RED DEER – Alberta has struck a new committee “to help reclaim tailings ponds” in the province’s oilsands, says the headline on a news release published yesterday.
There’s something about the wording of that headline that reminds one of that hoary old Ronald Regan line that right-wing bloviators so love to repeat about how the most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
“Alberta’s new Oil Sands Mine Water Steering Committee will look at options to speed up oil sands mine water management and tailings ponds reclamation,” says the subhead on the news release.
The newser goes on to say that the UCP Government “will use the committee’s work to create an accelerated plan to reclaim the water in oil sands tailing ponds and eventually return the land for use by future generations.’
Of course, whatever President Reagan or more likely his gag writer might have thought about help from the government, it’s unlikely that actually reclaiming Alberta’s huge tailings ponds – said to be so big they can be seen from outer space – is truly on the agenda of the government of Alberta.
As Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz said in the canned quote assigned to her by the author of the news release, “Managing oil sands mine water and reclaiming tailings ponds is a complex issue that requires collaboration.” (Translation: There’s no hurry.)
The quote continued: “This committee will look at all the feasible options for addressing oil sands mine water and tailings ponds and suggest ways to safely reclaim the land and ensure our waterways remain clean for future generations.” (Translation: Don’t worry corporate Alberta, that will take a long, long time.”)
To do this, according to the news release, “the steering committee will review all relevant research and engage with communities, industry and governments to ensure that many perspectives and potential solutions are considered.” (Emphasis added.)
“More information will be shared in the coming months on how the public can submit technical information,” it continues. “All viable solutions to this challenging issue will be considered.” (Translation: Feel free to fill out the Internet questionnaire, folks.)
Tany Yao, the UCP MLA for Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo who is certainly not reputed to be the hardest-working member of the Legislature, was assigned a quote too: “This is an important step forward to responsibly address oil sands mine water and reclaim tailings ponds more swiftly and effectively.” Just a step, mind.
Mr. Yao is also a member of the newly formed committee, not necessarily a good sign if one is expecting action.
So is Lorne Taylor, Alberta’s Progressive Conservative science and research minister and later environment minister in the 1990s and 2000s when Ralph Klein, himself a former environment minister, was premier of Alberta.
So let’s cast our minds back to Oct. 15, 1998, when Premier Klein released his government’s “strategy for action on climate change,” which was cooked up in response to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol by the Cabinet Committee on Climate Change headed by the late Guy Boutilier, who also served as MLA for Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo.
The other members of the committee were energy minister Steve West (the muscle behind Mr. Klein’s privatization schemes), environment minister Ty Lund (pretty much ex officio), justice minister Jon Havelock, intergovernmental affairs minister Dave Hancock (later briefly premier himself), and the very same Mr. Taylor.
Here are a few tidbits from the Klein government’s news release on that effort:
“The committee agrees with the assessment that the risk of greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change warrants precautionary measures – which would mean incurring prudent costs to achieve best efforts in reducing the growth in emissions.”
“Responses must be cost-effective and justifiable in the context of Alberta’s and Canada’s competitive position. … Excessive penalties on existing business and personal investments must be avoided by giving adequate lead-time and gradual implementation.”
“We realize that global climate change is a real and serious issue – we are committed to cooperative action. We are committed to finding a solution. And over the coming months our government will be building partnerships.”
And so on. It all sounds remarkably like what we hear nowadays from the United Conservative Party Government. In a depressing way it’s quite charming to read.
And how did that work out?
Twenty-six years later, we all know the answer to that. Nothing happened. They never even set up the “Climate Change Central” Mr. Klein promised us, unless you count Jason Kenney’s Energy War Room, nexus of Alberta’s war on the climate.
Dr. Taylor, PhD, sounds like an excellent man for the job. He has experience.
But no one alive now, or in any of those future generations, should hold their breath waiting for any more action on tailings ponds than we got from the 1998 cabinet committee on climate change.
It’s a stark contrast when Peter Lougheed was premier of Alberta, to what came after that. Under the leadership of Peter Lougheed, oil companies in Alberta had to cleanup after themselves. Ralph Klein never enforced this. As a result, Albertans must now come up with $260 billion to look after the abandoned oil wells in Alberta. In 1976, Peter Lougheed enacted the Coal Policy. This would ensure that the mountains, the water, and the environment, would be protected from the damaging effects of open pit coal mining. The UCP has taken none of that into consideration, and wants to go ahead with it. Most Albertans don’t like it, but the UCP doesn’t care. Peter Lougheed’s 1976 Coal Policy will be obliterated by the UCP. In the far northern part of Alberta, there was the saga of the tailings pond leaks that went on for months. The UCP dithered, and denied there was a problem. The AER was useless on this matter. Now, the UCP and the AER are facing a lawsuit over these tailings pond leaks. The head of the AER is deciding to step down this year, and that’s a little more than coincidental. Here we go again, with another study by the UCP, which is another big waste of money. It is mind boggling how people support the UCP.
Rebecca Schulz is a recent arrival from Saskatchewan, not really an Albertan and doesn’t fully understand how our province works. I don’t think much will get done with her at the helm.
I hesitate to post this publicly, lest the UCP see it and decide to use it, but one way (the UCP way) to reclaim the water in the tailings ponds quicker will be to lower the standard at which water is declared ‘reclaimed’. Presto, problem solved!
‘We realize that global climate change is a real and serious issue’. I wonder how many UCP MLAs would even admit that today, when the gloomy predictions climate scientists made back in the 1990’s are now appearing.
