[IPSM] 2010 Organizing and the Tar Sands: Inspiring the SPP and helping the Olympics.

[Macdonald Stainsby]

2010 Organizing and the Tar Sands: Inspiring the SPP and helping the 
Olympics.

July 14, 2008 By Macdonald Stainsby
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18182


  For much of the last year, many of the anti-capitalist and 
anti-authoritarian forces across Canada have started to work towards 
converging many of the bigger issues to take place in 2010 into a larger 
whole.



  Some of the issues included are: The 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, 
  the next round of Security and Prosperity Partnership [SPP] 
negotiations to be held within Canada-- and the G8 Summit to be held  in 
Ontario all during that same year. On many different levels these issues 
interlink and have an inherent connection with one another.  Some of 
them, more than others. Here I wish to make the case that  what belongs 
as a major thread through all of these discussions is  often absent 
among those of us trying to make these larger  connections coherent in 
our organizing.



  Here I will specifically focus on making a connection for the 2010 
Games resistance, the SPP and the Albertan Tar Sands as another  central 
organizing point.



  When people try and establish a comprehensive vision of what the 
critique around the 2010 Games is from a social point, the list involves 
the decimation of whole working-class neighbourhoods,  housing, 
increased security measures, trade and migration changes in  a 
regressive direction, the further removal and/or denial of  sovereignty 
at the local level for many first nations and the further  attack on the 
environment in the name of ecology.



  In all the cases listed above, and others not listed, there are shared 
results with the hyper-growth of the largest industrial  project in 
human history. The tar sands-- under their "rebranded"  name of oil 
sands, received an entire separate round of talks and  agreements within 
the SPP negotiations-- "The Oil Sands Experts  group". Their opening, 
"executive summary" makes it plain:



  President Bush, Prime Minister Martin and President Fox officially 
announced the Security  and Prosperity Partnership of North American 
(SPP) agreement in March  2005. The energy  activities of the SPP 
encompass a trilateral effort among Mexico, the  United States and 
Canada, to create a sustainable energy economy for North America. The 
Canadian oil sands  are one of the world's largest hydrocarbon resources 
and will be a  significant contributor to  energy supply and security 
for the continent. As such, the three  countries agreed to  collaborate 
through the SPP on the sustainable development of the oil  sands 
resources and an  ad hoc Oil Sands Experts Group was formed that 
includes the U.S.,  Canadian and Alberta  Government representatives.1



      The kind of strange new world that is being enunciated in these 
SPP negotiations even before we know what the plans include already  has 
the Albertan government given near-state status, sitting along  side the 
Canadian Government (then headed by Paul Martin and with  current 
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion as Environment Minister) and  that of the 
United States. Before the actual documents began the  various explicit 
thank yous to certain participants in this forum of  the SPP included 
four members of Natural Resources Canada, six named  members of the US 
Department of Energy, two from the Energy  Department of Alberta as well 
as the speakers of the "working  groups"-- from Jacobs Engineering in 
Canada along with the commercial  director for British Petroleum. Mexico 
had an observer from their  energy department present. The entire 
session was facilitated by a  consultant from Calgary.



  The discussions involve the problems of delivery and energy supplies 
needed to create the level of production "necessary" to reach their goal 
set of quintupling production (to a level that would outstrip  the 
productive capacity of both Iraq and Iran):



  The geography of North America requires integrated long distance 
pipelines that transport  crudes and finished products. New pipelines 
and pipeline expansion  plans are already in  place to meet the certain 
doubling of oil sands production to two  million barrels per day by 2010 
to 2012 timeframe. This includes extensions of the market va a west 
coast port, and  more deeply into the U.S. However, pursuing new markets 
beyond then  will necessitate an  expansion in delivery systems. The 
fivefold expansion anticipated for  oil sands products in a relatively 
short time span will represent many challenges for the pipeline 
industry. New and  expanded pipelines will move more volume into 
existing and expanding  interior U.S. markets,  and offer shipments to 
California via the Canadian West Coast.2



  Further explaining what these kinds of developments will mean, they 
explicate it with:



  "Regulatory and permitting issues were cited as a concern on both 
sides of the Canada/U.S.  border, as they impact the overall risk and 
timing of pipeline  investments. In the United  States, pipeline 
companies face an often complicated and "patchwork"  collection of 
local,  state, or federal regulations as well as potential obligations 
to  Native American groups."



  [....]



