EDMONTON - Alberta's overheated oilsands region will get a $396-million infusion to help pay for desperately needed new medical clinics, affordable housing and upgraded water treatment facilities over the next three years.
But Premier Ed Stelmach said Monday that the province would not be "touching the brake'' on future oilsands development despite growing criticism of spiralling growth and environmental problems in northeastern Alberta.
"While the entire province is experiencing growth, nowhere are these pressures more evident than in the Fort McMurray region,'' Stelmach said Monday.
"I'm confident that not only will we provide the necessary infrastructure, but also ensure that people who move to Fort McMurray will have good clean water, they're going to have housing available.
"And I agree this won't be done overnight, but this is the plan.''
Spending more money on needed infrastructure in the oilsands region is the first of 30 recommendations in a provincial report on responding to rapid growth.
The report -- which offers a critical view of the state of oilsands development -- was completed and presented to the Alberta government in late December, but not publicly released until two months later when the province was reading to announce a funding plan.
Roughly half the money announced Monday will go toward improving health care, including the construction of three new health clinics.
The report, authored by longtime civil servant Doug Radke, said health services were at an "unacceptable level'' in the Fort McMurray region, due in part to high growth and trouble keeping staff.
It also calls for more than $100 million toward new sewage and water treatment facilities.
Another $45 million will go toward land to build 300 affordable housing units for people scrambling to find a place to live in Fort McMurray, Alberta's fastest-growing city.
About $100 billion worth of more oilsands projects are in the works for northern Alberta. Critics were quick to suggest the Alberta government wasn't doing enough.
"Three hundred housing units for one of the largest industrial developments on the planet just isn't going to make much of a difference,'' said Alberta Liberal Opposition Leader Kevin Taft.
"They've let the horse of the oilsands out of the barn and now they're trying to catch up, and this is not going to do it for them.''
Greg Stringham with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said the report hits on the key issues of health care, housing and infrastructure.
Stringham said the new funding would not only allow the oilsands region to catch up, but also to "look down the road and to co-ordinate all the government departments that have a stake in oilsands,'' which includes energy, housing, education, finance and transportation.
Alberta Health Minister Dave Hancock said the report was intended to develop "a co-ordinated short-term action plan'' to address the impact of oilsands development.
Hancock said the aim of the report was to focus on the services and infrastructure, not to comment on the pace of future development.
Along with the new spending, the government plans to create a secretariat to look at further implementing aspects of the report.
Many of the report's recommendations urge the government to give more consideration to the impacts of oilsands growth.
These include suggesting that sustainable development become a "business need of the province.''
The report also recommends putting an "urgent priority'' on a water supply study for the so-called industrial heartland area northeast of Edmonton, where at least four major multibillion-dollar oilsands upgrader projects or expansions are slated for construction in the coming years.
The Alberta NDP renewed their call for a slowdown on development.
"The scope of the oilsands development and other major projects in this province is distorting the economy and making it more difficult for regular Albertans to get the services that they require,'' said environment critic Dave Eggen.
"Everyone is paying for this compromise to never touch the brake on oilsands developments.''
The Sierra Club of Canada said it wondered who the committee even talked to before compiling its report.
"The absence of substantive recommendations to address the growing cumulative environmental impacts proves that a moratorium on future approvals and leases is the only sound way to ensure that irreversible damage is avoided,'' said Prairie chapter director Lindsay Telfer.
