Kearl oilsands leaks show serious flaws in Canada, Alberta’s industry oversight: experts | 24CA News

Recent leaks of poisonous tailings from northern Alberta oilsands mines have revealed severe flaws in how Canada and Alberta take care of the setting, observers say.

Some accuse the federal authorities of abandoning the province. Others level to what they name a captive provincial regulator. All agree that there’s no method leaks from Imperial Oil’s Kearl tailings ponds ought to have gone unreported for 9 months to each Ottawa and Edmonton, in addition to the individuals who reside close to it.

“We have never taken this issue seriously,” stated Martin Olszynski, a University of Calgary useful resource regulation professor and former federal regulatory lawyer. “They have never taken these risks and these threats seriously.”

Imperial found “brown sludge” close to one in all its Kearl tailings ponds in May and it grew to become clear over the summer season the issue was vital.

However, the Alberta Energy Regulator didn’t replace First Nations or inform federal and provincial setting ministers concerning the situation till Feb. 7, when it issued a safety order after a second Kearl launch of 5.3 million litres of tailings from a catchment pond. Federal laws requires Environment Canada to be notified of such leaks inside 24 hours.

“The biggest learning from this is that the province has oversight and control over what information the federal government is receiving,” stated Mandy Olsgard, a toxicologist who has labored on regulatory points for the Alberta Energy Regulator and Indigenous teams.

Ottawa joins within the overview panels that assess tasks then largely again away, Olsgard stated.

“They just hand it off to the province.”

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And then the province fingers it off to a regulator that many think about too near the trade it’s alleged to oversee.

“This regulator has always thought of its relationship being bilateral, between itself and industry,” stated Nigel Bankes, a retired professor of useful resource regulation on the University of Calgary. “Never triangular, never a three-legged stool involving the public.

“For me, this (Kearl release) just confirmed all of that.”

That perspective is pervasive within the provincial authorities, Bankes stated.

“It’s a general message of don’t rock the boat,” he stated. “It permeates the department of energy and it permeates Alberta Environment.”

A survey carried out in 2021 for Alberta Environment discovered greater than 85 per cent of Albertans had little confidence within the regulator’s capacity to manipulate trade, in that case coal. The survey additionally reported Albertans discovered the company reluctant to launch info and was not very clear.

Both federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and his Alberta counterpart Sonya Savage have acknowledged issues want to alter.

“We need to take a step back and say ‘What are the processes? Were they followed? And do we need to enhance them?’” Savage stated this week. “We’re committed to taking the step to enhancing all of those processes.”

“We need to find better mechanisms,” stated Guilbeault.

But Marlin Schmidt, the Alberta New Democrat’s setting critic, is skeptical.

He stated the province and the regulator have already refused to inform him the scope and timeline for the investigation of the leak. Savage wouldn’t commit to creating the outcomes of the investigation public, Schmidt stated, nor would she promise to launch outcomes from an inside investigation into whether or not the regulator adopted notification guidelines.

“There’s no investigation into what process led to the failure, nor any commitment to improving,” he stated. “We’re just shrugging our shoulders and hoping next time things work out better.”

The Kearl scenario reveals it may be a mistake for the federal authorities to “harmonize” laws with the provinces and delegate oversight to them, Olszynski stated.

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“Given the kind of politics in this province, we could have seen that coming,” he stated. “We should have known that these folks aren’t talking very well together, so you might want to rethink these arrangements that depend on them talking together.”

Olszynski stated oilsands operators ought to now be required to report spills or some other unscheduled releases on to the federal authorities.

“I think it is time for Environment Canada to take a much more proactive role in tailings management,” he stated.

The Kearl scenario has made one factor clear, stated Olsgard.

“It’s made it obvious to the public that there are not good processes between the provinces and the feds.”

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