Alberta is finally catching up to BC's southern neighbours by entering into an environmental agreement with British Columbia. In 1992 BC signed an environmental cooperation agreement with Washington State. A September 2003 news release from Premier Campbell said that he signed bilateral agreements with Idaho and Montana based on the successful Washington State agreement.

The "Alberta-British Columbia Memorandum of Understanding Environmental Cooperation and Harmonization" (MOU), executed on May 26 at the Alberta-BC joint cabinet meeting, is a four page document that is significantly different than BC's agreement with Washington, Idaho and Montana. The agreement with the US states emphasizes the environment; the agreement with Alberta emphasizes regulatory harmonization for the benefit of industry. One of the six objectives in the MOU is to "To provide an increasingly seamless situation for companies doing business in British Columbia and Alberta" and under a paragraph titled "Cooperation Principles" the document states "Priority will be given to harmonizing differences in management/regulatory approaches that cause problems for industries, stakeholders and communities". The economic orientation of the MOU likely follows from the fact that it is part of the "Internal Trade" agreement, an effort to reduce barriers to trade between provinces. The MOU states "This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is being entered into under the Alberta- British Columbia arrangement pursuant to Article 1800 (Trade Enhancement Agreements) of the Agreement on Internal Trade."

There is nothing about trade, regulation harmonization or cost reduction in the agreement with Washington, Idaho and Montana. The essence of the agreement with Montana simply says:

"…the Province of British Columbia and the State of Montana undertake to establish the British Columbia/Montana Environmental Cooperation Initiative to identify, coordinate and promote mutual efforts to ensure the protection, conservation and enhancement of our shared environment for the benefit of current and future generations."
"Accordingly, the parties will develop an action plan within one year of signing this arrangement which will form part of these efforts, reflecting mutual priorities. The Parties may also enter into specific arrangements necessary to effectively address shared environmental goals."

Joy MacPhail questioned Campbell on the agreement with Montana during legislative debate on May 20th. MacPhail informed the legislature that the Governor of Montana has recently written Campbell to express concerns regarding the development of a coal mine and coal bed methane projects in BC and the effect they might have on water flowing into Montana. The Governor asked that any development be delayed until the International Joint Commission can review the projects.

Campbell admitted that he had not yet responded to the Governor's letter, and that the action plan called for in the agreement was proceeding very slowly. He also said "… the environmental agreement that was signed is one that I think is important. We will take fully into consideration the concerns of the state of Montana, and I'm looking forward to getting the report from my ministers so that I can respond to her. Obviously, we're concerned about water quality. We are concerned about cooperation between British Columbia and Montana, and we will be as open as we can as we move forward." Why would the Premier qualify his statement with the words "open as we can"? Perhaps Campbell could start by being open with the people of British Columbia and report what is going on with respect to regulating coal bed methane development so as to prevent the kind of environmental problems produced by methane wells in the US. Many might worry that the MOU with Alberta will produce the kind of deregulation that would increase concerns in Montana.

For the BC-Alberta agreement click here for the pdf file.

For the BC-Montana agreement click here for the pdf file.