CALGARY — A former top energy executive and a respected academic will lead a government-appointed panel to design a credible way to monitor the environmental impact of Alberta’s oilsands.
The panel was promised in December after studies found serious flaws in current monitoring. It will be co-led by Hal Kvisle, retired former head of pipeline giant TransCanada Corp., and Howard Tennant, former president of the University of Lethbridge.
“I have no doubt that these two accomplished individuals will ensure a credible and functional system is built,” said Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner.
The panel’s membership immediately came under fire for not including aboriginal voices and for having significant industry representation. It includes both Kvisle and David Pryce of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, as well as Bruce Carson, a former policy adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“It’s supposed to be an independent panel and there are members of this new committee that aren’t independent,” said Jennifer Grant of the environmental think-tank Pembina Institute. “We want to make sure that this panel can create what they’re touting as a world-class monitoring system, but we want to make sure that happens without industry filters being placed on them.”
David Schindler, the University of Alberta water scientist whose research helped spur the panel’s creation, expressed similar concerns.
“I wonder why all of these business types are needed,” he said. “I can’t see that they know anything about monitoring.
“I hope they’re not going to have too tight a hand on the purse strings here.
“(Industry) makes billions a year. Certainly if a few million have to go into a monitoring program, it’s what we need to do.”
Athabasca Chipewyan Chief Allan Adam, whose community is downstream from the oilsands, expressed outrage the panel doesn’t have an aboriginal voice to ensure traditional knowledge is considered.
“I don’t think it’s good enough. The province does not want to engage in a process with First Nations on any kind of initiatives in regards to community-based monitoring.
“(Rob Renner) has done nothing solid and credible in regards to the environment and in regards to how things should be developed.”
Renner defended the presence of industry on the panel. He pointed out that Kvisle is retired from his oilpatch career and added industry expertise is needed to ensure monitoring is not only credible, but workable.
“It’s not good enough to have a process that is scientifically valid if, for all practical purposes, it can’t operate.”
Renner said aboriginal groups will be consulted if necessary.
“There will be an appropriate way of consulting and putting feedback from those organizations into the system.”
Adam swept that assurance aside.
“We will probably just tell them straight up we think that your process is flawed. We’ve been lobbying to be part of the monitoring that’s going to be set up and you’ve totally gone against the First Nations wishes.”
Still, Schindler praised the scientific component of the panel, saying two members were involved with a federal committee that pointed out flaws in the Alberta system.
The nine scientists include researchers with expertise in public health, environmental risk, biology, geology and economics.
“They do seem very solid,” said Schindler.
Renner’s panel, which is expected to report by June, is the latest group of advisers looking into the environmental effects of the oilsands.
In addition to a federal panel appointed by former environment minister John Baird, the Royal Society of Canada recently released a report criticizing how Alberta tracks the industry’s effects.
A provincial committee is studying why independent scientists such as Schindler are getting such different results from a provincial aquatic monitoring system. Yet another body is conducting a peer review of that system and is expected to report soon.
Renner said the province is working well with its federal counterparts. Both levels of government are now setting up new water-quality monitoring, he said.
— By Bob Weber in Edmonton