Alberta’s New Wetland Policy Leaves Terrible Footprint

Wetlands make up 60 per cent of the 4750 square kilometers of mineable land in Northern Alberta. The lands are home to a diverse number of species, including Caribou, which are currently endangered in Northern Alberta. They act as a water filter and moderate spring run off. They are also important to traditional land use for indigenous communities.

The vast swaths of wetlands in Northern Alberta come in diverse forms, including peat lands, which act as a powerful carbon trap. Because their delicate ecosystems have developed over centuries, they will be difficult and costly to replace.

Mining equipment clears the "overburden" at a mining project in a wetland rich boreal forest in Northern Alberta

Like much of the environmental legislation in Alberta, the publically visible bill is light on specifics.

Oilsands director at the Pembina Institute Jennifer Grant points out that one of the worrisome questions in the policy as it’s written is the issue of “non-replacement mitigation” of wetland destruction. Rather than forcing companies to replace the wetlands they destroy, the policy allows them to put money into research and development or wetlands education.

“They could just pay into a fund that promotes the values of wetlands, which is ironic,” she says.

From the beginning, the environmental think tank and many other environmental groups in Alberta have advocated for a “no-net-loss” policy, which means that industry would have to replace every hectare it damages.

The original draft of the policy put forth in 2008 by environmental consulting firm Aquality recommended that “no-net-loss” policy.

However, two members of the 25-member water council objected: the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) and the Alberta Chamber of Resources (ACR). They wrote a letter to the Ministry of Environment stating that the proposed policy would cost the companies they represent “billions of dollars” and urged the Alberta government to delay introduction of any policy. The province capitulated and went back to the drawing board.

“We are very much concerned that [the policy] has been significantly undermined,” Carolyn Campbell of the Alberta Wilderness Association told Canadian Press at the time. “We are worried that by caving in to one sector’s request, we would weaken our wetland policy across the province.”

With new policy, Grant worries that the government’s implementation of this policy might be as lax as their implementation of tailings ponds legislation they made in 2009.

“They were talking some tough talk, saying if companies don’t meet these rules, they’re not going to be able to operate in this province,” she remembers. “When you look at the lack of compliance over time, it’s actually gotten worse, not better.”

In June, the Energy Resources Conservation Board released a report saying that companies in Northern Alberta have “failed to meet their commitments” in dealing with the dangerous liquid waste reservoirs that are a key feature of tar sands mining.

“The regulator said, you know what? That’s okay,” says Grant. “We don’t want to put too many onerous conditions on companies. We’re going to choose not to enforce right now and we’ll consider enforcing in 2015.”

Image Credit: Mark Elliot via Flickr

Image Credit: The Pembina Institute via Flickr