I and many others had high hopes for Rachel Notley when she got elected and became Alberta's premier....not quite four years ago, though it seems like ages ago to me..
We here at The Straight Goods wrote flattering things about NDP Rachel Notley when she was vying to be premier...I was impressed with her platform, her stated goals, in fact before even being elected she stated that Enbridge's northern gateway pipeline proposal was not a good project, wrong location for a bitumen pipeline and export center....indeed, Kitimat is the wrong place..
Rachel's NDP 2015 election platform was full of inspirational direction..here are a few snippets from that platform...
Our top priorities are creating jobs in a diversified, 21st century economy, restoring honest and open government, preserving and building our health care system, preserving and building our education system, and rebalancing government revenues to make them more fair – asking high income earners (the top 10% of Albertan tax filers) and large, profitable corporations to contribute a little more.
Mr Prentice(her 2015 election opponent) is not asking for any sacrifices at all from our province’s large, profitable corporations –the people who need help the least, and can most easily afford to contribute a little more.
Our environmental quality is declining and the PCs are hastening that decline. Jim Prentice promises action, but corporate lobbyists and his cuts to environmental enforcement make those promises meaningless.
A RENEWED PARTNERSHIP WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLES:
• (5.21) We will implement the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and build it into provincial law.
• (5.24) We will work with federal and Indigenous governments to resolve land claims.
• (5.28) We will repeal Bill 22, which was passed without consulting First Nation groups and imposes requirements on First Nations Bands not required of other business arrangements.We will work collaboratively and respectfully with our province’s First Nations to replace this legislation.
The PCs failed to earn Albertans’ full and fair value for their oil and gas by maintaining one of the world’s lowest oil royalty rate structures, even when prices were very high.
They squandered Alberta’s natural resource wealth, failed to achieve greater value-added processing in Alberta, and have focused only on more export pipelines for unprocessed bitumen – sending our jobs to Texas.
They are handing out hundreds of millions in unnecessary corporate tax breaks, calling any changes “extreme.” There is a better way.
http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/themes/5532a70aebad640927000001/attachments/original/1429634829/Alberta_NDP_Platform_2015.pdf?1429634829
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That's sounds pretty good, finally a change for the better coming to Alberta....but....but the transformation of Rachel was already underway..
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Oilpatch-friendly royalty system takes effect in Alberta
Provincial government made only small changes to how much companies must pay in royalties
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley unveiled her government's royalty review findings in January. The changes come into effect at the beginning of 2017
As the calendar flipped to 2017, Alberta's oilpatch will begin paying the government under a new royalty system that took five months and cost $3 million to review — but basically looks the same as it did before.
The NDP had vowed before their election victory to make sure oil companies would pay more to taxpayers for pulling the resource out of the ground. After the review, however, the government admitted it changed its stance.
It is not the time to reach out and make a big money grab- Alberta Premier Rachel Notley
With growing unemployment and the oilpatch bleeding red ink during the downturn, Premier Rachel Notley conceded to reporters, "it is not the time to reach out and make a big money grab, because that is just not going to help Albertans."
The review panel found existing royalty rates charged in Alberta were comparable to other jurisdictions. In 2017, oilsands rates will not change and the new royalty structure for oil, liquids and natural gas will only apply to new wells, while old wells stay under the existing system for 10 years...
From Rachel's Mouth,,,,
Energy sector rejoices
The oilpatch was fearing the worst, but ended up overwhelmingly supporting the results of the review. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the Petroleum Services Association of Canada and the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada all endorsed it.
Some companies were so enthusiastic about the new policy that they applied for early access
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Then out of the blue Rachel Notley changes her mind and now supports Enbridge's northern gateway pipeline...
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Alberta Premier Rachel Notley rethinking stance on Northern Gateway pipeline
EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is rethinking her stance on the Northern Gateway pipeline as her government and British Columbia work on a deal that could see a pipeline to the West Coast swapped for the purchase of electricity.
Notley’s spokeswoman Cheryl Oates said Thursday that talks are ongoing.“B.C. is really looking to export their hydroelectricity,” said Oates. “Alberta does not have a market for B.C.’s hydroelectricity unless we get our product to tidewater. So there’s a common understanding there.”
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So..Rachel Notley flips on Northern Gateway and at the same time she is playing political games, ..suggesting that if Northern Gateway is permitted Alberta will buy BC's boondoggle dam power..
