The Government of Saskatchewan is well-advanced in the privatization of a large chunk of Saskatchewan’s electricity supply.

Saskatchewanians were pretty clear during the consultations on the nuclear agenda (Bruce Power – the UDP Report) last summer:  we do not want our electricity supply privatized.

Given the historic record (items # 1 and #2 below), we are fools indeed, if we do not get this stopped.

California Governor Gray Davis (2001):  “We must face reality:  California’s deregulation scheme is a colossal and dangerous failure.  It has not lowered consumer prices.  And it has not increased supply.  In fact, it has resulted in skyrocketing prices, price-gouging, and an unreliable supply of electricity.  In short, an energy nightmare . . .  we have lost control over our own power.  We have surrendered the decisions about where electricity is sold –  and for how much –  to private companies with only one objective:  maximizing unheard-of profits.”

The first step is to spread the word, get the information to people.

CONTENTS

1.   CALIFORNIA’S EXPERIENCE WITH PRIVATELY-OWNED POWER GENERATION

2.   SASKATCHEWAN HISTORY, PRIVATIZATION OF URANIUM & POTASH.  EXORBITANT WINDFALLS FOR THE FEW.

3.   INITIAL WORK FOR NEW POWER PLANT HAS BEGUN, COMPANY OFFICIAL SAYS , March 26, 2010

“…  Balan indicated the power produced by the plant will likely be used for the oilsands and …”

4.   NORTHLAND POWER TO BUILD $700 MILLION BASELOAD POWER PLANT IN SASKATCHEWAN, Feb 8, 2010

“ …  Under the PPA (Power Purchase Agreement), the project will receive monthly payments that are designed to cover all fixed costs and investment returns. The PPA also provides protection against changes in the market price of natural gas, as fuel costs are passed through to SaskPower.  Northland Power will be responsible for operating the plant to achieve specified efficiency and reliability levels. …”

5.   CBC, VIA RAIL CONSIDERED FOR AUCTION BLOCK, JUNE 1, 2009

(Federal Conservatives)   “ . . . Finance Department documents, obtained by Canwest News Service under the Access to Information Act, reveal that the review will focus on enterprise Crown corporations, which are not financially dependent on parliamentary subsidies. … “  WHICH MEANS that the money-making crown corporations will be privatized.  There is more than one way to privatize, as this example of Northland Power, at the provincial level shows.)

== = = = = = = = = = = ==  ==  = == =  = = = = =

(1)          CALIFORNIA’S EXPERIENCE WITH PRIVATELY-OWNED POWER GENERATION

From email sent June 8, 2009

SUBJECT:  Nuke:  the WHY of nuclear reactors in Saskatchewan and Alberta

From “Why Did California’s Lights Go Out?”  by Brendan Martin, 2002

http://www.publicworld.org/docs/calielec.pdf

“ . . .  when California Governor Gray Davis said (these) words in his 2001 State of the State address, he was not about to tell his electors anything they did not already know.  Referring to how the Golden State had lived up to its reputation of way-out fads by partially de-regulating and privatizing its electricity supply, Governor Davis said:

“We must face reality:  California’s deregulation scheme is a colossal and dangerous failure.  It has not lowered consumer prices.  And it has not increased supply.  In fact, it has resulted in skyrocketing prices, price-gouging, and an unreliable supply of electricity.  In short, an energy nightmare . . .  we have lost control over our own power.  We have surrendered the decisions about where electricity is sold –  and for how much –  to private companies with only one objective:  maximizing unheard-of profits.”

There is more on the 2000 California electricity disaster at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_electricity_crisis

= = = = = = = = = = = =

(2)          SASKATCHEWAN HISTORY, PRIVATIZATION OF URANIUM & POTASH.  EXORBITANT WINDFALLS FOR THE FEW.

Excerpt from email

SENT:  June 15, 2009

In 1988 the Conservative Government of Grant Devine privatized the uranium industry.  Two crown corporations became Cameco.

In 2007 the CEO of Cameco, Gerald Grandey,  received a salary of $950,000 with bonuses amounting to $2,781,058.  Cameco paid out over $8,000,000 in bonuses to their top 20 executives ($400,000 each, on average, just in bonuses).

In 1989 the Conservative Government of Grant Devine privatized the potash industry.

In 2007 the top five executives of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan were paid $32 million, or $6.4 million each on average.   Gerald Grandey’s $2.7 million is small potatoes compared to the take of Bill Doyle, CEO of PotashCorp, who cashed in with $17 million.  That’s for one year.

You may remember a news story from a couple of years ago:  one retiring Vice-President of the Potash Corp cashed in $26 million dollars in stock options.   That’s over and above the years of salaries, bonuses and perks.

Remember:  the potash company was a crown corporation, it belonged to the people of Saskatchewan.  Grant Devine for whom Brad Wall once worked, was the Conservative Premier who transferred both crowns to the private sector.  Now we have Brad Wall effectively doing exactly the same thing with the electricity resource, through Northland Power Inc.

The “compensation” paid to the “executives” has everything to do with:

•  unfettered access to a public resource
• high commodity prices
• surrounding yourself with people who understand the advantages of the position and
• a lack of accountability such as would have happened, had these two companies remained as crown corporations.

There’s a funny side to it.   We know there is a widening gap, that salaries in Saskatchewan society used to be more equitable.  We complain when we read Bill Doyle’s and Gerald Grandey’s remuneration packages.  And we know that their expense accounts will pick up wining, dining, travel and expensive hotels.  The funny side is that WE are the ones who let it all happen!

Anyhow, so you see the picture.  Privatize a public resource and a small number of people get very rich.  …  okay honey, so what’s the next resource to privatize?   Ooooh!  Gotta be careful here.  Elections in Saskatchewan can be lost over privatization of a “crown”.   You can’t get away with what Grant Devine did and get re-elected.

(INSERT:  I was wrong!  Brad Wall is doing a repeat performance of Grant Devine on the privatization front.   And it seems we are also going to have the debt legacy of the Devine Government to deal with again, too.)

The extremely valuable resource, and becoming more so, is electricity, traditionally under the control of a crown corporation.

Earlier emails described the situation in the western U.S.: looming loss of capability for hydro-electric power generation because of falling water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell.  There is similar bad news for electrical power generation (nuclear) in the southeastern states where falling water levels threaten to shut down the nuclear reactors  (just as they would with falling water levels in Saskatchewan as the glaciers disappear).

If only we could privatize electricity we could make a bundle of money.  But you can’t touch crown corporation, SaskPower, not if you want to stay in office.  Hmmm  . . . Never mind, there’s another way.  Enter, stage right:  Bruce Power.  The people of Saskatchewan have to pony up the money to build the reactors, the power transmission lines and so on.  But don’t do it through SaskPower, do it through Bruce Power.  We’ll have another Cameco and PotashCorp.

(INSERT:  I was wrong!  The privatization of electricity was not done through Bruce Power.  It has been done (almost) through Northland Power.)

As I connect the dots . . .  economies are based on products.   Fish in the Maritimes, wheat in Saskatchewan, an oil-based economy in Alberta.   Natural resources like potash and uranium.  If you can gain control of the resource you can make money, at least until the resource runs out locally.  At which point you look around the globe for more of that resource, so you can keep making money.  The resource becomes more valuable with resource depletion, as the electricity example shows so vividly.  Or, as in the case of diamonds, if you can control the supply you can dictate the price.

Take it a step further.  We are well acquainted with the battles over corporate efforts to privatize the water resource, making it into a saleable, money-making product.   Recent emails have discussed electricity in these same terms.  . . . but what’s the “new economy”?

Read about it in the financial pages of the newspaper.   It’s a “knowledge-based economy”.   You turn knowledge into a product.  The next step, as in the potash and uranium example – – you have to move the product out from under public control.

Now we’re talking about the university.

What’s the blueprint for privatizing a university (or any resource)?   As with potash and uranium (INSERT:  and electricity and water) you have to get the cooperation of the Government:

•  Cut backs on government spending on the university or the Crown Corporation or the Government Department.  This is an Essential first step.
•  Then Oh!  The only thing left for the University/Crown Corp/Govt Dept is to seek dependence on corporations.
• How unfortunate.

It takes a while but the process is already well underway.

• The Conservatives did it once with Cameco.
•  The Conservatives did it a second time with PotashCorp.
•  We don’t need to repeat the mistake a third time!   We must have a public policy that says the electricity resource REMAINS firmly in public hands, the same as the water resource.   No privatization.  Bruce Power needs to be run out of the Province, as far as I am concerned.  (INSERT:  I THINK we managed to do that – – )
• There is sufficient evidence to show that we have some work to do at the University, too.  There should be no doubt that the knowledge base remains firmly in the public sphere, under public control, with no tampering or encroachments by industry.   Bastardized information is detrimental to the public good.  It’s actually dangerous because it leads to bad decisions.  It’s time to stop the process at the University, which would be a 4^th coup.

INSERT:  Change in plans – – electricity takes priority for the moment!

