Breaking news: Ottawa just announced major changes to how pipelines and tar sands projects are approved! Now, new projects will have to pass new rules. This is great news.
But here’s the problem: the largest open-pit tar sands mine ever proposed in the history of Canada is still slated to be approved using the archaic fossil-fuel friendly rules.
But we can fight back. These changes to environmental assessment were made possible by people power -- including thousands of SumOfUs members making our voices heard.
With a huge outcry now, we can use this same people power to pressure the government into applying the new rules to Teck’s disastrous mine.
Will you join me in telling Minister McKenna to review Teck mine under the new climate and Indigenous rights rules?
Teck is a multi-billion dollar Canadian mining company looking to grab its share of dirty profits from the tar sands. Its mine is designed to supply pipelines, like Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline, with dirty oil to export.
If built, the mine would produce 277,000 barrels of dirty oil every day -- and would destroy a huge swath of land that the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation has declared it does not want developed.
This is in direct violation of Canada’s commitment to the UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Canada is claiming that it is working to be a climate leader, and yet decision-makers are still considering approving this mine under outdated rules that don’t consider the full climatic effects of the project. A project this massive must be considered under the new regulations to ensure Canada meets its commitments to its climate plan and the Paris Climate Agreement.
Call on the Canadian government to review largest tar sands mine ever proposed using the new rules.
Canada claims it’s working towards reconciliation, but the Teck mine would destroy 292 square kilometers of Indigenous land and line Teck’s pockets with billions more in profit.
The regulations introduced today would strengthen First Nations’ role in the assessment process. Because of the scope of destruction, this would cause to Indigenous lands, Teck’s project must be assessed under the new regulations. It’s time to stand up for our climate and for Indigenous peoples’ rights.
SumOfUs has been fighting the tar sands, and winning. You are part of the reason that today’s massive changes to how energy projects happened: over 30,000 people who wrote to the government and demanded changes to the NEB.
We know that small groups of people can make a huge difference, even in the face of oil giants like Teck.
More information
CBC. 8 February 2018.
Vancouver Observer. 19 August 2013.
Council of Canadians. 15 February 2017.