Hydraulic fracturing has been around for more than a hundred years but hasn’t started becoming an issue until 2006, the beginning of the oil shale production boom.  Fracking provides more than 660,000 jobs to Canadians and makes the economy billions of dollars but is also a major component to our carbon footprint.  It is a threat to climate change, causes environmental damage, triggers earthquakes, and emits excess greenhouse gases.  Companies don’t even disclose the chemicals that are used in the process.  The practice overuses water, using up to 4 million gallons of water per frack.  Over the years it will definitely threaten major water sources.  Also, the majority of the 200,000 fracked wells across the country are prone to leaks.  Disposing the wastewater, which has cancer-causing chemicals, often spills when being transported and processed.  Therefore, this issue has a lack of government oversight and should be more looked into.

It is proven that fracking triggers 90% of the earthquakes that occur in Western Canada, heavily affecting climate change and causing environmental damage. 80% of the wells in Canada are already fracked.  If Canada continues to allow companies to frack at such a fast rate, earthquakes will soon become critical and deadly.  There were some cases where nearby citizens complain that they have been suffering from headaches, nausea and nosebleeds due to the heavy drilling.  In addition, people who live near the operations have complained about fouled tap water due to the high-volume fracking techniques.  Not to mention that their homes become instantly devalued due to the practice.  Indigenous people too have complained continuously over the years about the contamination of their drinking water, how dangerously close they are to fracking operations, and how fracking is just overall destroying their traditional practices.  There is such little government oversight considering that fracking actually disobeys the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People.  Fracking operations close to homes just overall diminishes their quality of life.  Help us reduce this issue as much as possible and sign our petition!