Taxpayer millions set up PM advisor to push petro interests from U of Calgary. A special Tyee investigation.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, 27 Apr 2011, TheTyee.ca
Harper government and its abuse of the public trust.
a new university think tank.
http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/04/27/CarsonOilSands/
In fact, the Bruce Carson affair is a much darker tale about the character of
the Harper government and its abuse of the public trust.
And it goes like this: Harper's key political troubleshooter and problem
fixer gets lobbied for money for a new university think tank.
He then leaves the Prime Minister's Office and becomes executive director of
that same think tank: the Canada School of Energy and the Environment.
It's mostly funded by a $15-million grant from the Harper government.
The former senior advisor alters the school's mandate to permit government
lobbying and policy development on the oil sands.
He then lobbies for more federal money, $25 million, and gets it.
He also works for several of his former associates (three cabinet ministers)
and directs a joint industry and government campaign to improve the image of the
oil sands industry.
CARSON AND HIS FIANCÉE
Most Canadians first heard of Bruce Carson in March when news broke that a 66-year-old
disbarred lawyer and convicted fraudster was under investigation by the RCMP for
influence peddling on behalf a Michelle McPherson, his 22-year-old fiancée and a
former one-time Ottawa sex worker.
That aspect of Carson's busy life was revealed first by the Aboriginal
People's Television Network, which received documents allegedly proving that
Carson actively lobbied the federal government on behalf of Michelle McPherson
and her new employer, a water filtration company.
McPherson, whose mother works for interests in the gas kingdom of Qatar, was
trying to sell water filters to aboriginal reserves where poor water quality
remains a legacy of both Liberal and Tory government neglect.
Federal law also prohibits former political staffers from lobbying government
for five years after leaving office or from taking improper advantage of their
previous position.
Yet there are several loopholes: if individuals spend less than 20 per cent
of their time lobbying, lobby for free or are paid by a corporation, they don't
have to register their activity. Carson has never registered as a lobbyist.
Lobbying commissioner Karen Shepherd has been asked by at least one MP to
investigate the Carson affair and alleged breaches of the Lobbying Act. --
A.N.
With taxpayer dollars he openly runs a partisan Tory energy think tank. He
even gives partisan Tory speeches to Tory audiences.
In the end, the school becomes a clearinghouse for industrial energy
lobbyists working hand in hand with the federal and Alberta Tory government.
In sum, the PMO's senior advisor appears to have never surrendered his
previous political files or his role as a Harper's troubleshooter.
And then the Aboriginal People's Television Network (APTN) runs a sexy story
about Carson's fiancée and polluted water and influence peddling (see
sidebar).
*But big ethical questions about Harper's role in the larger scandal remain
unanswered, including these:
To what degree was Harper or members of his office involved in setting up
Carson with a comfortable university job entirely funded by taxpayers' dollars?
Why did the Harper government not begin a conflict-of-interest investigation
two years ago when his close friend lobbied the government for more money?
And why was a former government staffer allowed to take advantage of his
former high profile position and freely mix and mingle with government officials
and cabinet ministers within a year of his leaving office and before "the
cooling off" period had ended?
Today The Tyee learned that the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner,
Mary Dawson, has commenced an investigation of Carson under the Conflict of
Interest Act. In addition to an RCMP investigation, that makes three separate
federal inquiries on the activities of Harper's former advisor and confidant.
The latest one focuses on matters revealed in this story -- the highly
questionable way Carson came to head the Canada School of Energy and the
Environment and how he apparently violated ethics rules by actively working with
government officials during a so-called "cooling off period."
While various aspects of Carson's dealings have emerged over past weeks in
bits and pieces, this in-depth report includes fresh information and
perspectives. What surfaces is a tale of industry and government duplicity,
conflict of interest, arrogance, breach of public trust, and systemic ethical
lapses in the Conservative government.
Carson, concludes Duff Conacher, director of Democracy Watch, is a figure of
rich, if oil black, irony. "He exploited the whole political cronyism system
that Harper originally attacked and disparaged before forming a government."
A mechanic on campus
Carson, a disbarred lawyer who looks like a pugilist, often described himself
as "mechanic," a political fixer who got things done in the messy corridors of
power.
As senior policy advisor to Primer Minister Stephen Harper, he oversaw the
government's most difficult and contentious files, including climate change, the
oil sands and the war in Afghanistan. Associates alternately describe the
well-known political fixer as charismatic, paranoid and competent.
