The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers told Postmedia News it hoped to have a final deal in place by the end of June to cover the cost of improving monitoring of the Alberta region's air, water and wildlife.
"Industry has agreed to fund the costs of the enhanced oilsands regional environmental monitoring program," said Travis Davies, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. "We have moved on to figuring out how to administratively do it."
Despite anticipating funding from industry, Environment Minister Peter Kent has explained that some recently proposed cuts in federal scientific research and monitoring initiatives across the country would allow the government to shift resources to the western part of Canada.
"We are in the process of finalizing the administrative funding agreement among industry, EC, and the Alberta government," said Environment Canada spokeswoman Celine Tremblay. "To be clear, industry has agreed to, and will pay for, the up to $50 million a year cost for the additional monitoring laid out in the plan, as we announced back in February."
She also said the agreement would govern the process of reimbursement of costs, but not any decisions on how the monitoring system would be deployed.
When Kent announced early details of the monitoring plan last July, the department recognized that it would have trouble doing credible environmental reviews of proposed projects without better scientific data and expertise.
"If we do not have credible scientific monitoring information it will be very difficult to proceed with federal environmental assessments of oilsands projects in a timely way," the department said in an internal list of questions and answers about the plan, released to Postmedia News through access to information legislation.
The internal documents said that better monitoring was needed both for economic and environmental reasons.
"It is necessary to ensure that industry keeps its social licence to operate and has access to international markets," said the department. "Implementing a monitoring plan that is scientifically sound is necessary for the environment and for business."
Environment Canada also suggested, at the time, that companies should pay for the costs to meet "good corporate social responsibility demands that companies be accountable to citizens, employees and shareholders who care deeply about these issues."
It noted that the estimated $50 million annual price tag, which could decrease over time by reducing monitoring in areas that do not appear to be problematic, represented less than one-tenth of one per cent of the annual value of production from the oilsands.
The department also recognized that the industry was already spending more than $15 million per year on monitoring.
Opposition MPs said they were disappointed funding arrangements had not been finalized, while expressing concerns about whether the government could deliver on its commitments in the context of budget cuts.
"Given the fact that there aren't very many Environment Canada scientists left to do the monitoring, I wonder what it will actually end up costing," said NDP deputy leader and environment critic Megan Leslie. "Further, I have grave concerns about what monitoring, if any, is being done in the interim."
Green party leader Elizabeth May said she was "shocked" the government and industry were still negotiating the funding arrangements, and expressed concerns that more federal cuts to scientific research and monitoring could occur in the absence of a final deal.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Mike De Souza
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