:
First of all, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.
During a committee question period on December 7, 2010, Mr. David Anderson asked questions of Lionel Lepine relative to the ACFN Business Group on employment statistics of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation membership.
I wish to submit some of the statistics on the ACFN Business Group as well as some supporting documentation and comments.
The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Business Group consists of five companies that are 100% owned by the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, and another seven joint ventures and partnerships. The ACFN Business Group employs a moving number of employees, depending on industrial demand. At peak industrial requirement of resources during industrial maintenance turnarounds and/or shutdowns, we employ approximately 1,400 people. During the non-industrial maintenance turnarounds, the business group maintains employment numbers of approximately 1,200 employees.
Employment opportunities for ACFN band members are also a moving number depending on industrial demand. During these turnarounds, industry may ask the business group to provide additional labour resources of 300 to 400 personnel. Out of these numbers, we attempt to provide temporary employment for band members living on-reserve. These employees are then transported from Fort Chipewyan to other communities, directly to the plant site, and are provided with accommodation for the period required by the industrial companies.
For questions pertaining to permanent employee levels, I will provide you with some of the demographics of band membership employed with the business group.
The reasons for ACFN band members being at a suggested low level are listed as follows: in the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo, based on the 2010 census, the population of Fort Chipewyan was 1,261 people. ACFN's total membership population out of that is 920. The number of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation members living in Fort Chipewyan is 236. This equates to 19% of the total population in Fort Chipewyan which are ACFN members in all ages.
Of the ACFN membership, 26% reside in Fort Chipewyan. The ACFN working-age population, between 18 and 55, as of May 2010, is as follows: in Fort Chipewyan there are 135, in Fort McMurray there are 99, and in Edmonton there are 57.
With regard to the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Business Group joint ventures employees, based on January 2011 stats, the ACFN Business Group consists of five companies that are 100% owned by the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. These include Chip Manufacturing, manufacturers of Kevlar wristolets and safety products; Denesoline Environment, our waste division; Denesoline Janitorial, our janitorial division; Denesoline Maintenance, for highway mechanical repairs; and Tech Sonic Services, an ultrasonic cleaning company.
Our seven joint ventures and partnerships consist of ACFN Allnorth Consulting, our civil engineering firm; AC&T, our heavy equipment earth moving company; ACE Industrial, where we do all the welding and machining; Cutting Edge, where we shred all sizes of tires, on highway and off highway; Dene West Catering; Lemax Machining and Welding; and Poplar Point, another camp catering service.
Our current combined workforce is 1,250 employees with ACFN business and joint ventures. On our website, we stated we had over 1,400 valued employees. Although that was accurate at the time, we must also take into account the attrition and recession in our business group and joint ventures during 2010.
ACFN Business Group employees, in our 100%-owned companies, total 585.
In the ACFN Business Group, 9% of our total employees are of aboriginal descent, at 54 out of 585 employees. Of our total employees, 4% of them are ACFN members. Thirty-nine per cent of our aboriginal employees are ACFN members, at 21 out of 54. The number of working-age ACFN members living in Fort McMurray and Fort Chipewyan combined is 234, with ACFN employees at almost 9% of that population. You will need to consider other employees who work directly for the industrial energy groups such as Syncrude, Shell, and Suncor.
Of the ACFN members who are employees--21 of them--there are 11 in Fort Chipewyan who hold managerial positions and positions as factory workers. In Fort McMurray, we have 10. These employees are in executive management and senior management, are accountant personnel, and are in administrative support, trades, and janitorial positions.
Our joint venture employees total 665. Seven per cent of the total employees of the joint ventures are of aboriginal descent, at 47 out of 665. Two per cent of the total employees of the joint ventures are ACFN members, at 11 out of 665. Twenty per cent of the joint venture aboriginal employees are ACFN members. The types of positions held by ACFN employees in our joint ventures and partnerships include supervisory positions, heavy equipment operators, camp attendants, accounting and administrative support people, and labourers.
