Environment Committee on May 1st, 2012

[Ron Bonnett]

There are a number of things that are being done now. Some of it is education in the classroom. Work is being done, primarily at the public school level, trying to make young students aware of some of the farm practices that are taking place. Most of the provinces have some type of farm-tour day. They have people come out to farms.

One of the more successful ones, I think, has been where farmers and farm groups have engaged the media and had media farm tours. That way you leverage it a bit. I think you could take one or two individuals out, but you don't get the same communications benefit that you do out of bringing some of the press out. Understand, when you bring them out, you have to make sure you're prepared to answer some fairly tough questions, to explain what it is we're doing and how we're doing it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Mr. Bonnett, Mr. Chorney, I want to thank you so much for being here as we work to provide advice to the government in preparing a national conservation plan. Your testimony was very much appreciated.

Colleagues, we're going to suspend for about two minutes and then move to the COSIA witnesses.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Colleagues, I'll let you take your seats as we continue into our second hour.

I want to welcome the witnesses from COSIA. Thank you for making yourself available through video conferencing. It's a wonderful technology and it's good to see you here, over those great distances, from Alberta.

We have with us Judy Fairburn. Ms. Fairburn, I believe you're the chair of the shareholder steering committee. Then we have Mr. Alan Fair, the interim director of tailings environmental priority.

Thank you for being with us. We'll give you ten minutes to make a presentation, and then the balance of the hour will be for questions to you from members of the committee. Please proceed.

[Judy Fairburn, Chair, Shareholder Steering Committee, Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance]

Thank you very much for that introduction and the opportunity to appear in front of the committee today.

I’m Judy Fairburn, executive vice-president of environment and strategic planning for Cenovus Energy. I am also the chair of the stakeholder steering committee for Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, or COSIA. It’s a real pleasure to be here to discuss COSIA with you today.

COSIA is an unprecedented alliance of 12 major companies that will raise our collective game in oil sands environmental performance. We have a strong interest from other potential members as well.

The oil sands, as you know, are one of the world’s largest energy resources, and they will be a very important part of the future of Alberta and Canada.

Developing the oil sands responsibly is essential if Canada is to continue to benefit as a nation from this resource. To do this we must continually challenge ourselves to improve our environmental performance. That is what COSIA is all about: accelerating the pace of improvement in environmental performance.

Innovation unlocked the resource potential of the oil sands, and innovation will help solve the environmental challenges. Indeed, we’ve seen tangible environmental progress already, but the pace of change, we acknowledge, has not been enough. We’ve listened to Canadians, and we know that our operations have an environmental impact. We’ve heard that Canadians want our companies to do better.

We believe that environmental stewardship is a shared responsibility among our companies. This recognition and our genuine desire to do better have brought us to the formation of COSIA.

COSIA is led by a chief executive, Dr. Dan Wicklum. We looked long and hard for Dan, because we were looking for the right person to lead COSIA. Dan has a background in environmental science and innovation leadership. Specifically, he has a PhD in aquatic ecology, was a faculty member of the University of Montana, executive director of an innovation organization called the Canadian Forest Innovation Council, and has significant experience in managing research and laboratory networks.

It is important to us that we have a scientist at the helm—someone who has a technical understanding of the environmental challenges our industry faces, as well as strong leadership qualities and experiences. So Dan’s background is perfect for COSIA, as we’re a science-based alliance that will be focused on environmental performance and innovation. In fact, Dan is travelling today on his way to a conference where he will be speaking and building alliances with those who have an interest in contributing to the work COSIA will do.

People have asked how this alliance is going to make a difference. What is so unique? What is our commitment? What are some tangible examples where collaboration is working?

First, what is so unique about COSIA? COSIA is an overarching strategic collaborative for our members. It's a hub, building on the experiences and successes of existing innovation entities that will be merged into COSIA through 2012.

COSIA is unique in four ways: leadership, line of sight, leverage, and linkages. When I say leadership I mean that the CEOs are taking a very hands-on approach to COSIA. The members of the stakeholder steering committee—largely at the VP level in each of the companies—which I lead, are all very senior people within their companies.

On line of sight, oil sands producers have never jointly set goals and worked towards them collectively. That’s what line of sight is about for COSIA. We intend to set public goals, and we will report our progress toward meeting those goals.

Leverage is about working together to fast-track environmental innovation and avoid duplicating effort. COSIA will be the collaborative hub through which innovation developed by individual companies will be shared and leveraged. Sharing ideas will make sure that the best environmental ideas get adopted.

Finally, on linkages, we believe our companies need to look beyond our industry, and indeed beyond our borders, for new ways of thinking and for innovative solutions. We want COSIA to be the space where that innovation occurs and where we can build relationships with those who can help us move the bar in terms of improving environmental performance in the oil sands.

