OTTAWA, Ont. -- July
26, 2012 -- The Honourable Peter Kent, Canada’s
Minister of the Environment, announced today
the signature of an agreement with the International
Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL)
to assist with capacity building of wildlife
law enforcement around the world. Under
the agreement, Environment Canada is sharing
customized wildlife officer training courses
with INTERPOL on the illegal trade in endangered
species with a focus on Africa.
“The illegal trade in
endangered species is a worldwide problem,”
said Minister Kent. “By sharing Canadian
expertise with INTERPOL, we help keep important
species like rhinoceroses and elephants
alive in their range states, which prevents
ivory and other products from being smuggled
to market countries.”
Environment Canada developed
training for INTERPOL that includes: law
enforcement theory, human rights, inspections,
search and seizure, investigations and prosecutions
as well as intelligence gathering. It begins
with a pre-course study package followed
by an intense six day in-class program and
culminates with the integration of the participants
into a real investigation.
A pilot training course
was first delivered to officers from eleven
African countries in Gaborone, Botswana
in 2011. Today’s agreement enables Environment
Canada to provide English and French versions
of the training courses for INTERPOL, which
will help build law enforcement capacity
in Africa and elsewhere.
Environment Canada is
responsible for applying federal laws that
protect endangered species, migratory birds
and their habitats. INTERPOL, headquartered
in Lyon, France, is comprised of 190 member
countries working together to prevent and
fight crime worldwide.
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Canada-Alberta Oil Sands
Monitoring Program Well Underway
FORT MCMURRAY, Alta.
– July 16, 2012 – Today, Canada’s Environment
Minister Peter Kent, and Alberta’s Environment
and Sustainable Resource Development Minister
Diana McQueen toured several of the new
oil sands monitoring stations now in place
in the early stages of implementation of
the Joint Canada-Alberta Implementation
Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring.
The Joint Canada-Alberta
Implementation Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring,
announced by Minister Kent and Minister
McQueen in February, commits to a scientifically
rigorous, comprehensive, integrated, and
transparent environmental monitoring program
for the region. It outlines the path forward
to enhance the monitoring of water, air,
land and biodiversity in the oil sands by
demonstrating how we will sample more sites
for more substances more frequently. The
program is designed to provide an improved
understanding of the long-term cumulative
effects of oil sands development.
Both Ministers were
pleased with the progress they saw, noting
that the monitoring enhancements for the
first year of the Joint Plan are well underway,
that the joint approach is working well,
and that initial results from the new enhanced
monitoring are expected this year.
“The Alberta oil sands
are a key driver of the Canadian economy.
They are currently responsible for over
400,000 jobs,” said Minister Kent. “In February,
Minister McQueen and I launched one of the
most transparent and accountable oil sands
monitoring systems in the world. Today,
it is clear to see that this system is on
track for full implementation in 2015. We
challenge others in the international oil
producing community to match Canada's commitment
to environmental monitoring.”
“The enhanced monitoring
program for the oil sands region provides
assurance to Albertans, Canadians, and the
world that this critical resource is being
managed properly,” said Minister McQueen.
“I’m confident that these enhancements are
setting the stage for a truly state-of-the-art
environmental program for the oil sands
region.”
Implementation will
continue to be phased in over three years
to ensure installation of necessary infrastructure,
incremental enhancement of activities and
appropriate integration with existing monitoring
activities in the region.
For more information
on what is being implemented in the first
year of the Joint Canada-Alberta Implementation
Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring, please see
the Factsheet.
