Hi Campelectrician...Travis from CAPP here. The oil sands industry is very concerned about human health, be it the people who live in community's in the area, or our employees working on site.

Although there have been reported cases of rare cancer in the Fort Chipewyan community, a recent government review of health issues in the community found no abnormal concerns. That said, both the Federal and Provincial governments are currently re-evaluating the health data in their possession to determine if there are health issues that need to be addressed. The oil sands industry supports this process.

In the meantime, industry continues to work to ensure operations don't impact regional water quality. All process water that is returned to the Athabasca River must meet strict quality guidelines and must undergo stringent monitoring. This data is reported to Alberta Environment on a monthly and annual basis. As the banks of the Athabasca River are predominantly oil sands in the area north of Fort McMurray, the chemicals that make up the bitumen in the oil sand are found naturally in the water and sediment of the river. The Regional Aquatic Monitoring Program (RAMP) has studied the aquatic ecosystem in the river as well as the water and sediment quality to determine if the oil sands industry is impacting the river and to date, no ecosystem impacts have been found. However, monitoring and reporting our findings, will continue. Thanks.

This is Martin from Suncor Energy. I work with the local communities in the Wood Buffalo region, in particular Ft. Chipewyan. If our operations are affecting the health of people in Fort Chipewyan, then we need to know about it and we need to act on it. We’re in a tough position right now because there’s a lack of trust between industry and the Fort Chipewyan community. We had a Suncor open house in the community on May 6, and we heard in no uncertain terms what people think of industry. It was negative, and it was disheartening for us. We’re now working on trying to rebuild the trust with the people there. We want to reach a mutual understanding of how the oil sands are affecting Fort Chipewyan, because not all the information out there is correct. We're certainly concerned for the well being of our fellow Albertans and any moves going forward will require the input of the community. To understand and deal with health issues in Ft. Chip, industry, the communnity and the government of Alberta will have to work together.