Introduction to oil sands monitoring results report 2013 to 2014
1. Introduction
Responsible development of the oil sands resource is a priority for the governments of Canada and Alberta and needs to be supported by robust, reliable monitoring of the environmental impacts. Monitoring the environmental performance of the oil sands industry has been required by regulatory operating approvals, licences and permits since industrial extraction began in 1967. With the increased pace and scale of development, and based on recommendations from expert panels, the governments of Canada and Alberta jointly agreed to enhance and integrate existing environmental monitoring to better assess the cumulative environmental impacts of oil sands development.
On February 3, 2012, the federal and provincial environment ministers jointly announced the Joint Canada-Alberta Implementation Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring (“Implementation Plan”), committing the two governments to implementing a scientifically rigorous, comprehensive, integrated and transparent environmental monitoring program for the region. The Implementation Plan describes a phased implementation of enhanced monitoring activities over three years (2012 to 2015), and the rationalization and integration of current monitoring activities into a single, government-led program under the joint management of the two governments. The Implementation Plan also commits the governments to reporting annually on the progress made in carrying out the activities laid out in the Implementation Plan. This report summarizes the progress made during the 2013-2014 monitoring program against commitments in the Implementation Plan. Monitoring data, results, evaluation and reports are not described in detail in this report, but references are provided where such detail may be found.
The three-year Implementation Plan seeks to make monitoring of the changes due to oil sands development on the ambient environment more comprehensive, with more compounds sampled at more sites with greater frequency, using established scientific standards and protocols. The results will help to better understand the condition of the environment in the oil sands area, and cumulative environmental effects due to oil sands development activities.
Reporting annually on the progress made in achieving these objectives is a commitment made by the governments of Canada and Alberta to ensure transparency of the work. Reporting for 2013 to 2014 appears in two parts. The first report (released October 2014) presented the business aspects of the program year, including reporting on Funding, Accountable Administration and Review, Adaptive Management, and comparison of implementation activities against commitments made in the Implementation Plan for year two (2013 to 2014). This second report describes what we have learned from monitoring for the 2013 to 2014 year. It is expected the annual Business report will be released by June of each year, with the annual Results report released by December of each year.