According to the Alberta Energy Regulator Cumulative Environmental Management Association collaboration will no longer be a requirement for energy projects that previously needed this collaboration in order to move forward. CEMA was an environmental group that was based in Fort McMurray, but the group stopped all of their operations on April 1, 2016 due to years of uncertainty concerning finances and opposition from many in the provincial government and industry groups in the area. The regulator recently posted an announcement stating that any terms or conditions which included a mandate for CEMA participation would no longer be enforced. All of the conditions and terms regarding research, testing, reporting, and monitoring will still be upheld and enforced but the companies are not required to go through CEMA in order to meet those goals since the group is no longer operational.

Many industry groups have been vocal opponents of the Cumulative Environmental Management Association, and of being forced to collaborate with the group by the Alberta Energy Regulator. Industry members including the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers have made the argument that CEMA is a group that is redundant, and that it could be blended into other groups such as the Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance. Leadership for CEMA argued against this combining of groups, saying that none of the other groups provided the same strong forum that aboriginal communities needed. Last summer an announcement by the provincial government said that industry members would no longer be required to secure funding for CEMA. Since the environmental group is funded mostly by oil companies this basically eliminated almost all of the funding budget for the group.