Please get the word to business people.  They often have VERY LARGE BILLS for electricity.  Many business owners will remember the fiasco in California in 2000.  We are all very naïve if we think that the same thing won’t happen here.      /Sandra

= = = = = = = = = = = = =

3.      INITIAL WORK FOR NEW POWER PLANT HAS BEGUN, COMPANY OFFICIAL SAYS , March 26, 2010

(Link no longer valid)   http://battlefords.powerflyers.com/BATTLEFORDSDAILYNEWS/tabid/109/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/489/PageID/1518/Friday-March-26-2010-News.aspx

Initial work for new power plant has begun, company official says By Doug Collie, Editor The initial steps toward construction of a $700 million power plant to be built near Brada, just east of the Battlefords, have already begun, says Northland Power Inc. Director of Communications Boris Balan. “They’ve already started in the RM (of North Battleford) to upgrade the road to the site,” he said during a luncheon at the Battlefords Chamber of Commerce building Thursday. “It’s very exciting to see things starting already.” Toronto-based Northland, the city of North Battleford and SaskPower announced in February that Northland plans to build a $700 million power plant at Brada, to produce 261 megawatts of power. It has a 20-year contract to sell that power to the Crown utility. The plant should boost local businesses, Balan said, as the general contractor will need lots of supplies, and it makes sense to obtain them locally. Balan said construction of the plant is expected to begin this spring and be completed in late summer or fall of 2013. The plant will be operational around that time. Once it’s up and running the plant is expected to employ 22 or 23 people. It will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Balan described those jobs as “good paying” jobs. It will be located right behind the Brada substation. Balan says the company has an agreement with the landowner to buy the land. Balan said the company plans to begin work on the plant in April or May this year, as soon as weather permits. He confirmed earlier predictions that it will take about three years to build the 261-megawatt plant, and during its peak of construction, 400 to 500 people will be working on the site. There are 600 people building another similar plant in Ontario, but Balan said there likely won’t be quite that many people building the Brada plant.

He encouraged local businesses to visit the contractor during Northland’s open house, held Thursday at the Don Ross Centre. He said the company will need lots of electricians and pipefitters as the plant is built. Balan told Chamber First Vice-President Scott Campbell that the plant is expected to have a 30-40-year life before it will need upgrades. Balan said the 261 megawatts produced by the plant would provide enough power for 100,000 homes. He said it works out to nearly 10 per cent of the total amount of power currently produced across the province by or for SaskPower. Balan said Northland Power was created in the 1980s when the Ontario government allowed private companies to get into the power production business. Since then they’ve set up and/or own power plants from various parts of Ontario to the Washington D.C. area. They’ve built and operated everything from gas turbine plants like the one being built at Brada, to biomass plants and windfarms. He said they came to Saskatchewan because he was sure there was an opportuntity to build plants and make money in Saskatchewan’s booming economy. “You have an economy you should be proud of and the rest of the country should be jealous of,” he said. Balan indicated the power produced by the plant will likely be used for the oilsands and mining projects up north, but that’s not up to Northland, they simply sell the power they produce to SaskPower and the Crown utility decides where it will be utilized. Balan said Northland was one of eight or nine companies bidding on the project to build a power plant. He said he started coming here last spring/summer to work on the project, working out the details of the bid and scouting locations for a plant. Balan said the plant will be extra efficient as it will use steam from water piped in to cool turbines to, in turn, run turbines and create more electricity. As reported previously in the Daily News, water from the city’s sewage treatment plant in the east end of the city will be used for those cooling processes. Balan said originally company officials had planned to use water from the North Saskatchewan River but it simply doesn’t have enough water. Balan stressed Northland will cover the cost of building and operating the plant. He said what makes it attractive for SaskPower is that they produce the power and “we give them a guarantee on the efficiency of the plant.” Balan said the R.M. of North Battleford and the city were “extremely helpful and extremely supportive.” North Battleford Mayor Ian Hamilton welcomed Balan and the news he brought regarding the power plant. “I’m excited by what I’m hearing,” he said. “It’s really good news for North Battleford.” Hamilton said even though the plant is being built at Brada, it’s close enough to the Battlefords that lots of supplies for it will likely be bought in the city. He repeated earlier observations that the Battlefords are expected to see more than $1 billion in construction activity in the commmunity in 2010. That figure is arrived at by calculating the cost of the Northland plant, the SaskPower peak power plant being built in the city’s industrial park as well as construction expected to begin on other projects this year, like the multiplex. “That’s a number that’s unheralded before,” Hamilton said. Battleford Mayor Chris Odishaw described the news from Balan as “fabulous.” “It’ll be great for all service industries, the casino, the hotels, electrical,” he said. Odishaw said it will also confirm the Battlefords as the logical jumping off point for oil and gas businesses developing projects in the Northwest. He said the community “is the place to be” thanks to its strategic location on Highways 16 and 4 and the CN rail line.

= = = = = =  = = = = = = = = = = = = =

4.   NORTHLAND POWER TO BUILD $700 MILLION BASELOAD POWER PLANT IN SASKATCHEWAN

(Link no longer valid)   http://ca.news.finance.yahoo.com/s/08022010/28/link-f-ccnmatthews-northland-power-build-700-million-baseload-power-plant.html

 Northland Power to Build $700 Million Baseload Power Plant in Saskatchewan

Mon Feb 8, 8:55 AM

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Feb. 8, 2010) – Northland Power Income Fund (the “Fund”) (TSX: NPI-UN.TO)(TSX: NPI-DB.TO)(TSX: NPI-DB.A.TO) announced today that a wholly-owned subsidiary has entered into a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the Saskatchewan Power Corporation to build and own a new natural-gas-fired power plant to provide baseload power to the Saskatchewan energy system.

