Businesses were inconvenienced for too long
Editorial appeared in Fort McMurray Today August 2, 2006
It's a poor effort.
Businesses on the south end of Franklin Avenue have been mightily inconvenienced for the better part of a year after Franklin Avenue was torn up and new water pipes were installed to accommodate future residential growth in the former industrial area.
We need the housing, so the utilities installation was a prudent act.
The work was done in two stages, so there were two different detours to deal with while the construction was underway. Since then, the project remained unfinished, with rough gravel or mud -- depending on the weather -- confronting people who wanted to visit businesses in that part of town.
What we will never know is how many potential customers were turned away in recent months. How much in lost business did the store owners endure?
There's lots of talk about creating a level playing field for businesses with the tax system. What about a level playing field in all aspects?
Perhaps the most outrageous bit of information to surface from this incident was that a taxi driver charged a Home Hardware employee an extra $2 for driving a few blocks on the rough service.
That driver should be fired.
It may be telling that municipal officials did not return repeated calls a Today reporter made about this issue. Wood Buffalo was plainly in the wrong. Citizens were let down.
The average person doesn't care much about the machinations and politics that swirl around city hall. They want water to come out of the tap on demand. They want garbage picked up. They want snow cleared.
And they want the street in front of their home or business paved.
Citizens were let down. They were given no apology, justification, or even excuse.
Something's got to change down at city hall.
The municipal election is just over a year from now.
Land for oil a tradeoff most Canadians will make
Two environmental groups released a report Tuesday condemning the method of oilsands extraction that harms the surrounding land, air and water the least.
So-called in-situ extraction -- in which wells are drilled deep into the oilsands formation, steam is pumped into the hole, and bitumen is collected at the bottom -- is gaining in popularity.
It doesn't require stripping off metres of topsoil, or the creation of a hole so big it's likely visible from space. Also absent is the need for extensive reclamation to return the land to its original configuration.
Groups opposing Suncor Energy's Voyageur project noted that the land is never the same after mining. They're right. The price of progress is land that, once reclaimed, will hopefully approximate its former state.
To the average person, in-situ extraction holds many advantages over traditional mining.
But not to environmental groups.
What should we look at? Abandoning the oilsands industry entirely?
While some may prefer that, they're on the extreme edge of society. Most Canadians don't want to abandon their personal vehicles, which require gasoline.
We can get it from unstable and undemocratic countries like Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, or make it here.
We can mandate the world's strictest environmental standards and oversight if we make it here. We can hold our heads high. And we can invest the tax dollars to help make our society better.
If in-situ were abandoned as an allowed oilsands extraction method, the vast majority of the natural resource would never be exploited.
It's a tradeoff that many Canadians are not prepared to make.
© Copyright 2006, Fort McMurray Today.
It's a poor effort.
Businesses on the south end of Franklin Avenue have been mightily inconvenienced for the better part of a year after Franklin Avenue was torn up and new water pipes were installed to accommodate future residential growth in the former industrial area.
We need the housing, so the utilities installation was a prudent act.
The work was done in two stages, so there were two different detours to deal with while the construction was underway. Since then, the project remained unfinished, with rough gravel or mud -- depending on the weather -- confronting people who wanted to visit businesses in that part of town.
What we will never know is how many potential customers were turned away in recent months. How much in lost business did the store owners endure?
There's lots of talk about creating a level playing field for businesses with the tax system. What about a level playing field in all aspects?
Perhaps the most outrageous bit of information to surface from this incident was that a taxi driver charged a Home Hardware employee an extra $2 for driving a few blocks on the rough service.
That driver should be fired.
It may be telling that municipal officials did not return repeated calls a Today reporter made about this issue. Wood Buffalo was plainly in the wrong. Citizens were let down.
The average person doesn't care much about the machinations and politics that swirl around city hall. They want water to come out of the tap on demand. They want garbage picked up. They want snow cleared.
And they want the street in front of their home or business paved.
Citizens were let down. They were given no apology, justification, or even excuse.
Something's got to change down at city hall.
The municipal election is just over a year from now.
Land for oil a tradeoff most Canadians will make
Two environmental groups released a report Tuesday condemning the method of oilsands extraction that harms the surrounding land, air and water the least.
So-called in-situ extraction -- in which wells are drilled deep into the oilsands formation, steam is pumped into the hole, and bitumen is collected at the bottom -- is gaining in popularity.
It doesn't require stripping off metres of topsoil, or the creation of a hole so big it's likely visible from space. Also absent is the need for extensive reclamation to return the land to its original configuration.
Groups opposing Suncor Energy's Voyageur project noted that the land is never the same after mining. They're right. The price of progress is land that, once reclaimed, will hopefully approximate its former state.
To the average person, in-situ extraction holds many advantages over traditional mining.
But not to environmental groups.
What should we look at? Abandoning the oilsands industry entirely?
While some may prefer that, they're on the extreme edge of society. Most Canadians don't want to abandon their personal vehicles, which require gasoline.
We can get it from unstable and undemocratic countries like Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, or make it here.
We can mandate the world's strictest environmental standards and oversight if we make it here. We can hold our heads high. And we can invest the tax dollars to help make our society better.
If in-situ were abandoned as an allowed oilsands extraction method, the vast majority of the natural resource would never be exploited.
It's a tradeoff that many Canadians are not prepared to make.
© Copyright 2006, Fort McMurray Today.
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