CANADA GOVERNMENT NEWS RELEASE: Minister Oda Announces Initiatives to Increase the Benefits of Natural Resource Management for People in Africa and South America

Sept. 29, 2011

TORONTO, ONTARIO,  (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — In a keynote address at the Devonshire Initiative CEO Summit, the Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, today announced four new projects that will help developing countries in Africa and South America manage their natural resources to ensure they are a source of long-term sustainable benefits to their people.

“The Canadian extractive industries – in particular mining – are the largest in the world, working in many developing countries that have an abundance of natural resources. Working in partnership with the private sector, these resources can contribute to poverty reduction in many of these countries and improve the standard of living for their populations,” said Minister Oda. “CIDA is supporting Canada’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Strategy for the Canadian International Extractive Sector with initiatives that will contribute to sustainable economic growth, job creation and long-term poverty reduction.”

Today’s announcement includes three pilot projects in collaboration with Canadian partners to reduce poverty in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ghana, and Burkina Faso.

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PDAC NEWS RELEASE: Human Resources Issues Threaten Canada’s Mineral Exploration Supremacy

For Immediate Release

Sept. 30, 2011

To read the complete report click here: Unearthing Possibilities

Canada’s position as the global leader in mineral exploration is at risk because of a human resources triple threat, according to a study released today by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) and the Mining Industry Human Resources (MiHR) Council.  

Unearthing Possibilities:  Human Resources Challenges and Opportunities in the Canadian Mineral Exploration Sector says Canada’s mineral exploration industry faces challenges on three critical fronts:  a lack of awareness about the exploration sector and its many related career opportunities; a thinning labour pool that is affecting companies’ recruitment efforts; and attrition that sees many versatile, multi-skilled professionals leave the sector in mid-career.

“The worldwide demand for skilled labour in this sector is constantly increasing and driving up the cost of human resources,” says Dr. Scott Jobin-Bevans, PDAC president.  “We have to work harder to attract more Canadians to this industry.”

In an increasingly globalized economy that prizes highly educated, multi-skilled workers, Canada will continue to lose mineral exploration professionals and its decades-long number one ranking in mineral exploration may quickly change. 

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Foreign interests attack oil sands – by Diane Francis (National Post – September 24, 2011)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper

I believe foreign countries are behind some of the noise and mischief in the United States to try to shut down Canada’s oil sands and block construction of the proposed pipeline to bring 700,000 more barrels day to Texas refineries.

The new global reality, since the UN Copenhagen failure to come to any workable agreement to reduce pollution or population worldwide, is that powerful, transnational nonstate players are roaming the world, in the environmental space, replacing smaller and local activists. They are run by faceless persons, they cross borders, they have planetary mandates to attack fossil fuel or any energy development and are armed with funds, media smarts and political influence. They prey on countries where there is an open and transparent system of environmental management even though they often are not transparent themselves in terms of their backers, financing sources and agenda.

They swarm around chosen causes and one of their biggest targets has been Canada’s oil sands. This has made no sense because emissions from the oil sands are a fraction of the emissions from coal and equivalent to California heavy crude oils or ethanol. None of these has been getting the same attention as the oil sands and this pipeline.

But here’s one example of the transnational environmentalism:

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Saudi oil’s Ethical Warfare – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – September 21, 2011)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper

CALGARY . Is Saudi Arabia losing its cool over Canada’s growing oil sands? It certainly seems that way, based on the Middle East kingdom’s bizarre overreaction to television commercials that promote Canada’s “ethical oil,” in contrast to oil coming from Saudi Arabia, a regime that oppresses women.

The commercials are sponsored by a tiny grassroots organization based in Toronto, EthicalOil.org, which encourages consumers to favour “ethical” oil from Canada over “conflict” oil that comes from undemocratic regimes, where most of the world’s oil reserves are located.

EthicalOil.org ran the commercials on the Oprah Winfrey Network in Canada in late August. The Saudis responded by hiring lawyers to tell the Television Bureau of Canada, the advertising review and clearance service funded by Canada’s private broadcasters, to withdraw approval of the ads.

The group was so outraged by the Saudis’ “intimidation tactics” it started running the commercials again this week on the Sun News Network and was planning to run them on CTV, until the network backed out, said Alykhan Velshi, executive director of EthicalOil.org.

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Let’s talk, miner tells KI – by Bryan Meadows (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – September 30, 2011)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

A junior exploration company that Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation is trying to kick off its traditional territory says its attempts to consult with the band have been met with silence.

God’s Lake Resources CEO Ed Ludwig said Thursday that the company has tried to meet with the band, without success, about the existence of sacred burial sites near where the company is exploring for gold in the Sherman Lake area.

“We were told about (the potential of grave sites in the area) and have asked the chief and elders to locate them,” said Ludwig, adding that the province has made the same request.

“We’ve asked that they please come and show us . . . we want to show the proper respect.

“I want to respect that avenue and develop a boundary, but when questioned about where there might be grave sites, the band has provided no response,” he said.

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