'A weak response': First Nations Chief responds to Imperial Oil fine

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam discusses the Imperial Oil fine with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: Imperial Oil has been fined $50,000 after the Alberta Energy Regulator determined it broke environmental laws when wastewater containing tailings seeped outside the lease boundary of the Kearl oil sands facility in 2022.

The penalty also comes with requirements for mitigation plans, the sharing of lessons learned, and research into environmental effects. And the AER says it is still investigating other potential contraventions.

Downstream of the Kearl oil sands operation is the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.

The $50,000 fine is said to be the maximum penalty under Alberta law for this type of infraction.

Now you've condemned that as a weak response. So what does this outcome represent to you?

Chief Allan Adam: I think that's a weak response in regards to the regulatory system that's imposed with the Alberta government.

Because you look at the national news throughout Canada that even within Alberta, Canada settled on safe drinking water to the reserves and paid billions of dollars in compensation.

Yet the Alberta government just gives a fine of $50,000 to one of the perpetrators that accidentally released tailings water into the ecosystem which goes into the Athabasca River- which downstream is the community of Fort Chipewyan where we intake that water and we consume it on a daily basis.

We cook with it, we wash our clothes with it, we wash up with it and everything. So it's an essential way of life for our people.

And I've been asked by the community members, I've been asked by downstream community members from Fort Chip all the way down to the Arctic Sea, what is going on?

And I can't answer these questions, because the government says everything is fine, everything's good, the regulatory system is working well.

But there's a lot of unanswered questions out there and the Alberta government refuses to answer them.

MH: Okay, and the Alberta Energy Regulator says investigations are ongoing. Maybe there are more potential penalties in the future.

How far do you expect those investigations to go in reflecting meaningful action where your community is concerned?

AA: Well, let's go back to 2011 when the Orbit mine tailings pond breached into the Athabasca River, they said they would have concrete evidence about everything.

Today, it's 2024, nothing has come about it. Nothing will develop out of it.

And this is probably a similar situation that will occur because the Alberta government - you hear from Danielle Smith, the Premier of Alberta, suggesting that we need more development here in Alberta, and we want more industry to come in.

We're the only province in the world where we create regulatory systems to pollute the water. I don't understand that.

The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation developed water guidelines for industry, the provincial government, the farmers, for Canada to follow - for us to live properly and safe in our community.

We want Canada to impose and implement those water guidelines, because Canada is one of two countries that doesn't have a water policy to roll out nationally.

Canada and Australia are the only two countries in the world that don't have a water policy in place for a guideline.

We're calling on Canada to implement the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations water policy, because that will create safe drinking water for everybody.

Because we took everything into consideration from the Nation's point of view, what's safe for us and what we believe would be the normal levels.

If Canada was to adopt that, then we would have a guideline for the Nations all across Canada that every provincial body would have to follow. But right now, Canada does not have anything.

MH: In terms of your community's involvement - during a town hall meeting last March, you hand delivered a lawsuit to AER officials over the handling of this whole situation.

What's come of that lawsuit? Where does it currently stand?

AA: Right now it continues to stand in the courts, and the Alberta government is looking to strike that from evidence.

They're saying that everything is good here in the region, and we don't need those kind of court documents coming into the courts and saying that we're doing things wrong because according to our documents, everything is doing what the regulatory system was supposed to do.

But we're saying ‘No, it's not,’ because there are harmful effects being played out in the community, and there's a lot of unanswered questions that are still going on today.

MH: What do you hope comes of the suit? What are you aiming for?

AA: We're looking for regulatory change. We're looking for a concrete regulatory system that's going to protect the community downstream from major development upstream.

And this would look good for the world stage.

It would also create new investors coming in, because we will have world class standards to follow.

Right now we don't have that nationally, and we don't have that provincially.

You know the UN repertoire said it this way: I've never seen a country develop a regulatory system to poison the water like Alberta does. So that speaks for itself.

MH: One more question for you, Chief Adam - on a political level, how have communications with the Smith government changed over the entirety of this scenario? Have they changed such that they are different now?

AA: I don't think so in that regard. You know, they've never picked up the phone to call me since this press release has broken out.

They still stand behind whatever the AER put out there.

I’ve also gathered some information that Laurie Pushor from the AER has retired as of last Thursday, and therefore they don't even have any spokesperson from the AER to answer to any questions about why was it the $50,000 fine that was given out.

So therefore it is now the responsibility of the Premier to answer the questions: why was the $50,000 fine given out?

And if it's not adequate, from our view, I think the Premier should step down and resign as well.