Oil Sands In Canada

With the demand of oil growing, the scrutiny of Alberta’s large oil reserves intensifies. The province has the largest source of crude bitumen in the world and major oil sand regions, with Athabasca being the largest (Irvine, Blais, Doyle, Kimpe, White, 2014, p. 1). As the conventional production of crude oil declines, the bitumen found in oil sands are being brought onto the global and domestic spotlight. Additionally, these oil sands are being advertised as the means to make Canada ‘an emerging energy superpower’ (Sherval, 2015, p. 225). The oil sands is a powerful economic resource for Alberta and has helped spur a population growth with the many job opportunities. However, with the operations in the oil sands growing more popular to meet

A problem that comes from the extraction of oil is that the outcome of vast quantity of non-renewable water. 1.8 billion litres of toxic water is produced each day by Alberta’s oil sands (Bone, 2014). The extraction of bitumen that is extracted from Alberta’s oil sands, requires large amounts of water and heat to separate the oil from the bitumen; this process is produces huge amounts of toxic waste, which cannot be released back into the local rivers and lakes, and therefore is drained into huge tailing ponds and ultimately be stored there for an indefinite time (Bone, 2014). The companies has to increase the size of existing tailing ponds or create new ones to make room to store the large amounts of toxic waters. Leakage from these ponds has a negative effect on the environment (ex. Landscape. Groundwater, surface water, rivers, etc). Although Alberta leads in the oil industry in Canada, it also leads in the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Furthermore, drilling for oil through open-pit mining disfigures the industrial landscape, taking a toll on the organisms that once lived there. Another factor is the imbalance of PH levels in the soils, which affect plants and microorganisms. Near the Alberta oil sand operational area, there are high concentrations of contaminates from the oil sands. Based on research investigation, there is increasing evidence that “there have been significant environmental

Operation within the oil sands has given some First Nation people employment, but there are concerns that the oil sands does more harm than good for the First Nation communities. Since there are often resistance and protest to the development of oil sands, something that has the potential to do ecological damage, the developers of oil sands try to counteract it by promoting and marketing job opportunities within the oil sands. However, the based on previous development projects the number of jobs created "always falls short of promises" (Taylor & Friedel, 2011, p. 821). It is clear why First Nations people oppose pipeline propositions as leaks and fumes has consequences for their lifestyle and health. With reference to the impacts on health, Native communities living in Fort Chipewyan of Alberta, downstream from the tar sands development, have unusually high rates of cancer (Bone, 2014). Since the First Nation people’s lifestyle is heavily dependent on nature, if there were to be an accident in oil sands (i.e. the pipelines, extractions of oil, etc.), the resources that the First Nation people depend on will be contaminated by toxins from the operational site that are leaked from the area, the outcome will be