The ACFN Business Group supports continuing education and development. We currently have four ACFN members who are employees as well as students. One is on educational leave, pursuing her studies in native studies; one is working part time towards her accounting degree; one is full time, completing an associate certificate, and has her Bachelor of Management degree and a certified human resources professional designation; and one is a heavy equipment apprentice.
On ACFN students in general--as a whole nation, not the ACFN Business Group--during the last few years, we've had many graduates. They have certificates, diplomas, degrees, master's degrees, and doctorates. They are in range of disciplines, such as environment, management, law, numerous trades, nursing, education, and sciences, to name just a few. Within the last few years, ACFN has a very good number of students registered with our education department for post-secondary studies.
Now I will go on to some barriers to employment opportunities. Employment opportunities for ACFN band members are also a moving number, depending on industrial demand. The business group caters to industry in services such as our janitorial division, waste management, and recycling, and also to very specific sectors.
We do have a large number of graduates, but their field of expertise is not in the sectors that we work in. For example, there are ACFN members who are nurses, but we do not hire nurses. We have no positions for them.
Although we have had success in some areas, there are some areas that need special attention. There are other factors that contribute to barriers, such as, for example, a lack of education among band members. A study done in 2006 said that 74% left high school in grade 10 or earlier.
Also, some band members cannot achieve employment because they do not have a driver's licence.
There is also a lack of employability skills and training.
Transportation is a very critical area. People living in Fort Chipewyan want to work for industry, but they reside in Fort Chip, and when they move to Fort McMurray, they must seek accommodation on their own.
Also, like the total population of the municipality, we have alcohol and drug testing, which is mandatory with us, and some people cannot pass it.
There are 78 houses in Fort Chipewyan, 53 of which are band owned, and 25 are mortgaged. Currently there are ten families, four singles, and two elders on the waiting list for housing.
The average wait for a home is three years. There are homes with more than one family living in them because of the housing shortage.
Housing in Fort McMurray is at an extremely high cost. If an ACFN member decides to leave Fort Chip and move to Fort McMurray, the following is what he or she can expect to pay: a bachelor suite in Fort McMurray is $1,492 per month, a one-bedroom apartment is $1,524, a two-bedroom is $1,879, and a three-bedroom apartment is $2,093. The average single detached home costs $704,000; a multi-family home--a condominium, and that sort of thing--is $429,000; a duplex is about $508,000; and a mobile home on its own property sells for about $410,000. On top of this, there are child care costs. At the YMCA in Fort McMurray, daycare is $1,225 a month per child and after-school care is $450. For a family of four, with two adults and two children, the cost of living in Fort McMurray is $3,000 a month with housing and child care.
I hope I have provided you with some answers to the questions that were asked of me.
Thank you.
:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to appear before the committee. Let me just say from the outset that if there's anything that you need for the committee's work that I'm unable to provide today, we'd be happy to follow up separately and make sure you have the information you need.
I hope my remarks are of assistance as you study various aspects of energy security. Spectra Energy is one of the largest natural gas gathering, processing, transportation, and delivery systems in North America. We operate in seven Canadian provincial jurisdictions, with a significant presence in British Columbia, Ontario, and Atlantic Canada and 3,400 Canadian employees coast to coast. Our operations have deep roots in Canada, more than 50 years of history in B.C., and this year we celebrate 100 years of operations at Union Gas. My written testimony highlights our Canadian and North American footprint and operations in more detail.
Let me first take a moment to talk about our cultural commitment to safety. Our employees live and work in hundreds of Canadian communities, and we're committed to their safety and the safety of the public. We operate and maintain our facilities using thoroughly tested procedures and standards, while adhering to and surpassing strict regulations. With respect to safety, we have a relentless commitment to a zero work-related injury and illness culture. In support of these efforts we ask provincial and federal governments across Canada to work together to support the creation of a national “Call Before You Dig” program. Third party excavation damage continues to be the leading cause of pipeline incidents in Canada.
