Unprecedented collaboration behind the project

During the past nine months, an unprecedented collaboration of more than 50 journalists and editors from three Canadian media outlets, four journalism schools and a think tank have worked to chronicle the hidden price of oil in Canada.

Collectively, reporters examined thousands of industry and government documents, analyzed terabytes of data and delved into dozens of freedom-of-information requests.

“The project started with the people,” says Patti Sonntag, a managing editor in the New York Times’ news services division, who launched the project with a grant from the Michener Awards Foundation. Following a tip from a colleague at the Corporate Mapping Project, she did some research and reporting in Saskatchewan last fall.

Working with the previous year’s Michener winner, Toronto Star journalist Robert Cribb, Sonntag created a team of students at the Ryerson, Concordia and UBC journalism schools. Concordia University’s Department of Journalism volunteered to act as host and headquarters for the project.

University of Regina students reported on the ground locally, shot video and developed sources, while students at the other universities aggregated and analyzed data and interviewed experts.

“We’re pulling these four different schools from across the country and looking at it from all different aspects,” says Janelle Blakley, a University of Regina student reporter whose team mapped spills data and met local farmers and residents. “This collaboration allowed us to really dig into it, where all schools were pulling apart different pieces of it and then coming back and putting it all together.”

The significance of the data quickly drew intrigue. What emerged was a picture of a few dedicated regulators — and even some industry leaders — who tried to introduce greater accountability, but these efforts were ultimately overwhelmed by larger forces.

“You start to understand these figures really do play a huge role in dictating the direction of the Canadian economy and that plays out in the lives of everyday Canadians,” says Lauren Kaljur, a graduate of UBC’s master of journalism program who has been investigating the concentration of corporate power in Saskatchewan’s oil and gas industry since the beginning of 2017.

To Matthew Gilmour, a recent journalism graduate at Concordia University, after spending months populating spreadsheets and ledgers, “there’s the human moment where you realize it’s not just a pocketbook story. It’s a human story. And people’s lives are affected.”

The work continued past the end of the semester in April 2017, with students working alongside veteran reporters at the Star, the National Observer and Global News to shape the stories, seek comments from all sides and publish hundreds of pages of government and industry records, detailing concerns about potentially deadly gas emissions for the first time.

Writers/reporters Robert Cribb, The Toronto Star Patti Sonntag, Michener Fellow P.W. Elliott, University of Regina Elizabeth McSheffrey, The National Observer Data and documentation journalist Michael Wrobel, Concordia University Researchers Jennifer Ackerman, University of Regina Madina Azizi, University of Regina Janelle Blakley, University of Regina Cory Coleman, University of Regina Mike De Souza, The National Observer Josh Diaz, University of Regina Brenna Engel, University of Regina Matthew Gilmour, Concordia University Celine Grimard, University of Regina Jared Gottselig, University of Regina Lauren Kaljur, University of British Columbia Rebbeca Marroquin, University of Regina Matthew Parizot, Concordia University Katie Doke Sawatzky, University of Regina Michaela Solomon, University of Regina Kyrsten Stringer, University of Regina Caitlin Taylor, University of Regina Steph Wechsler, Ryerson University Faculty Supervisors P.W. Elliott, University of Regina Trevor Grant, University of Regina Series Producer Patti Sonntag, Michener Fellow, based at Concordia University Institutional Credits Concordia University, Department of Journalism Ryerson University, School of Journalism University of British Columbia, Graduate School of Journalism University of Regina, School of Journalism Global News The Michener Awards Foundation Corporate Mapping Project Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Parkland Institute University of Victoria Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council