Home » News » Feds spend $50 million to boost reputation of Alberta oilsands
News
Feds spend $50 million to boost reputation of Alberta oilsands
News Articles Featured | Toronto Star | July 21, 2011
Read the full article on the originating site
OTTAWA—Environment Minister Peter Kent hopes a comprehensive new plan for monitoring the impact of the Alberta oilsands will boost the damaged reputation of the industry abroad.
“There is already a great deal of disinformation and misinformation both within Canada and abroad and we’re seeing it being used in a variety of ways — sometimes for a variety of purposes — to discriminate against the product of a great Canadian natural resource,” the federal environment minister told a news conference in Ottawa on Thursday.
“I think that what this does is provide both the industry and the government of Alberta, the government of Canada with the hard science to prove to the world that this great resource is being developed in a responsible and sustainable and constantly improving way,” Kent said.
The integrated monitoring plan for the Alberta oilsands developed by government and academic scientists will track the impact of the industry on water and air quality, as well as its effect on biodiversity, including habitat disturbance.
The plan will cost industry about $50 million per year.
“It is a very small price to pay for social license,” said Kent.
The monitoring plan grew out of the federally appointed Oilsands Advisory Panel, which released a report last December concluding that a lack of scientific data meant Ottawa had fallen short on measuring the environmental impact of the quickly developing industry.
The first phase of the monitoring plan, looking only at water quality, was announced in March, while the Alberta government announced its own monitoring system earlier this month.
Environment Canada says the Alberta and federal plans do not overlap, as scientists from each level of government will manage the areas best suited to their areas of expertise and jurisdiction.
Officials expect work to begin almost immediately and said that raw data from the monitoring system will be made available on the Environment Canada website.
Tagged with: alberta, monitoring, peter kent, oilsands advisory panel
