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Oil Sands Development Strategy

Ms Blakeman: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. One thing that can be said for this government is that they like drafting strategies. But they always forget one key component: actual implementation. The oil sands strategy is a complicated matrix and one of so many plans that have been released that no one is sure exactly how it all fits together. My questions are to the President of the Treasury Board. Given that over the years we’ve seen the SREM commitment, the Radke report, water for life, the energy strategy, and the land-use framework, what’s new with the oil sands strategy? Particularly, which takes precedence to provide maximum protection for the environment?

Mr. Snelgrove: Mr. Speaker, it’s very clear and has been very clear that in this government Environment takes responsibility to ensure that we manage our environment appropriately. The land-use framework merely identifies all the players that are involved in the development of the oil sands as a whole. The responsibility for funding for infrastructure remains with Transportation, land use with SRD, health issues with the health minister. This simply is the organization that brings them all focused on one path.

The Speaker: The hon. member.

Ms Blakeman: Thank you. Again to the same minister. Given that oil sands production is targeted to reach 3 million barrels per day by 2015 and lease sales currently cover 65,000 square kilometres, with more in the pipeline, can the minister tell us if any of these new strategies apply retroactively; in other words, to what’s already in the pipeline or only to new projects?

Mr. Snelgrove: Mr. Speaker, the land-use framework applies to what we’re doing going forward. It just doesn’t make sense to say that 20 per cent is the right number to set aside. Go find out what the biodiversity is that we need to protect and then implement it as we go forward. We can’t change the past, but we can learn from it. The Department of Environment working with the Department of Energy has identified that we’re going to change how we deal with tailings ponds. That’s a go-forward. We can spend time dwelling in the past or use this document and go forward.

Ms Blakeman: Back to the same minister. Given that government has already rejected calls from CEMA to suspend new lease sales in sensitive areas, thereby establishing conservation offsets, why is the government including the same recommendation in the new oil sands strategy? You’ve already said no to it once. Now you’re going to say yes to it when you propose it? Explain how that works.

Mr. Snelgrove: Mr. Speaker, I’m not exactly sure if the hon. member means that you get more done by listening to people who aren’t very positive or sure about what they want or who are more negative. Or do you sit down with people who would like to see balanced, environmentally responsible progress, like industry, like the municipalities, like the environmental groups that want to work to make it better? We don’t put all of the report onto a single entity. It’s not an industry report. It’s not an environment report. It’s an all-encompassing report.