DAVE COOPERPOSTMEDIA NEWS

EDMONTON

While there were no gushers of oil in the Atha-basca region in the early 1900s, prospectors and developers who saw crude forming ponds on the land and seeping from river banks believed there must be a mam-moth amount of the stu� — just below the sur-face.

And while dozens of small compa-nies were formed in Edmonton to go north and tap into the imagined wealth, the largest oil company in the world tried to lock up all the northern petroleum re-serves for itself through an audacious attempt by Brit-ain to strong-arm its former colony.

“Royal Dutch Shell wanted a monopoly in 1916, and this became a big politi-cal issue,” said Joyce Hunt, author of the just-published Local Push Global Pull: the Untold History of the Atha-baska Oil Sands.

“I found material that has never been accessed before.”

Hunt’s self-published history of the oilsands be-tween 1900 and 1930 has won the support of both oil industry leaders and people curious about the pioneer days of what was to become one of the greatest oil re-sources on the planet.

Hunt explores the world of Count Alfred von Ham-merstein, a Klondike gold rush traveller who ended up in Fort McMurray and managed to obtain full ownership rights (including mineral rights) to four free-hold areas — each about one mile by three miles in size — which are now owned by Suncor Energy. They’re in the Steepbank mine area east of the Athabasca River and the Tar Island area .

Early developers didn’t know what to do with the sticky oilsands . Some was shipped south by boat and later train, and ended up as asphalt. Ada Boulevard in the Highlands neighbour-hood was paved with a sample in 1911.

Alberta knew it had a great resource, but it took another two decades before Karl Clark perfected a hot-water method to actually produce oil. The fi rst commercial plant, Great Canadian Oil Sands (now Suncor), didn’t open until 1966.

Book details Shell’s early

bid for oilsands

I found mate-

rial that has never been accessed before.

JOYCE HUNT

CALGARY BUSINESSM O N E Y • E N E R G Y • T E C H N O L O G Y • W O R K

EDITOR: STEVE JENKINSON 403-235-7580 SJENKINSON@CALGARYHERALD.COM MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012 B4

IN DEPTH ANALYSIS

WITH PETER

TERTZAKIAN

FOR BREAKING ENERGY NEWS CLICK ON

Dairy, poultry quotas stand in Ottawa’s way

PETER O’NEILCALGARY HERALD

OTTAWA

The Conservative gov-ernment could help turn Canada’s agri-

food sector into a power-ful “growth engine” for the national economy by negotiat-ing trade deals that would help farmers access booming Asian markets, according to a study to be released Monday.

But trade success will re-quire Ottawa to take on po-litically powerful dairy and poultry producers, located primarily in Ontario and Quebec, that are shielded from competition with sky-high tari� s and an elaborate quota system, according to former chief agricultural trade negotiator Mike Gi� ord.

Canada is seeking to join the U.S. and other Asia-Pacifi c na-tions now negotiating the so-called Trans-Pacifi c Partner-ship (TPP), but other countries are demanding that Canada abandon the supply manage-ment system protecting the dairy and poultry sectors.

The federal government has insisted it will defend Canadian interests at the negotiating table, but hasn’t ruled out making concessions on these demands.

“Political sensitivities not-withstanding, the rest of the economy, including the 80 per cent of Canadian agriculture that is tied to world prices, cannot a� ord to be held hos-tage to demands by dairy and poultry producers to preserve the status quo,” Gi� ord writes in a report commissioned by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, which represents major companies that deploy $4.5 trillion in assets and em-ploy 1.4 million people.

The report says the tradi-tional boom-and-bust cycle in farming is being dramatically altered by income growth and urbanization across Asia and

in particular China and India. That has resulted in an unprec-edented expansion in middle class consumers with extra income to purchase meats, vegetable oils, dairy products, fruit, sugar, processed foods and restaurant meals.

“The rise of China, India and other emerging markets has dramatically changed the outlook for Canadian farmers and agricultural processors,” the author argues.

