Alberta Oil Sands to Increase Production X5

[August1991]

Wasn't Dion environment minister at the time Martin would have been talking about this? If he wasn't involved then he must have been ignored and kept out of the loop.

Good questions.

Liberal leader Stephane Dion says he knew nothing about a plan to massively expand production in the Alberta oilsands to meet the demand in the U.S. even though discussions on speeding up the regulatory review process were launched by former prime minister Paul Martin when Mr. Dion was the environment minister.

...

This meeting, if it took place, I wasn't aware [of it]. Certainly not," Mr. Dion said at a news conference. "It's for sure that there are always discussions with the Americans on a number of topics, but I didn't receive a specific plan to multiply the use of the oilsands by five, or by two or three. Never as minister of environment did [this type of recommendation] arrive on my desk.

...

Environment Minister John Baird isn't buying Mr. Dion's explanation, noting the Liberals' new finance critic, John McCallum, was acting as minister of natural resources at the time of the Houston meeting.

"Either he was so out of touch, or he knew about it," said Mr. Baird. "If he played such a small role in the Liberal government that they could come to a deal with the Bush administration on something so significant that the Liberals would leave out the environment minister, it just makes you scratch your head ... If he didn't know about it, why didn't he know about it?"

National Post

First, is Dion going to use this line every time something embarrassing from the Liberal government arises? Dion was a senior Quebec minister - intergovernmental affairs no less - during the sponsorship scandal. He was environment minister when these meetings were set up. In both cases, he says he didn't know anything.

Second, what is it with this crazy story? It seems as if Radio-Canada and the CBC wanted to somehow embarrass the Conservatives by linking them to the US, oil, Alberta and environmental negligence. Instead, the story is badly researched, means little and if anything embarrasses the Liberals.

[scribblet]

Second, what is it with this crazy story? It seems as if Radio-Canada and the CBC wanted to somehow embarrass the Conservatives by linking them to the US, oil, Alberta and environmental negligence. Instead, the story is badly researched, means little and if anything embarrasses the Liberals.

Shockingly, it seems to be working, the first post was an indication of that. Far left sites are allready trying to pin it on Harper.

there is no easy solution to the problem of energy, other than reducing our dependence on it, along with reducing our population.

Dion has said he's interested in nuclear energy for the oil sands.

http://www.630ched.com/news/news_local.cfm...=news_local.cfm

FORT MCMURRAY, ALBERTA (630 CHED) - Liberal leadership candidate Stephane Dion says he's open to the idea of using nuclear energy as a source of power for Alberta's oilsands.

[Keepitsimple]

Seems to me that a new Government elected only two days earlier wouldn't have had the time to organize a meeting on this scale. Could it be that this meeting was planned and organized while Paul Martin was Prime Minister?

Or did Martin really see the writing on the wall and plan this meeting before even calling the election just so Harper and the crew could start on their conspiracy with OIL as soon as they took office???

Absolutely true - the Conservatives were not even sworn in as the Government - here's an article from today's National Post:

Friday » January 19 » 2007

Don't know, wasn't there, Dion says

Mike De Souza

CanWest News Service

Friday, January 19, 2007

OTTAWA - Liberal leader Stephane Dion says he knew nothing about a plan to massively expand production in the Alberta oilsands to meet the demand in the U.S. even though discussions on speeding up the regulatory review process were launched by former prime minister Paul Martin when Mr. Dion was the environment minister.

The plan -- made public by a joint committee of government experts from Natural Resources Canada and the U.S. Department of Energy who met in Houston, on Jan. 23-24, 2006, before Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Tory government was sworn in -- encouraged decision-makers "to streamline the regulatory approval process," with a "one-stop-shop" for project proposals and facilitate a "fivefold" expansion of oil production in Alberta from one million to five million barrels a day.

The committee was set up under the Security and Prosperity Partnership between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, which scheduled the talks months earlier.

"This meeting, if it took place, I wasn't aware [of it]. Certainly not," Mr. Dion said at a news conference. "It's for sure that there are always discussions with the Americans on a number of topics, but I didn't receive a specific plan to multiply the use of the oilsands by five, or by two or three. Never as minister of environment did [this type of recommendation] arrive on my desk.

