More Oil Sands Issues Get Added to the Mix and Start Heating Up

As Alice said in her Wonderland “it is getting curiousier and curiousier” particularly as the continuing saga of the Alberta oil sands unfolds. We had dead ducks and now freaky fish are being found in the waters in the Fort Chipewyan area. The “Dirty Oil” label is sticking and gaining traction as the ENGO protesters are picking up the pace and pursuing this messaging with some serious persistence.

The recent secret visit to Fort McMurray by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett will draw even more American media and special interest group attention to the oil sands. We can expect lots of buzz coming out of this trip, especially given the American cultural proclivity for celebrating celebrity.

The oil sands are now going to be in the geo-political cross hairs more than ever as a result for these guys paying us this recent visit. The oil sands are significant in so many ways like as an enormous energy resource, a gigantic investment opportunity, and a massive set of ecological issues. It even has to be considered as a potential terrorist target too given it strategic importance to North American continental energy supply and security.

We now have another chapter as many of the northern First Nations Chiefs from Alberta, BC, Saskatchewan and the NWT got together this past weekend in Fort Chipewyan. They are drawing a line in the water by unanimously passing a “Keepers of the Water Declaration. The Declaration was “…affirming water is a sacred trust and a fundamental human right.” The First Nation leadership is committed to “taking all necessary steps in our power to protect our lands, sustain our communities and assert our rights.”

The First Nations Chiefs at the Keepers of the Water Conference agreed to launch a legal action to assert their rights, build unity between the First Nations Communities and work with other organizations that support their goals. This set of aspirations reminds me of an African Proverb that says “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go as a group.”

Looks like northern First Nations through their Keepers of the Water Declaration have decided to take the longer road and to go together. That has to be a good thing. In fact former Premier of the Northwest Territories Steven Kakfwi told me his reaction to the Keepers of the Water Declaration saying “This is as good as it gets.”

I’m thinking the Keepers of the Water Declaration will be seen as an historic moment in Canadian history. Not as big a deal as the Last Spike or the Queen signing the Charter of Rights and Freedoms perhaps. I think it will definitely be in the next level of significant historic events in the maturation of Canada and First Nations relations as they continue to be clarified.

Gate and Buffett Get the Buzz on the Oil Sands

What gives? Bill Gates and Warren Buffett visit Fort McMurray and don't even stop by to say hello? I was in Fort McMurray for over three hours on Monday and never saw these dudes. I was on a lay over on my way home from the Water Keepers Conference in Fort Chipewyan. More on that later.

I was having lunch in the Sawridge with Darcy Henton of the Edmonton Journal and fellow traveler Don Reimer of Fort McMurray. I understand everyone in McMurray passes through the Sawridge sometime during the day. Chances are I should have seen Gates and Buffett at the Sawridge given how long, liquid and thoroughly enjoyable our lunch was.

My bet is these billionaires spend their entire Ft. Mc. time flying over the tailing ponds and the open pit mines in their private jet while indulging their common passion playing Bridge together throughout their visit.

Welcome to Alberta gentlemen...and don't forget to consider the societal and ecological aspects of this investment opportunity. Don't forget to insist on an integrated, responsible, sustainable and comprehensive development approach as you consider the oil sands as the best option for a secure, safe, reliable, close and friendly provider for the future of American energy supply needs.

Next time you're in town, stop by and say hello.

The Political Ground is Going to be Shifting Between Ottawa, Washington and Alberta

There are strange things happening politically these days. Everything old is becoming new again. In Canada we have Prime Minister Harper promoting asymmetrical open federalism and musing about transferring some international and foreign relations powers to the provinces.


This approach is the same as Joe Clark proposed many years ago in his view of Canada being a “Community of Communities.” Pierre Trudeau, a strong centralist, called Clark the “Head Waiter for the Provinces.” Paul Martin was also becoming very adept in this Head Waiter role too. I wonder if Harper will wear this tag too. Elizabeth May is likely to be the source of such a “reprimand.”


Quebec and Alberta will love the new Harper approach to redefining a decentralized Canada. Many others, primarily those who are Ottawa-dependent and Ontario, who is in economic decline, will see it as weakening Confederation. It will mean that Alberta will become more aggressive in setting up more foreign offices to advance its trade beyond the US and help recruit for labour shortages. This is an idea that is already in the works and bound to happen.


Obama is reviving some old ideas of Ronald Reagan and revising his energy position too. Obama’s suggestion that the Americans release their Strategic Petroleum Reserves to reduce oil prices was a tactic effectively implemented by President Ronald Reagan. In Reagan’s day this policy decision had a dramatic and immediate downward impact on oil prices. Releasing these oil reserves put Alberta’s economy immediately into the dumpster.

This happened just before the NEP took hold, which would have devastated the Alberta economy if it was given the chance. The NEP’s disastrous impact on Alberta’s economy is an urban myth because Reagan’s release of the Strategic Oil Reserves actually beat the federal Liberals to the punch in destroying the Alberta economy back then. But we Albertan’s have never “forgotten” the NEP - nor have we ever forgiven the Federal Liberals for it.
Obama is now “nuancing” his off shore drilling opposition and his anti-NAFTA stance now too.


All this Obama shifting has significant implications for Alberta and especially the oil sands development. One of the reasons Obama want to release the Strategic Oil Reserves now is to put light crude on the market to reduce gasoline prices. He also wants to replace the reserves with heavy oil that is lower priced but requires refining. I expect the Americans are going to be looking to Alberta’s oil sands as a long term source of that heavier oil, and why wouldn’t they?


