Ms Blakeman: Thanks very much, Mr. Speaker. This government throws out a whack of options to companies on greenhouse gas intensity emissions, allowing companies four measurements and five calculation methods, but in the end the government doesn’t know what was measured, how it was measured, or how it was verified.

Bottom line: Albertans don’t have an accurate picture of whether emissions are getting lower. There is a total, but we don’t know if it’s accurate. To the minister of environment: on what information is the ministry basing its assertion that this program is working?

The Speaker: The hon. Minister of Environment and Water. Mrs. McQueen: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the member for the question. First of all, I’d like to say that we support the Auditor General and the help he is giving us to finetune our system. It is a good system, but it’s still new, and it’s one that we still need to refine, but we’re committed to constant improvement with that. We’ve worked with the Auditor General to identify some of those gaps. We’re happy that his team was able to work with us, and we’ll work on continuous improvements in these areas.

Ms Blakeman: Goodness gracious, that was a lot of talk and no information.

Back to the same minister: how does the government know if Albertans are getting value for this program?

Mrs. McQueen: Well, there are a number of ways that we’re getting value for the program. With regard to some of the issues that the hon. member has mentioned and that the Auditor General has mentioned, it’s with regard to the review of the protocols that we have. We ensure that protocols are reviewed with regard to tillage protocols and the issues that the Auditor General has raised with regard to that. Protocols will be updated by the end of this year to address those issues as well.

Ms Blakeman: Oh, boy. Back to the same minister: will this minister continue to employ the strategy of confusion and conflicting instructions, which makes it impossible for anyone to, one, comply and, two, confirm the results? Is any of that going to change?

The Speaker: The hon. minister.

Mrs. McQueen: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What we’ll continue to do is make this system a world-leading system in North America. We will continue to refine it and make it a better system as we go on. When you look at North America, there are not places that are doing the kind of work that we are doing with reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing the issues that we are. And through the protocols and the review of the protocols and working with the Auditor General, we will continue to have continuous improvement. There were several protocols, and only a couple of them didn’t pass the audits report.

Alberta Hansard, November 23, 2011

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