The Canadian Land Reclamation Association celebrated its 50th anniversary at the annual conference in Edmonton, March 5-7, 2025. A panel of practitioners from BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, QC and NS, plus members representing National, Indigenous and US perspectives were tasked with answering two questions:
- What is the single most important event in the last 50 years that shaped reclamation / restoration / rehabilitation in your jurisdiction, and why? The “event” may be establishment or change or removal of legislation, change in practice or technology, establishment of a new industry with new challenges, involvement of new stakeholders, etc.
- What is likely to be the single most important reclamation / restoration / rehabilitation challenge in the next 10 years in your jurisdiction, and why?
To get a broad perspective on the answers to these questions for Alberta, the author reached out to over 200 Alberta practitioners, and 72 people provided responses. This report summarizes their responses.
The dominant themes presented at the conference as Alberta’s perspective were:
Past Driver: Development, implementation and evolution of reclamation certification criteria, enabled by the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act and associated Conservation and Reclamation Regulation in 1993. Codification of reclamation requirements removed subjectivity, improved transparency, allowed for training, and ultimately set the stage for the use of professional signoff and the ability to certify sites without an inquiry. While most responses focused on the wellsite criteria, some noted the lack of criteria for other disturbance types, especially oil sands mines.
Future Driver: Based on the sheer magnitude of the disturbed area and the challenges associated with reclaiming tailings ponds the oil sands are the big driver for the next 10 years. Additional challenges are development of water release criteria from oil sands mines and subsequent releases to the environment, and the uncertainty around the looming financial security requirements as mines age.
The next five Past Drivers were:
- Setting equivalent land capability as the objective of reclamation
- Development of legislation
- Establishment of soil salvage requirements
- Emphasis on ecological function
- Development of technology and tools
The next five Future Drivers were:
- Capacity and capability, including human resources, use of professionals, education and research, and communication and collaboration
- Regulatory capacity
- Policy adequacy
- Concerns about pace of reclamation
- Potential for use of technology and data
- Several respondents noted pre-1975 legislation (the Surface Reclamation Act in 1963 and the Land Surface Conservation and Reclamation Act in 1973) were foundational to the development of today’s reclamation program.