If Obama becomes President with a Democratic Congress and all this happens, the States will soon start seeing the oil sands as their best source for reliable continental energy supply. Then Alberta will need to respond. Alberta's response will be to take advantage of Harper’s new decentralized Canada approach of more provincial powers on international matters.

Alberta will have to establish its own provincial foreign policy to deal directly with the United States. It will start being about energy and environmental matters around processing and exporting of oil sands - a provincially owned natural resource with serious international and geo-political implications. Who knows where it will lead but, one thing for sure, it will be interesting times.

Suncor CEO Rick George Joins the Blogosphere.

Last summer I was encouraging Suncor to have their CEO, Rick George, become the new human face of the Alberta’s oil sands industry. The prior face of the oil sands industry was Syncrude’s CEO Eric Newell. He is a person of influence, integrity, wisdom and character who spoke for the oil sands from the mid-90’s until his retirement a few years back.

Ever since Eric retired this enormously important energy undertaking has lost its sense of identity and the growing and accelerating investment with erupting environment concerns has taken a toll on its credibility. It needs a person who is identified with the industry and who is the trusted industry talisman that we can rely on to tell us what is going on in oil sands development, from the industry perspective.

Suncor is a quality company in all aspects and intricacies of the triple bottom line approach to enterprise. It made sense to me then, and it still does today, that Suncor ought to be taking a significant leadership role around the future of the oil sands. Some one needs to be engaging, responding and explaining the challenges and potential for this industry to develop in ways that are profitable and ecologically responsible and socially sustainable.


That meant to me that Rick George needed to take up the torch from Eric Newell and it looks like he has done so. Check out his first Blog post and let me know what you think. It is worth a read and I am told he wrote it himself. I believe that. This is no cynical PR based messaging and positioning piece. It is in the first person – personal from a CEO of a very significant oil sands player - and with something to say.

I hope he writes many more blog posts and his efforts encourage other oil sands CEOs to write blog posts on this site too. Again, be careful and please tell us your thoughts in the first person – personal. Don’t insult your readers and Alberta citizen’s who own the resources you are exploiting, by having your comments ghosted by some anonymous PR specialist. That would do more harm than good.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) has set up a website called “Canada’s Oil Sands – A Different Conversation.” Some hard line environmental groups and activists will write this off as green wash. I don’t think so. At least I am willing to give it a chance and the benefit of the doubt for now. I intend to visit it often and comment when the spirit moves me, and evaluate its integrity cautiously.

It is a site that will have challenges and it will have to work hard prove its authenticity. Since it is an industry sponsored site there is a default position in Web culture that it is merely green wash. There are lots of green wash examples and some of the Alberta energy industry players engaged in green wash PR based efforts last year around the royalty review. So a healthy skepticism is not unfounded.

This CAPP effort will have to earn our trust and gain respect over time by showing us its candor and that it will be open, honest, comprehensive and factual on a wide range of key and controversial issues relating to the development of the oil sands. This effort is a big step in the right direction for CAPP and Albert’s oil sands developers. Let’s hope they do it right and for the right reasons.

For the record, I have been a Suncor shareholder for years. I have worked for Suncor but not presently. I also enjoyed working with Suncor people on a few other projects including the 2005 updating of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Business Case.

The Ugly Face of Radical Conservatism

UPDATE AUGUST 5
I have been called to task on this post and I have reflected on some of what is said in this post. I do think some of it is potentiall unfair. The Harper affinity to follow George Bush's economic, security, social policy and political tactics is a fact. That said, nothing Harper or Bush does or says should have them implicated in any way with the radical right-wing Conservative violence in Tennessee noted in this post. I think I may have left that erroneous impression with some of the content of this post. It was not my intent. Rather than edit the post, I think this explanation is a more reasonable way to clarify matters. If the Anonymous commenter who made this observation would comment again using his or her real name, and in a civil manner, I would be glad to post the comment.

There is a worrisome group of extreme social conservatives in America who are, all too often, running amok with violence, often causing death, due to their rigid and raging ideology. They used to murder doctors around the abortion issue. Now they seem to have moved on to targeting liberals because they can’t tolerate then because they are different. This radical right-wing anger against difference recently played itself out in a killing spree in a Tennessee Unitarian church.

I often wonder about these people and how they justify their beliefs and behaviours, especially when many of them espouse a fundamentalist religious belief as well. I see the Harper government aggressively aligning itself in word and deed with the political and governing philosophy of the George Bush White House . This is not healthy for so many reasons and at so many levels...and it is especially problematical for any hope Harper has of forming a majority government.

It gets very complicated to see how this value set advances the best principles of American society and for how it influences Canadian society too, especially with Mr. Harper's affinity for such political values. Mr. Harper’s personal relationship with George Bush and his embracing of the deceitful neo-Republican political techniques, coupled with a fear based foreign policy, does not serve Canada well at all. There are some insightful bloggers commenting on this event and its implications too. I particularly like what The Red Tory as to say.

The Canadian orienting value set is very much more classic liberal than the social conservative orientation of some scary people in the States. That Canadian difference is a good thing from my perspective, especially when we see events like what happened in Tennessee recently.

I think it is time the Harper Cons created and articulated a specific Canadian conservative vision. We don’t need a conservative Canada that is just variation on the American Republican social conservative model that we see happening now under Harper.

Otherwise the default decision by Canadian voters will be to see all conservatives as the same – just like the neo-Republicans of America, or worse yet, to presume conservatives are mostly like the radical conservatives who are killing liberals based on intolerance for differences.

As the sign on the wall in the Chapter’s bookstores says; “The World Needs More Canada.” The time has come for Canadian conservatives to start speaking up about what it means to be conservative in Canada, socially, ecologically and economically. If it means the same thing as being a American Republican then who needs the Conservative Party of Canada?