"Carson really had the skills of an old political boss. He was the guy who
made things happen under the radar and the guy who knows everything," says a
former university associate.
According to annual reports for the Canada School of Energy and Environment
(CSEE) and Carson's own speeches (many of which have disappeared from the web),
the federal government conveniently set aside $15 million for a university think
tank dedicated to smart energy research in 2007. It did so after then University
of Calgary president Harvey Weingarten and climate change scientist David Keith
pitched the idea for an innovative energy think tank directly to Harper's senior
policy advisor -- Bruce Carson. (At the time, Carson had been seconded from the
PMO to Environment Canada to help put out political fires started by then
environment minister Rona Ambrose, a climate change skeptic.)
"Harvey and I went to Ottawa to lobby for the CSEE funding, and you can guess
who the key guy to talk to was. It's hard to escape the conclusion that Carson
was building himself a soft landing from government," Keith told The Tyee.
A year later, Carson left the Prime Minister's Office. After allegedly
conducting an international recruitment search, the University of Calgary
appointed Carson as executive director of the school in August 2008. Months
later he took two separate leaves of absence to help with the federal election
campaign and another to work in the PMO during the so-called prorogation crisis
in 2009.
Yet Carson's appointment seemed odd. He was a constitutional expert with no
academic credentials in energy or the environment. But he did, however, have a
checkered legal career and lengthy criminal record including five convictions in
total. When the Calgary Herald asked questions about
Carson's criminal record in 2008, a University of Calgary spokesperson refused
to talk about "second or third hand information."
the Harper government and its abuse of the public trust.
And it goes like this: Harper's key political troubleshooter and problem
fixer gets lobbied for money for a new university think tank.
He then leaves the Prime Minister's Office and becomes executive director of
that same think tank: the Canada School of Energy and the Environment.
It's mostly funded by a $15-million grant from the Harper government.
The former senior advisor alters the school's mandate to permit government
lobbying and policy development on the oil sands.
He then lobbies for more federal money, $25 million, and gets it.
He also works for several of his former associates (three cabinet ministers)
and directs a joint industry and government campaign to improve the image of the
oil sands industry.
CARSON AND HIS FIANCÉE
Most Canadians first heard of Bruce Carson in March when news broke that a 66-year-old
disbarred lawyer and convicted fraudster was under investigation by the RCMP for
influence peddling on behalf a Michelle McPherson, his 22-year-old fiancée and a
former one-time Ottawa sex worker.
That aspect of Carson's busy life was revealed first by the Aboriginal
People's Television Network, which received documents allegedly proving that
Carson actively lobbied the federal government on behalf of Michelle McPherson
and her new employer, a water filtration company.
McPherson, whose mother works for interests in the gas kingdom of Qatar, was
trying to sell water filters to aboriginal reserves where poor water quality
remains a legacy of both Liberal and Tory government neglect.
Federal law also prohibits former political staffers from lobbying government
for five years after leaving office or from taking improper advantage of their
previous position.
Yet there are several loopholes: if individuals spend less than 20 per cent
of their time lobbying, lobby for free or are paid by a corporation, they don't
have to register their activity. Carson has never registered as a lobbyist.
Lobbying commissioner Karen Shepherd has been asked by at least one MP to
investigate the Carson affair and alleged breaches of the Lobbying Act. --
A.N.
With taxpayer dollars he openly runs a partisan Tory energy think tank. He
even gives partisan Tory speeches to Tory audiences.
In the end, the school becomes a clearinghouse for industrial energy
lobbyists working hand in hand with the federal and Alberta Tory government.
In sum, the PMO's senior advisor appears to have never surrendered his
previous political files or his role as a Harper's troubleshooter.
And then the Aboriginal People's Television Network (APTN) runs a sexy story
about Carson's fiancée and polluted water and influence peddling (see
sidebar).
*But big ethical questions about Harper's role in the larger scandal remain
unanswered, including these:
To what degree was Harper or members of his office involved in setting up
Carson with a comfortable university job entirely funded by taxpayers' dollars?
Why did the Harper government not begin a conflict-of-interest investigation
two years ago when his close friend lobbied the government for more money?
And why was a former government staffer allowed to take advantage of his
former high profile position and freely mix and mingle with government officials
and cabinet ministers within a year of his leaving office and before "the
cooling off" period had ended?
