The Westerner for October 5, 2009

Alberta Association for Community Living:  Nadine Fulmer talked about the long standing partnership with Rotary, that learning disability people are available for work, she introduced Shane Lafond who indicated he is looking for work and is ready to please any employer - the association has a fund raising breakfast October 20 at the Westin, free (it is a fund raiser but you can go with no obligation)

Inner City Arena Project:  Al Hamilton gave an update by, first thanking Rotary for hosting the fund raising golf tournament (lots of good feedback from participants about the entire operation).  Funds were generated to establish an arena for year round use, centered on the needs of 4 inner city schools plus keeping kids off the streets, currently the site is an outdoor skating rink which is in a poor state of repair - Northgate Trailer has donated a camp trailer for temporary use, O'Hanlon Paving will resurface the site next June, the site will be fenced and a full time caretaker will be employed.  Donations from others include pledges from Zen Moisy and Ted Green.  Al hopes for ice on the rink this December 1 and there will be opportunities for Rotarians to help with physical work including fencing.

Cosmopolitan Music Society:  tickets from Jim Spalding @ next meeting for November 7 Lest We Forget concert, tickets $20

50/50:  Doug Sollows and Charlie did not match cards

Finemaster:  Al Sanderson fined head table for the verbal "oh, no, Al" comments $1; Jim Spalding $1 for late phone request to act as finemaster; $1 each for following environmental issues - if you think Jan/2010 ban on weed and feed is a bad idea, if you have a large stock of weed and feed in your garage, if you drive a large vehicle which causes poor air quality, if you wash your car in the driveway where dirty water goes to storm drains without filtering which polutes the river, if you don't think climate change is caused by people, if you generate too much hot air as a lawyer or sales person

Guest Speaker:  Rob Dunseith introduced Jim Carter who spent 27 years with Syncrude Canada, 10 years as president and 18 years as chief operating officer (Jim has 3 honourary doctorates).  Jim made an effort to have aboriginal people invited to particpate in Syncrude work.

Climate Change - Accelerating Carbon Capture and Storage Implementation in Alberta - Alberta has large sources of CO2 which makes it easier to collect and store; coal fired plants, upgraders; geology to store; contributes to the future improvement in the Alberta economy; electricity - coal fired - need to recapture CO2; initial test - over 12 million tonnes stored in Weyburn, SK, over last 15 years; Alberta coal reserves are larger than oil/gas reserves; heavy oil - more carbon molecules than lighter oils but light oils are harder to find - future is in heavy oil all around the world; low carbon footprint laws like in California - California can't use the oil it is finding in its own reservoirs - Alberta needs to be on the leading edge of reducing carbon in the environment to be able to export to these jurisdictions; Alberta Government set up a new branch - Carbon Capture and Storage Development - $2 billion to fund 3 to 5 large scale recapture projects (under Department of Energy); other government investments in Canada - Sakatchewan and federal - $1/2 billion each - US government $3 billion.

Canada produces 2% of world's CO2 and Alberta produces 35% of that 2% - USA electrical energy companies produce a lot more; recommendations of the new branch - keep Alberta industry competitive plus certainty for long term planning, balance future energy needs and continued economic growth to emission industry targets, consumers to use less energy or use alternative energy sources that do not have a carbon footprint make up 30% of target - recapture of CO2 is the reamining 70%; CO2 recapture projects take a long time to implement; need public support to ensure the commitment happens; expect to produce $20 billion in royalties per year against an expected environmental cost of $1 - 3 billion plus jobs being created/maintained in the industry both production and recapture; saline aquifers are 2-3 km below the surface thus well below surface ground water and no probability of contamination.

Jim was thanked by Rudy