"It wasn't something that we were looking at. Instead, we were looking at how we could accelerate the sustainable use of this resource -- how we could use a pipeline that would help us capture CO2 and we had a plan for that. We had a partnership fund, a climate fund and a plan to regulate industry."

Environment Minister John Baird isn't buying Mr. Dion's explanation, noting the Liberals' new finance critic, John McCallum, was acting as minister of natural resources at the time of the Houston meeting.

"Either he was so out of touch, or he knew about it," said Mr. Baird. "If he played such a small role in the Liberal government that they could come to a deal with the Bush administration on something so significant that the Liberals would leave out the environment minister, it just makes you scratch your head ... If he didn't know about it, why didn't he know about it?"

© National Post 2007

Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.

Link: http://www.canada.com/components/print.asp...e0-43cc34291a7a

[tml12]

Dion is such a loser. I can't believe he is serious.

It was smart politics for Dion to switch to the colour green at the Liberal leadership convention. He knows the environment is a top issue for Canadian voters.

But if more Canadians had the sense to look at the Liberal environment record, they would see a record of broken promises...Canada signing Kyoto and doing NOTHING. No regulation...unlike the U.S., Canada has no EPA and no Clean Air Act. Dion was in government all those years. Furthermore, Dion has no environmental credentials. It is doubtful he would have even been in Martin's cabinet if not for the sponsorship scandal. He was brought into the Liberal government to solve Quebec's referendum crisis in 1995. He is not an environmentalist, but a former University of Montreal political science professor.

He may very well play good politics, but the Liberals are a tired bunch of losers on the environment issue.

[geoffrey]

Another big difference between Eastern and Western Canadians emerges. Those in the East think that the government will make the final call to further develop the oil sands. In the West, the realists see this as the oil sands will be developed when the oil companies want to.

If it's not in their interest, they aren't going to do anything.

[scribblet]

Apparantly it is only the CBC tryng to promote this 'expansion' as if it where a secret agenda on the part of the CPC, and now a bit of a backlash hmmm

http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/005364.html

[Ricki Bobbi]

Apparantly it is only the CBC tryng to promote this 'expansion' as if it where a secret agenda on the part of the CPC, and now a bit of a backlash hmmm

.

It will die like many of the other pseudo "stories" the CBC tries to push. Stories that conveniently push their political agenda.

[dpwozney]

Lunn said one target area for the research money is "next generation nuclear."

"Nuclear energy is emission-free, there's no greenhouse gases, there's no pollutants going out (with) the energy," he told a news conference.

In this recent April 13 article, CBC News staff quote Gary Lunn as stating: "Nuclear energy is absolutely pollutant free, no greenhouse gases, a very very clean form of energy, something if you believe in climate change you have to support it.".

This question and answer is from the Bruce Centre for Energy Research & Information:

"How do Canadian CANDU reactors compare to U.S. nuclear reactors with respect to generation and emissions of tritium?

The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) has noted that Canadian CANDU heavy water reactors generate about 30 times the amount of tritium of a light water U.S. reactor. According to UNSCEAR, a CANDU reactor also normally releases over 20 times the amount of tritium to the environment (water and air) than a U.S. light water reactor.".

According to David H. Martin, the "emission of large amounts of the radioactive element tritium is unique to the CANDU reactor, because it is produced in great abundance by the exposure of heavy water to radiation".

Dr. Gordon Edwards states: "Tritium is created and released into the environment in far greater quantities from CANDU reactors than from other power reactors, such as the American 'light-water' designs".

[Topaz]

I saw on a US website that the US and Alberta/Canada, want to have a pipeline from Alberta to Houston Tx. The US is buying up alot of the oil, since the plan for Iraq didn't work out. Bush family is in the oil business and so is Harpers, what else would they do?? If you read international news sites its surprising what you will find. I found out by a US website about the 2500 sp. task force troops, Canada was sending over before it was announce here.

[ScottSA]

I found out by a US website about the 2500 sp. task force troops, Canada was sending over before it was announce here.

No you didn't.