Ottawa, Alberta ink deal on how oilsands monitoring agency will be run

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An oil worker holds tarsands near Fort McMurray, on July 9, 2008. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

EDMONTON – Ottawa and Alberta have reached a deal outlining how an environmental monitoring agency for the oilsands will be run.

Wayne Wood of Alberta Environment says his office was informed this morning that federal minister Peter Kent signed the deal earlier this week.

Questions remain over the extent of the agency’s independence from government.

The province says its representative on the monitoring panel will be at arm’s length from government, as recommended in an advisory report last year.

But Ottawa will be represented by a federal bureaucrat.

Wood says he doesn’t know when the deal will be made public.

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