Enviro Q&A Services, Center for Boreal Research – Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, and InnoTech Alberta Inc.
Chris Powter, Bin Xu , Kevin Renkema, and Stefan Schreiber
April 2026
Executive Summary
In 2018, the Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada (PTAC) funded a project titled Reclamation Practices on Upland and Peatland Well Sites. The project was established in response to challenges experienced by practitioners, regulators and industry related to reclamation certification. The specific sites in question are those that were constructed using mineral pads in peatland. The goal of the overall project was to provide recommendations for an acceptable framework/decision support tool(s) to assist industry and regulators in making decisions around appropriate management and certification of these sites that ensures that functioning ecosystems are developed and that there is a process that outlines eligibility for reclamation certification.
A draft report, Certification of Mineral Pads in the Boreal Region – Decision Framework and Support Tools, was released in October 2020 to provide opportunities for industry, practitioners, and government to review and comment on the document and to set the stage for a field verification trial of the Decision Framework and Support Tools in 2021. The goal of the reviews and field verification trial was to ensure the Decision Framework and Support Tools added value in recommending whether to leave a mineral pad in a peatland.
The 2020 Decision Framework and Support Tools report was updated in 2022 and 2023 based on stakeholder feedback and the field verification trial.
On December 14, 2023, EPA announced a new policy (Interim Directive: Pilot for Reclaiming Peatlands – Decision Framework and Support Tools for Reclaiming Well Sites and Access Roads on Public Land) that required use of the 2023 Update for change in land use variance requests on padded sites going from peatland to upland.
On September 22, 2025, InnoTech held an in-person and online workshop to discuss practitioners’ and regulators’ experiences with the 2023 Update and 2023 EPA policy, and ideas for revising the 2023 Update in preparation for a proposed change to the 2023 EPA policy. The results of the workshop are provided in a separate report.
Changes in this document include:
- Consideration of the comments and recommendations arising from the 2025 workshop and recommendations from field research work in 2023.
- Expansion of the scope to include all forested areas on public land in Alberta.
- Revisions to the Adjacent and regional Decision Support Tool and the Borrow Decision Support Tool.
- Clarification of terminology
- access vs. access road
- mineral pad vs. mineral soil pad
- practitioner
- Additional factors to consider in the decision support tools and data collection needs.
- Discussion of the role of professional judgement when using the Decision Framework and Support Tools.
- Addition of a Change in Land Use Variance Request Checklist.
In addition, the associated Excel file (DFST Change in Land Use Recommendation Calculator) has been automated to simplify data entry and consistency in results.
20-RRRC-05