When the Pembina Institute surveyed Alberta election candidates on oilsands development, nearly 100 per cent of Liberal, NDP and Green candidates surveyed said government — and not market forces — should “manage the rate of oilsands development to meet the long-term interests of Albertans.” It wasn’t a surprising result, as all three parties have been pushing for a slowdown in the oilsands. (Seventy-one per cent of NDP, 67 per cent of Green, 63 per cent of Liberal and 40 per cent of Wildrose Alliance candidates responded to the survey.)

What was surprising was the Conservative result. Only 24 per cent of the 83 Conservative candidates responded to the survey, but of those who responded, 75 per cent said government, not the market, should manage oilsands development — a position sharply different from Stelmach’s stance that the Alberta government will not touch the brakes on oilsands development. “I think there’s a growing awareness that the oilsands file has been really mishandled by the government,” says the Pembina Institute’s Simon Dyer.

When Stelmach was asked about his candidates’ survey results at a campaign stop in Calgary on February 26, he tried to link the Alberta Liberals with the federal Liberals of the 1980s — a strategy he’s used throughout the campaign, even though the two parties aren’t connected to each other. “I’ve said many times before, I’m not going to follow the Liberal policy of slowing down the economy through government intervention,” says Stelmach. “We lived through that in the ’80s. We’re not going to go through that.”

Stelmach added he’s not worried about his candidates having different opinions on oilsands development. “I’ve always said those candidates that are elected and form the Progressive Conservative Party caucus of Alberta speak for their constituents,” he says. “I’m a premier that listens.” Stelmach also said the Pembina Institute has been “lobbing different things at me this whole campaign, and I’m sure will continue.”

The Pembina Institute released the survey results a day after news broke that several energy companies — including Husky Energy, Petro-Canada and Suncor — support the creation of conservation areas in northern Alberta to offset the impact of oilsands development.

As well, on February 22, Alberta First Nations chiefs unanimously passed a resolution to support calls for no new oilsands approvals. “Thresholds have to be put in place that will protect [the] ecosystem and human health along with the well-being of our land,” says Chief Allan Adam of the Fort Chipewyan First Nation.

Residents of Fort Chipewyan, a small community downstream from the oilsands, hope to make their concerns an election issue in the last days of the campaign. The provincial government has refused to do a baseline health study in Fort Chipewyan, despite repeated calls from the local doctor and residents worried that oilsands contamination of the Athabasca River may be harming their health and causing cancer. Elders and other residents of Fort Chipewyan plan to rally at the legislature Saturday, March 1 to ask the province to stop ignoring them. (JK)