Today The Tyee learned that the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner,
Mary Dawson, has commenced an investigation of Carson under the Conflict of
Interest Act. In addition to an RCMP investigation, that makes three separate
federal inquiries on the activities of Harper's former advisor and confidant.
The latest one focuses on matters revealed in this story -- the highly
questionable way Carson came to head the Canada School of Energy and the
Environment and how he apparently violated ethics rules by actively working with
government officials during a so-called "cooling off period."
While various aspects of Carson's dealings have emerged over past weeks in
bits and pieces, this in-depth report includes fresh information and
perspectives. What surfaces is a tale of industry and government duplicity,
conflict of interest, arrogance, breach of public trust, and systemic ethical
lapses in the Conservative government.
Carson, concludes Duff Conacher, director of Democracy Watch, is a figure of
rich, if oil black, irony. "He exploited the whole political cronyism system
that Harper originally attacked and disparaged before forming a government."
A mechanic on campus
Carson, a disbarred lawyer who looks like a pugilist, often described himself
as "mechanic," a political fixer who got things done in the messy corridors of
power.
As senior policy advisor to Primer Minister Stephen Harper, he oversaw the
government's most difficult and contentious files, including climate change, the
oil sands and the war in Afghanistan. Associates alternately describe the
well-known political fixer as charismatic, paranoid and competent.
"Carson really had the skills of an old political boss. He was the guy who
made things happen under the radar and the guy who knows everything," says a
former university associate.
According to annual reports for the Canada School of Energy and Environment
(CSEE) and Carson's own speeches (many of which have disappeared from the web),
the federal government conveniently set aside $15 million for a university think
tank dedicated to smart energy research in 2007. It did so after then University
of Calgary president Harvey Weingarten and climate change scientist David Keith
pitched the idea for an innovative energy think tank directly to Harper's senior
policy advisor -- Bruce Carson. (At the time, Carson had been seconded from the
PMO to Environment Canada to help put out political fires started by then
environment minister Rona Ambrose, a climate change skeptic.)
"Harvey and I went to Ottawa to lobby for the CSEE funding, and you can guess
who the key guy to talk to was. It's hard to escape the conclusion that Carson
was building himself a soft landing from government," Keith told The Tyee.
A year later, Carson left the Prime Minister's Office. After allegedly
conducting an international recruitment search, the University of Calgary
appointed Carson as executive director of the school in August 2008. Months
later he took two separate leaves of absence to help with the federal election
campaign and another to work in the PMO during the so-called prorogation crisis
in 2009.
Yet Carson's appointment seemed odd. He was a constitutional expert with no
academic credentials in energy or the environment. But he did, however, have a
checkered legal career and lengthy criminal record including five convictions in
total. When the Calgary Herald asked questions about
Carson's criminal record in 2008, a University of Calgary spokesperson refused
to talk about "second or third hand information."
Bruce Carson Scandal Greased by Harper's Oil Sands Agenda
Page 3 of 4
Conacher, however, says there is no such thing as an ethics
screen under the Conflict of Interest Act. "I think what he (Carson) was doing
was illegal." Gerard Kennedy, a Liberal MP and environment critic, has called
for a full investigation: "Every Canadian knows this is a conflict of interest."
Shortly afterwards, the Tory politico eventually secured a total of $50
million in taxpayer dollars for the carbon group from Natural Resources Canada
and the government of Alberta. Carson then chaired the group until the McPherson
lobbying scandal broke.
Meanwhile Carson also worked on the same files that preoccupied the mechanic
while serving as senior policy advisor to the prime minister.
In April 28, 2009, for example, Carson accompanied Environment
Minister Jim Prentice at the first preparatory meeting of the Major Economies
Forum (MEF) on Energy in Washington, D.C. The MEF is composed of the world's 16
worst greenhouse gas polluters. (Canada ranks in the top 10.) Carson was the
only non-government employee there. He also attended later MEF meetings.
In fact, Carson showed up by Prentice's side routinely. "I'd arrange a
meeting with Prentice and Bruce Carson would always be there," says a senior
Carson associate who cannot be named. "I don't know in what capacity. But he
was continually working for Prentice. Carson never left his previous role."
Towards the end of his so-called cooling off period, Carson's school also
partnered with Natural Resources Canada and Minister Lisa Raitt to hold a
roundtable on clean energy research and development in November 2009.
Environment Canada webpage shows Environment Minister Jim Prentice next to
Bruce Carson at high-level meeting with U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu in
April of 2009, just eight months after Carson left government, despite required
one-year "cooling off period."
