Canadian Tar Sands Controversy

I'm flying across an ocean of sand mixed with bitumen from up here it looks like an industrial wasteland but for some it's the key to the future of the Canadian economy and it could provide decades of secure energy to North America they saw this oil sands and really literally it was on the ground they were walking up there and people were finding the oil because it was so close to the surface and wondering how they could then capitalize on this and turn it into a useful commodity it wasn't long before the technology developed to separate the oil from the sand today the oil sands industry produces around 2 million barrels a day and business is now booming at sites like this we were producing about 12,000 barrels that was five years ago today we're producing about 135 thousand barrels and this is the finished product but the process releases three times the greenhouse gases generated by conventional oil extraction the oil sands bonanza has attracted some vehement opponents legendary rock star Neil Young is one of them it is the ugliest environmental disaster that and I not only have ever seen but that I could even comprehend the Alberta oil sands surround the Athabasca River north of the state capital Edmonton there are nine hundred residents in the small community of Fort McCoy the stacks of Syncrude and Suncor two of the largest oil sands companies moon large over the frozen landscape and what do you call this area and we call it the 900 block also known as Beverly Hills Jim Boucher is the chief of the local indigenous people the fort Makai First Nation oh is this from now on would you go to the Stanek fort Makai is held up as a fine example of good relations between oil sands companies and local people we're benefitting more from from these relationships our community now has no unemployment we have probably around 8 different corporations actively engaged in the business we gross out a problem growing 67 million last year but the newfound wealth has come at a cost the sad thing is that we have to generate the revenues from economic activity that really brutally destroys the land and we're not in the position at this point in time to stop it fort Makai is surrounded by open pit mines vast areas of forest have been cleared and layers of peat and clay peeled back to remove the Minh close to the surface tailings ponds like this one has scattered across the landscape in total they cover more than 170 square kilometers the industry hasn't been able to demonstrate how to clean these up so there are liability a toxic liability that continues to grow Simon Dyer is a director at the Pembina Institute a Canadian NGO that advocates for sustainable energy there's tailings ponds include of course wastewater and sand they also include about 10 percent residual pitchmen from the extraction process and solvents used in the extraction process and so they're also a significant source of the local air pollutants volatile organic compounds and methane it used to be our food basket now it's a River recreation that's that's all it is the people drink the water people can't drink the water well unless of course you put it through a process water treatment process a recent government report confirmed what is long being suspected that the tailings ponds are leaching into the groundwater and seeping into the river system piranha doesn't do research on health impacts so I have no specific data about this there have been conflicting studies some say that there's an elevated cancer risk downstream of the oil sands others say that there is no elevated risk the causality of that is unknown at this point but it's it's clear there are unanswered questions and there's a glowing growing pollution problem right here this row here is steam generation at this operation run by the Canadian companies too nervous there are no tailings ponds no digging we simply drill that allows us to access a large underground reservoir with very little ground disturbance it's a process known as in-situ and is hailed by the industry as more environmentally friendly but there's a serious drawback it uses steam a lot of staying we're injecting steam deep down underground to soften the oil is actually more greenhouse gas intensive than the mining process so the greenhouse gas profile of the industry as a whole is actually starting to worsen because of the greater deployment of Institute expansions you a hundred and fifty kilometres north of Fort McCoy is the fishing hamlet of Fort chip one one of the oldest settlements in Alberta on the shores of Lake Athabasca abandoned boats are everywhere and not just because it's winter we can test because supernat we don't wanna hurt people we don't know how much and all chemical serious indoors door sings rail adduser' fished on the lake for more than 50 years he's in no doubt that the oil sands operations downstream are poisoning the water the last 40 years or should have been discharging deadly chemicals and they're denying it back at home rail editor shows me photographs of deformed fishies port the pests are getting to deform the last 20-some years and get worse and worse the pic row they're deformed they're humpbacks Kristen pieces both dog eyes cooker tails belly deform and they're breaking out and lumps on them and how often would you come across a fish like that a big volume up fish comes in there and to our plant you get one time we took over 200 pounds in a couple of days they're deformed person with a population of just 1,100 people word spreads quickly in four chipper one and so too does fear the people in Fort Chipewyan don't fish anymore they don't want to eat the fish they no longer drink the water what responsibility does the industry take for their situation what they choose to eat and what they choose to drink is their choice if there are lakes that say that are getting above human health kept amination none of that's been found so you're completely confident that with the people of fortune that their belief that they're getting sick because of the