It is falsely assumed that big projects equal lots of jobs and, by extension, labour peace if not outright satisfaction. The size and scope of the tarsands means for incredibly dangerous work conditions-- some fatalities at the plants have already occurred. The products seldom get their "value added" in union-run locations, instead the heavy bitumen can be shipped to many different locations across North America for refining, denying benefits to the union. However, the Union does not represent the "guest worker", now being imported in increasing numbers as legislation is changed to make access easier, the term of exploitation last longer, without any new efforts or pathways to deciding to stay after helping tear up the earth.
June 4, 2007
Enbridge to build Alberta Clipper
http://dcnonl.com/article/id22587
Daily Construction News
CALGARY
Enbridge Inc. has filed an application with the National Energy Board for the construction and operation of the Canadian segment of the Alberta Clipper Project, a proposed 1,607-kilometre expansion project to provide greater access for Western Canadian crude oil to U.S. Midwest markets.
Media Advisory - Hearings into Keystone pipeline resume
CALGARY, June 4 /CNW Telbec/ - Phase 2 of hearings into the Keystone
Pipeline proposal -- plans by TransCanada Pipelines to export 500,000 barrels
of raw bitumen a day from Alberta's tar sands to the mid-west United States --
open today here before the National Energy Board. Phase 2 deals with a TCPL
application to build an extension to its existing pipeline in southern
Manitoba. Phase 1 hearings dealt with a TCPL application to convert the
existing pipeline from gas to crude oil transportation. A decision on that
Secret South Dakota Project Makes National Headlines
May 25, 2007
http://www.ktiv.com/News/index.php?ID=13386
It's been the talk of South Dakota. What's the big... "super secret" project in the works for Union County? That question is now in the national spotlight... after making the front page of the Wall Street Journal.
Check out this headline in Friday's Wall Street Journal. It reads... "In South Dakota, Farming Community Tracks a Gorilla."
Sun, May 27, 2007
U.S. scores points with new immigration bill
http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/2007/05/27/4211962-sun.html
By DONNA MARIE ARTUSO
WASHINGTON -- A colossal immigration bill, backed by a bipartisan coalition, is lurching its way through the U.S. Senate -- amendment by cumbersome amendment -- in an attempt to comprehensively reform a system that has been in place for more than 40 years.
Move over Fort Mac, a new boomtown is born
On the surface Grande Prairie looks unremarkable, but its riches of oil and gas have brought roaring growth
DAVID EBNER
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070521.RGRANDEPRAIRIE...
May 21, 2007
GRANDE PRAIRIE, ALTA. -- On the surface, Grande Prairie, with a population nearing 50,000, looks unremarkable. Most buildings are a couple of storeys high, and the only striking feature of the richest neighbourhood in town - called Wedgewood - is the number of three-vehicle garages.
The SPP, let us not over-state things, is designed to allow the fastest use of tarsands oil while moving goods and other trasport items, including 'temporary workers' across borders that are no longer free for travel minus a passport. One giant set of rules built up to achieve the maximum flow of goods, in particular energy, while restricting the same among people.
The sovereignty of energy and capital.
--M
Wide-ranging accord with U.S., Mexico could dwarf NAFTA, MPs hear
http://www.jonesreport.com/articles/270407_dwarf_nafta.html
Don Butler / CanWest News | April 27, 2007
"Canada gets pollution, US gets oil and jobs":
Critical questions need to be answered on Keystone, energy union tells NEB
EDMONTON, AB, May 16 /CNW Telbec/ - The entire oil and gas industry is
being restructured with the construction of the Keystone pipeline, and neither
the National Energy Board, nor the provincial or federal governments
understand the implications for oil and gas supply, jobs, the environment and
more.
That statement from Canada's largest union of energy workers today as it
joins with the Alberta Federation of Labour, the Parkland Institute and Dr.
Teenagers should be working in the land of cocaine, fake pee, escorts for everyone, and live only for today in a small town with smog greater than a big city.
I'm sending my kids right now!
--M
Teens wooed by Fort McMurray employers
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 | 12:05 PM MT
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2007/05/15/teens-fortmcmurray.html
Teenagers looking for summer work in Fort McMurray, Alta., are being wooed with fat wages, big bonuses and even housing allowances.
After the killing of two non-Canadian "guest workers" from China only weeks ago, a second part of the same structures has collapsed, only thanks to a stop work order was life loss averted. This scenario will play out over and again as the rush to work has people who have no training working on the job and learning at the same time. They want to quintuple production and are out of "domestic labour sources" already. What to do? Kill a few people who aren't even allowed to apply to stay past their temporary work.
--M
Second Storage Tank Collapses at Canadian Natural Oil Sands Site
China's consul general flies to Fort McMurray
Meets with 120 Chinese workers after fatal accident
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=0166748b-62c8-4...
Published: Friday, April 27, 2007
EDMONTON Chinas Calgary-based consul general flew to Fort McMurray Friday to meet with a group of Chinese workers based at Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.s Horizon oilsands project in the wake of a workplace accident that left two men dead and four others injured.
