Oil Sands Bitumen Exports Undermine Canada’s Economic Future

On April 19, 2013 the Tsleil-Waututh Nation along with the City of Vancouver and the City of Burnaby hosted the West Coast Oil Pipeline Summit focussed on sustainable solutions and a way to say ”yes” to a beautiful BC and a clean energy direction for the future by saying “no” to bitumen export pipeline expansion including Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain twin, Northern Gateway, Keystone XL and Trans Canada’s eastern access (if the intent is to ship diluted bitumen destined for export rather than supplying upgraded oil sands heavy for use in Canadian refineries).

Exporting oil sands diluted bitumen instead of upgrading bitumen in Alberta promises to hollow out Canada’s resource sector and undermine our economic future.

I had the pleasure of presenting a talk on “Oil Sands Development and the Economic Consequences” at the Summit. The text of the speech and accompanying slides were reprinted in the Vancouver Observer. The presentation can be viewed at The Vancouver Observer.