Interview de Dianne Farkouh
Bonjour Alice:
I will try to answer the questions for you.
1. There are 3 types of taxes or royalties that the oil sands companies pay. A. Royalty payments to provincial government - go into general revenue and are used like any other revenue, no specific spending that we are aware of. B. Corporate income tax - provincial and federal - again go into general revenue C. Wood Buffalo Municipal property tax - most oil sands companies pay a rural business rate plus an additional Machinery and Equipment Tax that sees a large portion of the property tax income to the City Government coming from the 4 operating oil sands companies (yes - despite all the development there are really only 4 companies producing oil right now). For example - this year the Municipality has a budget of $148 million Canadian. Approx. $100 million comes from property taxes, with the 4 oil sands companies paying about 60% of that number. The Municipality does receive a formula-based funding from the Provincial Government. The Health Region and the Schools receive funding from the Provincial Government based on their own formulas. Just a note - many of the plants are quite far from town and do not use any municipal services like water, road cleaning, emergency services, etc. They provide all their own. There are agreements in place where the plants provide these services to the City when required - like emergency services, fire fighting, ambulances etc. I think you are looking to see if any of the revenue from the oil is directed back to this area to help in the development - not that we can see yet, though there has been some announcements on money to improve some of the roads in the region (no action though). The oil sands leases are owned by the Government of Alberta and are sold to companies to develop. These leases are for oil sands only and do not include mineral rights.
2. We do not have seasonal workers. We have workers that come in for the construction of projects who work all year round until the project is finished. The government has nothing to do with them. The companies look after the workers by providing camps at their construction sites and either fly the workers in or bring them by bus. Sometimes they give the workers a living out allowance - money to pay for a place in Fort McMurray if they wish. Some companies buy houses or apartments for their staff to stay in. Most of the camps are self contained and provide everything the workers need - banking, medical services, bar, recreation, etc. The projects are timed so that there is only one major project at a time so there is usually around 12,000 people staying in the project camps all year round. The plants also have scheduled shut-downs for maintenance. These are also timed so the plants alternate in demand on labour. These shut-downs can take up to 3,000 - 4,000 workers for up to 6 weeks. These happen 2 or 3 times a year for each plant.
3. Environmental impact - I can't speak for other people. Any industry brings with it environmental impact and is the cost for development, driving a car and having a job. The industry spends billions each year on research and technology to reduce the impacts. If you lived in Fort McMurray you would not see anything - we are surrounded by very clean air (cleaner than the cities), hundreds of kilometers of green forests, rivers, and clear blue skies. Even working on site you don't see much other than 1 smoke stack and in the mines you see the open pits - which are reclaimed with forests and grasses, and the tailings ponds - which look like lakes but are in the process of being cleaned.
4. Aboriginal Affairs - we have probably the best relationship with the aboriginal peoples in the country. Of the 5,000 First Nations people in the area, any and all who want to work have a job. 1,500 work directly for the oil sands companies. The companies go to great efforts to train, to develop companies for them, to mentor, to encourage, support and assist in any way possible. There is an Athabasca Tribal Council funded by industry and the government that provides education, business development, health and social services to the First Nations. There are Industry Relations Corporations funded by the companies in the millions of dollars to assist each community to consult with industry, to establish businesses and to find jobs for the aboriginal people. Last year the companies donated well over $6 million to the aboriginal communities for education programs, recreational facilities, health centres, youth programs, literacy programs, celebrations, cultural events, gardens, etc. The companies pay for counselors and mentors in the high schools for the aboriginal children. The companies have paid for land use studies, videos to capture the traditional way of life, they pay for dance and drumming groups, cultural teaching sites, books written about the traditional knowledge, they consult with the elders constantly (who are paid) on all aspects of development. The companies have built camps and log cabins and houses so the elders can have a place to teach the children about the traditional way of life and their language. People who lose their traplines are compensated very generously. Last year the oil sands industry did $315 million worth of business with aboriginal companies. Aboriginal companies are given first choice of contracts that they can do. The companies work very hard to build the capacity of the aboriginal people to consult with industry on development. Regards, Dianne Farkouh Communications, Survey & Information Coordinator Regional Issues Working Group Ph: (780) 790-1976 E-
mail: dianne.farkouh@shaw.ca -----Original Message----- From: Alice Morterol [mailto: alice.morterol@ensmp.fr ]
Subject: Informations about oilsands Dear Sir or Madam, My name is Alice Morterol and I am a first year student at the Ecole des Mines de Paris (ENSMP), one of France's leading scientific Grandes Ecoles or universities. As an optionnal course, my colleagues and I have chosen to study the impacts of the recent developpement of the extraction of oil sands in the Wood buffalo area. Could you please be so kind as to briefly answer the following questions, your answer being crucial for our report, due mid june. 1)How are the taxes oil majors pay for extracting oil used by the government? Which part does the regional government get? What about the federal and provincial governments? To whom belongs the exploited territories? 2)How does the local government deal with the influx of seasonal workers working in the oil buisiness? 3)How many seasonal workers come and when do they come? 4)What does the local population think of the environmental problems that may occur because of oil extraction on a large scale? Is this compensated by the fact that many jobs are created because it? 5)How do you cooperate with aboriginal people? Thank you very much in advance for your answers, these being very interesting for us and very important for our report. yours truly Alice Morterol