Peter Kent Has Talent BUT He is No Jim Prentice

Congratulations and condolences to Peter Kent the newly condemned Harper Con Minister of the Environment. I think Jeffrey Simpson's column in the Globe and Mail today captures the conundrum the Toronto based Minister will face internally.  Harper is a one-man authoritarian control freak and that will put the laudable investigative journalist instincts Mr. Kent somewhere between the back burner or buried in the closet.

The external pressures the new Minister faces are even more disheartening as he is clearly appointed for political purposes as a bone to Toronto as Harper prepares to engineer the timing of his next election, likely over the budget or his execution of same, not his ineptness and indifference to the environment.

Do not expect Mr. Kent's journalistic talents to be seen or even allowed to be applied to his new portfolio.  Harper does not like science, evidence or opinion that runs contrary to his dogma - especially from his Cabinet or Caucus.  That is really unfortunate but Harper is the strict authoritarian abusive father figure.  He uses his power to control the lives of his underlings and his lesser-beings in Cabinet and Caucus because he, and he alone, makes the rules and all the decisions for all those who serve him at his pleasure in  in his house.

ALBERTANS ACCEPT SOME FEDERAL INVOLVEMENT IN OIL SANDS 
As for Mr. Kent engaging effectively about federal involvement in oil sands policy and regulation, the Albertan industry and the Alberta government will watch him with a wary eye.  The Alberta public knows that the oil sands are key to our future and continued prosperity.  Only 17% of us are in any way satisfied with the performance of our federal MPs - and that was before Jim Prentice left politics and the oppressive regime of Stephen Harper.  Mr, Kent will do nothing to reverse those fortunes and impressions of how effective our MPs are in protecting our interests as Albertans.

Our research shows that Albertans know the provincial government is responsible for managing our natural resources. We overwhelming (90%) hold industry liable and responsible for any environmental damage they cause.  Interestingly 62% of Albertans see some role for the federal government in the development of the oil sands.  In the Chretien Liberal days of the mid 90's that federal role was federal tax breaks instigated by Alberta MP and former Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan.

EXPECT A FED-PROV FIGHT OVER WHO RUNS THE OIL SANDS SHOW?
Today the Harper Cons are belatedly entering into the environmental monitoring role as a federal government. We found that 68% of Albertans believed the federal government has increased its role in the development of the oil sands.This is unnerving to the Alberta government who are responding with an even more belated entry into responsible environmental monitoring.  There is a looming jurisdictional donny-brook over who is ultimately responsible for environmental monitoring and re-mediation policies to assure Albertans, as owners of the oil sands, that their resource is being developed responsibly.  The partisan hand wringing in the province is all behind closed doors but there are signs surfacing of the inter-governmental competition for the trust of Albertans, not just the political hearts and minds.    This may be the fed-prov "crisis" that Premier Stelmach will use to trigger an early Alberta election...but I doubt it.

WISE GOVERNING OR DUMB LUCK?
Bottom line is both the federal and provincial governments are wise to be focused on the issue about environmental monitoring regarding oil sand development.  That is a good start because 18% of Albertans said that was the most important concern they had around how their oil sands were being developed.  While it is a start is is noting to brag about because that same survey showed 20% Albertans were concerned about having assurance that the proper type of oil sands reclamation was being done.  Add to that the 19% how said their top priority for responsible oil sand development was habitat protection and you see why I say ecological monitoring  is just a start for government engagement and regulation.

So we have a Toronto media type with proven investigative journalist credentials allegedly running Harper's environment portfolio.  Actually Harper was pretty clear who would be running the file in the Kent appointment announcement when he said Kent's mandate was "to stay the course."  That is code for continue to do nothing but talk a lot so it does not look like you are doing nothing.

So Mr. Kent welcome the Harper in Wonderland world of inert environmental policy and authoritarian political control of you and your soul.  We don't expect to see much of you in Alberta after the first run through.  Your real job is to get more seats in Toronto next election, not to champion economically enlightened planet saving environmental policy.  Don't expect industry to be calling on you much after the first grin an grab initial rounds of meet and greet the new Minister.  They have real fish to fry...oops - bad metaphor.

Grizzly Bears Declared an Endangered Species in Alberta

The province of Alberta has finally made this important decision to designate grizzly bears as an endangered species in our province.

