As Kathryn Marshall wrote, "foreign billionaires don't care" about Canadian jobs and our national ambitions. She rightfully expresses dismay over the fact that "this horde of foreign and foreign backed groups" don't answer to us, "they answer to their rich, foreign paymasters."
I embarked on some research this week to educate myself about who is meddling into our national affairs and extraction of natural resources. Here are some of my disturbing findings about the foreign groups operating in Alberta and British Columbia.
- Petro China buys 100% control of Alberta oilsands project for $680 million. The Chinese oil giant bought out its Canadian partner's 40% share to take over control of the entire project.
- Saipem SpA, an Italian engineering and construction giant wins $1 billion contract in 2010 for Sunrise Energy oil sands project northeast of Fort McMurray. Saipem SpA is owned partly by a parent company that the Italian government has a 30% stake in. In 2011, Saipem was awarded a $500 million contract in the Athabasca region of Alberta.
- China National Off-shore Oil Corp (CNOOC) pays $2.1 billion to buy OPTI Canada, a Canadian oil-sands company. In the words of Globe & Mail, this hands over "another slice of the world's second largest oil reserves to CNOOC".
- Chicago Bridge & Iron Company (CBI), an American engineering and construction giant wins a $0.75 billion contract in 2012 for the Kearl Oil Sands Expansion Project in Alberta.
- France's Total SA gets $9 billion dollar oil sands project approved, as the energy giant was given the green light by Alberta to continue with the development of the Joslyn Oil Sands project.
Over the last couple of years, that adds up to giant corporations from France, China, Italy and USA snapping up projects and ownership stakes worth more than 15 billion dollars! And this is not an exhaustive list. I just got tired of finding many similar deals and contract awards.
What I found particularly appalling was in one of the reports, it mentioned the environment minister Joe Oliver saying that a "there remains a two weeks consultation period with local First Nations regarding implementation." Seriously? You allow a foreign corporation to proceed with a 9 billion dollars contract allowing only 2 weeks for consulting with the people who own this land, live there and will be affected by this project?
Kathryn Marshall hits the nail on the head when she says that these "foreign billionaires" don't care about Canada and are answerable to their "rich, foreign paymasters". The question is who does our environment minister answer to? Why is he (and her for that matter!) not focusing on these billions of dollars of investment by foreign corporations in our country? Are we to believe that these billions are being invested without any politicians being lobbied and influenced by foreign interests and foreign money?
Should we not fear the foreign intentions, interventions and influences of French, Italian and Chinese companies (often backed by their governments) a lot more than a bunch of 'radical environmentalists'?
Tweet Follow @TheIdeasOfMarch
No comments:
Post a Comment