Here is Avi Lewis and the Parkland Institute's take on oil sands as a source of continental energy supply.
The framing of the visuals and pull quotes are pretty onesided. That is to be expected from these sources. That said the dialogue with Diane Gibson is very factual and balanced and a good discussion on a range of important contenental energy issues.
Speaking of big issues oil snads issues. It is a big mistake for the Alberta government to be reducing openness and accountability for disclosing oil sands revenues and royalty information. The Privcy Commissioner is on it and the Auditor General has be critical of past lapses in acountability for royalty payments and collections. FOIP laws already protect industry from disclosure of proprietary information.
This is not good policy nor good governance and a bad step in the wrong direction.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
On The Map with Avi Lewis: Alberta Oil Sands
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Mr. Al-Jazheera (or was it Mr. "No Logo")? Good Lord, he's probably talking down the oilsands with Saudi money.
ReplyDeleteBut on a more serious note, companies need to have some assurances their individual corporate information is not subject to release at the whim of the Privacy Commissioner. Albertans have no need to know at the well-level how much royalty is collected, only if the aggregated numbers collected from a company meet the targeted 'take". Such specific information - if available shortly after it is created - is hugely valuable to competitors, and practically useless for the individual citizen.
Albertans own the oil and are enitled to know what is being extracted and what revenues they are realizing from each barrel @ the wellhead. I have no problem in aggregated public release but I expect my government as my proxy to know exactly how much is extracted at each well and that the proper royalties are collected.
ReplyDeleteBTW I don't think the Privacy Commissioner acts on whims - there is no evidence to support such a silly comment. I fear political whims for sure. The Auditor General has already put us on notice that has happended in our energy department's lax royalty collection in the past.
Government holds scads of personal confidential information. It can surely be trusted to hold confidential corporate information too.
My understanding is that there is no problem with aggregated public release. The issue - as may have been poorly defined - is that it is wide open to whatever the Commissioner allows. Once the data is released, you can't put the genie back in the bottle.
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