The province's Conservative government said it plans to speed reclamation of toxic tailings ponds, boost refining and processing of oil sands bitumen within Alberta, and ease the social impact of the massive investments needed to further exploit the resource.

While shy on details, the province's 20-year strategic plan seeks to fend off criticism that the environmental cost of producing tar-like bitumen from the oil sands is too high, according to a Reuters report.

Oil sands development has been attacked for wreaking havoc on the environment in northern Alberta and for emitting huge amounts of carbon dioxide.

The government plan, however, does not seek to further regulate oil development in the Florida-sized region, where costs skyrocketed during the oil boom years as new projects and expansions competed for labor and materials.

"I don't see any deterrents to investment" in the provincial strategy, said Don Thompson, president of the Oil Sands Developers Group.

Rising costs made most new oil sands investments uneconomic when oil prices collapsed last year, and more than C$90 billion ($72 billion) of projects have been deferred, delayed or canceled.

Alberta also plans to use the bitumen that it receives from oil sands producers instead of cash royalties to spur investment in value-added processing facilities.

The plan includes measures that would see toxic tailings ponds reclaimed at a faster rate than new tailings are produced.

The oil sands tailings ponds gained notoriety last year when 500 ducks died after landing on a pond operated by Syncrude Canada, the biggest oil sands producer. That caused an international outcry over the environmental cost of producing petroleum from the oil sands.

Earlier this week, the federal and provincial governments laid environmental charges against Syncrude because of the duck deaths. The company could be fined as much as C$800,000 under the charges.

Published: 12 February 2009 19:54 GMT  | Last updated: 12 February 2009 19:54 GMT