Given the scope, scale, and geographic diversity of our businesses, Spectra Energy is well positioned to speak to regional economic impacts of energy development throughout Canada. What I hope you take away from my presentation is that the ripple effect from activities in one particular jurisdiction extends widely across our sector and delivers benefits for Canada as a whole.
Let me start with northeast British Columbia. Spectra Energy's assets in B.C. are significant by any measure. Our pipeline and gas processing assets form the backbone of the natural gas sector in B.C. We connect B.C.'s natural gas exploration and production industry with millions of customers who rely on natural gas as a feedstock for manufacturing, as a boiler fuel for electric generation, or as a means to heat their homes and businesses. We process and transport 60% of the natural gas produced in the province, with growth under way. Our system supplies all of the natural gas needs for B.C. and 50% of the natural gas demand in the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and it is interconnected with the North American pipeline grid.
I recognize this committee has heard testimony about the emergence of new technology and how it's vastly changed the supply picture in North America. In response to this supply growth in the Horn River and Montney/Doig resource areas, Spectra Energy is investing heavily in B.C.'s future. We're expanding our infrastructure to carry these new shale natural gas supplies to markets in western Canada and beyond. Our expansion program is targeted to invest about $1.5 billion in our B.C. assets between 2009 and 2012. To give you a sense of the importance of western Canada in our company, that $1.5 billion represents almost a half of our company's current capital expansion program.
Our expansion program to respond to the ramp-up in production means boots on the ground in northeast B.C. and resulting direct and indirect benefits across the country, spread much more broadly than just in the northern communities, B.C., and western Canada. In total, our regional expansion activities now under way include an estimated incremental 1,350 direct construction and inspection jobs over the next three years and close to two million person-hours of work, with additional jobs related to the many engineering, design, procurement, trucking, and logistics services that are required during an expansion of this scale.
The multiplier effect of these incremental jobs, in addition to the $1.5 billion in capital investment, extends right across Canada and ultimately North America. For example, we're also sourcing equipment from across the continent—pumps from Ontario, process control systems and valves from Alberta, and structural steel from Quebec. All this equipment comes together in collaboration with resources from northeast B.C., along with state-of-the-art engineering, transportation logistics, and millions of dollars in road and bridge upgrades along the way--and this is just Spectra Energy's contribution.
British Columbia’s natural gas industry royalty revenues totalled $406 million in 2010, and the property taxes that Spectra Energy paid, $60 million, made a significant contribution to the provincial economy. Our industry also invests in local communities across B.C. in the form of money and time. In 2010 our employees donated more than 700 hours to volunteer projects in B.C., and annual charitable contributions in the west were nearly a million dollars.
We believe that robust natural gas supplies will provide energy security for Canada and our U.S. neighbours, and natural gas will continue to underpin local, provincial, regional, and federal economies well into the future.
That covers two of the three “E”s in our continental energy equation. The third “E”–our environment–is also a natural fit for natural gas. With a carbon profile that is 45% cleaner than that of coal and 30% cleaner than that of oil, natural gas is available right here and right now to fuel our environmental objectives. Our U.S. neighbours are recognizing this. During his State of the Union address to Congress last month, United States President Barack Obama voiced support for the role of natural gas in a forward-looking clean energy policy.
Alternative sources of energy are essential, and an important part of the overall energy mix, but the reality is that natural gas will continue to provide a significant share of energy for generations to come, and will provide backup to renewables when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. In Ontario, natural gas is displacing coal-fired electric generation and delivering immediate emission reductions. Spectra Energy is transporting this natural gas through our Union Gas subsidiary, a company serving 1.3 million customers in Ontario’s energy market, and in the maritime provinces, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are exploring opportunities to further diversify their energy portfolio with increased utilization of clean-burning natural gas and renewables.
Beyond near-term emissions reductions that can be achieved, the economic benefits associated with greater utilization of natural gas are essential to the host communities that are benefiting from today’s natural gas technology and development boom. We must take advantage of the fuel before us today: a clean, domestic, abundant, efficient, and versatile fuel. This important step will set the stage for economic benefits at the local, regional, and national level.
