Oil sands production has surged–from 1.3 million barrels per day in 2006, to 1.9 million by 2012, a figure projected to double by 2022–but the resource’s environmental regulation has remained dubious. Provincial and federal governments have reaped the windfalls of the boom with only sporadic, often ambivalent attention to its impact, squabbling along the way over jurisdiction. Federal environment ministers have been saying emissions regulations are imminent since 2006. Companies have often been left to monitor themselves….
A 2010 comprehensive review by the Royal Society of Canada said that the province’s regulation had not “kept pace with rapid growth” and was prone to political interference. The same year, the federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development found that Environment Canada, after four decades of oil sands mining, had “insufficient data to monitor oil sands development.” The feds had been flying blind.
Josh Wingrove – Globe and Mail – October 28, 2014.
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