Environment committee  On your question about whether there are effects on groundwater, I would say yes. It's been an issue that review panels and environmental assessments have looked at in the Athabasca region. Certainly before you would look at mining an area, typically they want to depressurize it,

Environment committee  For the operations in the Athabasca region, the Athabasca River is the principal water body.

Environment committee  That's correct. In some cases, there was a federal environmental assessment of a component of a project. We have the True North Energy project that was assessed. The assessment started in the year 2000, and that was a screening level of assessment for that particular project. So

Environment committee  Typically we'd ask the proponents to prepare an executive summary outlining the main findings of the environmental assessment documentation. Certainly the agency also plays a key role, I think, in helping the public access information they require and helping them understand not

Environment committee  I want to clarify that the first review panel struck to conduct an environmental assessment of an oil sands project was in 2003.

Environment committee  Typically, with a truck-and-shovel operation, when they're extracting the bitumen from the ground, it's combined with all the sand, cobble, and gravel. Essentially the tailings are the leftover waste after the bitumen is extracted. So tailings typically are wet as a result of the

Environment committee  My example is specifically with oil sands. But in a mining operation certainly the tailings would be the fines as a result of the crushing or refining processing, say, for a gold mining operation.

Environment committee  Sure. I think rocks.... Typically they are much finer particles, so sand and silt-sized particles typically would make up tailings.

Environment committee  Certainly I'd say that site reclamation has been one of the primary focuses of review panels. One thing I should mention with these truck-and-shovel operations, these large mining projects, is that they certainly have a long life span. Seeing that they just went through the env

Environment committee  I'd have to check. It's safe to say, certainly, that they mine in segments through the area, and typically once they're done mining in one particular location, they'd look at the potential for using that area for site reclamation. So yes, I think years is....

Environment committee  I'd say that 2003 marked the first time we actually had oil sands developments go before a review panel, so that was essentially the starting point for us. It's difficult to look at trends, since we've had only four projects go before review panels since the act came into force.

Environment committee  I think I understand the question. Certainly in the environmental assessment reports developed by review panels, they do question whatever international obligations or agreements are pertinent to the project, including issues that deal with air quality. Our review panels certai

Environment committee  Certainly the panel was aware in terms of the total estimate of greenhouse gas that could be emitted, but I'm not prepared at this time to say what that would mean in the equivalent number of cars on the road, if that is your....

Environment committee  Generally what I would say is that you are correct, that in fact we did have a review panel. The report was found to be incomplete by the Federal Court, and in particular the Federal Court found that the review panel did not provide enough rationale to support its conclusion that

Environment committee  Certainly all four of the recent review panels that produced reports on developments in the oil sands had water use as a primary focus in their reports, recognizing that, from a cumulative effects standpoint, there continued to be issues associated with water withdrawal, particul