Absolutely. I think there's no better point of accent than the report that was released at the annual SETAC conference in the United States last year, at which they talked about the detection of monitored contaminants far further afield from the oil sands than earlier expected. This is the latest chapter in a good news story of our government's having in 2010 accepted the advice of scientists across academia, scientists in the west, who said that monitoring at the time was insufficient and needed to be improved.
We took that advice. A monitoring program was designed, and it was peer reviewed by scientists and is now being implemented. We began in the spring melt this year. Again, it is being funded, with a nod to my colleague who is interested in bottom-line numbers and costs, at $50 million a year for the first three years of implementation, paid for by the industry and administered jointly by the Government of Canada, Environment Canada, and the Government of Alberta.
As I say, we're in the first year of implementation, but in the next three years, as the complete, comprehensive monitoring of water, air, biodiversity, land, aerial dispersal, and downwind impacts on lakes that are sensitive to acid contaminants is done, we will provide even greater evidence, which will allow us to work with the industry to ensure that contaminants are reduced while at the same time responsibly developing a great natural resource.