Committee Members |
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| Gerry DeSorcy - Chairman | Marilyn Craig – Secretariat |
| Judith Bugg – Public-at-large | Tim Lambert* - Regional Health Auth. |
| Cindy Miller Reade – AB Municipal Affairs | Barry Virtue – AUMA |
| John Squarek – Oil & Gas Industry | Bart Guyon – AAMD&C |
| Marjorie Young – City of Calgary Admin. | Brent Friesen – Regional Health Auth. |
| Rob Ollerenshaw – Land Dev. Industry | Frank George – Oil & Gas Industry |
| David Wilson – Risk Research | Paul Jackson – Public-at-large |
| David Spink – AB Environment | Dan Clarke – AB Human Resources |
| Doreen Healy – Aboriginal Community | John Kirkhoven** – Oil & Gas Industry |
| Brian Winter – Public-at-large | |
|
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EUB Board and Staff |
|
| David DeGagne | Harry Lillo |
Committee Members and EUB Staff Absent |
|
| Steve Hrudey – Risk Research | Maureen Bolen – AB Agriculture |
| Rob McManus – B.C. Oil & Gas Comm. | Arden Berg – Regulatory Observer |
| Randy Gossen – Oil & Gas Industry | Bob Clark – Land Dev. Industry |
| Ron Wolsey – Disaster Services | Kevin McLeod – Alberta Health |
The meeting was opened and members welcomed by the Chairman. The Chairman welcomed the newest member of the Committee, Doreen Healy, who will represent Aboriginal Communities. Doreen provided an overview of her past experiences and Committee members introduced themselves to her and welcomed her to the group.
The Chairman confirmed the reporting arrangement for the committee’s relationship with Praxis. Praxis is responsible to the Chairman for fulfillment of the contract, however direction for public outreach decisions, web site matters, and development of documents will come from the Communications and Compensation Working Group with correspondence copied to the Chairman. Members of other working groups were asked to funnel all suggestions, comments or requests through the Communications and Compensation Working Group. When the full committee has asked Praxis to develop a document the draft will be distributed to everyone for comment directly back to Praxis.
Minutes of the 12 May meeting were approved as distributed. Minutes of 26 May will be distributed shortly and reviewed at the 23 June meeting.
An Action Items list will be sent as soon as possible following every meeting.
Praxis provided a handout summarizing the advertisements that have been placed and the invitations sent. An overview of the first three sessions held the previous week in Millarville, Vulcan and Pincher Creek was provided.
The recorders will sort the issues heard during the sessions into the broad challenge areas identified by the committee and the reports will be forwarded to the working groups to be used as input to their review of the issues.
The small group meeting session format has been well received by most participants and the committee members who participated believe that the sessions are providing valuable input to the committee’s work and an opportunity for the public to speak openly about their concerns. It became apparent that 15 minute sessions are unrealistic and Praxis will ensure all appointments for future locations are scheduled for 30 minute time slots.
Committee members were reminded that it is important when meeting in groups for each committee member to introduce themselves and explain which constituency they are representing. The role of the recorder should be described to the participants and it should be stated that the comments will be summarized but not attributed to any individual or group. The process that the committee is using in its review should be outlined for the participant as well. Praxis will make sure that there are Quick Notes available at the tables to remind the Committee members of these steps.
Press conferences will be held in the morning at each location. The Chairman and two other members will participate if possible. Every member should try to participate in one of the sessions during the outreach process.
A discussion took place regarding the importance for the Committee to find out what other people living in sour gas areas but not participating in the process feel about sour gas development. The Random Sample Telephone Survey will be used to target these people.
Action Item: Praxis will draft a Random Sample Telephone Survey which will include questions to try to determine the attitude of people who did not participate in the local sessions toward sour gas development. A draft will be provided to all committee members by noon on Friday and comments must be back to Praxis by noon Monday 19 June.
George Kupfer, Richard Roberts and Doreen Healy will meet later this week to discuss First Nations and Metis consultation processes. The committee will try to meet with groups during visits to communities but if not possible additional sessions will be planned. Doreen advised the committee that it is important to ensure that the Chiefs of the bands know that the committee will be meeting with them so that they don’t feel they are being ignored. It was agreed that phone calls to the Chiefs would be made later in the week.
Additional items are being added to the web site on a daily basis.
a) Event Consequence Management Working Group
An overview of the work of the group to date was provided and plans for additional work to be done in June was reviewed. The group held an educational session today with EUB staff who reviewed current requirements and processes for emergency response planning (ERP’s), sour gas setbacks and risk assessment. Risk assessment experts have been requested to attend the meeting on 23 June. A scoping sheet is being developed which will be provided to the experts prior to the meeting to keep the session focussed. Plans are currently underway to have toxicology experts attend on 30 June but details have not been finalized.. Additional work by experts may be commissioned later if necessary.
Action Item: The Working Group Chair will provide the risk assessment scoping sheet to the entire committee and advise of the details of the session so others may attend. All members will be advised of plans to bring in other experts so that others may sit in on the discussions if they wish.
b) Communications and Compensation Working Group
An overview of the work of the group to date was provided and the group reviewed the tasks to be done that have been identified so far. The group has discussed what outcomes it is working towards. The key outcome would be appropriate, consistent approaches to communications between the regulator, industry and the public from the beginning of a project proposal through decommissioning and reclamation of facilities. The group recognized the need to determine what “fair” compensation might look like and the need for a single window approach to dealing with issues in this regard for all stakeholders.
Some of the tasks the committee will undertake include studying risk communication, reviewing EUB decision reports and other documents such as Interim Directives (ID’s) and Informational Letters (IL’s), inviting industry experts to speak to the group regarding how consultation is currently conducted by both large and small companies, and reviewing industry guides such as the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) Guide to Effective Public Consultation.
The group will also address how to measure the effectiveness of new or revised processes that may be in place as a result of committee recommendations.
c) Prevention, Policy and Jurisdiction Working Group
The group indicated that it had focussed the 1st part of its meeting on a discussion of the best process to use to review the issues. They decided to use the issues list already developed and those issues received through the outreach sessions and to group them into sub-groups. The group will identify any areas that require EUB or outside resources for further education prior to addressing the issues. The group identified that it would like to be educated on the province’s mineral leasing and bidding system.
Action Item: Gerry will arrange through EUB staff to have someone present information to the working group on the mineral leasing and bidding process.
Action Item: Working Group Chairs were asked to contact each other to discuss moving issues from one group’s issues list to another as those issues are identified.
Logistics of the 23 June meeting were discussed. It was agreed that the meeting will be held in Edmonton.
Action item: Marilyn will confirm the location of the meeting and advise members in advance. Working Group sessions will take place in the morning of the 23 June with the full committee meeting to follow. Committee members are to advise Marilyn if hotel reservations are required in Edmonton for the evening of the 22 June.
Action Item: EUB staff will try to get copies of the Oilweek sour gas map insert for the outreach sessions.
Next meeting: 23 June 2000 at 9:00am
Additional meeting dates scheduled: 30 June.