West Side Warned About Oilsands Development
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 at 12:49
The former executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada has a word of caution for proponents of tarsands development in northwest Saskatchewan.
Elizabeth May says the extraction work in the oilsands in Alberta takes up a huge amount of fresh water and energy, causing significant damage to the environment in places like Fort Chipeywan.
May says that’s on top of the infrastucture woes that have surfaced in Fort McMurray.
She’s urging leaders in Saskatchewan’s northwest to take a go-slow approach, and wait until Alberta has figured out some solutions to these problems.
May figures the answers to some of the environmental problems will emerge in the next decade.
A Calgary-based company interested in the oilsands potential in Saskatchewan has been conducting some exploratory work north of La Loche.
Oilsands Quest applied to the province for permission to expand the drilling program this summer.