Cracks may begin to appear in Canadian bank earnings as oil downturn persists

The death of approximately 30 great blue herons at the Syncrude Canada Mildred Lake oilsands mining site north of Fort McMurray has raised concerns about the effectiveness of the industry’s waterfowl and bird monitoring program.

Colleen Cassady St. Clair was the lead researcher of the Research on Avian Protection Project, a three-year study published in 2014 that looked at increasing protection of birds in Alberta’s oilsands after 1,600 died at a Syncrude tailings pond in 2008.

Since her common-sense quip that most of Canada’s tar sands reserves will have to stay in the ground, Linda McQuaig has been vilified by much of the political establishment and (rightfully) defended by a minority of voices in the media.

CORNER BROOK, N.L. – The general council of one of Canada’s largest churches has voted to drop fossil fuels from its investment portfolios, with advocates for the motion saying the decision is based on the Christian duty to care for the earth.

Commissioners attending the United Church of Canada’s general council in Corner Brook, N.L., voted 67 per cent in favour Tuesday to divest the industry from its treasury assets and to shift the $5.9 million from the portfolio into green renewable energy ventures.

Canada’s provincial leaders finalized the Canadian Energy Strategy Friday with a document many onlookers are criticizing as too reliant on traditional carbon-based sources of energy.

The NDP would wreck Canada’s economy and should never get into power, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said Sunday.

Harper, who was announcing new security-related measures in Ottawa, told reporters he wanted to address something that had come up over the weekend and that he thought was “pretty important and shouldn’t be ignored.”

A “star” NDP candidate, someone NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair had pledged would be part of his cabinet, said that the way to deal with the crisis in the oil industry is to leave the oil in the ground, Harper asserted.

Alliance Pipeline has shut down a natural gas pipeline in Western Canada after poisonous hydrogen sulphide (H2S) gas got into the system.

The Calgary-based energy company said Friday it has told companies feeding the pipeline to stop while corrective measures are taken.

The shutdown will continue for an "indeterminate amount of time," Alliance said in a news release. 

Alliance said the hydrogen sulphide entered the pipeline in Alberta and was stopped when it reached southeastern Saskatchewan.

Gas to be flared off