BARRIE, Ontario (miningweekly.com) – Canadian Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff said on Saturday that the Alberta oil sands “have to be cleaned up”.

Ignatieff, who has been on a national bus campaign in an attempt to boost support, said that the ruling Conservative government had not done enough to ensure the industry’s sustainability.

“We’ve basically had a government for over four years that’s hands-off,” he told Mining Weekly Online.

“The oil sands have to be cleaned up and they have to be sustainable.”

He said that the Liberal Party wanted a “world-class” oil industry that met environmental standards, significantly reduced carbon dioxide emissions, and did not pollute water resources.

The government also needed to drive innovation and promote the development of technologies that would be “less destructive” to the environment, Ignatieff stated.

“That’s the goal, and you’re not going to get that with a conservative government.”

“Has enough been done to make the oil sands sustainable? No, we’ve got a lot more to do.”

The world’s second-largest oil resource, the Alberta tar sands, have come under heavy fire in recent years from environmental groups. Extraction of the fuel uses a significant amount of energy, mainly in the form of heat.

The generation of this heat causes more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil extraction.

Despite Canada supplying about one fifth of the US oil imports, pressure has been mounting from that country for the oil sands producers to clean up their acts.

Last week, Corporate Ethics International ran an advertising campaign in the US comparing ducks that had died in oil sands tailings ponds to those covered by oil leaked from BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The campaign urged tourists to boycott Alberta.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers has itself been running an advertising campaign on national television in an attempt to improve its image.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT

Despite the negative press the oil sands have received in past years, there has been growing foreign investment in them.

Chinese companies, in particular, have invested more than C$5-billion in buying stakes in oil sands producers this year.

Ignatieff said Canada needed this type of investment: “Canada cannot develop its natural resources without foreign investment.

“But foreign investors, like Canadian investors, have to obey our environmental laws, our labour laws – all the laws that apply.

“We have to have investment review processes that are rapid and clear and ask the simple question: does this have net benefit for Canada?”

BILL C-300

Asked about Bill C-300, which would give the government powers to investigate how Canadian mining companies operated in other countries, Ignatieff was not as critical of the industry as he had been in the past.

“I listened very carefully to the objections of the mining industry on that. We are very aware of their problems with that.”

He highlighted the fact that it was a private members bill and not official Liberal party policy.

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Ignatieff embarked on his seven-week nationwide bus tour earlier this month, visiting places like farmers' markets and barbeques, with the aim of creating the image of a man in touch with the people.

Just as he set off, consultancy Angus Reid Public Opinion said in its monthly media release that Ignatieff “remains highly unpopular”.

In its Canadian Public Opinion Poll, Angus Reid said just 14% of respondents approve of the way he is handling his duties, while a majority (53%) voice disapproval.

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