GCCM Canada advocates choosing life over profits in Teck Frontier Mine Decision.

GCCM Canada makes their voice heard with a letter to MPs regarding the Teck Frontier Mine Decision.

Read the following letter sent to The Honourable Minister Wilkinson on behalf of the Global Catholic Climate Movement Canada Community.

The Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson

Minister of Environment and Climate Change

Fontaine Building 12th floor
200 Sacré-Coeur Blvd
Gatineau QC  

K1A 0H3

February 12, 2020

Dear Minister Wilkinson

Teck’s Frontier Mine, to be built north of Fort McMurray, would produce 260,000 barrels of oil a day and four million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year, for the foreseeable future. Not only would the construction of this mine leave Canada unable to meet our Paris Climate Agreement goals, but it would also mean the destruction of thousands of kilometers of pristine wetlands. Impacts of the mine will also be felt along the British Columbia coast as oil products are transported to shipping ports. 

Minister Wilkinson, Canada’s precious treasures are not in the ground, but in the abundant life and life-giving systems of our forests, waterways, biodiversity, and people.

Luc Bouchard, Bishop of St. Paul in Alberta, on January 25, 2009, issued a pastoral letter on major economic development in his diocese in which he stated "I am forced to conclude that the integrity of creation in the Athabasca oilsands is clearly being sacrificed for economic gain. The proposed future development of the oilsands constitutes a serious moral problem.  Environmentalists and members of First Nations and Metis communities who are challenging government and industry to adequately safeguard the air, water and boreal forest ecosystems of the Athabasca oilsands region present a very strong moral argument, which I support. The present pace and scale of development in the Athabasca oil sands cannot be morally justified. Active steps to alleviate this environmental damage must be undertaken." And the Canadian Religious Conference in solidarity with the Pastoral Letter of Bishop Luc Bouchard wrote: “Bishop Bouchard rightfully challenges the governments and the oil companies to acknowledge what seems obvious to so many others”.

How many billions more trees will we have to plant to offset the damage of the Teck Frontier Mine? Who will pay for the labour and the trees, and the clean up of poisonous tailings ponds, and the costs of adding far more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than the earth can possibly, safely sustain? Whose lives will be destroyed if unrestrained ecocide is considered acceptable collateral damage in favour of monetary gain?

Are there not alternatives to help working people who depend on energy sector jobs find paths to employment that do not compromise Canada’s international commitments to work towards no more than 1.5°C global average temperature rise? Is it possible that provinces that rely on the energy sector be given meaningful incentives to assist in transitioning their economies so that their citizens do not suffer unnecessarily?

What amount of profit could possibly be enough to choose death over life?

We say no amount of profit is worth the damage and death the Frontier Mine will create.

Please consider this decision carefully. Help us live up to Canada’s commitments to aim for no more than 1.5°C global average temperature rise.

Respectfully,

Agnes Richard

Coordinator, GCCM Canada

Faith & the Common Good
@ Centre for Social Innovation, Suite 300
192 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, ON M5T 2C2

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https://www.faithcommongood.org/global_catholic_climate_movement_canada