Oil sands are a national unity issue, says magazine writer and author Nikiforuk

Award-winning magazine writer and author Andrew Nikiforuk has criticized the lack of a long-term energy and climate change policy. And he told the Hill Times that the Alberta oil sands are not an "Alberta issue" but one of national unity:

"The tar sands is definitely a nation-changing project that has affected every corner of the country."

Mr. Nikiforuk, a Calgary-based economics and environment journalist who has won eight national magazine awards, said the future of oil sands development is a "political emergency of the highest order" for the country. "We need a 30-year plan for this project, we need a national debate about the scale and pace of development and then we need a program that says for every kilogram of carbon we produce there, we have to take two out of the economy somewhere else," he said. "It's probably the issue that is the most defining issue in Canada at the moment. Everything is tied to it."

He was critical of Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff for what he called "playing politics" and currying favour with Alberta voters as though they were the only ones concerned.

"We don't need anymore proponents. We need people who can actually speak rationally about this project, its importance to the country, the need for effective regulation and effective climate change policy," he said, adding that Canada has no long-term energy and climate change plan. "Canada is already the number one oil supplier to the United States. We've done so without a plan, without a vision, without a program and with no fiscal accountability."

Nikiforuk is the author of Tar Sands: dirty oil and the future of a continent.