Our reaction following Tuesday, November 28th’s ENVI parliamentary hearings on the Alberta Energy Regulator's failed handling of the massive toxic tailings leak from Imperial’s Kearl mine and the subsequent cover-up.

“This toxic spill is 13 kilometres from the trapline of one of our board members. The impacts are too significant to ignore. The Federal Government has the opportunity to provide assurance to Indigenous people and the rest of Canada that they are capable of overseeing these kinds of environmental disasters and can prevent toxic tailings spills, seepages, and leaks from happening in the future.” Jesse Cardinal, Executive Director

“During AER CEO Lori Pushor's questioning, several of his answers were thinly veiled attempts to minimize the severity and toxicity of Imperial Oil’s tailings spill at their Kearl project. His misinformed claim that “no toxic tailings reached the Firebag River.” can quickly be clarified on an Alberta-owned public website showing problems in the Firebag River after the tailing spill. Those samples showed high levels of naphthenic acids and exceedance of dissolved iron and pyrene. All these toxic substances are found in high concentrations in tailings pond wastewater.

Also, the nearby Muskeg River showed high levels of sulfates, after the Kearl spill, which can only originate from tailing waste fluids.  Last week, the AER reported a third incident this year where large volumes of wastewater were accidentally released into the Muskeg River from the Kearl mining operations. These water bodies cannot continue to take these toxic assaults if they are to be viable aquatic ecosystems.” Paul Belanger, Science Advisor

We support the Nation’s call for the federal government to exercise its authority by conducting a full geotechnical audit of tarsands tailings pond technology used in their territories.

We support the Nation’s calls for the AER to be dismantled and rebuilt with Indigenous Peoples's seats at the table to make the decisions. Indigenous self-determination is taking leading roles in environmental review panels for projects in our territories instead of being asked to make submissions and give evidence to such bodies.

We also support the federal government’s call for a tailings risk assessment, which must include both the risks to human health at the current oil and gas industry-related contamination levels and the risk of further tailings leaks, spills, overflows and breaches.

We applaud the committee members who took the time to review the mounting evidence that was put before them thoroughly. Committee members pushed AER CEO Laurie Pusher, who eventually admitted that First Nations' concerns shared in the “What We Heard” third report were not made public, nor were First Nations comments included in the publicly available Deloitte report. It was clear that Laurie Pusher had admitted theirs and Deloitte’s failed communications with the Nations in this investigation. The subsequent public reporting shows an ongoing communication failure with Indigenous Peoples without suggested remedies. We demand complete transparency from the energy regulators and the oil and gas industry it supports over our human lives and the biodiversity of the traditional territories we are genetically connected to.

Contact Information:

Jesse Cardinal, Executive Director - ed@keepersofthewater.ca

Paul Belanger, Science Advisor - science@keepersofthewater.ca

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