EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach says Hollywood director James Cameron should come see the oilsands for himself before bashing the project as the environmental shame of the nation.
And while he’s here, said Stelmach, he could even take a canoe trip.
“It sounds like, seems like, (Cameron) was led to a particular conclusion and he also said he’d like to know more. So here’s an opportunity,” Stelmach told reporters Thursday.
“Travel. Have a look. Visit. Maybe take a canoe trip down the Athabasca ... and see the oilsands on the bank. See for yourself.”
Stelmach echoed the earlier comments of Environment Minister Rob Renner, who said Cameron is welcome to come to the sprawling oilsands development in northeastern Alberta.
“We’ll write to him. Send him an email. Twitter him. Whatever we can do,” said Stelmach.
“I know it’s garnered a lot of attention, and our environment minister has said, ’Come on down.’
“I don’t know if it will convince him, but at least he’ll have an opportunity to see what areas of the development have been reclaimed, hear about the monitoring 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. All those things that perhaps Mr. Cameron didn’t have the information on.”
Stelmach was reacting to comments made earlier this week by the Ontario-born Cameron while the director was promoting Thursday’s DVD and Blu-Ray release of his 3-D sci-fi epic “Avatar.”
Cameron — also the director of such iconic films as “Titanic,” “Aliens” and “The Terminator” — told The Canadian Press that while he doesn’t know much about Alberta’s oilsands, he knows they are a “black eye” on Canada’s image as an enviro-leader.
He said pursuing non-renewable energy sources is “dead-end” thinking and urged the province to more actively pursue green initiatives like wind power.
Stelmach says they’re working on it: “The oilsands are there to meet a lot of the global energy demand. We’re going to transition to greener energy over time, but it won’t happen overnight. There will still be this incredible demand for energy.”
Stelmach was also asked if he’s lined up at the theatre to catch “Avatar.”
“I haven’t seen the movie,” he said.
Alberta’s oilsands have come under fire in recent years from such critics as the National Audubon Society and National Geographic magazine as the poster industry for the blinkered-thinking that allows land to be stripped, rivers polluted and skies blackened to get at the non-renewable oil-sand-water mixture below.
Critics, in fact, compare the oilsands to the plot of “Avatar,” where indigenous tribespeople living in harmony on the woodland planet of Pandora use bows and arrows to repel invaders who raze the landscape with metal machines to unearth the precious resources below.
While the strip mines are a small percentage of Alberta’s oilsands operations, about 600 square kilometres, Stelmach acknowledged that the inland lakes of chemical waste they produce — called “tailings ponds” — have to go.
“Our goal is to ensure we eliminate tailings ponds. That’s what people are focusing on and that’s the direction we’re taking. It can’t be done overnight but the technology is there to start that process.”
Stelmach also suggested he wasn’t shocked by the tone of Cameron’s comments, particularly the “black eye” remark.
“You know what?” he said. “I’ve heard worse.”
Tom Katinas, CEO of oilsands giant Syncrude Canada Ltd., also weighed in.
He said Cameron should come up to Alberta and tour the oilsands. Katinas said the director’s opinion may change if he saw the projects with his own eyes.
“I think he is talking about something that he doesn’t have a lot of background on,” Katinas said.
“Sometimes there is prejudice behind the things you read or hear and I don’t think that presents a balanced view. Come up. Take a look at it. Form your own opinion based on what you really see.”