This is a service / maintenance or supply contract in Edmonton, Alberta. Contact the soliciting agency for additional information.

Reference Number AB-2024-00614 Alberta has modeled its environmental liability management systems around the polluter pay principle, which means that the industry operators regulated by the government bear responsibility for the environmental costs and clean up. Based on the polluter pay principle, private operators and the industry-funded Orphan Well Association (OWA) are expected to clean up sites they are responsible for under various legislation . Environment and Protected Areas and the Alberta Energy Regulator (the regulators) regulate these private operators and the OWA. The Government of Alberta is responsible to clean up sites that they own and operate (e.g. highway maintenance yards, Swan Hills Treatment Centre or the Turner Valley Gas Plant), and sites where a statutory environmental inspector determines additional reclamation work is necessary after certain legislative warranty periods expire from the date a reclamation certificate was issued. The government may also accept responsibility to clean up contamination on some legacy sites created by industrial activity over the last century before and after current environmental laws and standards existed. However, there are a number of sites across various industries (such as oil and gas, coal mines and wood treatment) where responsibility for who will do the work and/or costs of required work to protect people and the environment are unknown. For example, the OWA is not responsible to clean up legacy sites left behind by oil and gas activity that took place over the last century before current environmental laws and standards existed. Determining who is responsible to do the work when private operators no longer exist (e.g. a company is dissolved) can present particular challenges. Environment and Protected Areas and the Alberta Energy Regulator (as regulators) manage these sites and attempts to identify a responsible party. Sometimes, the regulators are unable to identify a responsible party. Public Sector Accounting Standards (PSAS) require the Government of Alberta to prepare a best estimate of the costs necessary to clean up a site to an appropriate level for its specific use as well as the costs for any post-remediation operations, maintenance, and monitoring activities. This includes sites that the government: • owns and operates; • sites where a statutory environmental inspector determines additional reclamation work is necessary after certain legislative warranty periods expire from the date a reclamation certificate was issued; and • other sites where the government concludes and accepts responsibility to manage, remediate and reclaim the site due to risks to people and the environment. This excludes sites that the OWA manages. The environmental assessments and conclusions reached about particular sites informs the appropriate accounting and disclosure of environmental liabilities. Our Processes to Provide Information about Government’s Environmental Liabilities, Report of the Auditor General—June 2021 ,describes weaknesses related to the processes to provide information about environmental liabilities. We found: • within Environment and Protected Areas and the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) there is a lack of clarity about who is responsible for certain sites, and in cases where the province has accepted responsibility or is responsible, who will do the work for certain sites; • there is a lack of clarity around funding sources available to AER to manage, and where needed, clean up (remediate and reclaim) sites for which they are responsible in the oil and gas and coal industries; • Environment and Protected Areas and AER need to improve processes to prioritize sites and maintain up-to-date cost estimates to manage and clean up sites; • Transportation and Economic Corridors needs to improve its processes to account for environmental liabilities related to its sand and gravel pits and highway maintenance yards; • Transportation and Economic Corridors must improve its processes to comply with environmental legislation at its highway maintenance yards. As of March 31, 2023, the Province recorded $117 million in environmental liabilities. We identified environmental liabilities as a “Key Audit Matter” in our auditor’s report for the Consolidated Provincial Financial Statements. As part of our audit of the Province’s consolidated financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2024, the Auditor General seeks to engage an expert to assist the audit team in the audit examination and reporting phases of the audit of environmental liabilities. The audit team has prepared a comprehensive audit work plan and will direct the work of the expert. Key timelines The proponent will need to be available to provide services as outlined in section 3.3 below from February 2024 to June 2024.