From The Edmonton Journal
The oilsands are Alberta's advantage, and while no further proof is needed, it's right there in a provincial budget that predicts unrivalled revenue and royalties for the industry and the province respectively.
And it's in the national census that proves Canadians from other provinces are flocking to Alberta, no doubt for the promise of jobs and prosperity. It's there in a report from TD Economics that projects a country-leading 2.5-per-cent increase in Alberta's GDP from 2016 to 2021. It's there in the price of oil and oilsands company stocks, which are clawing back much of the value lost last year. It's there in the Stephen Harper government's defence of the oilsands as a major boon to the Canadian economy and in his advocacy for the two proposed pipelines that would deliver bitumen to thirsty markets around the globe.
There is no doubt that the oilsands are an asset with far-reaching economic, political and societal benefits; a resource worth defending and developing, responsibly of course.
Because of their real and potential impacts on the environment, the oilsands are also a target worth attacking, and environmental groups have done their fair share of taking the industry and Alberta government to task in public for failings in the realm of stewardship. How-ever, we don't always know who is putting up the money to allow those environmental groups to launch their offensives. And that's wrong.
If foreign interests are funding Canadian groups and thereby influencing oilsands conversation in this country, the public has a right to know and that right ought to be legally entrenched. There is no need to stop foreign funding of Canadian advocacy groups, no more than there is a need to stop foreign in-vestment in the oilsands, but companies like Suncor and Syncrude have to declare their foreign partnerships.
Environmental groups should certainly have to make the same disclosure, so their motives are crystal clear. Conservative MP Brian Jean, who represents the riding of Fort McMurray-Athabasca, will be pushing a private member's bill that would block foreign funding of so-called "radical" Canadian environmental groups and lessen the possibility that outsiders are paying First Nations to oppose projects like the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline from Bruderheim to Kitimat. In raising the latter spectre, he has already taken his fight a step too far, without benefit of any proof.
However, there is a problem that needs solving and Jean's interest in the role foreign interests have played in the environmental movement was piqued by Vancouver-based researcher Vivian Krause. Earlier this week she told a Parliamentary committee hearing that $300 million has flowed from U.S. trusts to Canadian environmental groups in the past 10 years. Given the ever increasing stakes, the torrent is not about to stop.
"I think we'll see significant American interests trying to line up against the Northern Gateway project, precisely because it's not in the interests of the United States," Prime Minister Harper told Global TV recently. "It's in the interests of Canada. They'll funnel money through environmental groups and others to try to slow it down but, as I say, we'll make sure that the best interests of Canada are protected."
The oilsands are obviously worth protecting and it is most definitely worth knowing who is financing the various partisans to the debate. Let the money flow north if it must, but bring its sources into the light first.
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
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