Off The Fence - Time to talk about the future of the tar sands development

Susan Thompson
Express staff

I had the opportunity to go hear Andrew Nikiforuk speak in Peace River last week.

As a journalist, Nikiforuk is someone I look up to, because he’s won eight National Magazine Awards for his articles.

He also won the Governor General’s Award for Nonfiction for one of his books in 2002.

Clearly, the man knows his stuff. He’s an excellent writer, and an Albertan to boot.

Nikiforuk was in Peace River to talk about his new book, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent.

It was a gripping, and disturbing talk. Nikiforuk backed up everything he said with documented sources, which he offered to make available to anyone who asked.

Nikiforuk’s main point was that tar sands oil is expensive, difficult oil to extract, not to mention extremely bad for the environment.

Yet it’s become the world’s largest energy project, the world’s largest construction project, and the world’s largest capital project, because reserves of conventional oil are limited, and by all accounts, running out.

As a result, Nikiforuk argues the tar sands are shaping policy in Canada, and in Alberta.

In Alberta, oil is eroding democracy as everything becomes geared towards tar sands production, instead of protecting the people that the tar sands production is supposed to benefit.

It’s also the reason for the recent push for nuclear power here in the Peace and in Saskatchewan.

The power can be used for tar sands production.

But Nikiforuk said that’s an idea that causes jaws to drop in Europe and even the U.S., since no one else has ever used nuclear power to power tar sands development. Nikiforuk says if we go ahead and start doing that, our national environmental reputation will be ruined. He’d know, since he’s travelled far and wide talking to other countries about Alberta’s bitumen.

The talk had other important information for our local economy too. According to Nikiforuk, oil prices won’t recover and stabilize, but will remain volatile, going up and down, and taking our Canadian dollar with them.

In other words, he believes the boom is over, permanently.

That’s not something any of us want to hear, but if we can accept it as reality, then we can move forward and fine new ways to create jobs and economic opportunities for ourselves.

Nikiforuk said moving to true green energy alternatives now can ease the transition later. He mentioned farmers in the States who have created wind farm co-ops by putting small, bird-friendly wind turbines on their land, generating power and profit for themselves.

He also talked about getting the most from our oil, by making sure we get fair royalties, slowing down production, and adding value to our oil here at home instead of shipping it to other countries and letting them do it. That will let us hold on to some of the money we’re making now, or in the near future, for later when it becomes too expensive to use tar sands at all, or when they’ve been exhausted too.

Above all, Nikiforuk argued that no matter what your personal opinions, it’s important that we have a national discussion about our tar sands and what we want to do with them.

Do we want to keep developing our tar sands, and if so, how do we want to do it?

So far, we’ve gone blindly forward without making any decisions as a country, and as citizens, and lack of planning could lead to big problems later.

Unfortunately, if we’re going to have that national discussion, it’ll take regular people talking to their neighbours, writing letters, and pestering their elected officials to get it going.

Nikiforuk says the good news is right now, while prices are down and the economy has slowed, is the perfect time to push for that discussion and debate.

I have to agree. It’s time for a talk, Canada

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