Traduction de «Niagara River Monitoring Program » (Anglais → Français) :

Upstream/Downstream Niagara River Monitoring Program [ Niagara River Upstream/Downstream Program ]

River Monitoring Program

Senator Seidman has pointed out to me this morning a story that an Alberta government-appointed scientific panel has backed research that indicates that oil sands development is releasing contaminants into northern Alberta watersheds; that the government monitoring program was not even trying to determine if the industry was polluting the Athabasca River; and that the government-appointed panel has now determined that it is polluting the Athabasca River.

Question No. 140 Ms. Kirsty Duncan: With respect to development of the oil sands, its impacts on the environment and surrounding communities, and the economic effects of these impacts: (a) what, if any, steps has the government taken to establish air emission limits or air quality standards to achieve the World Health Organization’s Air Quality Guidelines to protect air quality and human health; (b) what, if any, steps has the government’s sector-by-sector approach taken to regulate carbon emissions in the oil sands to ensure the oil sands industry makes appropriate reductions in its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to contribute to Canada’s GHG emission reduction goal of 17% below the 2005 level; (c) what, if any, studies has the governmen ...[+++]t undertaken to examine the effect of the oil sands expansion on (i) GHG emissions, (ii) Canada’s ability to meet its GHG emission reduction goals, (iii) Canada’s contribution to the goal of staying below a 2°C increase in global average surface temperature, relative to the pre-industrial level, as articulated at the G8 meeting in L’Aquila, Italy and at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations through the Copenhagen Accord in December 2009 and the Cancun Agreements in December 2010, (iv) the full suite of sustainability criteria, including environmental, economic and social sustainability, and (v) what were the results of any studies identified in (c)(i), (c)(ii), (c)(iii), and (c)(iv); (d) what, if any, studies has the government undertaken to examine (i) the scope of oil sands expansion if the oil sands sector is not required to deliver its proportional share of GHG reductions, (ii) the impacts such a decision would have on other sectors’ allowable GHG emissions, (iii) whether other sectors of the Canadian economy would have to do more than their proportional share to reduce emissions, (iv) what were the results of any studies identified in (d)(i), (d)(ii), and (d)(iii); (e) what, if any, studies ...

Under that agreement Canada and the United States agreed to first, work together to design and construct an advanced treatment system, taking into account the results of the ongoing monitoring and risk assessment; and, second, engage the International Joint Commission's international Red River board to develop a basin wide water quality and biological monitoring program for the Red River basin.

I have heard from my colleague, the member for Selkirk—Interlake, and I accept his word, but I really want to know whether the government is pressing for the results of the monitoring program carried out by the Red River board under the IJC.