Contrary to popular definitions of "clean energy," companies representing
wind, solar and geothermal developments weren't invited to the roundtable. In
fact, the Carson agenda was clearly dominated by oil-sand producers including
Shell, Imperial, EnCana, Nexen and Enbridge as well as Canadian Association of
Petroleum Producers.
The roundtable concluded that "the fossil fuel industry in Canada suffers
from reputational challenges due to poor communication." And that "energy
literacy among the Canadian public is very low." It also noted that:
"Governments must create a policy environment that is supportive of R&D in
fossil fuels." The school later hosted Christian
Paradis, minister of natural resources, for a dinner to discuss "a national
clean energy strategy for Canada."
'A blanket rule'
To recap, then, the Carson saga up to this point:
Under the guise of a non-profit education and research facility, Carson,
Stephen Harper's former chief policy advisor, used millions of taxpayer dollars
to actively champion fossil fuels as "clean energy," deflect criticism on the
extreme carbon and environmental footprint of the oil sands, and advocate for an
industry-designed "Pan Canadian energy policy."
At the same time, the manically busy Carson accompanied Environment Minister
Jim Prentice on sensitive bilateral meetings and advised two natural resource
ministers, including Lisa Raitt and current minister Christian Paradis, on
so-called "clean energy" matters.
As the coach of a concerted industry and government oil-sands campaign,
Carson also advised oil sands executives on how to clean up the industry's
"dirty oil" brand.
But under the federal Conflict of Interest Act, a former government officials
must undergo a one-year "cooling-off" period that strictly forbids them from
communicating with their former political masters.
Although Bruce Carson was clearly required by the Conflict of Interest Act to
inform ethics commissioner Mary Dawson that he had communicated and worked with
three different cabinet ministers during his "cooling off" period, it's not
clear he did so.
"The one year cooling off period is a blanket rule," says Conacher of
Democracy Watch, a non-partisan watchdog that has doggedly criticized Liberal
patronage scandals. "It appears that Carson wasn't careful enough and crossed
the line as we can see from other aspects of his life. He exploited the whole
political cronyism system that Harper originally attacked and disparaged before
forming a government."
As noted at the top of this story, ethics commissioner Mary Dawson today let
it be known that she has launched an investigation of Carson -- a probe begun by
request of the Prime Minister's Office.
Ex-prostitute pal ran oil sands confabs
Towards the end of 2009, Carson organized a conference dedicated to another
of his PMO responsibilities, the US/Canada Clean Energy
Dialogue. He also attended the Copenhagen Climate Change
Conference "in the capacity of Senior Advisor to the Deputy Minister of the
Environment." The school's 2009 corporate plan also says that Carson coordinated
"a team of special advisors" for the environment minister.
In April 2010, Carson's school sponsored a clean energy
"dialogue" in Banff that according to
participants was "largely a platform for Environment Minister Jim Prentice."
Carson even admitted such: "I thought, if we could bring together the right
group of people for a few days, we could help our federal Environment Minister,
Honorable Jim Prentice put flesh on the bones" of a proposed US/Canada Clean
Energy Dialogue that to date has made no real progress on reducing GHG
emissions.
Many of these conferences, such as the three-day Banff meeting, were hosted
by Barbara Lynn Khan, a former prostitute from North Carolina. After being
convicted of running a bawdy house ("the Sugar Shack") and money laundering in the
United States, Kahn, the 45-year-old native of Ontario was deported to Canada in
2005. She met Carson in Ottawa in 2006. But Banff attendees simply knew the
well-dressed woman as "Kat."
"Kat ran the conference for us and for free. She was marvelous. That woman is
super competent," said one associate.
Shortly afterwards, Carson's relationship with Barbara Lynn Kahn ended. He
then hooked up with a former Ottawa sex worker, 22-year-old Michelle McPherson.
"I've got a new girlfriend. She's real young. She's 28." Carson told friends.
She's really something, a real go-getter."
In 2010 Carson actively coordinated a joint industry and government lobbying
effort to improve the oil sands environmental image then the subject of
international environmental and First Nations' campaigns.
According to documents obtained by Mike De Souza at Postmedia News, Carson
sat down with David Collyer, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum
Producers (CAPP) and the deputy minister of natural resources, Cassie J. Doyle
(the same government official Carson lobbied for federal funding), as well as
several Alberta deputy ministers at a March meeting of the "Alberta Government
On Oil Sands Outreach and Communications." It was held at CAPP's headquarters.
Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner later joined the meeting.
The subject was a new industry strategy for oil sands executives on "upping
their game" on the embattled project and its growing carbon and environmental
liabilities. One deputy minister noted that "industry
needs to pay now or pay later in other ways if the issue is not addressed."
Polishing the oil sands pitch
After the meeting, which concluded that industry and the federal and
provincial governments should work together on CAPP's lobbying effort, the
industry group contracted Carson's school to work on the Oil Sands Dialogues.
Carson then prepared a background paper (Engaging Canadians: National Oil
Sands Dialogues) for the private discussions that were to be led by oil sands
CEO's. The paper proposed to "expand Canada's international reach in energy
trade" and recommended that the United States should resist attempts "to use US
environmental regulations to block permitting of oil sands-related pipelines or
refineries on climate grounds."
Incredibly, Carson's narrow paper makes no mention
of some of the project's social, fiscal or national implications other than
jobs. Carson, for example, doesn't address low royalty and tax rates, which even
the US Council On Foreign Relations, a non-partisan think tank, noted in its 2009 oil
sands report.
Page 3 of 4
Scandal Rocks Key Player in Canada's Oil Sands PR
Push
Bruce Carson was the 'grey-haired sage' linking PM Harper to oil lobby. Now
he's accused of influence peddling for a young former prostitute. Latest in a
series.
Biggest Silent Election Issue: Oil's Erosion of
Canada
Petro wealth is fouling our country's character, as it did many
others'.
Harper's Crime Floggers
The case of the Macdonald Laurier Institute, key accomplice to Tories in
their assaults on truth.
Conacher, however, says there is no such thing as an ethics
screen under the Conflict of Interest Act. "I think what he (Carson) was doing
was illegal." Gerard Kennedy, a Liberal MP and environment critic, has called
for a full investigation: "Every Canadian knows this is a conflict of interest."
Shortly afterwards, the Tory politico eventually secured a total of $50
million in taxpayer dollars for the carbon group from Natural Resources Canada
and the government of Alberta. Carson then chaired the group until the McPherson
lobbying scandal broke.
Meanwhile Carson also worked on the same files that preoccupied the mechanic
while serving as senior policy advisor to the prime minister.
In April 28, 2009, for example, Carson accompanied Environment
Minister Jim Prentice at the first preparatory meeting of the Major Economies
Forum (MEF) on Energy in Washington, D.C. The MEF is composed of the world's 16
worst greenhouse gas polluters. (Canada ranks in the top 10.) Carson was the
only non-government employee there. He also attended later MEF meetings.
In fact, Carson showed up by Prentice's side routinely. "I'd arrange a
meeting with Prentice and Bruce Carson would always be there," says a senior
Carson associate who cannot be named. "I don't know in what capacity. But he
was continually working for Prentice. Carson never left his previous role."
Towards the end of his so-called cooling off period, Carson's school also
partnered with Natural Resources Canada and Minister Lisa Raitt to hold a
roundtable on clean energy research and development in November 2009.
Environment Canada webpage shows Environment Minister Jim Prentice next to
Bruce Carson at high-level meeting with U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu in
April of 2009, just eight months after Carson left government, despite required
one-year "cooling off period."
Contrary to popular definitions of "clean energy," companies representing
wind, solar and geothermal developments weren't invited to the roundtable. In
fact, the Carson agenda was clearly dominated by oil-sand producers including
Shell, Imperial, EnCana, Nexen and Enbridge as well as Canadian Association of
Petroleum Producers.
The roundtable concluded that "the fossil fuel industry in Canada suffers
from reputational challenges due to poor communication." And that "energy
literacy among the Canadian public is very low." It also noted that:
"Governments must create a policy environment that is supportive of R&D in
fossil fuels." The school later hosted Christian
Paradis, minister of natural resources, for a dinner to discuss "a national
clean energy strategy for Canada."
'A blanket rule'
To recap, then, the Carson saga up to this point:
Under the guise of a non-profit education and research facility, Carson,
Stephen Harper's former chief policy advisor, used millions of taxpayer dollars
to actively champion fossil fuels as "clean energy," deflect criticism on the
extreme carbon and environmental footprint of the oil sands, and advocate for an
industry-designed "Pan Canadian energy policy."
