Involvement in policy discussions

Our approach
We participate with all levels of government in the development of policy on issues affecting our industry and Canadians. We strive for policy that recognizes broad public interests and is based on sound science, cost-benefit analysis and market-based approaches.

We act directly or through a range of industry associations such as the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC), the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute (CPPI) and the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME). Our advocacy efforts include face-to-face meetings, multi-stakeholder consultations, representation at committee hearings, and responses to information requests. We register company representatives who communicate with governments as required by provincial and federal lobbyist legislation.

What we are doing
We are contributing to public policy development on a number of important energy and environmental issues:

Climate change
In Canada, governments are developing and implementing policies to control emissions of GHGs, including those from the use of hydrocarbon energy. Imperial continues to be actively engaged in offering comments on policy proposals and working with federal and provincial governments through industry associations and direct representation.

As part of climate change policy development, California and British Columbia have introduced, low-carbon fuel standards (LCFS). These are intended to promote the use of transportation fuels with lower GHG emissions on a full life-cycle basis, but may act to discourage the use of oil-sands-derived and other petroleum-based products. (It should be noted that independent research has shown that oil-sands-derived products can have full life-cycle emissions in line with various other major crudes. As well, oil sands production is subject to regulatory control of its GHG emissions.) Recently we commissioned and shared third party economic analyses to better understand the challenges in implementing LCFS in British Columbia.

Air quality
We take an active part in multi-stakeholder forums that enable us to work with other interest groups to address air quality issues in a collaborative manner.

The major effort in 2010 was the development of a Comprehensive Air Management System (CAMS) which was reviewed by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. The overarching objective of the CAMS proposal – now called the Air Quality Management System – is to achieve improved air quality and significant health and environmental benefits across Canada. The multi-stakeholder partnership involved more than 300 representatives from industry, federal and provincial governments, and non-governmental organizations. Imperial co-chaired and participated in many of the CAMS subcommittees.

Land use planning
Under Alberta’s Land Use Framework, regional advisory committees are responsible for providing advice to the provincial government on the development of land use plans for seven identified regions. Imperial was the CAPP representative on the land use planning panel for the Lower Athabasca region, an area covering more than a dozen communities from the regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo to the Bonnyville-Cold Lake region. The plan identified and set resource and environmental management outcomes for air, land, water and biodiversity, and guide future resource decisions. Membership in the committee includes a cross-section of interests from governments, industry, Aboriginal communities and environmental groups. The committee submitted recommendations to the government in the fall of 2010. The government published its revised plan in April 2011 and intends to finalize the plan for the Lower Athabasca region by mid-2011 after final public consultations are held across Alberta.