Extractivism & Urban Growth in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Treaty 7

By Kevin Michael Capuno
extractivism, indigenous continuance, environmental justice, canadian identity, urban development

An exploration of Canadian identity, extractive industries, and determining spaces of extractivism and collective continuance.

The research is situated on land adjacent to where the Bow River meets the Elbow River, and that the traditional Blackfoot name of this place is “Moh’kins’tsis,” traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada is a city that many would argue is defined by its proximity to the Alberta Oil Sands, the third largest oil reserve globally. The core-periphery relationship between Calgary and the Oil Sands is driven by extractive economies that although are a detriment to the existing ecologies, are economically beneficial to urban growth. For the final project, I would like to look at the spatial consequences between rising resource extraction in the Oil Sands and urban development in Calgary. Therefore, What are the spatial realities of extractive economies in Calgary, Alberta? What are the correlations with growing wealth deriving from the Oil Sands and Calgary? What is the pace of Calgary’s urban development in relation to the Alberta Oil Sands? How do we visualize environmental degradation?

Canada: Development of Numbered Treaties and the Canadian Pacific Railway

In 1870, the newly created nation of Canada acquired Rupert’s Land from the Hudson’s Bay Company. The province of British Columbia joined the Confederation a year later under the promise that a transcontinental railway would connect it to the rest of Canada in 10 years. The Government considered it necessary to extinguish “Aboriginal” title to the land. Bound by the terms of the Royal Proclamation, Canada was responsible for the protection of its Indigenous people and promised to preserve their rights to unceded traditional territories.

Water Pollution:

Land Pollution:

Air Pollution:

I wanted to contextualize the geography of study by determining the amount of pollutants released in 2017. The National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) collects information from Canadian industrial, commercial and institutional facilities on their releases (to air, water and land), disposals, and transfers of pollutants and other substances of concern. I used the total pollution emitted and developed three heat maps. As one can observe, these maps indicate Alberta as a hotspot for pollution.

Alberta Zones:

Air Quality:

Life Expectancy:

Pipelines & Aboriginal Land Claims:

To explore the relationship between the Alberta Oil Sands and Calgary, I wanted to spatialize a few key indicators. Alberta Health has divided Alberta into 5 Health Zones, and I was able to thematically map Air Quality and Life Expectancy. Air Quality Data is derived from the number of Poor or Very Poor air quality conditions in 2017. One can notice the discrepancies between the North zone and the Calgary Zone. Aboriginal Land Claims are the remnants of the numbered treaties and represent official reservation land or contested lands. I created a 10km buffer around each polygon and did a count of the number of pipeline installations within each buffer. The extractive economies of the oil and gas industry are seen as “critical infrastructure,” although the benefit of these are oftentimes short-sighted and profit-motivated. Spice (2018) refers to critical infrastructure as the “naturalization of the environmental destruction,” and the oil and gas products as contemporary “infrastructures of invasion.”

Calgary Development Timeline:

Since the discovery of oil in the 1940s, the population of Calgary has grown nearly fourteen fold (1 239 000 in 2016), giving way to sprawling neighbourhood communities, and a denser, higher city. The city’s skyline is defined by the headquarters of oil giants. I was able to use open data accessible by the city to develop a dataset of the establishing of Calgary’s 300+ communities. From research and correspondence with community associations, I was further able to develop this dataset. Additionally, this animation depicts a city projection called “Community Life Cycles” that is defined as “Where a decade is listed at least 51% of a community’s peak population must be in place by the end of the decade it is assigned to.

Calgary:

I mapped the locations of oil company headquarters in Calgary’s downtown, and I note these as spaces of extractivism, monuments to the environmental degradation and unequal distribution of wealth and power. I assert that the opposite of these extractive spaces are “Spaces of Collective Continuance,” in which a more accurate reflection of the Canadian identity can be situated. Public art is visible in the collective identity, and documents the inherent values and beliefs of the western spirit. To justify this, I created 2.5km buffers around each piece of public art. The result showed a greater diversity of land use designations as opposed to the downtown office towers. Although I want to continue this mapping in the following semester, I have noted public art locations and historical designations in the following Carto map to serve as a foundational basis

Carto Map: