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Alberta stalls shift in oil sands policy
The Alberta government has backed away from a controversial plan to give the “highest priority” to oil sands mining over other forms of development across a broad swath of the province’s north — a strategy shift that critics argued would have reduced environmental protection and wildlife.
Instead of proceeding with three public workshops in January and an Internet consultation, the government has asked a group led by a member of the Alberta legislative assembly and including representatives of industry, environmental groups and five Athabasca Tribal Council First Nations to take a fresh look at the public consultation process.
Critics said the scope of that process was too restricted given the major shift in government policy that was being proposed. Oil sands would have been managed as one development zone The Mineable Oil Sands Strategy, developed by the energy, environmental and sustainable resource departments, proposed that oil sands exploitation should be managed in one development zone, rather than project-by-project.
Energy Minister Greg Melchin said the strategy would give regulators, industry and the public a “clearer understanding of how development and land reclamation will be managed in the mineable development zone.”
Officials of the Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development and the Sierra Club said the plan was an abdication of environmental responsibility and posed a threat to the region’s boreal forest and the people who live, fish and hunt in the area.
Chris Severson-Baker, director of Pembina’s Energy Watch program, said the policy shift would result in less environmental protection, without containing any provision for compensation.
He said the strategy also bypassed work under way by a multi-stakeholder Cumulative Environmental Management Association to identify the best ways to manage the impact of oil sands development.
A spokesman for the environment department said that when the review group delivers its findings by March 31, the government could be forced to rethink its plan, which he conceded was seen by some as being imposed unilaterally.
Some groups are hoping the new round of hearings will include sessions in Calgary and Edmonton as well as the oil sands region.
—Gary Park
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