Indian Oil and Gas Regulations — 57
Content of application 57 (1) An application for approval of a bitumen recovery project must be in the prescribed form and include (a) a description of the lands to be included in the project; (b) evidence that the minimum level of evaluation has been achieved; (c) a statement that the subsurface contract holder has applied for or received the provincial authority’s approval of the project; (d) the results of an environmental review of the project that has been conducted by a qualified environmental professional who deals with the holder at arm’s length; (e) the terms and conditions respecting the royalty to be paid for the oil and gas recovered from lands in the project area; (f) the reporting requirements for the project; (g) a detailed description of the project, including its location, size and scope, the operations to be carried out, the schedule of pre-construction, construction and start-up operations and the reasons for selecting that schedule; (h) a map indicating all the rights and interests in the lands in the project area and in any area that is likely to be affected by project operations; (i) an aerial photographic mosaic of the project area at a scale that is adequate to show the location of the project components, including wells, facilities, tanks, access roads, railways, pipelines, public utility corridors, tailings ponds and waste storage sites; (j) a detailed description of storage and transportation facilities for the oil and gas, including the size of any pipeline that may be used and the name of the entity that owns it; (k) the anticipated rate of production of the oil and gas for the period for which approval is sought; (l) the year and month in which the annual minimum level of production of bitumen will be achieved; (m) a description of the energy sources to be used and their anticipated quantity and cost, along with a comparison to alternative sources; and (n) the term of the approval sought, along with the anticipated starting and completion dates of the project. Environmental review (2) The results of the environmental review of the bitumen recovery project must be submitted in the prescribed form and include (a) a site evaluation that is based on the site’s topography, soils, vegetation, wildlife, sources of water, existing structures, archeological and cultural resources, traditional ecological knowledge, current land uses and any other feature of the site that could be affected by the project; (b) a description of the operations to be carried out during the project, the duration of each and its location on the site; (c) a description of the short-term and long-term effects that each operation could have on the environment of the site and on any surrounding areas; (d) a description of the proposed mitigation measures, the potential residual effects after mitigation and the significance of those effects; and (e) a description of the consultations undertaken with the council and the First Nation members. Environmental protection measures letter (3) After reviewing the application, the Minister must send the applicant and the council a letter that sets out the environmental protection measures that must be implemented to permit the subsurface contract holder to carry out operations under the project.