"Our country should be extremely proud to have this resource base and, furthermore, to have developed the technology that makes such a tough resource an actual economic industry. I don’t think we give ourselves as Canadians enough credit for that," said Mr. Coutu, of Calgary.

He is on a cross-country tour explaining the massive oilsands project and trying to counter negative publicity about North America’s largest oil development, which produces about 1.3 million barrels of oil per day in northern Alberta.

In the March 2009 issue of National Geographic, the magazine, which has 40 million readers, produced a 20-page article about the sludge-covered tailing ponds and pictures of the sprawling oilfields.

Mr. Coutu called that issue about the oilsands "irresponsible" and "unbalanced" reporting, and acknowledged it has hurt the image of the project.

"That’s why we are on the road and trying to re-benchmark that whole way of thinking," said Mr. Coutu in an interview after speaking to members of the Offshore/Onshore Technologies Association of Nova Scotia.

He also blamed environmental groups for attacking the oilsands project to help raise money for their organizations.

Environmentalists say the tarsands are the world’s dirtiest oil deposits and that refining them generates three to four times more CO2 than normal oil extraction.

"The public just really needs to hear the perspective from those of us who actually operate the projects, rather than those who are trying to do a lot of fundraising at the margin and creating the noise they need to do that," said Mr. Coutu, who heads next to St. John’s, N.L.

Mr. Coutu said the oilsands project has a "big impact" on the environment but it would be worse if the oil companies hadn’t taken steps to spend millions of dollars on research and technology to reduce the project’s carbon footprint.

Canadian Oil Sands Trust, which is managed by Canadian Oil Sands Ltd., is the lead partner in Syncrude Canada, with a 36.74 per cent interest in the oilsands project.

The tarsands comprise viscous bitumen and sand, a mixture described as having a similar consistency as peanut butter and that can currently only be extracted by digging it out. Reports have stated the Athabasca region has already been scarred with huge pits, some hundreds of metres deep.

The oil companies operating in the area are developing an extraction method in which superheated steam is pumped into the ground to melt the oil so it can be sucked out as a liquid. That process and subsequent refining require huge amounts of energy, equivalent to up to 30 per cent of the energy contained in the extracted oil.

"We move a million tonnes of material everyday. That’s not without impact. We’re a business that is energy intensive and when you consume energy to produce something you are going to produce CO2," he said.

A recent study on the future economic impact of the oilsands project by the Canadian Energy Research Institute estimates Nova Scotia could receive $3.25 billion in benefits from jobs and providing services over the next 25 years.