Oilsands threaten caribou, say federal documents

Briefing notes list other environmental concerns

Disappearing caribou, whooping cranes with “oily underbellies” and more than a dozen warning letters about alleged environmental infractions to a major Canadian energy company are among the concerns about oilsands development highlighted in newly released federal briefing material.

The documents, released through access-to-information legislation, also described ongoing concerns about water disruption and contamination, as well as the multibillion-dollar economic benefits from Western Canada’s natural deposits of bitumen, which are considered to hold one of the world’s largest reserves of oil.

Bitumen, the tar-like heavy oil that is derived from those deposits, requires large amounts of energy and water to extract, either through mining or the injection of steam deep underground. The federal government also estimates that oilsands operations are the fastest-growing source of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in Canada that contribute to global warming.

The Environment Canada documents noted that Alberta oilsands development is continuing at an accelerating rate with $125 billion in capital investments announced for the period between 2006 and 2015.

Although it estimated that annual government revenues from the oil industry were $24 billion in 2007 and $26 billion the following year, briefing notes prepared for Environment Canada’s former deputy minister, Paul Boothe, for a May 2012 meeting “to discuss matters of mutual interest” with a vice-president from Suncor said the department was concerned about environmental impacts of individual projects as well as cumulative impacts of development.

‘The science is clear — all of Alberta’s boreal caribou are at elevated risk of becoming extirpated, including those in the oilsands region.’ Briefing document prepared for a meeting of Alberta and federal deputy ministers in 2012

In terms of protecting endangered species, the briefing material noted that two Suncor projects had been approved for expansion by regulators, despite occurring in caribou range and that they “may infringe on critical habitat” identified in a national plan to protect the species.

“The science is clear — all of Alberta’s boreal caribou are at elevated risk of becoming extirpated (locally extinct), including those in the oilsands region,” said a separate briefing document prepared for a meeting of federal and Alberta deputy ministers in February 2012.

Earlier this week, the Alberta government was praised by environmentalists for restricting logging activity northeast of Jasper National Park, protecting caribou habitat.

The briefing notes for the Suncor meeting also mentioned recent evidence showing that some whooping cranes, an endangered species, were flying directly over and landing near the minable oilsands region.

“In conjunction with recent photographs from the USA displaying cranes with oily underbellies, this raises concern with cranes landing in tailings ponds,” said the scenario briefing note for the meeting.

Boothe was also urged to remind Suncor, at the meeting, that the government’s recent changes to environmental laws had loosened some regulations under the Species at Risk Act, allowing industry to get longer-term permits to operate in critical habitat instead of being forced to renew their permits every three to five years.

Environment Canada said in the documents that it had conducted 407 inspections of Suncor operations over three years since 2012, resulting in 17 warning letters, three investigations, and one conviction when Suncor pleaded guilty in December 2010 to spilling toxic waste water into the Steepbank River two years earlier.

A Suncor spokeswoman said the company always discloses incidents to the appropriate regulators when they occur on project sites, striving to achieve environmental goals that go beyond minimum requirements for compliance.