  "Governments are encouraged to streamline the regulatory approval 
process and better  manage the risk to both pipeline and energy 
projects. Canadian  governments have already  gone a long way to 
coordinating and streamlining the environmental  and regulatory 
approvals, but more needs to be done."3



  In other words, for a project that crosses the entire continent, the 
legal challenges that could be posed by local communities and indigenous 
nations are to be negotiated away ahead of time. Canada is already 
touted as having done a great deal of work eliminating these "barriers".



  The extent to which labour has already been stretched beyond capacity 
  is earmarked for discussion as well:



  The rapid pace of development in Alberta and in other parts of North 
America has  contributed to escalating demands for in skilled trades 
people and  professional engineers that  have placed pressure on their 
availability as well as the cost of  their services. These  pressures 
could affect development plans and time lines for oil sands  projects, 
pipelines,  upgraders and refineries. Construction materials also face 
similar  pressures. Several of the  groups also discussed the 
infrastructure limitations in the fast  growing region of Fort  McMurray.4



  The promise of actually looking into a social impact of the proposed 
plans was negated only a short way into the "experts report" however:



  "While important to Canada, issues related to bitumen production, 
internal infrastructure,  societal challenges from rapid growth, and the 
environmental  footprint were not a focus of  this workshop."5



  So now that any discussion of what the social or environmental impacts 
are has been ruled out, we can get back to the "important stuff" of the 
"experts" discussions. Such as how problematic it is to ship all of the 
produced bitumen, "synthetic" light crude and various blends of these, 
given pipeline infrastructure problems. These  issues-- discussed after 
mandating Canada in the documents with  dealing with "societal 
challenges" and "the environmental footprint"  on their own-- need 
resolution due to a serious need for more  pipelines and refineries. The 
logic here is "we make the plans at  this level, the Canadian government 
is tasked with coming up with a  'legal' sounding way to implement these 
plans". Not truly encouraging.



  However, there is one "societal challenge" area that the SPP talks 
have no qualms about recommending changes towards: Labour, or more 
specifically (im)migration regulations.



  "While not directly related to market availability issues, strained 
availability of trained  construction personnel in Alberta, coupled with 
the relatively remote  locations of many of  the projects, have led to 
significant capital cost overruns in recent  major projects. Low initial 
  estimates likely also contributed to this situation. The combination 
of these factors was  responsible for the scaling down of plans for 
another major project.  Canadian governments  are already aware of the 
need to review immigration rules to allow a  faster influx of skilled 
trades and professionals from outside of Canada."6 (emphasis added)



      Other analysts have written of many of the machinations by which 
the SPP plans to create a new, highly exploitable and disposable  labour 
force through programs like the "Temporary Foreign Worker"  program. The 
key to note here is the sheer volume and magnitude of  these 
construction programs for the "Gigaproject" of the tar sands.  Shortly 
after the above description of labour needs, the "proposed  action" laid 
out was: "Industry and construction associations in  Alberta need to 
pursue this issue of availability of skilled labour  at both the federal 
and provincial levels of the Canadian  government."7 To keep clear to 
people of what is and is not part of  the SPP's "Experts" scope, three 
paragraphs and a little bit later we  are reminded:



  "The upgrading and refining working groups also discussed a number of 
  environmental issues  in bitumen recovery and upgrading, and 
infrastructure limitations in  the fast growing region  of Fort 
McMurray. While these challenges are important in the overall 
development of the  resource, they are considered outside the scope of 
this workshop's  focus on market expansion and related initiatives."8 
(emphasis added)



  In terms of how to construct the needed infrastructure, yet more 
"streamlining" is proposed by the "Experts". The highlights of  pipeline 
discussions include:



  Ultimately, the market will determine the appropriate investment 
decisions. Continued  communication among governments, associations, and 
pipeline companies  and their clients is  necessary. Governments can 
help to ensure that issues are raised and  discussed, such as at the Oil 
Sands Experts Working Group Workshop.



  Regulatory issues were cited as a major concern on both sides of the 
Canada/U.S. border.  This applies not only to new construction but also 
to expansion or  reversal of existing  pipelines. [....]



  In November 2005, as part of the SPP, the NEB and the U.S. Pipeline 
and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration signed an MOU that set the 
stage for increased compliance data sharing as well as staff exchanges 
and joint training opportunities.



  Canadian governments have already gone a long way to coordinating and 
  streamlining the  environmental and regulatory approvals, but more 
needs to be done.  [....]



