lot of unanswered questions. Those are the stories I want to tell, because it’s a story about human beings.”
"This product is being produced because there is a demand for it,” says Lorraine Royer, vice president of stakeholder relations at Global Public Affairs, whose clients include many big players in the oil patch, “The industry is well aware that continuous improvement is required, and an incredible investment occurs everyday to reduce that impact.”
What this film means for perceptions of the oils sands remains unclear, but those in the movie business are hoping this bit of drama will only help their industry.
“I don’t want there to be a backlash against Alberta film, that was my main concern,” Minister Blackett explains, “It’s knowledge-based and green and all those other good things. We want more Alberta films, more producers, more work in diverse industries here. Film captures our quality of life here, through our eyes. We can’t expect someone from Los Angeles or New York or Toronto to do that for us. We need the creative industries here. I made one mistake … I misspoke. You live, you learn.”
Published in National Post, January 23 2009 (<--click to see article online)
Downstream, a Canadian documentary about cancer rates among residents living south of the oil patch, was recently added to the longlist for an Oscar nomination. While the shortlist nominations did not include a nod to the film, its early recognition sent giddy shock waves through the film industry here, and a mess of panicked PR bungles through an enclave of corporate energy giants and government representatives.
The film behind the buzz is a 30 minute documentary revolving around Dr. John O’Connor, a physician living in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta. For six years, the doctor has been making a public fuss about rare forms of cancer in the small town, which he claims are linked to the toxic tailing ponds from nearby oil sands development. For his trouble he was charged with four counts of professional misconduct and forced to move far away from the community, to Nova Scotia. The charges have recently been dropped, the water from tailing ponds tested, and a second – but very slow – peer review study of the situation is currently underway by the Alberta Cancer Board.
The documentary has already been screened at select locations in California, and a slew of film festivals from around the globe will show a full-length version of the film next year. Although very few Canadian have yet to see it – including those interviewed for the film – rumors are flying fast and furious.
Last month, the first response from Alberta Minister of Culture Lindsay Blackett was that “it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense” to fund a film “that’s going to be negative” of the province. “If I’m going to invest money in a film, the whole idea is to show Alberta in a better light,” Blackett said during an on-camera interview with CBC. The Minister retracted his comments six days later, saying his comments were in response to a hypothetical question, and that “no censorship or creative oversight is on the table, and it won’t be in the future.”
But the damage had already been done.
Actors unions cried out. Skittish staffers of the Alberta Film Commission denied it ever happened. The Los Angeles Times reported that “it might be impossible to fund a film in the future that is critical of local government policies and programs” and a tribal council member for the Chipewyan First Nation, whose plight is explored in the film, told local indie magazine FFWD, “The Culture Minister is not supporting the general public of Fort Chipewyan. We pay our taxes too.”
The vilified Minister made amends with locals, but the sandstorm speaks to a much larger communications malfunction. The Oscar buzz arrived soon after a carefully crafted admission by Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) that most Canadians don’t feel all warm and fuzzy about their work. That looks now to be a radical understatement. The same day Minister Blackett’s comments were made public, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation requested a judicial review on the granting of oil sands leases from the province. And soon President Barak Obama will make his first official visit abroad to Canada, including a tour of the developments - America’s closest, and largest, supply of energy. For its part, CAPP is promising a “different conversation” – read: revved up public relations campaign - this year.
Leslie Iwerks, the film’s Los Angeles-based writer and director, says Americans are apathetic and ignorant of what their energy costs in human terms. “I understand that it’s big business and they need to feed the US appetite for oil,” she says of the industry, “But you see the environmental impact and the energy it takes to get at it, and it’s pretty eye-opening. It’s big government, it’s people not caring, it’s massive environmental destruction, it’s doctors getting charged with counts that aren’t necessarily true, and it’s a lot of unanswered questions. Those are the stories I want to tell, because it’s a story about human beings.”
"This product is being produced because there is a demand for it,” says Lorraine Royer, vice president of stakeholder relations at Global Public Affairs, whose clients include many big players in the oil patch, “The industry is well aware that continuous improvement is required, and an incredible investment occurs everyday to reduce that impact.”
What this film means for perceptions of the oils sands remains unclear, but those in the movie business are hoping this bit of drama will only help their industry.
“I don’t want there to be a backlash against Alberta film, that was my main concern,” Minister Blackett explains, “It’s knowledge-based and green and all those other good things. We want more Alberta films, more producers, more work in diverse industries here. Film captures our quality of life here, through our eyes. We can’t expect someone from Los Angeles or New York or Toronto to do that for us. We need the creative industries here. I made one mistake … I misspoke. You live, you learn.”
Published in National Post, January 23 2009 (<--click to see article online)
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