Bitumen Development Poses Critical Challenges for Canada

February 21, 2013

OTTAWA—A failure to carefully regulate the Canadian bitumen industry is putting Canada on a dangerous economic and environmental trajectory, says a new report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and the Polaris Institute.

New Year, New Beginnings

It is with great pleasure that we announce the launching of the new Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign (ITSC). Since its inception, the ITSC has been a project of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) based in the United States, and we have enjoyed working with IEN while the program has grown and developed. However, given the realities of organizing in Canada we have decided that this campaign needs to be based in Canada with a Canadian fiscal sponsor to help administer the program and help ensure its financial viability and management needs.

The making of Canada as a Petro-State and how oil money is corrupting Canadian politics

December 4, 2012 Ottawa – A new report entitled “Big Oil’s Oily Grasp - The making of Canada as a Petro-State and how oil money is corrupting Canadian politics” released today by the Ottawa-based Polaris Institute found that six main oil industry players, including Enbridge and TransCanada, met with federal cabinet ministers 53 times between September 2011 and September 2012, the period when the business-friendly Bill C-38 – which guts environmental legislation - was being designed. During this same time period, only one meeting between a federal cabinet minister and an environmental organization took place (Greenpeace met with Joe Oliver in March, 2012).

(Profile updated in 2012)

Updated spill data: 

According to Enbridge’s own data, between 1999 and 2010, across all of the company’s operations there were 804 spills that released 161,475 barrels (approximately 18.95 million litres, or 5 million gallons) of hydrocarbons into the environment.

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May 04 2010 - Press Release