The exclusion of the information has prompted frustration among both environmental groups and even oilsand industry representatives. Environment Canada told reporters it was just fulfilling UNFCC reporting requirements, but the lack of mention appears to suggests that the Canadian government is anxious to obscure the source of its fastest-growing source of climate pollution: the Alberta tar sands.

Emissions from the tar sands were incorporated in the overall tally in the report. But in the 2008 NIR Environment Canada published sector estimates, which presented emissions in terms that are more familiar to Canadians, using categories like oilsands (mining, in situ, upgrading), cars, buses, cement, forestry, service industries, etc.

"It is not as if they were left out of the total, but no matter where you looked in the report you couldn't find out what sector the emissions were from," said Clare Demerse, director of climate change at the Pembina Institute.

Despite the economic receission, tar sands emissions continue to climb. Oilsand production accounted for 6.5% of Canadaès overall emission in 2009. Environment Canada first stated that oilsands emissions increased 21% in 2009, with emissions per barrel of oil increasing by 14.5%, over the same period; but it later revised these estimates to an 11% emissions increase, with "very little change in the total emissions intensity" per barrel of oil produced in 2009. Overall oilsands production is set to triple by 2020, according to some projections.