IT’S BEEN ABOUT SIX YEARS SINCE I STARTED TAKING A VERY PUBLIC STAND ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THE OIL AND GAS SECTOR TO THE COUNTRY.

I don’t need to tell you that within that short space of time, the sector has been through a lot.  Who could have foreseen the loss of a hundred thousand jobs, or the economic decimation of many communities? Add to that the difficulties encountered in gaining approval for new pipeline projects that would allow our product to get to new global market; or the catastrophic forest fires of several months ago, that curtailed production, and you end up with nearly-unimaginable adversity.

That’s why I’m so pleased at the recent decision from the Government of Canada to move ahead with Kinder-Morgan’s TransMountain and Enbridge’s Line 3 projects. Global oil demand is growing, and opposition to Canadian pipeline projects is a net negative for the global environment and a massive economic loss for our country.

Despite these recent and welcome approvals, I don’t have the answers for all the other woes faced currently by the sector.  But what I can tell you about is my own approach to the sector’s challenges. The fact is, my approach really hasn’t changed that much.

Since the first time I spotted an anti-oil sands boycott campaign at a Vancouver retail store years ago, I’ve been focused on working with anyone who will join me to provide information, change opinion and eliminate the prejudice against one of Canada’s most important economic engines, the oil sands and our overall energy sector.
And when I say “eliminate prejudice,” I do so for a reason. It didn’t take me long to realize the anti-oil sands campaign is based on fear – not facts.

“Don’t slow me down with a lot of information about how oil sands technology has improved the environmental footprint there,” many opponents seemed to say.

“I don’t want to know about how the economic output of the oil sands – even today in this current, sluggish oil market – still contributes critical dollars to the social programs of Canadians from coast to coast.”

As a proud Albertan and Canadian, I couldn’t sit by and let that misinformed prejudice go unchallenged.  Today, Canada Action is focused very clearly on changing that negative attitude. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not easy for a grassroots organization to find its way onto the Canadian radar.  It takes a lot of effort, a genuine commitment to a cause that truly matters, and a willingness to talk to the public in a way that somehow touches them – that breaks through the misinformational clutter.

To do all of this as a volunteer organization with a budget that comes almost exclusively from t-shirt sales is especially challenging. That’s why Canada Action feels so positive about the feedback we continue to receive on social media.
“This just makes my day,” one supporter wrote on the Canada Action Facebook page in response to clear, fact-based information on the economic and environmental attributes to Canada’s oil and gas sector. “Thank you for being a part of Canada’s prosperity!”

“Fantastic,” another supporter wrote in response to an Aboriginal post on our page about the proud place First Nations people play in oil sands work. “It’s about time that some positive voices of Aboriginals towards the oil sands were finally heard.”
In short, Canada Action is working hard to galvanize ordinary Canadians – inside and outside the oil sands sector – to examine the facts on the economic and environmental impacts of the sands themselves.  We say the uninformed opposition to the sector just doesn’t line up with the numbers.

As a starting point, we want Canadians to understand that oil sands development makes up just 0.15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.  “Compared to the major emitting countries, (Canada’s emissions contribution) is not peanuts, it is a small fraction of peanuts,” the head of the international Energy Agency once put it.

When Canadians grasp this simple fact, we say that only then can prejudices begin to soften, and opinion starts to change. We know that many Albertans and Canadians, including those who work in the petroleum sector, are sometimes challenged by their neighbors, their friends and their peers to defend ‘the family business’ (that is, oil and gas). We know they see news and social media items that need to be addressed. Our mission is to give them the fact-based tools to do just that.

We work to encourage Canadians to become ambassadors for an industry that has, at last count in 2014, contributed $91 billion to our GDP and created nearly 500,000 Canadian jobs. We want Albertans to know 97% of the oil sands land area can only be developed in place, with drilling –  not mining.  And in the last 50 years of development just 0.8% of the land area has been mined, and every acre will be reclaimed back to nature. That’s the law in Alberta.

We also want Albertans to understand they’re not alone in having worked in oil and gas-related businesses. In fact, outside of Alberta, the numbers of Canadian companies having direct business with the oil sands –  again, at last count in 2014 when oil prices were higher – are staggering.

In 2014 the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers reported fully 614 BC companies carried out direct business with the oil sands. In Quebec, the number was almost 200. In Ontario, more than 1,100 companies made that claim –  and almost 200 Saskatchewan companies could say the same. In the Maritimes, the number was more than 180. But our work extends far beyond talking about provincial job numbers, to discussing populations that work in the sector but who have, at times, been left out of the discussion.