The 261 megawatt natural-gas-fired combined cycle plant will be built near North Battleford, Saskatchewan, about 150 km north-west of Saskatoon. All power produced by the plant will be sold under the PPA to SaskPower. The plant will use a General Electric gas turbine with associated heat recovery and a steam turbine to produce the electricity. Construction is expected to begin in July 2010, and the plant is scheduled to begin commercial operations in 2013. The total cost of the project is budgeted at approximately $700 million.

“We are very pleased that SaskPower has again shown its confidence in Northland Power and selected us as their partner to help meet their needs for reliable generation capacity”, said John Brace, CEO of the Fund. “With construction of our peaking plant near Spy Hill to begin in the spring, this will further strengthen our presence in Saskatchewan and allow us to participate in the province’s continued growth. We are very confident that the North Battleford facility, modeled closely on our cogeneration plant that is about to begin commercial operations in Thorold, Ontario, will satisfy SaskPower’s requirements in an efficient and economical manner.”

Under the PPA, the project will receive monthly payments that are designed to cover all fixed costs and investment returns. The PPA also provides protection against changes in the market price of natural gas, as fuel costs are passed through to SaskPower. Northland Power will be responsible for operating the plant to achieve specified efficiency and reliability levels. The contractual structure of the project is designed to ensure predictable, stable and sustainable cash flows over the entire 20-year term of the PPA. The Fund intends to finance the project largely using non-recourse project debt, its line of credit and cash on hand.

The North Battleford project is one of the greenfield development projects acquired by the Fund through its July 2009 merger with Northland Power Inc. The Fund will continue to develop the assets in the portfolio, as well as looking to add new ‘Clean and Green’ acquisitions and projects.

In other developments, the Fund has concluded arrangements with its banking syndicate to increase its committed line of credit available for investments and acquisitions to $130 million.

ABOUT THE FUND

Northland Power Income Fund is a Canadian income trust that has ownership or economic interests in 10 power projects totaling over 1,100 megawatts (“MWs”) (net 872 MWs). The Fund’s assets comprise natural-gas-fired plants which efficiently and cleanly produce electricity and steam as well as facilities generating renewable energy from wind and biomass. Sales are made almost entirely under long-term contracts with a current average duration of 14 years. The Fund’s plants are located in Canada, the United States and Germany. In addition, the Fund’s 86 MW Spy Hill project and the 261 MW North Battleford facility are in advanced stages of development. The Fund also has a diverse development portfolio of high-quality ‘Clean and Green’ energy projects, including wind, solar, natural gas, and hydro assets that supports the Fund’s strategy of sustainable growth primarily through internally developed opportunities.

The Fund’s trust units and two series of convertible debentures, which trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols NPI.UN, NPI.DB and NPI.DB.A respectively, are qualified investments for RRSPs and DPSPs under the Canadian Income Tax Act. The Fund has in place a distribution re-investment plan that allows Unitholders who are residents of Canada to automatically have their monthly cash distributions reinvested in additional units. Participants do not pay any costs associated with the plan, including brokerage commissions. For further information or to join the plan, contact your financial advisor or broker.

Contacts

John Brace Northland Power Income Fund President & Chief Executive Officer 416-962-6262 x 115

Boris Balan Northland Power Income Fund Director, Communications & Business Development 416-962-6262 x 116

Barb Bokla Northland Power Income Fund Manager, Investor Relations 416-962-6262 x 156 416-962-6266 (FAX) info@NPIFund.com www.NPIFund.com

= = = = = = = = = = = = = =

5.   CBC, VIA RAIL CONSIDERED FOR AUCTION BLOCK, JUNE 1, 2009

(Link no longer valid)   http://www2.canada.com/news/rail+considered+auction+block+documents/1652330/story.html?id=1652330

CBC, VIA Rail considered for auction block: Documents

Andrew Mayeda, Canwest News Service

Published: Monday, June 01, 2009

OTTAWA – The federal Department of Finance has flagged several prominent Crown corporations as “not self-sustaining,” including the CBC, VIA Rail and the National Arts Centre, and has identified them as entities that could be sold as part of the government’s asset review, newly released documents show.

In its fiscal update last November, the government announced that it would launch a review of its Crown assets, including so-called enterprise Crown corporations, real estate and “other holdings.”

Finance Department documents, obtained by Canwest News Service under the Access to Information Act, reveal that the review will focus on enterprise Crown corporations, which are not financially dependent on parliamentary subsidies. Such corporations include the Royal Canadian Mint and Ridley Terminals, which is a coal-shipping terminal in Prince Rupert, B.C.

But the documents also reveal that the government will consider privatizing Crown corporations that require public subsidies to stay afloat.