“Asia’s expanding appetite for imported food provides Canadian agricultural produc-ers with golden opportunities to grow and prosper — provided that the federal and provincial governments and industry work together to identify and overcome a variety of external and internal challenges.”

The TPP agreement is currently being negoti-ated by the U.S., Austra-lia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei. Japan, which has a heavily protected rice sector that has been a ma-jor annoyance for Japan’s trade partners, has also signalled its desire to enter negotiations.

While countries like Aus-tralia, New Zealand and the U.S. have complained openly about Canada’s supply man-agement system, Canadian of-fi cials have noted that other countries have protectionist agriculture measures they won’t want to abandon at the negotiating table.

Gi� ord said Ottawa doesn’t have to completely abandon the poultry and dairy farmers, a move both the New Demo-crat and Liberal parties are warning is about to happen.

Instead, he proposes that Canada consider a partial liberalization of both sectors to allow a modest increase in access to foreign producers in those areas.

But that would require im-mediate steps to help prepare Canadian producers for in-creased foreign competition, though Gi� ord acknowledges that adjustment measures could be costly. The value of the quotas in the dairy sector alone amount to an estimated $25 billion.

Asian trade

could be boon for farmers

BEYOND A BUSINESS NICETY

Dean Bicknell, Calgary HeraldTina Varughese is president of t Works, which specializes in cross-cultural communication.

MARIO TONEGUZZICALGARY HERALD

Tina Varughese has a dy-namic and energetic sense about her.

It is this passion that she brings to her company as president of t Works Inc., which specializes in cross-cultural communication and work-life balance seminars, executive relocation and executive rentals. It pro-vides customized cultural diversity training to both the public and private sector.

Also, t Works o� ers relocation and settlement services specifi cally for expatriates working in Calgary’s oil and gas indus-try and other industries.

“I used to work for the province of Alberta in their immigration department and I really found that because I was part of the recruitment and doing a lot of the international re-cruitment, bringing skilled workers here and promot-ing Alberta as a province, I just found that at one point I was part of the problem because I just felt if we edu-cated a lot of our managers and leaders and employees here that we could e� ec-tively utilize under-utilized immigrants as well as help employees work e� ectively together,” says Varughese.

“Calgary is becoming so culturally diverse. We have over 25 per cent of our population coming from outside of Canada. So a lot of the sectors I’ve noticed I’ve been working with . . . if I could help people learn about cross-cultural com-munication it would be a value-added for businesses in Calgary.”

Before starting on her own, Varughese worked with Alberta Employment, Immigration and Industry . Most recently she worked with Alberta Innovation and Science where she was the Ministry Specialist for Al-berta’s Provincial Nominee

Program. In 2008, she was chosen to be part of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty.

Her seminars on cross-cultural communication and work-life balance are customized to meet client needs.

“The business has grown organically very much via repeat and referral because my clients have become huge advocates of my work, which is great,” says Varughese, whose heritage is East Indian. “A key rea-son why I’ve been success-ful at it — there are other cultural diversity trainers and I welcome that — where I di� erentiate myself is I really try to make it fun and funny.

“There is a comedian named Russell Peters. I have heard many, many times from participants in the conferences and the workshops that they often compare me to Russell Pe-ters . . . With cultural diver-sity training I think people sometimes get their backs up a little bit and they think it’s going to be a bleeding heart, Kumbaya moment and that’s not necessarily what it’s all about. It goes beyond being a business nicety and it has become a business necessity.”

MTONEGUZZI@CALGARYHERALD.COM

Bridging cross-culture communication gap

t Works Inc.t Works specializes ■

in cross-cultural com-munication and work-life balance seminars, executive relocation and executive rentals

President: Tina ■Varughese

Established: January ■2007

Employees: 4 on ■contract

E-mail: tina@tworks- ■foryou.ca

Website: www. ■tworksforyou.ca

Edmonton Journal ArchiveAsia’s expanding appetite for imported food provides Canadian agricultural producers with golden opportunities to grow and prosper.

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