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Oil Sands Monitoring Program – Annual reports and work plans

Annual reports highlight OSMP activities and governance, while the work plan identifies projects to be completed by the program that year.

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Oil Sands Monitoring Program

Annual reports

Annual reports highlighting the accomplishments, activities, and governance of the Oil Sands Monitoring Program (OSMP). The program funds and undertakes ambient environmental monitoring within the oil sands area of Alberta to enhance the understanding of the effects of oil sands development and core outcomes.

Work plans

Ambient environment monitoring plans are created yearly to identify projects being completed for that year.

  • Glossary

    Core Monitoring: Describes long term monitoring activities under the OSM Program.

    Long-term Monitoring: Refers to the routine monitoring of status and trends of physical/chemical/biological parameters related to oil sands development activities to detect and evaluate changes in the environment over a period of time, typically more than 5 years.

    Focused Study (FS): A class of purposeful, requested projects with definite start and end dates (typically 3 years), according to the characteristics described below.

    Community-based Monitoring (CBM): Refers to collaboration between concerned citizens, government agencies, industry, academia, community groups, and local institutions to monitor issues of common concern.

  • Acronyms

    ECCC – Environment and Climate Change Canada

    AEP – Alberta Environment and Parks

    WBEA – Wood Buffalo Environmental Association

    LICA – Lakeland Industry & Community Association

    PRAMP – Peace River Area Monitoring Program

    U of A – University of Alberta

    U of C – University of Calgary

    ABMI – Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute

  • Previous plans

    Archive of ambient environment monitoring plans for oil sands development:

2026–27 Ambient environment monitoring plan

The projects approved under the 2026–27 Ambient Environment Monitoring Plan for Oil Sands Development are linked below.

See the plan and all the summaries at: 2026–27 Ambient Environment Monitoring Plan.

Table 1. Links to individual work plans in PDF.

Activity nameAmounts approved April 28, 2026
Atmospheric Pollutant Active Air Monitoring Network$11,921,672
Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Monitoring$7,137,679
Air and deposition monitoring total$19,059,351
Surface Water Quantity Monitoring – Water Levels and Flows$1,867,162
OSM Core Surface Water Quality Monitoring$5,929,521
Core Biodiversity Monitoring – Benthic Invertebrates$1,950,000
Core Long-term Fish Monitoring$1,254,403
Water monitoring (Core) total$11,001,086
Integrated Terrestrial Biological Monitoring$2,291,488
Integrated Terrestrial Biological Monitoring – Contaminants$1,905,413
Habitat Mapping of Forest Regeneration$392,500
Biodiversity monitoring (Core) total$4,589,400
Wetland Ecosystem Monitoring Program$605,658
Wetland monitoring (Core) total$605,658
Groundwater Monitoring$2,300,900
Groundwater monitoring (Core) total$2,300,900
OSM Data Services$1,100,000
State of Environment Report – Air and Deposition$360,376
Integrated Geospatial Program$649,500
Cross cutting projects total$2,109,876
Air Quality Monitoring in the Peace Athabasca Delta$257,000
Indigenous Community-based Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting in Surface Water$1,645,451
Ni ho ghe di – Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Community-based Monitoring$459,500
Mikisew Cree First Nation – Community-based Monitoring$448,100
FMMN Community-based Wetland Monitoring$393,600
Cold Lake First Nations Integrated Community-based Monitoring$342,425
2026–27 McKay River Community-based Environmental Monitoring Program: Combined Surface Water and Groundwater$200,000
Lakeland Métis Nation Moose Camera Tracking Project$74,500
A Braided Approach to Evaluating the Environment, 
*Addendum – scope of work		$150,000
Terrestrial Biological Integrated Indigenous Community-based Monitoring$585,000
Willow Lake Métis Nation Community-based Monitoring$296,105
Conklin Environmental Monitoring$438,186
Fort McKay Community Odour Monitoring$299,737
Fort McKay Community Dust Monitoring$303,152
CPFN Community-based Monitoring Program$316,382
Tthebatthie Denesųłiné Nation Community-based Monitoring Program$100,000
Indigenous Indicator Prioritization, 
* Addendum – lead community		$613,983
FCMN Oilsands Focused Community-based Monitoring (Phase 3)$27,748
Conceptual Framework for Socio-Cultural-Economic Indicators and Thresholds$205,640
Towards a Regional Understanding of Surface Groundwater Interactions in the Cold Lake Oil Sands Region$296,133
Sensing Change: Understanding the Sensory Impact of Oil Sands Development on the Métis Community of Conklin$75,000
What Drives Water Levels in the Bourque Lake Catchment?$112,279
Creating an Integrated Moose Population Model For the South Athabasca Subregion$118,000
Aquatic and Terrestrial Community-based Monitoring$160,000
Wildlife Health (FCMN)$107,580
Lakeland Metis Nation Aquatic Monitoring Program: Stewardship of Touchwood and Square Lakes$74,500
Duncan’s First Nation Integrated Aquatic and Terrestrial Monitoring Program$150,000
Bigstone Cree Nation Aquatic Capacity-building and Community Water Monitoring$75,000
CBM Assessment of Benthic Communities, Fish populations and Water Quality in Northern Alberta Lakes and Streams$75,000
Peavine Myers / Pelican / Muskeg Lakes Quality / Quantity / Fish Studies$75,000
Stream and Lake Water Quality, Fish, and Benthic Assessment in the Oil Sands Region of North Eastern Alberta$150,000
A Cumulative Terrestrial Baseline for the Peace River Oil Sands Area$75,000
Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Limits of Change to Support Community Analysis of Environmental Monitoring Data Impact Assessment$75,000
Whitefish (Goodfish) Lake First Nation #128 – Aquatic Program$75,000
Fort McMurray 468 First Nation Community-based Monitoring Project$150,000
Community-based monitoring total$9,000,000
Oil Sands Monitoring Program Administration$1,468,059
Indigenous Capacity Funding$4,600,000
OSM Program – Science Secretariat$548,864
Program operations total$6,616,923
Total$55,283,194

Allocation of budget by theme and total

Image 1. Allocation of budget by theme and total, 2026-27

Allocation of budget by theme and total, 2026-27
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