This is a very important policy step and one that is very aligned with the values of Albertans.  We at Cambridge Strategies have done a number of conjoint studies on forestry and oil sands development issues dating back to 2005.  In every case a significant value driver in the hearts and minds of Albertans has been habitat protection.

The industries like forestry, conventional oil and gas and oil sands are all becoming aware, and sometimes painfully aware, that their social license to continue to operate as our tenants on the lands owned by Albertans requires a higher degree of responsible stewardship than in the past.  Albertans are very aware of the need for a long term view when it comes to dealing with both renewable resources like forestry and non-renewable resource like oil, gas and oil sands. 

Forestry and oil sands developers do take a long term view of their responsibilities be it reforestation or land reclamation in the case of oil sands based disturbances.  I like the Alberta forest operators and believe they by and large have the right corporate values to justify their social licence to operate in our forests.  It was not always that way but with effective pressure from environmentalists and public opinion, they have seen the light.  Now the forestry sector is reformed and worthy of our respect as our tenants.  Unfortunately due to mountain pine beetle, climate change and market volatility, they are having a tough time making it with the conventional business model.

The conventional oil and gas sector also has a duty to reclaim lands from abandoned well sites, seismic lines and roadways but they are all too often less than diligent in fulfilling these duties.  They get enormous subsidies and royalty relief but still don't seem to understand that they are in danger of losing any modicum of public confidence in their integrity as respected operators entitled to responsibly exploit Alberta's natural resources.  As we see reduced market demands coming, unless the conventional energy sector starts to see the writing on the wall they will be the first to be pressured out of business by public opinion.

The move by the government of Alberta to designate grizzlies as endangered has been a longtime coming but it is hopefully not too late to protect this animal.  Biodiversity and habitat protection are highly ranked and core values for Albertans. Congratulations to the Stelmach government for making this move and with luck they will move to force industry for some expanded and enhanced land reclamation to provide a better habitat so these bears can thrive again.

Who is Responsible for Land Reclamation in Alberta?

Reclamation is an emerging hot topic in the minds of Albertans according to the Cambridge Strategies Inc Discrete Choice Modeling survey on oil sands development. We have unnecessary seismic lines, old oil and gas and forestry roads, abandoned well sites, pipeline disturbance all over the province that could be reclaimed. We have the open pit oil sands disturbances including tailing ponds and the really big oil sands show is the in-situ development where 70% of future oil sands activity is going to take place.

The question on my mind is if reclamation an afterthought in the consciousness industry and policy makers in Alberta? If so how long can this go on and who is ultimately responsible to pay for reclamation in the end? The old conventional industry game was for reclamation responsibility to be with the original developing oil company. The big guys, who do the really big plays, take on the reclamation responsibility at the front end. As the production diminishes the wells get sold off to juniors and smaller players who further exploit the wells and assume the reclamation duties. As the wells get really inefficient they get sold off to smaller and smaller groups who can use shell companies to pick up the dwindling production wells.

Then these micro players bankrupt the shell companies and leave the reclamation obligations unfulfilled. Not good. As I understand it the reasonability for reclamation can be enforced up the chain of ownership to the original players. If that is the case how often is that enforced by the government? If not, why not?

Another “disturbing” point about reclamation is the requirements to return the lands to a useful purpose akin to the original one would hope. Conventional site reclamations only require the l companies to plant grass…not even replace the trees they took out. In the early days of open pit oil sands mining the operators just stripped off the “overburden” and piled it up. One man’s overburden is another man’s topsoil and trees. Other species with whom we share the overburden lands call them home. How is it possible to replace the topsoil and the surface organic material that will sustain a forest growth if it is all mixed up in a pile? If this is what has happened one has to ask can the legal responsibility of developers to reclaim open pit oil sands mines ever be met with such operational practices?

The regulators have recently changed this and the Shell Albion project has actually for the first time separated the overburden into different piles so there is at least a chance it can be returned in some form so future efforts at reclamation may have a chance of supporting growth.

We better start looking seriously at responsibilities for reclamation now. We can’t wait any longer to get our heads around this problem. I am hoping we see something significant about reclamation in the soon to be released Land Use Framework of the GOA.

Short sighted development that is not integrated and enlightened cannot be the default position of Alberta. Albertans know this and it is time for our government to catch up to this reality and get aggressive about enforcing reclamation obligations.