"[12] In April 2007, Alberta became the first jurisdiction in North America to pass climate-change legislation requiring large emitters to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
"[12] In December 2014 Environment Minister Kyle Fawcett attended the 2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru where conference delegates held negotiations towards a global climate agreement with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) as the overarching goal.
[14] In line with this, Fawcett described how his key goal was to build networks with other "sub-national jurisdictions", Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia and California — to potentially work on new agreements on carbon offset — across provincial and national borders as part of the province's climate change framework.
[16]: 3 The Environmental Protection Security Fund collects for activities such as "coal and oil sands, mining operations, landfills, hazardous waste, recyclable projects, quarry activities, waste management facilities, sand and gravel operations and metal production plants",[16]: 3 and holds security deposits to "assure satisfactory land reclamation will be carried out according to the Environment Protection and Enhancement Act."
[21] Environment and Parks played a significant role in the development of Alberta Innovates-Technology Futures (AITF) which brings together academics, governments and industry to foster innovation.
AITF supports research and innovation activities targeting the development and growth of technology-based sectors in alignment with Government of Alberta priorities.
[26] Environment and Parks works in collaboration with the Aseniwuche Nation, the Foothills Landscape Management Forum (FLMF), and the Aboriginal Fund for Species at Risk on projects such as caribou monitoring.
"[27] According to the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI), an agency that monitors and reports on biodiversity status throughout the province, by 2014 all six herds of caribou, including the threatened boreal and the endangered mountain caribou, "have suffered annual rates of decline ranging from 4.6% to 15.2% from 1993 to 2012" in the oil sands region (OSR) as oil and gas production booms in northern Alberta.
In a Wall Street Journal article Dawson observed that, "The report comes amid controversy over Alberta's recent sales of oil and gas development leases in areas populated by both boreal and mountain caribou.
"[28] On 16 July 2014 the Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development finalized and signed an agreement with Kan-Alta Golf Management Ltd., a company with alleged connections the provincial government to rebuild the Kananaskis Country Golf Course, as a result of the 2013 Alberta floods damage.
The deal "resulted in over $5.4 million" paid to Kan-Alta Golf "to cover business losses and other expenses.
[32] According to a January 7, 2019 article in The Globe and Mail, some residents of Rocky Mountain House, a town of 7,000, led by United Conservative Party (UCP) Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (MLA) for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, Jason Nixon, oppose the creation of the park.
[32] Nixon has made unfounded claims that the plan is a "foreign-funded plot to wall off the back country to Albertans who call the region home".
[32] On January 5, 2018, following alleged bullying and intimidation of Bighorn Wildland Provincial Park supporters, Minister Phillips issued a statement announcing that public consultations that were planned for Drayton Valley, Edmonton, Red Deer, and Sundre, would be cancelled.
[36] Concerns were raised and Nixon said, "We are not selling any Crown or public land — period", according to a March 5 Calgary Herald interview.