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House Hansard - 195

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 11, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 195 - May/11/23
Ms. Julie Dabrusin (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources and to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Lib.)
  • May/11/23 7:13:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I take pollution incidents and threats to the environment very seriously, and I am deeply disappointed by this situation, as the Minister of Environment and Climate Change has also said. Our priority remains the health and the well-being of the people of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, the Mikisew Cree First Nation and the Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation, as well as other communities. Let us talk a bit about the action since the time of that question and answer in question period. Environment and Climate Change Canada enforcement officers have a mandate to enforce federal environmental legislation aimed at pollution prevention and protecting Canada's wildlife and biodiversity. The enforcement has opened an investigation into a suspected contravention of the Fisheries Act at Imperial Oil's Kearl oil sands site. The Fisheries Act prohibits the deposit of deleterious substances into the water frequented by fish or in any place under conditions where the deleterious substance may enter any such water. Environment and Climate Change Canada continues to make progress in creating a new notification and monitoring working group, which would include the federal and provincial governments, indigenous nations from Fort Chipewyan and the Government of Northwest Territories. From the federal perspective, an enhanced communication protocol must be developed to improve notifications at all steps in the notification process in cases of future environmental emergencies, and officials are working with indigenous communities to collectively establish the mandate and scope of this working group. Their inputs and insights will be critical to ensuring that this group convenes with a direction and purpose that will meet the community's needs. In general, and I want to underline this point, tailings ponds are regulated at the provincial level, and in Alberta's case, through the Alberta Energy Regulator. We will be exploring further options with Alberta, including how the Government of Canada can support assessing the risks of tailings ponds and broader landscape and tailings management issues of concern.
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Context: House Hansard - 195 - May/11/23
Ms. Julie Dabrusin
  • May/11/23 7:17:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Environment and Climate Change officials carried out inspections at the site after they became aware of the incident on February 7. In addition to the investigation, officers will continue to monitor the mitigation measures taken by Imperial Oil to prevent impacts to fish-bearing water, as required by the Fisheries Act direction issued by Environment and Climate Change Canada enforcement on March 10. A Fisheries Act direction is a compliance tool that may be issued by enforcement officers when there is an unauthorized deposit of a deleterious substance into water frequented by fish or when there is a serious and imminent danger of such an incident and immediate action is necessary. The department is continuing the investigation.
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