Canadians Urged to boycott GAP, Levi-Strauss and Timberland

August 27, 2010

EDMONTON - Alberta Enterprise Group is urging all Albertans and Canadians to boycott all Gap, Levi-Strauss and Timberland products in response to these retailers unfair and misguided position on Canada's oil sands. 

"The greenest Gap store is no Gap store," said Tim Shipton, President of Alberta Enterprise Group. "Clearly closing Gap and affiliated Old Navy and Banana Republic stores is one of the best hot air reduction opportunities we have right now.” 

"Gap, a company that is regularly accused of using unethical labour practices in developing countries to produce its stock, wants the world to buy bloody oil from Nigeria and the Middle East. It's high time for Albertans to say no way." 

GAP, Old Navy and Banana Republic have 26 Alberta locations in Red Deer, Edmonton and Calgary. Asian-made Gap products routinely travel more than10,000 kilometers from manufacturing plants to reach Albertans, emitting thousands of tones of CO2 and using oil from the Middle East and Africa along the way. 

Alberta Enterprise Group also believes that these retailers' boycotts are simply green PR, or “greenwashing”, because they are not, in fact, do-able. 

Oil sands crude is 50 per cent of the crude oil supply in western Canada, mixing with conventional sources -- all of which is refined into liquid transportation fuels such as gasoline and diesel fuel. 

"Consumers, especially those serving diverse locations in western Canada, cannot avoid oil sands crude unless they have non-oil fuel sources," said Shipton. "There is only so much used french fry oil to go around." 

The US Midwest is also highly dependent on western Canadian crude with one-third of the crude supply in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin coming from western Canada. 

"Walgreens stores in the Midwest will need to avoid all Canadian crude-- one third of the supply – to comply with its no-oil sands policy. We hope all those delivery trucks have one very special and magical pump."