CANADA - Edmonton's Expo 2017 would be open to companies looking to showcase innovations in the oilsands, despite its theme of green energy and the planet, says the chairman of the city's bid committee.
The exhibition bid would deliver a major opportunity for the exchange of ideas on environmentalism and will include attendees from Greenpeace and other environmental groups.
The chairman of the Edmonton Expo 2017 bid committee, Tony Franceschini, says it is important for the success of the exhibition not to look at energy from just one perspective, and that the intent is not to exclude anyone.
"The Expo is not an industry trade show," he says, "it's more transparent and democratic, and if Greenpeace wants to have a pavilion beside Syncrude, that would be fine.”
Franceschini also indicated there is some risk in building the fair around the theme of energy, given the negative publicity Alberta's oilsands have attracted in the US and Europe.