So when I am asked about what makes COSIA different, I say leadership, line of sight, leverage, and linkages.

Second, what are some tangible examples of successful environmental collaboration in the oil sands industry? We know collaboration works. We’ve seen it through the success of predecessor organizations, including the Canadian Oil Sands Network for Research and Development (CONRAD), the Oil Sands Leadership Initiative, and the Oil Sands Tailings Consortium, which Alan has been leading very successfully.

I’d like to highlight some of these collaborative successes for you now. The first is about several companies working together on a new technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from in situ oil sands operations. This GHG technology is expected to have several advantages over competing technologies, including the ability to capture 99% of carbon dioxide emissions and significantly reduce other air emissions.

A second example of successful collaboration is in the area of land reclamation. In February of last year, several oil sands producers came together to conduct a winter wetland planting trial in Alberta’s boreal forest. Winter and planting are two ideas you normally don't think of together, but the companies found a way to make it possible. In temperatures as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius, 900 little black spruce trees were planted in a disturbed wetland site in northern Alberta. More than 94% of these trees survived. This is significant, because it will allow companies to revegetate areas that are difficult to access during summer months due to the muddy nature of thawed muskeg. We think this new technique will greatly increase our ability to reclaim natural boreal ecosystems.

The progress we’ve made in developing the oil sands, the steps we’ve taken to collaborate, and the efforts we’ve made to listen to our stakeholders are all steps on the journey to a brighter future. We believe COSIA will be key to helping us get there. As an alliance that builds on the successes of predecessor organizations, we will be able to offer a platform for even greater collaboration and will bring in a new era in responsible oil sands development.

Third, what is our commitment? The COSIA charter signed by our 12 CEOs starts with our vision, which is “to enable responsible and sustainable growth of Canada’s oil sands while delivering accelerated improvement in environmental performance through collaborative action and innovation”.

Let me read a few lines from our charter:

Our companies pledge to accelerate improvement in environmental performance as measured from a baseline in the priority areas of tailings, water, land, and greenhouse gas emissions; work with a broad range of participants within and outside of Canada; allocate multi-year human and financial resources, and initiate, participate in, and lead projects; listen, respond to, and work with stakeholders who aspire to our vision; assess and drive progress, remove barriers, and communicate the performance of COSIA in a transparent fashion.

I’m personally very excited about what COSIA will accomplish, and am thankful for the hard work and passion of many in our industry and beyond who have worked to create COSIA. To our knowledge, COSIA is the largest environmental performance-focused industry group of its kind on the planet, and we welcome other partners and interested companies, individuals, and organizations to learn more about what we are doing.

Our 12 companies remain competitors, and will continue to compete aggressively; however, we know that when it comes to the environment, we all win when we work together.

Improving environmental outcomes is also a journey for our industry, much like safety was a journey for us a few decades ago. We still have a lot of work to do. I’m confident, though, that our collective passion, commitment, and energy will help us make sure that COSIA reaches its potential and contributes to sustained and responsible oil sands development.

We have come together recognizing that none of us has a monopoly on ideas when it comes to the environment. We know that the sum of what we will do is greater than any individual effort. We are ready to respond to Canadians’ expectations and accelerate the pace of improvement of our environmental performance.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and committee members, for this opportunity and time today.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Thank you, Ms. Fairburn. We appreciate your testimony and this presentation, and we have your comments in both official languages.

We'll begin with Ms. Rempel.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

Thank you, Ms. Fairburn, for that very informative presentation.

From my time at the University of Calgary in research administration, I've seen a lot of the work that industry has done in this field. It's really neat to see COSIA come together with the principle of accelerating those innovations.

We're here today to discuss the positive environmental outcomes as a result of your mandate, so I'd like to start by clarifying that.

On April 4, in statements made in the House of Commons, an NDP colleague repeatedly referred to COSIA as an oil sands lobby group. Would you characterize this statement as accurate? If not, can you clarify for the members of the committee what your mandate is?

[Judy Fairburn]

COSIA is not about policy or advocacy. COSIA is a science-based organization, with a laser focus on accelerating input in environmental performance in the oil sands.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

In order to achieve the positive environmental outcomes your group envisions, COSIA needed a leader with a strong background in environmental science. It's my understanding that through an open and competitive recruitment process you've retained a senior scientist with in-depth experience in the area. This scientist is on a fire-walled, one-year, unpaid leave of absence from Environment Canada and is cognizant of, and subject to, federal confidentiality guidelines. Is this correct?