Bob: all I can say is “Yup”. Here is the latest report on climate scientists and their view:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2024/may/08/hopeless-and-broken-why-the-worlds-top-climate-scientists-are-in-despair
More pork for the Alberta government’s TBA owners.
Alberta’s steer-water committee will speed up looking at tailing new mine-oil ponds to sand options for management reclamation.
No matter how you put it, it’s an incredible announcement.
I wonder if the “polluter pays” principle will be a guiding part of discussions. With the new pipeline aiding record profits for the oil sands stalwarts, perhaps some of that money should be diverted to cleaning up their mess.
I’d hate to see all the “George & Marthas” in Alberta have to pick up the tab for this.
Neil: Martha and Henry, no? DJC
How about instead they focus on the thousands of abandoned, orphaned gas wells that are spewing methane into the atmosphere? Do one thing and do it well and don’t put more $hundreds of millions more into the oil companies pockets to get them to do a half-assed job for them(us).
What they’re doing here is just putting out headlines so that it looks like they’re doing something, like they care at all, when the truth is they aren’t doing anything and they don’t care! What is going on with this world? Liars on every side of us, fascism taking over all over the world, democracy and truth becoming a threatened commodity! And the backdrop to it all is the collapse of the environment that supports life on this planet!
Harper took the environmental safe guards off 1.2 million canadian bodies of water. That and lowering the standard of “clean” will make it a successful UCP program for the benefit for all Albertans in the next election.
The policy ideas that are “Reaganomics”, i.e. ‘market based solutions’, were formulated and refined nearly a decade before the actor became President by the owners of capital and their ideological/PR ‘thinktanks’, e.g., Heritage Foundation, Hoover Institute, American Enterprise Institute, ect. Where, the outcome(s) “is (are) exactly what conservatives always push for. When wealth is spread more equally among all parts of society, people start to expect more from society and start demanding more rights. That leads to social instability, which is feared and hated by conservatives, . . . ”
https://www.salon.com/2014/04/19/reaganomics_killed_americas_middle_class_partner/
Obligatory (?) musical interlude:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC-6Z7QXJ9E
“Conservatives” might be replaced with “neo-liberals” in the spirit of fullness or inclusivity.
What’s a tailings pond? Or . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2oG888CYTk&themeRefresh=1
In any case, “The cups and balls is a performance of magic with innumerable adaptations. Street gambling variations performed by conmen were known as Bunco Booths.”
Where the new and improved Alberta ‘Bunco Booth’ might be characterized as one where:
“The AER publicly says the province is protected from abandonment of tailings ponds because Suncor, Imperial, “Syncrude, CNRL and other companies are required to put money into a fund called the Mine Financial Security Program. The fund has collected more than $1 billion from companies. The cost to clean up the oilsands mining operations facilities? An estimated $130 billion, according to internal AER calculations revealed in recent joint investigation by National Observer, Global News and the Toronto Star. That’s $100 billion more than the public had been told before. The tailings ponds make up the largest but unknown portion of this AER estimate.”
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/11/23/news/alberta-officials-are-signalling-they-have-no-idea-how-clean-toxic-oilsands-tailings
Could they not use water from the tailings ponds for fracking? Wouldn’t that be their idea of a “win-win”…??(sarcasm)
I have a slightly different take on this than our blogger host. Of course it could be all PR but they probably do want to “speed up oil sands mine water management and tailings ponds reclamation” but along the lines of what Bob Raynard says – get rid of this glaring tailings ponds liability at whatever the environmental cost. Then it will be “The UPC fixed the Oil Sands toxic tailings problem.”
This is basic issues management – get rid of or neutralize negative optics early and then create/enhance positive perceptions.
FWIW— CBC news May 7th 2024
“Shell sold millions of carbon credits for carbon that was never captured , report finds.
Greenpeace describes deal with Alberta **, as hidden subsidy that awarded money for “phantom credits.”
So, does anyone really believe what Ms Schultz was trying to sell??
** this will probably get the War Room energized, again.
Alberta did establish Climate Change Central in 2000 and it existed until 2013. Its mandate had nothing to do with oil sands tailings; rather, it was intended to raise public awareness and coordinate action around reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It was co-chaired by an industry CEO and an Alberta Cabinet minister throughout its existence and its membership comprised a cross-section of Albertans, including municipalities, agriculture, forestry, academia, not-for-profit organizations, etc. A large part of its work centred on energy efficiency, renewable energy, carbon offsets, and transportation. It was never given enough resources or power to be truly effective but it did serve as a forum for discussion of issues and acted as a convenor on a number of relevant issues. There is no comparison with Kenney’s “war room” and linking the two is inappropriate.
PaulG— my reference to the war room being energized was only slightly tongue-in-cheek, due to the report being brought out by ‘ Greenpeace ‘; ie: Jason Kenny’s implementing said war room fighting those eco- terrorists is I believe the term used.
and IMHO, what Ralph Kline and Gary Mar said they were going to do and what was actually done seems a contradiction, since Mr Kline was responsible for distributing those ‘resources’, was he not ?
Putting out a official statement (to borrow a phrase— you have to appear to be doing something—) and actually following through , is usually only done if and when someone gets called out.
“Studies ” can be well and good, and take a short time or can be stretched out over years with no final implementation of any findings.
“Case in point— Government spent $200,000 doing a study as to why people were going across the border to shop.
I laughed when I heard this because I would have been more than happy to tell them– for free– because it’s cheaper.
And you’re wasting taxpayers money on this “study”. WHY?