At the same time, the manically busy Carson accompanied Environment Minister
Jim Prentice on sensitive bilateral meetings and advised two natural resource
ministers, including Lisa Raitt and current minister Christian Paradis, on
so-called "clean energy" matters.
As the coach of a concerted industry and government oil-sands campaign,
Carson also advised oil sands executives on how to clean up the industry's
"dirty oil" brand.
But under the federal Conflict of Interest Act, a former government officials
must undergo a one-year "cooling-off" period that strictly forbids them from
communicating with their former political masters.
Although Bruce Carson was clearly required by the Conflict of Interest Act to
inform ethics commissioner Mary Dawson that he had communicated and worked with
three different cabinet ministers during his "cooling off" period, it's not
clear he did so.
"The one year cooling off period is a blanket rule," says Conacher of
Democracy Watch, a non-partisan watchdog that has doggedly criticized Liberal
patronage scandals. "It appears that Carson wasn't careful enough and crossed
the line as we can see from other aspects of his life. He exploited the whole
political cronyism system that Harper originally attacked and disparaged before
forming a government."
As noted at the top of this story, ethics commissioner Mary Dawson today let
it be known that she has launched an investigation of Carson -- a probe begun by
request of the Prime Minister's Office.
Ex-prostitute pal ran oil sands confabs
Towards the end of 2009, Carson organized a conference dedicated to another
of his PMO responsibilities, the US/Canada Clean Energy
Dialogue. He also attended the Copenhagen Climate Change
Conference "in the capacity of Senior Advisor to the Deputy Minister of the
Environment." The school's 2009 corporate plan also says that Carson coordinated
"a team of special advisors" for the environment minister.
In April 2010, Carson's school sponsored a clean energy
"dialogue" in Banff that according to
participants was "largely a platform for Environment Minister Jim Prentice."
Carson even admitted such: "I thought, if we could bring together the right
group of people for a few days, we could help our federal Environment Minister,
Honorable Jim Prentice put flesh on the bones" of a proposed US/Canada Clean
Energy Dialogue that to date has made no real progress on reducing GHG
emissions.
Many of these conferences, such as the three-day Banff meeting, were hosted
by Barbara Lynn Khan, a former prostitute from North Carolina. After being
convicted of running a bawdy house ("the Sugar Shack") and money laundering in the
United States, Kahn, the 45-year-old native of Ontario was deported to Canada in
2005. She met Carson in Ottawa in 2006. But Banff attendees simply knew the
well-dressed woman as "Kat."
"Kat ran the conference for us and for free. She was marvelous. That woman is
super competent," said one associate.
Shortly afterwards, Carson's relationship with Barbara Lynn Kahn ended. He
then hooked up with a former Ottawa sex worker, 22-year-old Michelle McPherson.
"I've got a new girlfriend. She's real young. She's 28." Carson told friends.
She's really something, a real go-getter."
In 2010 Carson actively coordinated a joint industry and government lobbying
effort to improve the oil sands environmental image then the subject of
international environmental and First Nations' campaigns.
According to documents obtained by Mike De Souza at Postmedia News, Carson
sat down with David Collyer, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum
Producers (CAPP) and the deputy minister of natural resources, Cassie J. Doyle
(the same government official Carson lobbied for federal funding), as well as
several Alberta deputy ministers at a March meeting of the "Alberta Government
On Oil Sands Outreach and Communications." It was held at CAPP's headquarters.
Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner later joined the meeting.
The subject was a new industry strategy for oil sands executives on "upping
their game" on the embattled project and its growing carbon and environmental
liabilities. One deputy minister noted that "industry
needs to pay now or pay later in other ways if the issue is not addressed."
Polishing the oil sands pitch
After the meeting, which concluded that industry and the federal and
provincial governments should work together on CAPP's lobbying effort, the
industry group contracted Carson's school to work on the Oil Sands Dialogues.
Carson then prepared a background paper (Engaging Canadians: National Oil
Sands Dialogues) for the private discussions that were to be led by oil sands
CEO's. The paper proposed to "expand Canada's international reach in energy
trade" and recommended that the United States should resist attempts "to use US
environmental regulations to block permitting of oil sands-related pipelines or
refineries on climate grounds."
Incredibly, Carson's narrow paper makes no mention
of some of the project's social, fiscal or national implications other than
jobs. Carson, for example, doesn't address low royalty and tax rates, which even
the US Council On Foreign Relations, a non-partisan think tank, noted in its 2009 oil
sands report.
