After spending a week touring Alberta's oilsands, a delegation of church leaders says Canada needs a more sustainable energy policy.
Mary Corkery, executive director of the Kairos social justice group, said church leaders spent the week meeting with indigenous and faith communities, representatives from the oilsands industry, government leaders and energy workers.
"From what we heard we felt that it's clear that we're all part of the problem, we're driving this train," Corkery told CTV's Canada AM on Thursday.
"We're not pointing the finger at people who live in Fort McMurray and work in the oilsands industry."
At the same time, Corkery said there is tremendous pressure to maximize the amount of oilsands exploration.
"The pace is considered to be a problem by the people who live there and by the people who work there," Corkery said.
"There needs to be deeper government regulation and deeper public control of our resources."
Corkery is calling for a more sustainable energy policy that "is not so reliant on maximum profits from oil and gas."
She said church leaders also want to see cumulative independent studies on the relationship between oil, water and general health conditions in the areas surrounding the oilsands.
Archbishop James Weisgerber, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, was part of the delegation and he said the oilsands have a great impact on the environment and our future.
"Things of that magnitude that concern people in communities always concern the church," Weisgerber told Canada AM on Thursday.
"We don't have the final word in all of this but we have an awfully important perspective that I think we bring to the table."
He rebuffed criticism that the church should stick to matters of spirituality, not socio-economic issues.
"From a Christian perspective we believe that God is intimately involved in the world, God has made us stewards of the world and when we look at a project like this and the ramifications it has on the environment, on the future of humanity, it would seem rather strange if the church were not involved," Weisgerber said.