As Spectra Energy undertakes the large natural gas infrastructure investments across Canada to take advantage of today’s cleanest conventional fuel and support our energy security, environmental, and economic objectives, we offer the committee the recommendations that follow.
First, continue to recognize and support the energy industry’s role in providing essential services to Canadians and stimulating economic growth. Amidst a significant worldwide economic downturn, Spectra Energy added jobs. Our contributions to economic growth can be bolstered by continuing to provide a competitive tax environment; support for infrastructure, research, and development as our industry expands; and a harmonized, efficient, and stable national and North American regulatory environment.
Second, build homegrown demand for natural gas and diversify access to our resources through offshore markets. With more than 100 years of domestic natural gas supply, commodity prices are also expected to remain modest for the foreseeable future. If Canada is unable to build domestic demand for natural gas use and develop offshore market outlets, it will impede the growth of exploration and production across Canada, a major source of revenue and economic benefits for regions across the country.
Third, ramp up efforts that support investments under way in Canada’s natural gas infrastructure. Spectra Energy strongly supports the positive direction taken by the National Energy Board to encourage and attract investment in key energy infrastructure in Canada. Initiatives to encourage regulatory efficiency bode well for long-term investment in our sector.
Fourth, continue to recognize the role that Canadian natural gas resources play in North American energy security. A clear national energy strategy would be helpful to support growth in the energy sector and regional advantages.
I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I hope these remarks and our brief are helpful to your deliberations and I look forward to your questions.
:
Cenovus is a Canadian oil company based in Calgary, Alberta. Our roots date to the 1880s, the earliest days of the oil and gas industry in western Canada. Today we have oil and natural gas production across Alberta and southern Saskatchewan; however, the growth of our business will be within our oil sands properties in northeast Alberta.
The oil on Cenovus's oil sands leases is deep underground and cannot be mined. In fact, as the committee has likely heard, 80% of the oil in the oil sands region in Alberta cannot be mined. These deep oil sands reservoirs require specialized methods to drill and pump the oil to the surface. We produce this oil by injecting steam into the reservoir to soften the oil deposits so that they can separate from the sand and be pumped to the surface. This is a production method known as steam-assisted gravity drainage, or SAGD, a technology we helped pioneer at Foster Creek in 1996.
A single well pad, with nine well pairs, covers about four to six acres on the surface, but accesses approximately 185 acres underground.
In 2010, we produced about 116,000 barrels of oil a day from 177 wells at our oil sands projects, and by 2019 we expect that the gross production capacity at our two major producing projects, Foster Creek and Christina Lake--both of which are also 50% owned by ConocoPhillips--could reach 493,000 barrels per day.
As we grow our business, we consult with local stakeholders. Where we can, we train and hire locally and use local businesses and services. We also work with many aboriginal communities and organizations in our operating areas.
In the Christina Lake area, for example, about 120 kilometres south of Fort McMurray, we have worked closely with Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation, which is our closest first nation neighbour. We have worked with this community to identify preferred vendors from among their joint venture companies. Overall, in 2008 and 2009 we spent $186 million with aboriginal businesses that provide oil field services and help to keep our camps running smoothly.
Wherever we can’t source materials locally, we expand our reach. Many of the materials used by our company and our industry require the skills of Canadians beyond Alberta’s borders. In 2010, we procured services and materials from all 10 provinces. In Ontario, our spend was almost $57 million. More than130 Ontario-based businesses benefited, including BlueSky Process Solutions in Stoney Creek, which provided us with pipe connectors and fittings. East of Ontario, our spend was more than $6.6 million. We bought environmental cleaners from suppliers such as West Penetone in Montreal, and commissioning and startup services from suppliers such as OTS in Sydney, Nova Scotia.
But within the industry we are just one of many companies that have contributed to the wealth of Canadians. A July 2009 report by the Canadian Energy Research Institute, CERI, indicated that oil and gas businesses paid $58 billion to Canadian governments in 2007. Further, the report anticipates that over the next 25 years the industry will add about $3.6 trillion to Canadian GDP, 25 million person-years of employment, and over one trillion dollars in net revenues for Canadian governments.