“The reviews will also examine other holdings in which the government competes directly with private enterprises, earn income from property or performs a commercial activity,” states a Finance briefing note dated Dec. 2, 2008. “It includes Crown corporations that are not self-sustaining even though they are of a commercial nature.”

In the briefing note, the Finance Department identifies nine Crown corporations that fall in that category, including Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the CBC and VIA Rail.

The government announced last week that it will split AECL in two and seek private-sector investors for the Crown corporation’s CANDU nuclear-reactor business.

The Crown asset review comes as the government struggles to contain the country’s deficit, now expected to top $50 billion this year. The Jan. 27 budget assumes that the government will be able to raise as much as $4 billion through asset sales by the end of March 2010.

The budget identified four federal departments whose Crown assets are being reviewed first: Finance, Indian and Northern Affairs, Natural Resources, and Transport and Infrastructure. VIA Rail is overseen by the Transport Department, while the CBC and the National Arts Centre fall under the portfolio of the Canadian Heritage department.

The Finance Department documents confirm that all government assets will eventually be reviewed.

Privatizations tend to work well when Crown corporations enter a reasonably competitive market with a good chance of turning a profit, said Aidan Vining, a professor of business and government relations at Simon Fraser University. Unlike successfully privatized firms such as Canadian National Railway, it’s not clear that CBC and VIA Rail could operate as profitable ventures while maintaining the public mandates they provided as Crown corporations, he noted.

“They’re not the classic privatization candidates, where you sell and walk away,” said Vining, an expert in Crown corporation privatizations. “Unless, of course, you’re prepared to fully withdraw from the public purpose (of the Crown corporation).”

Certainly, the sale of a flagship Crown asset such as the CBC would be politically controversial. After the CBC announced this spring that it would lay off hundreds of employees, opposition critics accused the government of turning a cold shoulder to the public broadcaster’s struggles.

Under the Financial Administration Act, Parliament would have to approve the privatization of any Crown corporation. “It’s hard to believe that some of these sales would go forward in a minority Parliament,” said Vining.

The Finance Department has also begun to examine the government’s vast real-estate portfolio, which includes 31 million hectares of land, and more than 46,000 buildings totalling 103 million square metres – more than double the office space available in the Greater Toronto Area, according to the Finance documents. The government’s holdings are worth at least $17 billion, Finance officials estimate.

A briefing note labelled “secret” said that the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs acquired $7 million in surplus properties between 1998 and 2006 for potential use in land-claims deals. Over the same period, the properties cost $2 million to maintain. Divesting such properties could not only generate revenue for the government, but also cut “ongoing operations and maintenance costs,” states the briefing note.

A Finance Department spokeswoman said the asset review won’t necessarily lead to sales in all cases.

“Reviews will assess whether value could be created through changes to the assets’ structure and ownership, and report on a wide set of options including the status quo, amendments to current mandates or governance,” department spokeswoman Stephanie Rubec said in an e-mail. “In some cases, it may be concluded that selling an asset to a private sector entity may generate more economic activity and deliver greater value to taxpayers.”

Crown corporations identified by the government as “not self-sustaining”:

(Company name, commercial revenues, parliamentary subsidy, expenses)

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., $614.2 million, $285.3 million, $1.3 billion

CBC, $565.5 million, $1.1 billion, $1.7 billion

Cape Breton Development Corp., $5.1 million, $60 million, $94.1 million

Federal Bridge Corp. Ltd., $14.6 million, $31.0 million, $42.9 million

National Arts Centre Corp., $26.0 million, $40.6 million, $65.7 million

Old Port of Montreal Corp., $16.7 million, $15.1 million, $32.0 million

Parc Downsview Park Inc., not available, not available, not available

VIA Rail Canada Inc., $293.9 million, $266.2 million, $505.5 million

Source: Department of Finance, Public Accounts of Canada

Note: Financial results are for 2007-08

© Canwest News Service 2009

It is wrong to look at George Poitras’ update by itself.  It belongs in the context of

• the Aamjiwnaang First Nation experience beside the petro-chemical corporations in Sarnia
• the experience of the Ogoni in the Niger Delta

The common ground:

• the petro-chemical corporations and
• their dupes and stooges and collaborators and traitors in Government
• in the face of the annihilation of people

Fort Chip = the petro-chemicals bring death by cancers and disease

Ammjiwnaang  =  the petro-chemicals bring death by population sterility

Ogoni = the silencing (in this case murder) of the leaders who try to stop the madness

Here’s the joke on us white people:  ha! ha! ha!   you have only to go to a community associated with chemical manufacture or agricultural chemical applications for example, to see exactly the same outcomes (disease, cancers, developmental problems, infertility, death of the land and its beings.  How long since I have brightened to the song of the meadow lark?).  If you think they (the Corporatocracy) treat the Indians differently than the whites, you’d be quite naïve.