oil sands is completely unfounded from an industry I'm not a medical expert I can't answer that question but we want the science to be able to be there to answer that question two recent government reviews of cancer data for for cheaper one revealed heightened levels for an extremely rare and deadly cancer in the past decade there have been five cases of bile duct cancer in this town's tiny population the most recent is chad e's restaurant owner and local councillor john chatty not an easy cancer to diagnose it took his doctors some time to confirm their suspicions the question i posed to him was you know i need you to be perfectly frank and totally blunt i-i need to know what's going on here i mean it's been a little over three weeks and I still haven't no one's really told me anything and and just that in itself the weight of that in itself was if it wasn't affecting me as much as it should have it was affecting my family my wife who is a rock it's not the first time John chedis wife klaris Voyager has supported a family member in their fight against this aggressive cancer for me this is the second while the cancer in my family my uncle died nine years ago with the same thing so to me that like when John started feeling sick like the symptoms I you know brought back memories of my uncle and it it hurts like you know it hurts to see the small community of four chip with all this cancer and you know the government lying saying it's you know it's nothing all Rudy codes do this way back in the mid 2000s dr. John O'Connor was so concerned about the number of bile duct cancers he was seeing in the Fort Chipewyan community he went to the health authorities he wasn't prepared for the response he got I was attacked I was victimized I was you know there was a concerted effort made to to take away my medical license and you know with their with their efforts to do that it could have you know I don't know how close came to succeeding the government's health energy and environment departments all declined Dateline's request for interviews about community health fears people outside are shocked and yet the silence is deafening from both provincial and federal government departments the public health physicians should be all over this if I'm concerned as a family physician that this is a causing a problem may be causing a problem they should be like climbing the walls trying to get up riding his dogsled through the Fort Chipewyan woods Robert groan Jam is the picture-perfect Elberton but these days is a rarity amongst the First Nation people I'm still very traditional my teachings above my traditional upbringing as an Aboriginal person s first nation so I do hunt and trap I fish off the land come on out the first nation of the traditional owners of the land here and they're guaranteed by law the right to hunt and fish but it's a way of life that's increasingly limited by the spread of the oil sands operations do you worry that the oil sands could threaten your lifestyle I think it can track now everybody has lifestyle in a sense that not only myself but I do I am worried you know four generations down down the road that you know they're not going to have the opportunity that I've grown up with so it fist is going to be taken away it's not going to really you know rejuvenate it again for its natural state you know the Athabasca for Chippewa on First Nation is gearing up for a legal battle against oil sands operations encroaching on their traditional land the First Nation chief Allen Adham takes a hard line against the development comparing it to an act of genocide every time we approve a project is that we're killing our people softly don't give in to government and don't give in to industry when they're going to have adverse effects to your well-being because your future generations people are at stake we won't and that's why we continue to fight but for many of those who work in the oil sands industry it's a different story the main oil sands Center is Fort McMurray known locally as Fort mcmoney people flock here from all over Canada looking for jobs with a dream of making it rich a shortage of accommodation has seen house prices skyrocket and trailer parks like this one have sprung up on the outskirts of the town it's hard to find anyone here who has anything bad to say about the industry if there's no oil sands here to be enough lot of hungry people in every problems because this is what most work is and you have the work to survive a couple of trailers away a woman tells me how the industry is giving her stepson a future he loves the team that he works with he feels that he's safe and taken care of he doesn't feel he's doing anything wrong he works in diesel electrical apprentice and he's going to have the opportunity to complete that apprenticeship here the companies make enough money to support him these two young women from Ontario are moving into the trailer park today I'm not going anywhere this town I love the feel of it I love the job I love the oil sands yeah I think it's great it's a wonderful place to live yes as for any criticism of the industry's environmental record they're not concerned it is bad for the environment but at the same time the world needs it and it's good for Canadian economy clearly the way development is currently occurring is not responsible and we need to have much higher environmental standards much better performance from the companies but also Canadians and our burton's we need to have a discussion about what level of our centers development is appropriate and the such a thing is too much or sales development I don't think that that's happening in the discourse in Canada right now you

Channel: Journeyman Pictures

Views: 59,616

Keywords: journeyman pictures, news, current affairs, world news, documentary, oil bonanza, alberta, canada, deposits, tar sands, fracking, greenhouse gases, environment, pollution, health, climate change, indigenous people

Id: f3oYUxPTQUE

Length: 15min 38sec (938 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 09 2016