Environmental Monitoring and Reporting (March 15)
Ms Blakeman: Thanks very much, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe that Alberta currently has a perfect balance between oil and gas development and environmental protection.
The problem is that when it comes to environmental regulations, this government has a terrible track record, and while the competitiveness review does recognize and talk about environmental protection, I don’t see anything in here that clearly defines and priorizes action.
To the Minister of the Environment: what was the minister’s part in this review?
Mr. Renner: Well, Mr. Speaker, this review was an effort that was a partnership between independent third parties, industry, and government, and by government I refer to the Department of Energy, the Treasury Board, Environment. Who else was involved? Technology was involved in the review. SRD was involved in the review. The role of Environment was to work with other ministries and identify areas where there is overlap, where there is duplication, and where we can streamline a process but at the end of the day protect the environment.
The Speaker: The hon. member.
Ms Blakeman: Thank you. To the same minister: how exactly will the minister streamline the review process for environmental assessments? What has been lined up so far?
Mr. Renner: Well, Mr. Speaker, the competitiveness review talks about a group that will be chaired by the Member for Drayton Valley-Calmar, the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Energy. The parliamentary assistants from Environment and SRD will also be involved in this. They will be in fact working with officials within those industries to identify those. They have two objectives, short term and longer term, and we expect the report back from them very shortly.
The Speaker: The hon. member.
Ms Blakeman: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Can the minister explain what it means for environmental monitoring when the report states on page 17: “Stakeholders have also raised concerns about duplicative and overly frequent reporting requirements”?
What exactly does that mean?
Mr. Renner: Mr. Speaker, as you’re well aware, there are a number of jurisdictions that have responsibility for the oil and gas industry: the ERCB, SRD, and Environment. In some cases industry finds itself reporting the identically same data to all three regulators. It makes sense that they should only have to report that data once. Maybe the government could talk to itself rather than industry talking three times.
Alberta Hansard, March 15, 2010