Can you find words that express the magnitude of our  . . . what?  Is it our utter failure?  Our corruptness?  Is it ignorance on the part of those who are supposed to regulate in the public interest?  Is it all because of a SYSTEM?  You could say it all comes down to greed.  But surely there are enough of us with common sense and willfulness to bring about change, to move us onto a path of survival.   God knows, people have been working for decades on this issue.  It is obviously time to use a different set of strategies.

I am reminded of an abusive relationship.  The abusers have gotten to the point where they no longer even pretend to have any respect for the life of the other.

It is so easy in today’s world to see that “no one is an island . . . each man’s grief is my own”.   Husha, husha  we all go down together.

Below I included 3 excerpts from emails sent in 2006 and 2007.  The Canadian Corporatocracy (Health Canada in this case) shows no sign of betraying its corporate interests.

Let us all stand in solidarity with the people of Fort Chipewyan.  Hold Health Canada to account. Or blow them up –they serve no useful purpose.  If I may say what I actually think.  I must say that the First Nations people behave with incredible restraint.

/Sandra

CONTENTS

1. GEORGE POITRAS WRITES
2. THE OTHER OIL DISASTER:  CANCER AND CANADA’S TAR SANDS
3. DECEMBER 2007:  FORT CHIPEWYAN AND AAMJIWNAANG, A GREAT DEAL IN COMMON
4. SEPT 2007:  THE OFFICIALS ARE SATISFIED
5. 2006:  I CAN PUT MY TOE INTO A “DEAD” RIVER; IT WON’T DISSOLVE

= = = = =  = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

(1)        GEORGE POITRAS WRITES

Below you will find a blog written on May 03rd, 2010 by Dr. Gina Solomon, Senior Scientist of the Public Health Program of the Natural Resources Defense Council of Washington, DC; Dr. Solomon was an invited guest to the Fort Chipewyan Community Health Meeting on May 03rd, 2010 along with Dr. David Schindler, Dr. John O’Connor, Dr. Kevin Timoney, Elder Francois Paulette of Smith’s Landing First Nation and myself. Dr. Gina Solomon’s full memo to the community of Fort Chipewyan is at NRDC Fort Chipewyan 4 9 10 (2) .

The meeting was attended by approximately 200 community residents including leadership from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, the Mikisew Cree First Nation, the Metis Local Association and the Nunee Health Board Society.

Elder Pat Marcel of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation introduced a Motion that called upon the local leadership to act immediately on the critical concerns raised by those present at the meeting especially related to cancers; the Motion included detailed immediate actions including a) demanding of the Government of Alberta to detract their recently made public statements that “there are no concerns with cancers in the community of Fort Chipewyan,” b) that Health Canada be requested to attend to the community of Fort Chipewyan to explain their actions and reasons for lodging complaints and charges against Dr. John O’Connor, c) that Health Canada make a public apology to Dr. John O’Connor and the residents of the community of Fort Chipewyan, and d) that this motion is “not-negotiable” by the local leadership as they engage these critical discussions with both levels of governments and/or tarsands oil companies. The Motion was supported by William “Beanie” Tuccaro who has lived with cancer, and unanimously adopted by the entire community meeting participants by a show of everyone standing up in support.

Elder Francois Paulette of Smith’s Landing First Nation expressed serious concern with the reports he heard today from Dr. Gina Solomon and Dr. David Schindler and expressed unequivocal support for the community of Fort Chipewyan through solidarity.

Contact: Steve Courtoreille, Chairperson, Nunee Health Board Society   cell: 780.838.0917
Contact: George Poitras, Former Chief, Mikisew Cree First Nation   cell: 780.264.1269

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = == = = =

(2)        THE OTHER OIL DISASTER:  CANCER AND CANADA’S TAR SANDS, DR GINA SOLOMON ON HER MAY 03, 2010 VISIT TO FORT CHIPEWYAN

Gina Solomon

Senior Scientist, San Francisco

Blog | About

Posted May 3, 2010 in Environmental Justice , Health and the Environment , Moving Beyond Oil

Today I was privileged to be an invited guest of the community of Fort Chipewyan, Canada. I can’t blame you if you’ve never heard of “Ft. Chip” – after all, there are only 1000 residents, and it’s only accessible by plane or boat. But you should hear about it, because what happens there will affect all of us.

The town has been suffering for more than ten years from surprisingly high rates of cancer. A local doctor sounded the alarm, and eventually the government did an investigation. The government’s press release at the time the cancer study was released made it sound like there was no problem: “A study of the cancer incidence in Fort Chipewyan finds levels of the rare cancer cholangiocarcinoma are not higher than expected.”

