Transport committee  I think the other point I would make is, the government has been talking to industry on a broad range of transportation, so they have been looking to establish the regulatory requirements within marine and within pipeline. Our engagement in those discussions has enabled us to give some thought to, and evidently bring forward, the notion of a hybrid model.

Transport committee  I believe one of the constituents, the fire chief, was looking to see some more precise data in terms of volumes of product or different products that would be moving through municipalities. I don't think the committee had that knowledge, so it was accepting the fire chief's desire to get that information and make that recommendation.

Transport committee  Perhaps it's not truly in the definition of liability, but Mr. Boag and Mr. Bleaney have talked about us working together with the Railway Association to come up with a national scope emergency response mechanism. That will certainly need to have a funding mechanism associated with it.

Transport committee  I'll take a stab at that. We're not the business that establishes those facilities, but I think we would agree that there needs to be a mechanism to assess the risks associated with those facilities. There's also a mechanism with respect to the safety management, the safety culture that we have talked about, and that others have talked about as well, and that I think should be applicable to the owners and operators of those facilities.

Transport committee  There are a couple of points that we would make. There is some work going on to try to understand what would be an appropriate timeline. I think we're looking at something in the one-year to five-year range, probably closer to three or four. We don't have the data fully in place yet to understand that.

Environment committee  Thank you for the question. Probably the species that are attracting the most attention from our industry right now are caribou, sage grouse, swift fox, and grizzly. We have been investing in the research through third-party entities to validate the populations, the ranges, how the ranges are being used.

Environment committee  Yes, institutes like the Biodiversity Monitoring Institute is a stakeholder group we participate in. The Foothills Research Institute is a science-based organization and they are third-party, so we certainly encourage them to make that data available in a broad sense as well so scientists from other areas can also make use of that information.

Environment committee  Thank you. The industry is certainly supportive of the notion of biodiversity and biodiversity management. We invest in the Alberta biodiversity management institute. We know that the breadth of management strategy around all species is probably a better and more efficient path to securing our social license to access to the land.

Environment committee  Actually I'll take that one, Bob. Thank you for the question. I think the perspective we have on SARA is that it is largely focused on habitat conservation, meaning setting lands aside. Where we find the limitation is in the ability to exercise active management tools. If you look at a species like caribou, at being able to help recover that species with penning of the cows so they can do their calving without the significant threat of any predation, the provinces are trying to move to the broader suite of tools to enable a more dedicated, more active approach to recovering species at risk.

Environment committee  I have maybe a couple of points on that. Gord touched on the fact that there is a chair at the University of Alberta for integrated land management. That's something that industry has been very supportive of over the years. The key objective of that is to look for ways to have companies, not just within our industry but across the resource-developing industries, work together for that very point you're talking about—looking at common roads, common pipeline systems, common timing of access, those sorts of things.

Environment committee  I have a quick comment. The policy environment in which we operate, particularly in Alberta, requires us to look for alternative sources of water. We look to fresh water first. The saline water isn't always geographically available or chemically appropriate, but the companies have to look at that before they make their decision on what they would apply for in terms of a water licence.

Environment committee  Just building on what Murray said, one of the things we said in our presentation is that in order for this to be a comprehensive framework, one of the elements needs to include the monitoring and reporting. As we go ahead with a project's development and as we look at the desired outcomes with respect to conservation, we need to be testing whether the plans we put in place are effective enough to apply the mitigation and have the mitigated results.

Environment committee  Thank you. For us, the regulatory environment is very clear with respect to the abandonment and reclamation of wells. In essence, what we have to do is go back into the well when we're finished producing it, seal it off, and remove any surface equipment. At that point we go in and do the surface reclamation, which involves restoring the topsoil, doing the grading, if necessary, to put it to the natural grade so that we ensure that the drainage is consistent with the region.

Natural Resources committee  Correct.

Natural Resources committee  I would have to say I don't think this group has the technical expertise to respond to that.