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ENVIRONMENT: Pembina criticizes “outdated” process of oil sands land sales as harmful

        (AlbertaIndex, April 12) --- Environmental think tank Pembina Institute has criticized Alberta’s “outdated” oil sands tenure regime that grants oil sands leases to companies as harmful to the environment and society.

        In a special report, “Haste Makes Waste: The Need for a New Oil Sands Tenure Regime”, Pembina sheds light on the way the Alberta government grants oil sands leases to companies, and demonstrates how the outdated tenure regime is driving many of the environmental and social problems plaguing the oil sands region today.
        It charged that the tenure process has resulted in a total of 49,000 square km - an area 70 times larger than the city of Calgary - being leased for oil sands development with no assessment of the environmental and social consequences of these land sales.
       
“The way the Alberta government disposes of oil sands leases is a relic of another age,” said Simon Dyer, senior policy analyst with the institute. “Most Albertans would be shocked to learn that the government grants oil sands leases without a process for considering the environmental and social impacts of these decisions.”
        The report identifies a number of major problems in the existing process including no public engagement, a lack of mechanisms in place to determine if the granting of an oil sands lease is in the public interest, and the lack of a management plan to guide the granting of oil sands leases.
        Pembina said: “The Stelmach government has stated its commitment to managing growth pressures as one of its five key governing priorities, but it has yet to establish a system for improving the management of oil sands leases.”
        Mr Dyer said: "The government of Alberta's failure to establish a management plan for the granting of oil sands leases is the root cause of the worsening environmental and social conditions in the region. The government needs to update Alberta's oil sands tenure process to ensure that social and environmental values are reflected in the decision to grant oil sands leases.”
        The report makes several detailed recommendations on how to improve Alberta’s oil sands tenure regime. These include the need for a moratorium in granting new oil sands leases until an overhaul of the tenure process has been completed and the embattled Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA) has delivered its recommendations for the management of the oil sands.
        A full copy of "Haste Makes Waste: The Need for a New Oil Sands Tenure Regime" and a fact sheet is available at www.oilsandswatch.org and www.pembina.org.

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