On October 31, 2011, the Alberta Provincial Court ordered an oilsands operator to fund an online training course in water diversion best practices that will be administered by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP). Statoil Canada Ltd. plead guilty to the charge of breaching the terms of its temporary water licence by using water from unapproved sources, using unauthorized intake screens and under-reporting the volume of water diverted from a lake source.

The offences, which occurred from December 15, 2008 to May 29, 2009 near Conklin, Alberta, resulted in 19 charges that were reduced to one charge under a plea deal. The Provincial Court ordered a fine of $190,000, of which $5,000 will be paid outright and the remaining amount will be held in trust by CAPP to establish the industry training course.

This latest example in creative sentencing falls on the heels of the Alberta Provincial Court's 2010 decision (discussed here) to issue a $3 million penalty against Syncrude Canada Ltd. to fund studies on bird deterrence and to restore migratory bird habitats.

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