Joint Canada-Alberta Implementation Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring: chapter 1

Objectives

The purpose of the joint implementation plan is to describe how the Governments of Alberta and Canada will put in place a world class monitoring program for the oil sands to provide assurance of environmentally responsible development of the resource.

The Plan has a number of objectives:

• Support sound decision-making by governments as well as stakeholders;
• Ensure transparency through accessible, comparable and quality-assured data;
• Enhance science-based monitoring for improved characterization of the state of the environment and collect the information necessary to understand cumulative effects;
• Improve analysis of existing monitoring data to develop a better understanding of historical baselines and changes, and;
• Reflect the trans-boundary nature of the issue and promote collaboration with the Governments of Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.