Accessibility and Access Keys [0]
By Kelly Cryderman, Calgary Herald
Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent released a sweeping oilsands monitoring plan on Thursday, but there were quickly calls for development to slow while the environmental results are tabulated – and questions about who will pick up the estimated $50-million yearly tab for the program.
As Kent formally announced his department’s detailed “world-class” monitoring system for water, air, plants and animals – in collaboration with the Alberta government – the minister told reporters the oilsands industry is prepared to cover the costs of the program.
“Fifty-million dollars to most of us represents a very large amount of money. But against an industry that is expected to generate $80 billion next year, it’s a very small price to pay for, as we said, social licence,” the minister said in Ottawa.
However, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers president David Collyer said shortly afterwards that it’s “premature to indicate that industry would be happy to pick up the cost.”
Collyer said better scientific information is good for everyone, and he hopes to see the proposed monitoring systems from both the province and Ottawa blended into one, all-encompassing program.
However, he noted industry already picks up some environmental monitoring costs. And while member companies expect to pick up a portion of costs for future programs, “one has to be realistic as well. There are other parties in the mix.”
Meanwhile, environmental groups say any new monitoring plan needs to be partnered with tough government regulations and limits. They say in an era of greater than 40 per cent cuts to federal entities such as the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, there needs to be sufficient funding aimed at monitoring to have any impact.
Groups including Environmental Defence and Greenpeace say oilsands expansion should be curtailed until the results from environmental monitoring are clear.
“It’s something we would have loved to see a long time ago, so we could be using this now and making much more informed decisions,” said the Pembina Institute’s Marc Huot.
When asked about proposals to slow project approvals, Premier Ed Stelmach said many people don’t understand it takes many years for oilsands ventures – all massive in size and investment – to get off the ground. “In that time, over the next five years, monitoring systems will improve, technology will improve,” Stelmach said.
In making his announcement in Ottawa on Thursday, Kent said the monitoring system is needed as industry expands its output and environmental footprint.
“We need evidence that the growing production is environmentally responsible.”
Kent said it’s important that Canada has good data to protect the industry, “which some abroad are threatening to boycott.”
The oilsands have been targeted by environmental groups for increasing greenhouse gas emissions and weighty impacts on the air and water. Both talks toward establishing a freetrade agreement with the European Union and building the Keystone XL pipeline to the United States have been hampered by opposition to the oilsands.
University of Alberta energy economist Andrew Leach said many environmentalists assume sound environmental monitoring will show the widespread destructiveness of the oilsands, while politicians and industry say monitoring will prove bitumen naysayers wrong.
The truth, Leach suspects, lies somewhere between the two extremes. But industry and governments need to prepare themselves if the results show more damage to the air, water and biodiversity than they first believed, he said.
“Then the tough choices are which limits to put on that development,” Leach said.
Kent said the new federal integrated monitoring plan retains the “sound components” of existing but unco-ordinated monitoring systems, increases the number of monitoring locations and provides for better scientific measurements of impacts downstream or downwind in northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories and Manitoba.