  Governments need to streamline regulatory approval and better manage 
the risk to both  pipeline and energy projects. Providing process 
mapping and a  one-stop-shop for proponents  would help to ease the 
complexity, facilitate coordination and reduce  the time required for 
regulatory approval and permitting.  Expanding the planning horizon and 
including all stakeholders such as  government,  producers, NGO's, First 
Nations, and private landowners, could help  to identify and resolve the 
environmental and accommodation concerns in a more timely manner. [....]



  Governments can help to ensure that information about projects is 
collected and  disseminated, and that issues are raised and discussed, 
such as at  the workshop. With respect  to infrastructure and workforce 
issues, government needs to take the  lead with policy issues  dealing 
with immigration and infrastructure while greater industry  transparency 
would aid  with long-term planning. [emphasis added]



  To help understand this perspective, a single long distance pipeline 
can take upwards of five-figures worth of workers. In order to meet  the 
goals being set by the SPP's "experts", the continuation of the  trend 
begun in 2006-- with more "temporary foreign workers" coming  into 
Alberta than landed immigrants-- must not only continue, but be  ramped 
up by astronomical numbers. Such is by far the greatest need  that the 
North American energy grid has, if it is to construct many  dozens of 
pipelines, refineries, upgraders, open pit mines and  in-situ operations 
themselves. The complete wholesale creation of a  super exploitable 
underclass of worker across all of Canada must be  established, akin to 
the TFW employees building the "Canada" line in  Vancouver timed for the 
beginning of the Olympics-- but on a scale of  many multiple times larger.



  In our organizing and understanding we correctly identify the 
wholesale changes being planned for the continent through the changes to 
many different regulations, from labour, to "citizenship" through  to 
environmental. These analyses are all correct, but they are not 
holistic. There are specific plans underway for these negotiations,  and 
the impacts and outgrowths of all of them are staking out the  heart of 
the social changes for human beings under the continuation  of the SPP. 
Twinned with agreements like the Trade, Investment and  Labour Mobility 
Agreement, or TILMA, the local levers of resistance  are being quietly 
negotiated away. This is happening at a time when,  for a multiplicity 
of reasons, there is seemingly no turning back  from $120-plus a barrel 
of oil.



  As a means to secure the price of oil stays high enough for the second 
largest reserves of oil on the planet, the same people who  have brought 
us a war on Iraq will manipulate the costs of oil high  enough to make a 
major play for construction of access to the second  largest deposit of 
oil on the planet. Soon enough, geology takes over  as old oil wells run 
dry the world over, and these high-energy cost  reserves remain the only 
way left to "preserve the [North] American  way of life."



  When we organize to confront the Security and Prosperity Partnership 
continually up until and through the SPP negotiations in 2010, when  we 
speak against the wholesale wiping out of neighbourhoods in  Vancouver 
and multiple unceded nations in the west, we are speaking  against many 
of the same issues-- except on a larger scale-- being  brought about by 
the latest play of a dying global petroleum based  economy. In the year 
2010,as a part of the mass convergences on the  Olympics and on the SPP 
(and the G8 among many), we need to educate  our own ranks and speak 
forcefully to understand the central role  that high oil has in all of 
these plans. A fight against the kinds of  mass exploitation of people 
and nations being visited upon us all by  the tar sands is being 
negotiated through the SPP and is being given  full-flight through the 
militarization of the Down Town East Side of  Vancouver.



  For us to have a chance to defeat the monoliths being proposed through 
agreements like the SPP, we need to look where often we do not-- the 
disappearing forests and expanding moonscapes in northern Alberta: 
Ground Zero for the largest industrial project in human history, and the 
progenitor of the vast de-regulation of how human  and ecological 
resources are weighed against corporate power and militarized states 
that seek energy and profit. The 2010  convergences, to have a lasting 
impact, need to make an analysis of  the tar sands an integral part of 
the work to be done over the next  less-than-two years. Maybe we haven't 
got the answers-- if so, we  must become skilled at learning.



  --



Macdonald Stainsby is a writer, social justice activist and professional 
hitchhiker who is looking for a ride to the better  world. He is also 
the co-ordinator of http://oilsandstruth.org

Macdonald Stainsby's ZSpace page:
http://www.zmag.org/zspace/macdonaldstainsby

  He can be reached at macdonald at oilsandstruth.org