Cleaning Up Its Act

Canada lays out a plan to monitor the oil sands, but will the government act when the alarm sounds?

If you’re renting a house to a tenant who smokes, ensuring that you have a working smoke alarm might seem like basic due diligence – especially if the neighbours have told you repeatedly that they’ve seen flames and smelled smoke coming from the unit. But you’re unlikely to stop there – you’d probably demand some changes from the renter in order to prevent your asset from going up in smoke.

The Government of Canada is now facing a similar situation following its announcement of plans to implement a comprehensive monitoring system to measure the environmental impacts of oil sands development.

Make no mistake: This is a positive news story. Over the past year, independent scientists and multiple review panels have been scrutinizing oil sands monitoring processes, and they have all come to a similar conclusion: Current monitoring is insufficient, and, in the case of water monitoring, is seriously flawed and unreliable. There is clearly a need for a major overhaul of oil sands monitoring to inform regulatory enforcement and responsible decision-making. The fact that the federal government has finally stepped up to the plate suggests that it is making some progress in recognizing its responsibilities in the oil sands.

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However, let’s be honest about what this plan is, and what it is not. At this point, the Government of Canada has produced a plan that is based on sound science, and that should (hopefully) increase transparency regarding the environmental impacts of the oil sands. As such, it appears to be a substantial improvement over the current approach, in which industry leads monitoring in an ineffective, patchwork manner. This plan does not mean, however, that the environmental issues related to the oil sands have been solved – and it is certainly not a “green plan.” In and of itself, it does nothing to address the environmental impacts of the oil sands; it just identifies them.

Several questions remain: How will the new monitoring system be implemented? Who is going to pay for the new system to ensure its operation over the long term? (There appears to be a misunderstanding between Environment Minister Peter Kent and the oil sands industry on this question.) And, most importantly, how are the regulators going to use this new information to better enforce environmental laws? While collecting information is important, monitoring without adequate regulation, sufficient enforcement, and informed decision-making is a meaningless effort.

Should Canada expand its oil industry to Asia in order to reduce its dependence on U.S. markets? See what supporters of this idea have to say here.

For more than 40 years, oil sands development has been rapidly expanding with little attention paid to addressing the cumulative impacts of all of these projects – despite the fact that independent scientific studies have been showing clear evidence of environmental damage. Even though rules have not yet been put in place to protect species at risk and water quality, or to set real limits on greenhouse-gas pollution, the governments of Canada and Alberta haven’t hesitated to approve new projects. Apparently, both are satisfied by the industry’s claims that there are no significant environmental impacts, using data from monitoring processes now deemed seriously flawed. But there doesn’t appear to be any appetite to revisit past regulatory approvals, or to adjust or suspend the review of proposed projects.