What happened to NDP Rachel Notley is virtually the same as what happened to NDP john Horgan...they both transformed into corporate loving Conservatives, or BC Liberals(Conservatives by any other name)....John Horgan called Christy Clark LNG framework for Petronas a "generational sellout"....
After winning the 2017 election John Horgan gave another LNG company, @LNGCanada $6 billion dollars more in subsidies...He also greenlighted the Site C dam..John Horgan went from a man of integrity and clear speak before the 2017 election to a climate denying, fossil fuel pimping First Nation disrespecting politician...no business case for Site C..no buyers on hand and no power need...BC Hydro sold more electricty in 2008 than they did in 2017...not a drip of power more...
anyway....
Rachel Notley's 2015 election platform turned out to be gibberish...
No longer is creating tons of value-added jobs refining and upgrading their product in Alberta a priority....no longer is collecting more resource revenue on the government table...
Near everything Rachel Notley ran on was tossed aside..Capp and the petroleum industry had captured Transforming Rachel...
Respecting First Nations...what happened to....
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Alberta NDP Pledged to Implement UNDRIP, “Ensure Respectful Consultation”
Those are very nice ideas, supported by many political pundits and Alberta NDP supporters.
But unfortunately for such boosters, the NDP committed in its election platform to implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples(UNDRIP) and to “work with Alberta Indigenous Peoples to build a relationship of trust and ensure respectful consultation.”
Article 32 of the declaration states that “Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories.”
And free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) underpins much of the document, requiring that Indigenous peoples are consulted with in a way that ensures a process free of manipulation, conducted well in advance and with plenty of information provided.
Eriel Deranger, communications manager of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) suggests the NDP’s push for the development of pipelines and oil and gas resources simply doesn’t respect the principle of free, prior and informed consent.
“Where’s the consent?” asks Deranger. “If communities want to say ‘no,’ then we’re talking about a government that’s willing to respect communities’ right to say ‘no’ and to uphold that right,” she says.
Many First Nations Oppose Energy East and Trans Mountain Expansion
Many First Nations and other Indigenous groups have voiced opposition to Energy East and the Trans Mountain expansion (the two projects considered most likely to be approved and constructed).
The Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam nations and Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs are explicitly opposed to Trans Mountain, while the entire Iroquois caucus, Wolastoq Grand Council and Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs have united in resistance to Energy East.
A letter sent by Mohawk Kanesatake Grand Chief Serge Simon to Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard in early March stated: “The Mohawk Council of Kanesatake as well as the rest of the Iroquois caucus has made its choice. Other First Nations are making the same choice.”
Mike Hudema, climate energy campaigner at Greenpeace Canada, says: “Not only have First Nations not given their consent but they have said very strongly that they don’t want these pipelines going through their traditional territory.”
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We all transform through time, i've changed, my province has changed and so has British Columbia's environment...
I have seen unique run after run of wild salmon become extinct, seen Orca numbers fall year after year, a once bountiful B.C. coastal ocean is now barren in many areas..herring decline, chinook decline, starfish die-offs...my beautiful salmon falling prey to bad logging practices, mining run-off, and diseased by farmed Atlantic salmon in open ocean pens...virus infested foreign fish...it almost brings me to tears, ...transformation for the worse...
BC's greenhouse gasses...last two years wildfires have quadrupled our provincial GHG totals and left millions of BCers choking on smoke through most of the summer...
Beautiful British Columbia is fast turning into Burning British Columbia...
Bitumen..or dilbit if you must..Alberta wants to pipe through our vast province, cross hundreds of our fish bearing rivers and ship their heavy oil from B.C's beautiful coast.....there is no proven way to successfully clean up a diluted bitumen spilled in ocean waters ...does that mean a spill will happen?, no, but odds say there will be, ..and that's the wrong question, and answer...The question should be..
What are the consequences for British Columbia's ocean and marine ecology if there is a big ocean spill/tanker rupture...can it be cleaned up and if so prove it..what would be the fate of BC's remaining Orcas and wild salmon if that disaster happened?..we can't risk having that last question answered.
Canada's most beautiful waterfront city...a tourist mecca for wildlife seekers, for those wanting to see one of the last natural places in the world...
And if I thought this one TMX pipeline completion would stop Alberta from increasing bitumen production and not..
and not plan continued tarsand expansion..maybe, however,...huge increases in tarsand production are on Alberta's drawing board..and..for once Alberta, big oil and the federal government break BC's back and force the pipeline through....once that happens northern gateway is back on, in fact Alberta oil producers want five or more pipelines to B.C...They also want energy east pipeline and Keystone XL..they want it all...
as Trudeau said after his cabinet greenlighted TMX/Kinder Morgan and Petronas' LNG project(Petronas walked away)..Trudeau..and I quote..
