RNNR Committee Report

RECOMMENDATION 1:

With respect to the role of governments, the Committee recommends that the federal government, specifically the Department of Natural Resources, base all of its actions in the area of oil sands development on sustainable development and polluter-pays principles.

RECOMMENDATION 2:

The committee also recommends that the federal government recognize the jurisdiction of the provinces with respect to the pace of development in the oil sands, and that it reject any suggestions of nationalizing the oil sands.

RECOMMENDATION 3:

Based on the evidence heard, the Committee recommends that the federal government, in cooperation with the Government of Alberta, renew efforts to fill the shortages of specialized and non-specialized workers in the oil sands sector.

RECOMMENDATION 4:

The Committee recommends that the Department of Natural Resources carry out a study and propose a human resources action plan to retain experts within the Department and mitigate the brain drain to the oil and gas industry. The Committee recommends that the federal government, and Natural Resources Canada in particular, develop and implement measures to ensure that the highly qualified scientific personnel needed to carry out its mission and its various mandates are retained and replaced when they leave.

RECOMMENDATION 5:

Based on the evidence heard, the Committee recommends specifically that Natural Resources Canada, together with its various partners, step up its R&D efforts to stimulate innovation in the area of replacing natural gas with clean sources as regards greenhouse gases in the extracting and processing of oil.

RECOMMENDATION 6:

The Committee further recommends that the government implement a joint public/private task force to find solutions as quickly as possible to reduce the use of natural gas in oil sands production, thereby conserving this resource for a more valuable use.

RECOMMENDATION 7:

Furthermore, the Committee recommends that no decision be made on using nuclear energy to extract oil from the tar sands until the repercussions of this process are fully known and understood.

RECOMMENDATION 8:

This committee is concerned that the public sector has borne too great a proportion of oil sands research and development in comparison to the private sector. This committee therefore calls upon the industry to increase its commitment to research and development to meet the Canadian industrial average, and further calls upon the federal government to shift its research focus to emerging renewable and sustainable technologies.

RECOMMENDATION 9:

On the basis of the evidence heard, the Committee recommends that Natural Resources Canada acknowledge and follow up on the first two priorities identified in the Report of the National Advisory Panel on Sustainable Energy Science and Technology, that is, gasification technologies and CO2 capture and storage technologies.

RECOMMENDATION 10:

Moreover, recognizing that the federal government plays a recognized and indisputable role in R&D, the Committee feels that it must maintain its participation as it relates to the various facets of oil sands development.

RECOMMENDATION 11:

In view of the level of development reached in the Wood Buffalo region and the many projects that are either already underway or planned, the Committee recommends that the federal government, working together with the Government of Alberta, undertake a comprehensive assessment of the cumulative impacts of oil sands development projects already underway and planned for the future. The Committee further recommends that the federal government, through in-house resources or through a specific mandate to an organization, conduct a full and detailed assessment of the socio-economic and environmental impacts of oil sands activities, analogous to the macroeconomic analysis conducted by the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) to cover a 20-year period (2000-2020).

RECOMMENDATION 12:

Moreover, this Committee calls upon the Government of Canada to employ existing legislation such as the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) in a more comprehensive way to address such environmental concerns as trans-boundary air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and harm to waterways and fisheries. Use of such legislation should, wherever possible, be done in cooperation with the province, and should respect areas of provincial jurisdiction.

RECOMMENDATION 13:

The Committee therefore recommends that the Government of Canada continue to fund government, university and industrial research into important carbon sequestration measures such as improved forest management, agricultural and landfill practices, the use of algae, and the use of biomass as fuel.

RECOMMENDATION 14:

In addition, the Committee strongly endorses the goal of the Pembina Institute that the oil sands should become carbon neutral by 2020 through the adoption of new technologies such as carbon capture and sequestration, and/or through the purchase of offsetting carbon credits. Furthermore, this committee believes that being able to sell a “carbon neutral” barrel of oil will help the industry to maintain access to markets where there is concern about greenhouse gas emissions.

RECOMMENDATION 15:

The Committee further recommends that the federal government introduce a regulatory framework that would place constraints requiring the industry to introduce technologies to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, along with mechanisms such as emission credits trading, as incentives for financing these technologies.

RECOMMENDATION 16:

Moreover, the Committee believes that any future expansion of oil sands development should be done in a way that it does not jeopardize Canada’s international Kyoto obligations on GHG emissions and climate change. We call upon the federal government, in keeping with an emissions reduction strategy for large final emitters, to introduce hard emissions caps for the oil sands for 2008 to 2012, 2020 and 2050, based on absolute levels and not based on “intensity.”

RECOMMENDATION 17:

The Committee therefore recommends that the government of Canada eliminate the accelerated capital cost allowance currently applicable to the oil sands industry in order to place it on an equal footing with the broader oil and gas industry.

RECOMMENDATION 18:

The Committee therefore recommends that Natural Resources Canada, through the Geological Survey of Canada, and working together with the province, ramp up and accelerate work on research into aquifers in Alberta, particularly in the current and potential oil sands operations areas.

RECOMMENDATION 19:

Therefore, the Committee recommends that the federal government work together with its partners in the Governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, universities and industry to step up research in order to:

•       determine the true impact of oil sands activity on the Athabasca River ecosystem, as well as on Aboriginal fisheries in the Peace and Athabasca river delta;

•       acelerate the treatment of toxic wastewater that has accumulated in the retention ponds so that these waters can be re-used in industrial processes and ultimately returned to the river; and,

•       accelerate the introduction of technologies that will radically reduce the use of water in bitumen extraction and treatment processes.

RECOMMENDATION 20:

Therefore, the Committee recommends that the federal government, in partnership with the provincial government, assess the impact of all oil sands development projects on the boreal forest, and that it consider the introduction of compensatory conservation methods for the creation of protected areas in the region surrounding the oil sands, as well as in the broader region of the Mackenzie River watershed.

RECOMMENDATION 21:

While acknowledging the major commitment made by the CANMET Devon Centre to research reclamation issues, the Committee believes it is incumbent upon the industry itself to take the lead and to accelerate research and action in land reclamation, particularly with respect to the potential toxicity of tailings and water.

RECOMMENDATION 22:

This Committee endorses the plea of Pat Marcel not to forget the aboriginal peoples in the Wood Buffalo region whose traditional lands are impacted by oil sands development. The Committee strongly encourages industry and government to continue and expand consultations with residents, both aboriginal and non-aboriginal, whose communities are affected by these developments. Further, the committee recommends that the federal government take necessary measures to improve living conditions for the aboriginal communities whose way of life has been impacted by extensive oil production on their traditional lands.