[Judy Fairburn]

I'm the chair of the shareholder steering committee, and our main focus in that senior-level committee is the strategy and the scientific aspects of COSIA. There's a separate board that deals with administrative matters. However, I do believe your statement to be correct.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

Just to summarize, based on the nature of the mandate that you've just clarified, the need to have a senior environmental scientist at the helm of COSIA in order to achieve positive environmental outcomes, the true nature of Dr. Wicklum's appointment, and the selection process that you've just made clear for us, would you characterize the following statement made in the House of Commons by an NDP member on March 5 as accurate: “When a senior Environment Canada regulator suddenly becomes the head of a pro-industry oil sands group, there is a pretty obvious conflict there.”

[Judy Fairburn]

I wasn't aware of that statement, but as far as I am aware, there is nothing problematic about Dr. Wicklum or the process that resulted in his hiring.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

Now that that's out of the way, there are a couple of things in your statement that are really exciting. You talked about COSIA being the largest environmental performance-focused industry group of its kind on the planet. Are there some best practices you hope to take out of a consortia approach to this that could be applied to other environmental standards, from an “acceleration of innovation” perspective?

[Judy Fairburn]

Our main focus within COSIA is on accelerated environmental performance in the oil sands. We have developed a model from some of the best practices already in the industry related to oil sands tailings. This model is probably the only one of its kind. It has been an excellent model for us. We are committed to setting longer-term goals for the oil sands industry. We're taking a very strategic approach. We know that the public and our employees would like us to progress, and that's our intent.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

Great.

You guys have this robust structure you're going to embark upon. The organization is new. What would be your first priority, as you've launched here, for environmental outcomes?

[Judy Fairburn]

Thank you very much for the question.

There's a lot to do. We have 12 companies involved. There is excellent commitment right from the top of the house, across those, and we have a new chief executive.

The first line of business is that we're completing the hiring process. As you heard, Alan Fair is our interim tailings director. We're in the process of hiring for the other main environmental priority areas of land, GHG, and water. We're also working on the strategic plan for the organization, which includes the path to goals. We are also working on formation of the structure that will enable the sharing of best practices and technologies in those four priority areas, but predominantly water, GHG, and land. The tailings area is well in hand with the current organization.

So we have a lot on our plate. We envision that by the end of 2012 we'll be able to engulf and pull in all the great work that's been going on as well in the predecessor organizations I alluded to earlier.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

Great.

The interesting thing here is that you're actually creating new intellectual property that not only has environmental benefits but also has an economic outcome. I know that with the previous organizations you're amalgamating there was some existing IP that has been quite effective. You alluded to that in your presentation.

How is COSIA going to create that balance of ensuring that you have the economic benefits of the intellectual property while deploying it in an accelerated fashion?

[Judy Fairburn]

That's a good point for clarification. Indeed, our laser focus is on accelerating environmental performance. We have realized that working together on the environment is in the best interests of Canadians and in the best interests of our industry. So we're sharing best practices and intellectual property that have the environment as the prime driver. That is the intent.

Our thought, as well, is that COSIA has come together, because we realized that we were doing some great work as individual companies. We had started to do some good work in some of the predecessor organizations, but we're at a new level now in terms of the desire to be even that much more effective working together so that we can further accelerate the pace of environmental improvement.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

You talked about priority-setting among industry, working with other stakeholder groups on those environmental outcome targets. Could you talk about some of the processes that you might have planned to develop targets, and then perhaps some of the projects that would align to meet those?

[Judy Fairburn]

One of the principles in the charter we signed is that we intend to listen to, respond to, and work with stakeholders who aspire to a vision. That's a key principle of ours. We intend to work with those who have the expertise in various communities—academic and innovation entities at provincial, federal, or international levels, as well as environmental interest groups that have subject matter expertise, as we progress through our plans, our priority areas, and our goal-setting.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Ms. Fairburn, I want to thank you.

Next we next have Madame LeBlanc for seven minutes.

[Hélène LeBlanc, NDP, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

There's a saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” I'm wondering what incentives brought about this group.

[Judy Fairburn]

That's a great question, and I think it puts some perspective on that.

We recognize that our industry, Canada, and all of us are part of a global marketplace. There is tremendous innovation that goes on in our industry to unlock the oil sands in their very beginning. Innovation and productivity are key to continuing, particularly on the environmental front, the successful competitiveness of our industry, which is of broad benefit to Canada.

[Hélène LeBlanc, NDP, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

So what you are saying—

[Judy Fairburn]

So what's really driving us is global competitiveness and realizing that the bar has risen globally and that we all want clean and affordable energy.

[Hélène LeBlanc, NDP, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

So you are saying that it's mainly based on profitability and on developing technology, it's not really based on protecting the environment. It's mostly based on profitability--or what was the reason that brought about your group's formation?