The results of the cancer study were never presented to the community, and the government claimed there was no problem. That’s where I came in. One of my colleagues asked me to peer review the Alberta Health Services cancer investigation. To my surprise, the actual report did not align with the headlines:

• Overall,  the report found a 30% increase in cancers in Ft. Chip compared with  expected over the last 12 years;  Leukemias and lymphomas were increased by 3-fold;
• Bile duct cancers were increased by 7-fold; Other  cancers, such as soft tissue sarcomas, and lung cancers in women, were also elevated.

I’m not sure who wrote the press release for the government, but it sure weren’t the scientists who actually did the investigation.

It wasn’t just the elevated cancer rates that got my attention, however. It was also the types of cancers seen. Leukemias and lymphomas have been linked in the scientific literature to petroleum products, including VOCs (volatile components of petroleum), dioxin-like chemicals, and other hydrocarbons. Biliary cancers have been linked to petroleum and to PAHs (chemicals in tar and soot). Soft tissue sarcomas are very rare and lethal cancers that have also been linked to dioxin-like chemicals and hydrocarbons. It’s an interesting pattern — almost all of the cancer types that were elevated have been linked scientifically to chemicals in oil or tar.

It’s especially interesting because little Ft. Chip is located downstream from the largest tar sands mining and oil production operation in the world. Other scientists who also presented their findings to the community today revealed significant increases in toxic metals, PAHs, and related chemicals in the water and sediments of the river downstream from the tar sands.

About 200 community members filled the hall where the scientists and physicians presented their findings. Then the community members spoke. Elders from the Mikisew Cree Nation and the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation decried the lack of action by the government and industry.  Other community members talked about their own cancer diagnoses, or about the problems they were seeing in the fish, ducks, and wildlife they hunt for food. One man brought a deformed fish to the researchers, asking that it be tested for contaminants. The meeting was long, intense, and important. These people are concerned about their livelihood, and their lives. They are also concerned about the state of their rivers, the lake, and the wildlife.

Afterward, as I flew back to Edmonton on the tiny plane, I looked down on miles of pristine boreal forest dotted with lakes and entwined by rivers. Then the tar sands operations came into view – vast scars on the land, massive sulfur piles, smokestacks creating huge plumes into the sky,  and enormous tailings ponds next to the river glimmering with an oily sheen; tailings ponds that are almost certainly leaching contaminants into the Athabasca River, which carries them down toward Ft. Chip.

As I prepare to head down to the Gulf Coast, I wonder what will happen here in Canada. Will the newfound distaste for offshore oil drilling be a boon to the tar sands, thereby worsening the ecological and health situation up here? Or will the public realize that petroleum comes with a price that is too high to pay, and move toward a safer energy future?

—

“It would be easier just to fold our hands and not make this fight…, to say, I, one man, can do nothing.  I grow afraid only when I see people
thinking and acting like this.  We all know the story about the man who sat beside the trail too long, and then it grew over and he could never find
his way again.  We can never forget what has happened, but we cannot go back, nor can we just sit beside the trail.”

– Poundmaker, Cree Chief

= = = = = = = = = = == ==

(3)       DECEMBER 2007:  FORT CHIPEWYAN AND AAMJIWNAANG, A GREAT DEAL IN COMMON  12/12/2007

The experiences (videos) of the two communities should be run side-by-side.  (We circulated the info on Aamjiwnaang in July.)   These are not the only two places where this is happening.

Remind me:  when the majority of communities in Canada have done what these people are doing – taking matters into their own hands because Health Canada isn’t doing its job  – – there are branches of Health Canada that should be shut down.  They have become an obstacle, as we also found out in the battle to get chemicals properly regulated.   /Sandra

Subject: CBC TV NEWS STORIES – ONE TO WATCH, ONE TO WATCH FOR

Below is a link of a documentary that was aired on this past Sunday’s CBC News Sunday. I think its an excellent documentary for a number of reasons. The Fort Chipewyan residents including former Chief Archie Waquan, Donna Cyprien (Director of Nunee Health Authority), Georg Macdonald (Head of Nursing Station), Julie Mercredi (Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Member) and Pat Marcel (Elder, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation) did an awesome job of portraying the reality of our current situation.   Thanks also to Dr. John O’Connor and Dr. David Schindler who also give some very credible context and perspective that is difficult to refute.

I’ve often said that in my short life, in comparison to many Elders who are also observing this horrible chapter in our history, that I never would have fathomed that I would be watching my beautiful, remote & isolated community on the national news or internationally like we are today.
We were a remote & isolated community, God’s country, I often described as “our best kept secret” which is now the subject of international attention. It is unfortunate.   (Out-of-date links removed)  . . . and for your information watch Darrow MacIntyre’s feature documentary . . .

George Poitras, B.Admin.

Consultation Coordinator   Mikisew Cree – Industry Relations

However, Walt Patterson, associate fellow at think-tank Chatham House, said: “Extracting oil from tar scares the pants off me. The whole idea is fundamentally perverse in the context of our present environmental situation. To then power it with
nuclear, it seems to be the worst of all worlds.”