Those are significant numbers, but I’d like to shift now to the economic impacts of in situ development. Another CERI report, from January 2010, found that a 30,000-barrel-per-day SAGD project, with a lifespan of roughly 30 years, generates economic benefits throughout Canada. Over its lifetime, that single project would support more than 5,500 direct jobs, generate more than $9.5 billion in royalty revenues, more than $2 billion in federal tax revenues, and more than $3 billion in GDP nationally, and would contribute $35 million and $15 million to the GDPs of Ontario and Quebec respectively.
However, we don’t believe that economics is the only thing we should consider. Like every human activity, energy development has an impact on the environment. One of our ongoing objectives is to advance technologies that increase oil production while using the smallest amount of water, natural gas, electricity, and land possible.
Since our first oil sands well in 1996, we have taken a measured approach to our growth in the area. We develop our projects in phases, increasing production in 30,000-40,000 barrel-per-day increments, applying what we learn from one phase to the next in a process of continuous improvement.
The key measure of efficiency for SAGD operations is the amount of steam needed to produce a barrel of oil. Our steam-to-oil ratio is less than 2.3, which is among the lowest in the industry. A lower steam-to-oil ratio translates to lower energy usage, lower water usage, lower emissions, and a smaller surface footprint.
I'd like to share with you a few examples of innovations that have allowed us to steadily reduce our steam-to-oil ratio.
Recently, we introduced a new technology that taps into zones of previously inaccessible melted bitumen near our producing well pairs. This technology is a Cenovus innovation that allows us to access that wedge of bitumen and pump the oil to the surface using only single wells and little or no incremental steam. We call these “wedge wells”. They increase the amount of oil recovered while lowering our environmental impact.
We are also pilot-testing another technological improvement in our SAGD operations. It involves combining the injected steam with solvents, such as butane, to help bring the oil to the surface. Using the solvent also reduces the amount of steam required in the SAGD process.
These and other technologies come from our significant investment in research and development. We recently announced that we would increase our budget for research and development to $65 million. At any one time we have approximately 50 research projects under way, each designed to improve processes, protect the environment, or improve the energy efficiency of our operations.
Thanks to the hard work of our people, we increased our oil sands production 190% from 2004 to 2009. During that same period we lowered our sulphur dioxide intensity by 77%, reduced our well pad footprint by 23%, improved our greenhouse gas intensity by 17%, and improved our fresh water-to-bitumen ratio by 91%.
The majority of the water we use is saline water, which is not suitable for animal or human consumption or agriculture and is not taken from rivers, lakes, or streams. We use less than 5% fresh water in our oil sands operations. This water comes from wells in the area and not from surface sources. Fresh groundwater is used mostly for domestic purposes, such as drinking water and sanitation at our camps and facilities; wastewater is reused in our operations whenever possible.
In 2009, Cenovus produced enough oil that, refined into gasoline and diesel, it would fuel 2.8 million cars for one year, but oil is more than a source of fuel. Oil and natural gas are essential materials needed to develop cutting-edge technologies that make a positive difference in our lives. Indeed, nearly everything we use is either made from oil and natural gas byproducts, made by machinery or in facilities powered by oil and natural gas, or transported by fuels refined from oil, such as gasoline or diesel.
We are a company that prides itself on its innovative spirit. Since 2003, Cenovus has committed $14 million towards early-stage technologies through our environmental opportunities fund. We have funded 11 projects spearheaded by internal teams, external entrepreneurial firms, and academic researchers, all of whom are developing technologies focused on renewable and alternative energy, as well as environmentally driven improvements for the oil and gas sector.
In closing, I would like to assure the committee and Canadians that the people at Cenovus are committed to applying new ideas and new approaches to develop energy resources safely and responsibly. We are committed to making smart decisions, advancing technology, and continuously improving.
Thank you. We'd be pleased to answer your questions, sir.