Aboriginal companies, for example, have earned more than $10 billion from oil sands contracts in the last 15 years. And despite the fact some environmental NGOs have attempted to drive a wedge between First Nations and the oil sands and other resource sectors, there’s a great deal to celebrate in terms of aboriginal involvement in natural resources, generally, and the oil sands specifically.

Here are a few examples:

Do Canadians know that more than 32,000 members of Canada’s First Nations communities work in Canada’s energy, mining and forestry sectors? We say they need to know the natural resource sector is a leading private sector employer of Indigenous people.

Canadians should be made aware that Canada’s oil sands industry has contracted for more than $10 billion of business with First Nations-owned companies during the last 15 years.  In fact, the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business has a Progressive Aboriginal Relations award system with at least three oil sands companies certified.

One of the major players in the oil sands is among the largest private-sector employers of Aboriginal people in Canada, with a total workforce of around nine percent declaring themselves to be of First Nations, Métis or Inuit descent. Beyond the important Aboriginal discussion, Canadians need better information on the scale of the economic benefits that derive from the oil sands region.
They need to know, for example, that:

• every $1 invested in the oil sands creates about $8 worth of economic activity;
• for every direct job created in Alberta’s oil sands, 2.5 jobs will be created in the rest of Canada from the economic spin-off;
• Alberta has had a carbon tax on oil production since 2007, and no other major oil exporter to the US has a carbon tax on oil production;
• between 1990 and 2012, GHG emissions for every barrel of oil sands crude has been reduced by 30 percent, with some reductions as high as 50 percent;
• Alberta gave $200 billion in equalization to other provinces between the years 2000 and 2014. Every Canadian and every province benefits from our pipelines and natural resources. Further, every fire station, police station, school, hospital, road and public service in the country is paid for in part by the oil and gas industry. And there’s so much more we must talk about. For example, who knew the oil sands industry were tree-planters?  Oil sands operations are planting millions of trees to restore historic seismic exploration corridors –  and that converts low quality habitats that have been disturbed for almost 40 years, into higher quality habitats. As the trees fill in these disturbed areas, habitat connectivity will be restored to support species representative of the area. Tree planting also positively contributes to carbon sequestration. To date oil sands companies have planted more than 12 million trees in the region.  Canada is also a net carbon sink due to our massive boreal forest. So, an obvious question is: “How do we go about informing Canadians of these facts in a way that might weaken the urban prejudice against our sector and contribute to a more rational discussion? At Canada Action, we take our hard-earned income from t-shirt sales and grassroots donations and we focus on traditional and social media.  And it seems to be working.  Today at Canada Action:
• we’ve engaged with a community of more than 300,000 Canadians and have a weekly online reach in the millions. And we’re proud to say Canada Action has the most ‘liked’ grass roots energy advocacy pages in the country.
• we’ve been featured on national TV, radio and in print including CBC, CTV, Global and every CBC Radio station from coast to coast, as well as in the National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Sun, and Calgary Herald, in addition to a regular column in the Huffington Post and others.
• We focus every day on encouraging Canadians to speak up in favor of a more balanced debate on natural resource issues, and on Canada receiving fair value for our energy products. It’s become commonplace to see Canada Action merchandise featured on politicians from all political parties, on celebrities and on the streets across Canada.

As with any volunteer organization, we’ve been very lucky to have friends and supporters within and beyond the Canadian energy sector.  We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished and we’re thankful to have others in the discussion with us for moral and logistical support.

But let’s be very clear.  We have a very long way to go. Changing the quality of the discussion around the facts of the oil sands is critical to the future success of the industry – and therefore of the country. Let’s commit to join.  Let’s support our employees as advocates. Let’s arm our friends and neighbours with simple, understandable, information.  Let’s join as individuals ourselves.

The world needs Canadian oil and gas as global demand increases every day.  There is no better regulated, monitored or more transparent top 10 oil reserve country on earth. So, let’s create jobs in Canada and grow our global market share! You can join the movement by signing up on our website, joining our social media community and checking out our online store!

 

By Cody Battershill

Cody Battershill is a Calgary realtor and founder/
spokesperson for CanadaAction.ca, a volunteer
organization that supports Canadian energy
development and the environmental, social
and economic benefits that come with

Published: The Negotiator, January 2017

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