Proposed lower Athabasca regional plan may revoke certain oil sands leases
The Government of Alberta has announced the release of the draft Lower Athabasca Regional Plan. According to the draft plan, approximately 16% of the Lower Athabasca region will be designated as a conservation area. This is in addition to the existing six per cent of the region already protected as wildland provincial parks. As a result of the plan, the Lower Athabasca region will contain more than two million hectares of legislatively protected lands – a 20,000 square kilometre area, three times the size of Banff National Park.
The plan states that the development of oil sands, minerals and commercial forestry will not be compatible with the management intent of these conservation areas. Therefore, certain existing leases, including leases where projects are already in development, will be revoked if the plan is implemented. Leases subject to cancellation will be compensated, including refunds for payments made to the Crown for the leases, development and reclamation costs and interest.
This plan is part of the Government of Alberta’s Land-use Framework, which consists of seven strategies to improve land-use decision making in Alberta. Thus far, only the Lower Athabasca and South Saskatchewan regions have released regional plans. The Lower Athabasca Regional Plan will now be subject to a public consultation process. For a schedule of the public consultation process, please see the Government of Alberta’s website.