"What government would leave billions of barrels of oil in the ground"
Yet Trudeau told the world at the Paris accord that Canada was going green...maybe Trudeau meant big green oil pipelines..
Alberta's oil/bitumen yearly production doubled between 2007 and 2017..
Sorry about the chart, it only goes to 2015 but...the upward curve excelerates....
and this...Alberta will soon be home to this behemoth tarsand mining operation..
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One of the largest oilsands mines ever proposed advances to public hearings
At a staggering 292 square kilometres, Teck Resources’ Frontier mine is a colossal undertaking that relies on ‘relentless’ growth in world oil demand at a time of global climate precarity
Last week, when a brand-new open-pit mine was officially opened in the oilsands of northern Alberta it was dubbed by some media to be an “oilsands revival.”
The Fort Hills mine is projected to be open for 50 years, with daily production peaking at 194,000 barrels.
Premier Rachel Notley, Alberta Energy Minister Margaret McCuaig-Boyd and federal Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi were all on hand to celebrate the project’s opening.
If Canadians are surprised to hear about a new oilsands project — in a time of embattled pipeline delays and oil prices that still haven’t recovered — they have reason to be confused.
There’s little doubt the messaging in the media as of late has been mixed. Is the Calgary Herald right that there are “new reasons for optimism for oilsands,” or, as CBC recently put it, is it true that “the great oilsands era is over”?
Some industry heavy-hitters think it’s the latter. At the Fort Hills grand opening, Suncor chief executive Steve Williams predicted a slow future for the oilsands, telling an interviewer that “it’s unlikely there will be projects of this type of scale again.”
But while Canadians are left to wonder if Fort Hills is indeed the last big oilsands project, another massive open-pit mine — possibly the largest to ever be built in Alberta — is quietly working its way through the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency’s approval process.
Critics worry it is an environmental and economic blunder of epic proportions.
The Frontier Mine
Vancouver-based Teck Resources — which bills itself as “Canada’s largest diversified resource company” — has been busy making inroads in Alberta’s oilsands. The company has a 23.1 per cent share in Fort Hills, and its latest oilsands proposal, the Frontier Mine, first put before regulators in 2011, will be presented at a public hearing (part of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency’s review of the project) beginning in Fort McMurray next week.
The proposed Frontier project would cover an area of 24,000 hectares, producing 260,000 barrels per day of bitumen at its peak. The mine would be the furthest north in the oilsands, and just 25 kilometres south of Wood Buffalo National Park. Teck estimates the bitumen resources to be tapped are in the neighbourhood of 3.2 billion barrels.
The project would be a major investment in Alberta’s high-cost oilsands and is expected to be in production for more than 40 years.
https://thenarwhal.ca/one-of-the-largest-oilsands-mines-ever-proposed-advances-to-public-hearings/
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Rachel Notley's transformation....from a leftwing NDP anti pipeline/anti tanker/anti Trsand activist to full blown big oil cheerleader...no longer is First Nation consent needed for Rachel...no longer is value-added a priority..the environment as far as Rachel is concerned is merely in the way of big oil...
Rachel Notley has done nothing to address this...Starting the mammoth job of cleaning thousand of miles of toxic tailing ponds and forcing those who profited from creating the poison ponds to actually pay for it....
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For decades, tailings — a goopy mix of sand and chemicals — have been pumped into ponds so the solids could settle. But settling has taken longer than engineers expected. Result: Alberta’s tailings ponds cover about 97 square miles and hold 340 billion gallons of waste. That’s enough to fill more than half a million Olympic-size swimming pools.
The reservoirs attracted global attention in 2008 when about 1,600 ducks died in a Syncrude Canada Ltd. pond. Similar, though smaller, incidents have been reported occasionally since then, including the deaths of more than 100 birds near a Suncor tailings pond in September.
provincial regulators estimate that cleaning up oil-sands facilities represents a $27 billion liability, of which the companies have posted only about $1 billion in security. Environmental groups say the cost could be much higher. The province also holds oil-sands assets against the liability. But McNeill says they are one of the highest-cost methods of producing crude, making them vulnerable to falling oil prices caused by a continued boom in American shale or the rapid adoption of electric cars.
