Am I what?
Evidence of meeting #45 for Natural Resources in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was alberta.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #45 for Natural Resources in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was alberta.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Are you aware of the report of the oil sands advisory panel delivered on December 21? The panel testified before this committee.
5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Alberta Chamber of Resources
I'm not aware of the details, no.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
That's confusing to me, because I'm assuming you had confidence in the water testing abilities that were going on with many of your member companies. I'm looking at the executive of your organization in 2010: Syncrude, Enbridge, Ainsworth, Finning, Suncor, Capital Power. You are an industrial group. Your industrial members work in and around the oil sands. Water is one of the most significant issues when talking about the impact of the oil sands.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
The auditor has come forward and said that there is no baseline measurement, there was no testing for oil sands chemicals, there were no long-term data to track the changes. The oilsands advisory panel said there was a lack of leadership and coordination and a lack of scientific vigour to actually test the water that was being polluted by the oil sands projects--your members. You say you're barely aware of the reports, if at all. You talk about doing the right thing, but water is one of the essential concerns of the impacts of the oil sands, and you represent members of that group.
The oilsands advisory panel wasn't picked by Greenpeace; it was hand-picked by the federal government. They came back and said that the water testing in this environment is below basic standards, and you folks didn't raise any concerns with that at all leading up to that time, or even since.
5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Alberta Chamber of Resources
Thank you.
Clearly, water is a big issue, and that's why we've been participating on the water council. In fact, we were part of the group that helped form it. They're doing good work, and we support it.
On the piece that you mentioned on the wetlands, of course we still want reclamation. In fact, we're obligated to reclaim lands; however, the initial recommendations were very high ratios of 10:1 or 3:1 of reclaimed land to wetland. In other words, if you disturbed one acre of wetland, either three acres or ten acres should be replaced. That's where we had an issue. I just want to be clear on that part.
There's also--
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I'm quoting from Mr. Anderson's own words. These are your words, actually--
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
You can do that later, but just let him have a little more time to answer.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I want to put a clarification to Mr. Anderson.
You said that the reason you resisted these policies--and you celebrated that the policies were being resisted by the Alberta government--was that it would save literally billions of dollars for your members. It was expensive.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Go ahead, Mr. Anderson. You can complete your answer from before as well.
5:10 p.m.
Executive Director, Alberta Chamber of Resources
Thank you very much.
Well, it is expensive, and we do spend a lot of money reclaiming land. There's no question about that. It's a big cost of our business.
There are issues when you have a replacement ratio of something in the order of 10:1; there's also an issue of where you are going to do that. In Saskatchewan, there's only a certain amount of area to reclaim, so we reclaim the part of the land that we disturb, and that's where we come to.
If there were numbers in the order of 10:1, yes, it would be very expensive., but even more important, where are we going to do it? Are we going to do it in southern Alberta? Are we going to do it in northern Alberta? Are we going to do it outside of Alberta?
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I'll pass this to my colleague, Mr. Harris, in a second.
I would note that none of the other folks except you and the Canadian oil producers had problems with this recommendation--no one in forestry, nobody in mining, none of the government officials who sat that table. It was just you folks.
5:10 p.m.
Executive Director, Alberta Chamber of Resources
I have a correction on there being no one in mining. We represent the mining sector on that water council, so I think you're in error with that claim.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
You folks and the oil producers were the only ones--not anybody from government, not anybody from the livestock, not anybody from forestry, just you and the oil guys.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
If I have only a minute, I think I'll focus on one issue that's a big concern of mine, and that is safety and search and rescue.
You mentioned your brother, and I know members of your family, Mr. Mullowney. A cousin of mine was on that same helicopter. Search and rescue may not have made any difference in that particular issue, but can you tell us the importance of high-level search and rescue capability in response to the development of both the oil industry and the fishing industry, particularly in Newfoundland and Labrador?
5:10 p.m.
Mayor, Town of Bay Bulls
It's extremely high, extremely valuable. We work in the North Atlantic. We prosecute our livelihoods there. Most times if you go into that water, your life expectancy is measured in literally minutes.
In the case of my brother and those on the chopper, they may not have survived if they had got into the water. I do take some comfort from the fact that at least one severely injured individual did survive. I wonder, if they'd been quicker, then maybe.
It's absolutely critical to get a rapid response in the North Atlantic. Any time a fishing boat goes down, any time an oil rig has a problem, you don't have hours to wait; you have minutes. I don't care about the suits and all the protocols you put in place; that's what it comes down to--you have minutes.
It got better over the years. I remember in the early days, 30 years ago, when my brother was offshore working on the rigs. He often would say things like, “If we have to evacuate this thing in a storm, I might as well just stay on board and go down with it, because I'm just jumping into the water to die”. He felt a little better as time went on and things changed, but you're right, the time is absolutely critical.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Thank you, Mr. Harris.
Mr. Anderson, there's not much time left in the meeting, but go ahead, please.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Mullowney, I come from a small town in Saskatchewan that's in the oil and gas area, and I think we have the same challenge as you do, which is keeping our young people around.
I wonder if you can tell us a little more about the employment mix in your community. You said it's about 1,000 people and you're fairly close to the capital. In terms of that, what's the employment mix of the population? Also, what kind of training and educational opportunities are set up for people to get careers?
5:10 p.m.
Mayor, Town of Bay Bulls
I'll answer briefly and then, if I could, I'd turn it over to my colleague, Mr. Lomond.
In Bay Bulls we are very close to the city of St. John's. Many people have access to Memorial University. Many people have access to the trades colleges. There's a tremendous interest in education. The young people have left, for many years, and they have travelled everywhere. They are a very mobile workforce. Many of them have worked in oil and gas and offshore pursuits, in shipping and such. The good thing is that many of them are coming home now, because there are opportunities at home that didn't exist years ago.
In terms of the mix, Bay Bulls has probably five streams. We've got a lot of residential development going on, a lot of construction. We've got small-scale and large-scale manufacturing for the offshore and elsewhere. We have a tourism industry; people come from all over the world to see the whales at Bay Bulls. We have 1,000 people, but we have about 80,000 tourists pass through each year to see the whales. In addition, we have a commercial sector.
I think everyone shares equally in the prosperity, and the prosperity now is noticeable, but not all individuals have the high-paying jobs. That's why I always continue to talk about a social dividend. Some of those individuals are being left behind, even though there's tremendous wealth around them.