EDMONTON — Alberta is closing its arm's-length environmental monitoring agency and moving its work back into government after a critical report.
Environment Minister Shannon Phillips says tracking impacts on the province's air, land and water is too important to be left to a group outside government.
She also says that the Alberta Environmental Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Agency divided the province's scientific resources and created expensive duplications.
Phillips says a scientific advisory panel will continue to ensure monitoring is done to the highest standards.
The move comes after a report to the minister concluded the agency was a failed experiment.
The agency was originally set up after widespread criticism of how the government monitored the impact of the oilsands on the regional environment.