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Oilsands Tailing Ponds Ticking Time Bomb for Canadians
But wait, there’s more! Last fall, the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) approved a previously rejected plan from Suncor that allows the company 70 years after the mine closes in 2033 to sign off on its reclamation requirements.
Collectively, tailings ponds now cover 25,000 hectares in northern Alberta and contain a poisonous brew of organic acids, benzene, lead and fine clay particles that have not significantly settled out in 50 years. The result is lakes of toxic yogurt impounded by the largest earthen structures in the world.
The current plan, to be completed almost a century from now, involves pumping this poisonous slurry into abandoned mining pits and covering it with a water cap — an unproven technique based on the dubious assumption that the contaminated and uncontaminated layers will somehow not mix decades into the future.
Alberta has the constitutional right to manage resources as the province sees fit, but the current situation could be described as regulatory humiliation. Bitumen royalties make up less than four per cent of the provincial budget and capture a similarly puny proportion of the market value of bitumen produced by the companies.
Since 1975, the province produced over 4,800 trillion cubic metres of natural gas, 17.4 billion barrels of conventional crude and 11.4 billion barrels of bitumen with cumulative current value of $1.7 trillion.
Successive governments since Premier Peter Lougheed somehow managed to convert this vast resource bounty into a growing public debt of $43 billion.
This shockingly inept fiscal management could soon become the problem of all Canadian taxpayers if the largely unsecured liabilities of bitumen tailing ponds are included in the equation. Cleanup costs, as estimated by industry, amount to $27 billion, while other observers put the risk closer to $48 billion. Only $1.4 billion is currently secured by cash reserves from the companies; the rest is backed only by the value of unmined bitumen.
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Between the transformation of Rachel Notley and John Horgan....in my opinion, they have made the entire NDP Party, both provincial and federal irrelevant.....no difference between Liberals, Conservatives and now the NDP when it comes to ignoring our warming environment and being beholden to big oil....
Year after year Alberta's oil production rises while government revenues decline...this big push for more and more production while big oil goes robotic, driverless tarsand mining trucks, robotic/automated digging, fewer and fewer humans are required to produce Alberta's oil...even with tarsand expansions employment levels in that industry are and will remain in decline, it's not a growth industry for human workers...only a growth industry for industry profits..
Rachel Notley's Transformation...she's gone down the road of resorting to lying her face-off with made up spin....
Here is what Rachel Notley Tweeted tonight..
Tens of thousands of jobs;
Billions in revenue for Canadian priorities;
Our international reputation; and
Canada’s economic future...
It's all on the line.
The stakes are high & a majority of Canadians in every part of the country stand with us.
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No Rachel...TMX/Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion would employ about 3000 temporary pipeline placers for(2 to 2 1/2 years work)...after pipeline is laid..about 91 jobs for all of BC and maybe a few hundred tarsand employees....that's it...Also, there is not one shred of evidence that Alberta will get higher prices for their dilbit at tidewater...
Something else....if in fact Alberta did get a higher price at tidewater, which is in doubt, if they did...there will no doubt be legal challenges from the remaining tarsand producers wanting the same price, possibly even NAFTA challenges...and there will be more ultimatums coming from big oil after Trudeau blinked...how many more big oil outfits will threaten to shutdown if not granted tidewater access....in other words..
Once Alberta and Trudeau break BC's back they won't stop...they'll run on momentum, threats and lying spin the likes Rachel Notley indulges in....demanding more and more as Alberta will never collect the revenue needed to get out of debt, or clean up Big Oil's Legacy of toxic tailing ponds....to the tune of $$$Billions..
Transformative Rachel has gone even further...she told the press today that unless that TMX pipeline gets built Alberta is "out of any climate action plan"...emissions cap that was proposed..not going to happen..carbon tax..not going to happen...unless big oil is allowed to expand, ship more, pollute more, create more toxic tailing ponds, only if that happens Alberta might charge their populace a carbon tax..
I do believe Rachel Notley is not a believer in Climate Change..
Premier Notley has transformed a lot since getting elected on a progressive, environmental friendly, First Nation respecting platform....That transformation is almost complete..
Rachel Notley Pictured here in 2018...
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It makes me sad....and mad......Mad that our elected officials regardless of party do nothing but carry on catering to big industry's whims...
It makes me sad knowing that the decline of non-human species will continue at breakneck speed, our natural environment will burn up and the few remaining pristine locations in the world will be soiled, poisoned and be left to die..barren of life...
I'm not looking forward to Rachel Notley's Final transformation..
The Straight Goods
Cheers Eyes Wide Open
Written by Grant G
