FFWD REW

Oilsands recommendations ‘collecting dust’

Environmentalists call on Stelmach government to respond

As giant machines chew up the earth in northern Alberta three environmentalists who sat on a government-appointed oilsands committee for over a year are wondering when Premier Ed Stelmach’s government will respond to their recommendations. “We haven’t heard any word on it” says the Sierra Club’s Lindsay Telfer one of three environmental NGO reps on the committee. “So I have nothing else to conclude [but] they’re trying to shelve it and hope that it falls off people’s attentions.”

The government released the recommendations in July after the committee held a series of meetings around Alberta to get the public’s input on oilsands development. Using this input the committee came up with 120 wide-ranging recommendations covering the social economic and environmental challenges that come with oilsands development. For example the committee recommended the province speed up land reclamation consult more with aboriginal communities affected by development and diversify the economy so Alberta can transition to a “post-oil” economy. “The number one issue that emerged from that consultation was the pace of development and the sense that it’s being mismanaged by the government of Alberta” says the Pembina Institute’s Dan Woynillowicz who was also on the committee.

When the government released the committee recommendations in late July — “the middle of summer holidays” notes Telfer — Energy Minister Mel Knight said the recommendations would be “extremely valuable” in developing “long-term actions and strategies” for oilsands development. But four months later the NGO reps are still waiting for Knight’s department (and others) to say how they’ll put the recommendations into practise. “The report was done to be acted on — not to sit collecting dust on a government shelf” says Telfer. Tim Markle a spokesperson for Alberta Energy says the recommendations are “still under consideration.” He says he doesn’t know when the government will respond.

By contrast it took the government just over five weeks to respond to the recommendations of a government-appointed panel reviewing Alberta’s oil and gas royalty regime. “This [oilsands] report I would say is more significant in many ways” says Martha Kostuch chair of the Prairie Acid Rain Coalition and the other NGO rep on the committee. “And yet it seems to have gotten sidetracked and that really concerns me.”

The oilsands consultation committee — which included government industry and aboriginal members — reached a consensus on 96 of the 120 recommendations. The hangups were mostly on environmental recommendations like setting greenhouse gas targets that would cap oilsands emissions requiring carbon neutrality in the oilsands industry by 2020 and putting a cumulative limit on the amount of land that can be disturbed at any one time by oilsands development. (Industry and the Alberta government opposed all three of these recommendations.)

“It’s quite clear where government stands and that’s with industry” says Telfer. Industry disagreed with 19 of the recommendations and the Alberta government supported all but two of these disagreements. Telfer Kostuch and Woynillowicz recommended a moratorium on new oilsands development but the other committee members were opposed.

Woynillowicz says if nothing else the sheer amount of time energy and resources put into the consultation warrants a government response. The committee set up a panel that held 15 public meetings around Alberta from Edmonton and Calgary to Peace River and Fort Chipewyan. “An incredible amount of work went into this process” Woynillowicz says. “I’m looking for a comprehensive and formal response to both the consensus recommendations but perhaps even more importantly the non-consensus recommendations.”

Liberal environment critic David Swann slammed the Conservatives in the Legislature November 19 for taking so long to respond to the recommendations. “There seems to be a reluctance to publicly address these critical issues” said Swann. “It appears that this government will do anything to give the impression [that] ‘everything is fine. Just trust us.’” He says the government’s non-response to the report is “very disappointing.”

Telfer says that by ignoring the report the Stelmach government is making the situation worse. “There’s a definite strategy in the Alberta government right now… to try to ignore these reports and these recommendations and hope they go away” says Telfer. “But the reality is the issues aren’t going anywhere and in fact one could say that they’re only being magnified in light of government’s inaction.”

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