The Council of Canadians supports the Alberta Fracking Resource and Action Coalition (ABFRAC) in calling for a moratorium on fracking in the province of Alberta. Last weekend, on June 5, ABFRAC held a panel event on the topic of “lessons and opportunities for action” to get a fracking moratorium. Panelists included Barbara Harris from NOFRAC in Nova Scotia that achieved a fracking moratorium, Darlene Meguinis from Tsuut’ina First Nation who is a fracking activist in her community, as well as Regan Boychuck and Nielle Hawkwood who are the members of ABFRAC putting forward resolutions concerning fracking to the Alberta NDP.
This weekend, the Alberta NDP will be holding their members convention in Calgary. Two members of the ABFRAC group have proposed resolutions through the NDP rural caucus, stating the need to halt fracking as well as expansion of other oil and gas industrial extraction, pending the results of unbiased scientific study on the economical, environmental, and social impacts of these developments.
The Council of Canadians supports these resolutions, and hosted a petition to support the resolution holders which has garnered over 600 signatures at the time of writing (today is the last day to show your support before they are sent with Regan and Nielle to the convention). We urge the NDP to hear these resolutions, and vote to accept them. Right now the resolutions are “at the bottom of the list” and may not be heard on the floor – if you are an attending NDP member you can support putting these resolutions higher on the list during convention on Friday. We are confident these resolutions would be supported democratically, as the results of a recent EKOS poll show that 62% of people in Alberta and 87% of New Democratic Party supporters would support a fracking moratorium.
If you are an Albertan looking to join the ABFRAC coalition, please get in touch with Regional Organizer Diane Connors at dconnors@canadians.org. You can also look up the ABFRAC group on Facebook.
