Oil sands money trail – by Vivian Krause (National Post – January 18, 2012)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Billionaire U.S foundations fund Canada’s green groups

Last week, on the eve of the environmental review for the $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline project that would carry Alberta oil to Kitimat for export to Asia, Canada’s Minister for Natural Resources, Joe Oliver, expressed concern that foreign-funded environmentalists would jeopardize the review and block the pipeline. Oliver didn’t mention my name, but the research that raised concerns about the foreign funding of environmentalism in Canada is apparently mine.

For five years, on my own nickel, I have been following the money and the science behind environmental campaigns and I’ve been doing what the Canada Revenue Agency hasn’t been doing: I’ve gathered information about the origin and the stated purpose of grants from U.S. foundations to green groups in Canada. My research is based on U.S. tax returns because the U.S. Internal Revenue Service requires greater disclosure from non-profits than does the CRA.

By my analysis and calculations, since 2000, U.S. foundations have granted at least US$300-million to various environmental organizations and campaigns in Canada, especially in B.C. The San Francisco-based Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation alone has granted US$92-million. Gordon Moore is one of the co-founders of Intel Corp. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation have granted a combined total of US$90-million, mostly to B.C. groups. These foundations were created by the founders of Hewlett-Packard Co.
The Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts, created by the founders of Sun Oil, has granted at least US$82-million over the past decade and at least US$40-million has been granted by other U.S. foundations.

Of the US$300-million that I’ve traced, at least US$150-million was specifically for the Great Bear Rainforest Initiative, the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area and the Boreal Forest Initiative.

The Great Bear Rainforest is a 21-million-hectare zone that extends from the northern tip of Vancouver Island to the southern tip of Alaska. Environmentalists now claim that oil tanker traffic must not be allowed in the Great Bear Rainforest in order to protect the kermode bear (aka the Great Spirit Bear). Whether this was the intention all along or not, the Great Bear Rainforest has become the Great Trade Barrier against oil exports to Asia.

Speaking on CBC last night, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said, “But just because certain people in the United States would like to see Canada be one giant national park for the northern half of North America, I don’t think that’s part of what our review process [for the Northern Gateway] is all about.”

PNCIMA is a marine-planning initiative in which both the federal and the B.C. governments were at the table along with environmental and First Nations groups, all of whom are heavily funded by US$30-million from the Moore Foundation, co-ordinated through Tides Canada. One of the peculiar things about PNCIMA is that it covers only a relatively small but very strategic part of Canada’s coastline: The north coast of B.C., which just happens to be right smack where oil tankers would need to travel for oil exports to Asia. Last September, the government of Canada withdrew from PNCIMA. The reason, according to media speculation, was excessive outside influence.

First Nations groups on the north coast of B.C. have been granted at least US$50-million by U.S. foundations, $27-million from Moore, US$19-million from Hewlett and Packard, and several million from other U.S. foundations.

Pew alone put US$57-million into the Boreal Forest Initiative which aims to put half of Canada’s boreal forest (which covers two-thirds of Canada) into protected areas and parks. “New protected areas should exclude industrial development such as logging, mining, hydro, new roads, and oil and gas while accommodating activities such as traditional hunting, fishing and gathering,” says the BFI agreement signed by forestry companies, environmental groups and Suncor Energy Inc. in 2010.

For the rest of this column, please go to the National Post/Financial Post website: http://opinion.financialpost.com/2012/01/17/vivian-krause-oil-sands-money-trail/