= = = = = = = = = = = = ==

(4)       SEPT 2007:  THE OFFICIALS ARE SATISFIED    7/9/2007

The officials are satisfied.  They say there are tight regulations, with independent third party corroboration of the integrity of the monitoring equipment.  So everything is alright.  BUT the lakes and rivers in the north are dying under the current regulations. Poisoned water, land and air mean that people, mostly First Nations, are dying from disease.   And in the case of Aamjiwnaang (Sarnia Ontario) where the effects on fertility are known, it seems to me it is also a form of genocide.

This isn’t seen as a cause for immediate action by the Government to change the regulatory system? ..  We need immediate changes in order to halt what isn’t right or smart. Instead we get denial and reassurances.

It seems to me a no-brainer.  Effective regulations mean that what was healthy in 1980 (as were the lakes in northern Saskatchewan) would still be healthy today.  If not, the Government simply hasn’t done and continues to refuse to do its job.

It is essential that we know the information in the new documentary from the Aamjiwnaang First Nation. Aamjiwnaang sits adjacent to the Suncor refinery (petro-chemical industry) in Sarnia on the St Clair River.  We can use the documentary to inform ourselves here in the West.  There are a number of other “same story”‘s about the industrial poisoning of rivers and lakes.

Ideally, we would make a collection of these stories.  Does our situation here, today, lead to a different outcome for our river and our health?  And if not, why don’t we draw the line now?  Stop the destruction now.

In case the Aamjiwnaang story is not enough, or in case it’s “there” in Ontario and not “here” in the West, in case we can’t see our own belly button, a reminder of the story of Dr. John O’Connor with the high cancer rates in a community on Lake Athabasca in Alberta.

Refer to email TARSANDS: Backlash against a whistle-blower Globe & Mail, by Andrew Nikiforuk Sent May 22, 2007.  (FIND & POST, SAndra)

Email #3 is an effort to get the people behind the High Gate dam proposal to transfer their energies from the dam, to securing a long-term supply of water that gives them health.  If indeed there are deformed fish in the River, they should know and be taking corrective action now.  There are reasons for escalating rates of some cancers.  We have to go outside our communities to  work aggressively and hard with other communities.

We are working on the tar sands/nuclear issue.  These emails are about a River.  It’s about mobilizing people to protect their water source, hopefully BEFORE it’s too late.  The unregulated expansion of the tar sands and nuclear agenda in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan is a threat to the River.

The evidence is clear from the Aamjiwnaang that Suncor and the other corporations will not be regulated such that the rivers and lakes continue to give us health.  In addition to the water issue, we know that the tar sands development means Canada is contributing an unconscionable amount to green house gas production.  We must add more people and organizations to our networks.  Those who depend on the River for their water, and understand the threat, are likely allies for the tar sands/nuclear issue.

= = = = = ==  = = = = = = = ==

(5)       2006:  I CAN PUT MY TOE INTO A “DEAD” RIVER; IT WON’T DISSOLVE

It’s not that aquatic creatures can’t survive in a “dead” river because the water has chemicals in it. They can’t survive because they ACCUMULATE the toxins. And then the toxin load is magnified as they eat other contaminated organisms. Their bodies are more toxic than the water in which they live.

Many become sterile, unable to reproduce. They die out – the river becomes classified as “dead”. (17 rivers in P.E.I. are dead. (source: W5 documentary a few years ago – the PMRA (Pest Management Regulatory Agency, Health Canada) isn’t getting its regulatory job done)) A major contributor to the deaths of the rivers and thereby other life forms is agricultural pesticide run-off. (Note: WHY isn’t the PMRA getting the job done is addressed in one of the next emails.)

Do we think that the cells and processes in our bodies act differently from the cells in other creatures?

Talking about “allowable limits” doesn’t take into account what happens when you add allowable limit of chemical A to A.L. of chemical B to A.L. of chemical C …   Take a cluster of cells that are in the early stages of development. They are multiplying at a rapid rate and then cellular “differentiation” takes place to make different organs, etc.  A miniscule amount of a hormone disruptor or a teratogen, for example, can have a LARGE impact on a small cluster of cells. We know that chemicals are taken in through the skin and the air we breathe. What is the “allowable
limit” when you are dealing with a developing foetus?

Duff Stewart, the alderman behind Leo Pare’s newspaper article, said that his friend fishes in the North Saskatchewan River. But won’t eat the fish he catches. He throws them back to the River.  Because they have the accumulated pesticides/toxins in their bodies. Leo mentioned the deformities. Which we know about but conveniently forget …

The Canadian Dept of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) knows about the “feminization” of fish ownstream from water treatment plants from research published in January 2003. (Europeans have known about this for a long, long time – Canada finally started working on it.)  We know about the 40 or 50% decrease in sperm count in males in industrialized countries.  Cripes!  WHEN do we know enough to take effective action?  We continue to put MORE chemicals into the environment.