NDP calls for halt to Tar Sands projects
Posted by mhudema on June 16, 2008
NDP targets new projects in oilsands
By DAVE DORMER
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Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton has again called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to impose a moratorium on new oilsands projects in Alberta until a better environmental strategy is crafted.
There should be a halt “until (the federal government) can prove to Albertans, to First Nations and to all Canadians that it has examined the cumulative social and environmental impacts of the oilsands development and has plans in place to address those consequences,” Layton said at the Alberta NDP’s annual convention in Calgary.
“There’s some good scientists and good engineers working on solutions to this issue, but they haven’t got them all in place yet and the precautionary principal says that we should,” he said.
“If we’re thinking about the next generation, we should have a plan for the implications.”
Layton used the recently approved Kearl Development as an example, saying the $8-billion project being built about 70 km north of Fort McMurray will spew about 3.7-million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually once production begins, which is expected sometime in 2011.
