The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and Shell are speaking out about comments made by musician Neil Young on the oilsands and says he doesn’t have his facts straight.

Young is currently on his “Honour the Treaties” tour to help the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in its legal battle to protect traditional territory from further industrialization.

The tour launched in Toronto earlier this week and will be in Calgary this weekend.

Young has stated that he thinks Fort McMurray is a wasteland and has compared the landscape around the Alberta oilsands to that of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb.

“The amount of CO2 coming out of the tar sands industrial sites is equal to every car in Canada, every day,” said Young. “I see a government in complete, just completely out of control. Money is number one, integrity is not even on the map.”

CAPP and Shell held a news conference on Thursday to “set the facts straight.”

 “I think he demonstrates, pretty consistently, a lack of understanding of the oilsands and a lack of understanding of the realities of the energy mix in North America,” said Dave Collyer, President of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

Collyer says Young fails to acknowledge the jobs, infrastructure, contracts and cultural programs that come with the oilsands and says he is driving a wedge between the industry and aboriginal groups.

“Mr. Young may represent that rock stars don’t need oil but we would represent that Canadians very much do need oil. His rhetoric is ill-informed, it’s divisive and I think it does a disservice to Canadians including those First Nations that he's ostensibly trying to help through his tour,” said Collyer.

CAPP says Young’s comments are irresponsible and incorrect.

“Speaking on behalf of the thousands of people who work in this industry and who have a great deal of pride in both what they do and how they do it, I think it’s fair to say we find the misrepresentations that are being made on the tour quite irresponsible,” said Collyer. “I would suggest that he has a democratic right to be wrong, in this particular case, and we believe he does have it wrong.”

CAPP says it is proud of the long and positive relationships it has with Canada’s aboriginal people.

Collyer says CAPP recognizes that there are sometimes barriers to effective collaboration between the two groups but that Young fails to acknowledge the many significant successes in the face of those challenges.

CAPP facts on oilsands:

  • Currently, oilsands companies contract with aboriginal companies for more than $1.8 billion pre year.
  • More than 1700 aboriginal employees have permanent jobs in operations in the oilsands.
  • Over the past 14 years, aboriginal companies in the region have earned more than $8 billion in revenue.
  • In 2011 and 2012 alone, oilsands companies contributed more than $20 million to aboriginal communities in the Wood Buffalo and Lac La Biche regions for school and youth programs, celebrations, cultural events, literacy, community projects and other initiatives.

Stephanie Sterling, VP of Business Development for Heavy Oil for Shell also spoke out about Young's tour.

“Yesterday Neil Young spoke about a world without oil, last year we did some scenario look at what does the world look like, depending on energy mix? There is a possible future that we can see where solar energy is the majority source of energy by 2100. This vision could come true, in the meantime we need affordable, accessible energy and we need to do it responsibly,” said Sterling.

Sterling says oilsands producers have reduced CO2 intensity by 26 percent since the 1990s and Shell is in the process of building one of the first carbon capture and storage projects in the world.

“That will store CO2 each year equivalent to removing 175,000 cars from the road,” said Sterling.

She says the Jackpine Mine expansion will provide operational flexibility and improve environmental performance and that they consult with a number of partners on their projects.

“In our experience the aboriginal people want to build sustaining, economic communities while they protect the traditional land and the environment. This is a balance that we believe we have been successfully able to strike. Understanding concerns, bringing in expertise and sharing benefits in our developments,” said Sterling.

Neil Young is holding press conferences of his own in each of the four Canadian cities where his tour is taking place and will be in Winnipeg on Thursday, Regina on Friday and Calgary on Sunday.

The tour aims to raise $75, 000 for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation legal fund.