CAUA STATEMENT IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE INDIGENOUSCOMMUNITIES SUBJECTED TO THE ENVIRONMENTALRACISM OF OIL SANDS MINING
APRIL 4, 2023
WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE ACTION AND POLICY CHANGE TO PROTECT THE
ENVIRONMENT AND RESPECT THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES.
The decades-long contamination of Treaty 8 land, air, and water by pollution from oil sands
extraction has poisoned wildlife and constitutes state-sanctioned environmental racism
against Indigenous peoples. The trillions of litres of toxic waste precariously stored near
rivers and their tributaries are a catastrophe-in-waiting.
The costs of cleaning up this mess are growing, while the polluters are permitted to push
these liabilities down the road. While oil sands companies and Alberta governments
continue to downplay the harms and risks created by oil sands operations, the Indigenous
communities in the region and downstream know these harms and fears all too well.
We agree with Indigenous Climate Action’s executive director, and member of the
Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, that: “If this happened in
Vancouver or Toronto or any other urban center, the people responsible would be held
accountable. Our communities deserve the same justice.”
Coming together from all sectors of Alberta society, in solidarity with the Indigenous nations
of Treaty 8, we demand immediate action to stop these harms and end the threats posed
by the tailings lakes.
We call on the federal and provincial governments to exercise all powers available to them
to take the following actions:
Immediate Actions
● The provincial government must remove barriers to Indigenous communities’ access to
all oil sands leases to conduct their own environmental monitoring.
● The government of Alberta must place an immediate moratorium on any further
expansion of oil sands mining.
● Stop all mining and drilling in areas that do not have completed Regional Land Use
Plans (and any associated sub-plans) under the Alberta Land Stewardship Act.
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● Charge Imperial Oil and other oil sands operators whose tailings ponds are leaking
under the federal Fisheries Act.
● Federal Minister of ECCC should issue a Fisheries Act section 37(1) order to each oil
sands operator to submit its environmental management system (EMS) for review.
Legislative and Regulatory Reforms
● Secure from oil sands operators adequate security deposits in trust accounts to
implement tailings lakes clean-up plans, finance the environmental remediation of mine
sites, and fully decommission and remediate abandoned and orphaned oil and gas
wells.
● Increase the fines for violations of environmental regulations by oil sands companies.
● Amend the Alberta Responsible Energy Development Act so that Indigenous
communities will select representatives to half of the seats on the AER Board.
● There must be full public disclosure of the findings of the Alberta Information
Commissioner’s investigation into whether the AER violated the law by failing to inform
affected communities and the public of the seepage from the Imperial Oil Kearl oil sands
mine tailings lakes.
● The Alberta Government must pass a species at risk law that protects the critical habitat
of species at risk from being lost or degraded.
● While the federal minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has
pledged to review the communication procedures among the Alberta Ministry of
Environment and Parks, the AER, and his ministry, trust in Alberta regulators has been
completely eroded. ECCC must ensure that all environmental incidents are reported to it
directly, as well as monitoring data collected by the companies or the AER.
● Likewise, federal Fisheries Act regulations must be amended to remove Alberta
Environment and Parks as the first point of contact for the reporting of a “deposit out of
the normal course of events regulations.”
Policy Commitments to Decolonize Alberta’s Laws
● Establish an Indigenous/GoA working group to co-develop provincial implementing
legislation for the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
(UNDRIP).
● Create working groups co-convened by the Government of Alberta and Treaty 6, 7, and
8 First Nations, with mutually agreed upon terms of reference, to consider the
implications of the Yahey (Blueberry River) decision of the BC Supreme Court for
Alberta.
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Background
In May 2022, Imperial Oil reported to the AER and to the Mikisew Cree First Nation that it had
observed “discoloured surface water” at four locations bordering its lease area. But it did not
subsequently inform any First Nation of the findings that the surface water was contaminated with
industrial waste, with levels of multiple compounds exceeding provincial limits (including iron,
arsenic, F2 hydrocarbons (kerosene, creosote, diesel), sulfate, and total sulfide). The “impacted
area” was described by the AER as encompassing muskeg and forested public lands inhabited by
various species of wildlife and being in proximity to a fish-bearing water body and tributaries that
feed the Firebag and Muskeg Rivers. The quantity of the wastewater that has escaped containment
through seepage has not yet been determined.
The AER says it issued a noncompliance notice to Imperial Oil in September but did not publish the
notice or inform First Nations of the situation. In December 2022--six months after initial detection
of the seepage--Imperial Oil began to install additional seepage interception wells along the
perimeter of the site but told the AER that the work could not be completed before the spring snow
melt. (This delay would increase the likelihood of contaminated ground water entering nearby water
bodies and rivers.) During this six-month period, neither Imperial Oil nor the AER informed
affected First Nations, the federal Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, or the Ministry of
Environment of the Northwest Territories of these developments.
