Canada, Alberta to Unveil Oil Sands Monitoring Plan Today

Alberta and the federal government are expected to reveal some of the details of their long-awaited plan to track the environmental impact of oil sands development later today.

Alberta Environment Minister Diana McQueen and her federal counterpart, Peter Kent, have scheduled a joint news conference for early afternoon.

Departmental bureaucrats held a technical briefing on Tuesday for scientists who made recommendations on how the monitoring system should look.

The plan is considered crucial to answering critics who charge that the multibillion-dollar industry is being allowed to charge ahead far in advance of government's ability to regulate it.