Legal and Policy Responses to Environmental Offences in Relation to the Alberta Oil Sands

Abstract

This article reviews the environmental enforcement culture in Alberta with a view to ascertaining what mechanisms are in place in Alberta for responding to the commission of environmental offences, especially in the context of the oil sands, and the extent to which those mechanisms have been, or are being, used. It finds that there is a policy direction in Alberta towards increased penalties and that creative sentencing has become the norm although its benefits are cut short by lack of adequate monitoring to ensure that the fines are paid and used for the purposes for which they are meant. But it is perhaps in connection with the welfare of victims of environmental offences that the policy and legal framework in Alberta appears to have paid the least attention. By exploring and drawing attention to these realities, this article hopes to contribute the effective enforcement of environmental laws in Alberta.