On January 31, 2023, there was an overflow of an estimated 5.3 million litres of contaminated water
from one of the tailings lakes, affecting the same area. This “spill” was reported to the AER, and on
February 6 the AER issued an environmental protection order (EPO) to Imperial Oil related to both
the long-term seepage contamination and the January 2023 “spill.” This order gave Imperial Oil four
days to submit a plan for intercepting and containing the effluent “prior to spring freshet” and a
month to submit an updated plan. The company was also ordered to submit plans for monitoring
impacts on wildlife and for remediation of the affected sites. Since this time, Imperial Oil has
removed the snow and ice from the affected area and put it back into the tailings lakes.
It was not until the EPO was posted to AER’s publicly accessible “dashboard” that First Nations
learned of the contamination by the Kearl mine’s effluents. For nine months, neither the AER nor
Imperial Oil had revealed this information to them. Nor had the other governments been informed.
During this time, chiefs of both the ACFN and the MCFN had met with Imperial Oil executives, but
no information about the contamination had been given to them.
The AER has claimed that it is the company’s responsibility to inform the FNs of pollution
incidents. (Imperial Oil also has agreements with the FNs regarding information sharing, which it
violated by not reporting these incidents of seepage and overflow.) The Alberta Minister of
Environment and Protected Areas says she was not briefed by the AER. Imperial Oil is not obligated
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to report to the federal government. As a result of this reporting system--described by one energy
law expert as being “full of holes”--it was possible for Imperial Oil and the AER to keep FNs and
the public in the dark about the contamination.
When these developments became public, Imperial Oil said “it always intended to inform affected
communities about the seepage once it knew what was causing it and had a plan to fix it, though it
had submitted plans to deal with the issue to the AER on Dec. 22, 2022.” The Alberta Minister of
Environment and Protected Areas said the government did not inform its counterpart in the NWT
because “under the bilateral agreement, notification is only required if there is evidence of
ecological impact. ‘Our evidence said that nothing reached the waterways, so our officials
interpreted that we didn't need to give notification.’" The government of the NWT contests this
interpretation of the bilateral agreement on watershed governance. Environmental law expert Drew
Yewchuk argues that the AER may be in violation of the Freedom of Information and Protection of
Privacy Act, which requires public authorities to inform the public about any “risk of significant
harm to the environment or to the health or safety of the public.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith echoed Imperial Oil’s claims that the seepage and spill had had “no
effect on waterways or wildlife.” She further suggested that environmental concerns had been
“overblown, fuelled by misinformation in the media.” However, this assurance has not been
substantiated. Harms to wildlife--as well as to people who have consumed medicines, fish, or game
from the affected areas--may not be immediately manifested, and the Athabasca Chipewyan First
Nation (ACFN) has already testified that foods from this area have been “shared throughout our
community.” ACFN Chief Allan Adam has accused Imperial Oil and the UCP government of
conducting a “cover-up” of the seriousness of this pollution, and of trying to minimize the possible
harms.
On March 9, the federal minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, said:
“Our systems are failing Indigenous peoples, clearly. And we need to find solutions.” On March 10,
the ECCC issued a Fisheries Act “direction” to Imperial Oil on the finding that tailings had
contaminated a fish-bearing water body and ordering a stop to the seepage.
March 10, Dene National Chief Gerald Antoine, Hereditary Chief Sydney Halcrow, and Grand
Chief Arthur Noskey of the First Nations of Treaty 8 Alberta, issued a joint statement demanding
“accountability for the frequent and unprecedented failures of tailings dams, toxic tailing leaks and
spills at the Kearl mine site.”
March 15, at a meeting with his Alberta counterpart, Sonya Savage, Minister Guilbeault “introduced
the idea of a joint federal-provincial-Indigenous working group, with participation from the oil
companies, to address the immediate concerns around the Kearl Oil Sands Mine situation to restore
trust and give transparency to all parties involved. This would include meeting on a regular basis to
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discuss remediation and containment plans, and improvements to the notification systems for
ongoing incidents of spill or seepage.”
March 22, the Dene Nation, Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, and NWT Métis Nation issued a joint
statement calling for an investigation of oil sands’ effect on water and air quality, aquatic
ecosystems and human health, incorporating traditional knowledge and western science. They
further demanded that all governments “engage with Indigenous governments as full partners on
regulatory development and reform efforts for tailings management.”
Signatories/Endorsing Organizations
Edmonton Youth for Climate
Climate Justice Edmonton
Media contacts
Convenor, Climate Action Coalition—University of Alberta uaclimateaction@gmail.com
