A summary of the House of Commons hearings on the Kearl Spill

May 9, 2023
By: admin

A summary of the House of Commons hearings on the Kearl Spill

The Kearl tailings spill raised such public attention and outcry that it caught the attention of Canada’s Members of Parliament. Hearings were hosted in the House of Commons by the Environmental and Sustainable Development Committee (ENVI Committee) to investigate how and why the Kearl spill was not communicated with Indigenous communities.  

Powerful testimonies were given by the First Nations and Métis communities that were and continue to be impacted by the spill. In total, there were three hearings that took place: 

  • 17 April 2023: Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Fort McMurray 468 First Nation, Mikisew Cree First Nation, Fort McKay Métis Nation, Fort McMurray Métis Local No. 1935, and Willow Lake Métis Nation 
  • 20 April 2023 Imperial Oil 
  • 24 April 2023: Dene Nation, Fort Chipewyan Metis Nation Association, Alberta Energy Regulator, Environment Canada, Government of Northwest Territories, and Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.  

First, what is the House of Commons?

In the Commons Chamber, where meetings take place, Members of Parliament (MPs) devote time to debate and vote on bills, as well as discuss national issues and call on governments to explain action or inaction.   

For focus on specific issues, committees are formed, such as the Environmental and Sustainable Development Committee (sometimes called the “ENVI Committee”). Committees can call hearings and collect evidence on governmental operations. They can call figures to submit testimony about an incident or issue and answer questions from MPs.  

The Testimonies: Key Witnesses and their Accounts

Powerful and moving testimonies were given on April 17th, when impacted Indigenous and Metis communities gave their statements about the events. Indigenous leaders pointed out how the issue at hand goes deeper than the spill itself – it is a systemic and racial discriminatory issue that will need real reform to address.  

Impactful quotes from testimonies in the Kearl Hearing

Indigenous peoples need a direct role in how oil sands are regulated and how decisions on tailings are made.
[ … ]
We need solutions. This incident makes us question if this is an isolated problem or a systemic issue throughout the oilsands. When I say systemic issue, I talk about systemic racism in regard to First Nation communities because if this was in Calgary you would be crying from the bottom of your lungs.

Chief Allan Adam, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation

 

We fear Kearl is just the tip of the iceberg. We are bracing for even more catastrophic events unless there are real reforms. This is not just a Kearl issue – this is an issue for all industry that has tailings ponds.
[ … ]
How can you give me certainty my kids can go into the water? I’m going to be honest – as Chief of my First Nation, I can’t give them certainty.
[ … ] 
If this was in Ottawa right now, I guarantee there would be a crisis. When is it that Indigenous lives matter?

Chief Billy-Joe Tuccaro, Mikisew First Nation

 

We live in rule-based society. However, the recent incident in Kearl, shows regulatory bodies and governments value self-interest groups, versus trust and transparency.

Martin Grygar, Fort Mcmurray 468 First Nation

 

The substance and quality of your rights vary depending on the province you live in. I don’t think that’s the spirit of the constitution. I can’t imagine many of the rights that we all enjoy as Canadians, varying so greatly depending on where we live or our ethnic background.
[ … ] 
I would say this issue is a systematic issue, that covers a range of areas that includes how [an] impact assessment is conducted, how duty to consult is discharged, how liabilities are managed in the sector.

Timothy Clark, Fort McMurray Métis Local

The AER has zero credibility outside of Calgary’s echo chamber and they actively dismiss and downplay the impacts of oilsands on communities and their treaty rights.
[ … ] 
Alberta is absent, their processes are broken, their systems are designed to perpetually point in the other directions, to have your concerns resolved while permits, approvals and leases are flown out the door.
[ … ] 
This is a systemic issue, it’s an issue of racial discrimination, of government ineptitude.

Daniel Stuckless, Fort McKay Métis Nation

 

Political power of industry is much more than political power of the communities, unfortunately. So we need to correct that – we need to take politics out of regulation and start to take care of peoples health with regulations..

Russell Noseworthy, Fort McMurray Métis Local

 

 

When asked about health impacts in the community, Melody commented on government inaction:

We started requesting a health study in 2003. We have been advocating and requesting health studies for over a decade. We have presented proposals and governments have sat on it. No action has been taken.

Wood Buffalo National Park will be on the world heritage committee meeting this year to decide if WBNP should be a world heritage site listed as in danger. Our health concerns have been shared in our UNESCO petition and we have expressed our health concerns to the world heritage committee numerous times, however not any action has been taken on the health matters.

Melody Lepine, Mikisew Cree First Nation

 

Coverage of the First Nations hearings are available here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/first-nations-blast-alberta-energy-regulator-at-hearing-minister-promises-reform-1.6813307  

On April 20th, executives from Imperial Oil were called to testify. Over the two hours, the Imperial Oil CEO, Brad Corson, expressed his regret and condolences and stated that the incident would never be repeated again, while receiving high pressure questioning from enraged and frustrated MPs. During his testimony and question period, Imperial Oil CEO, Brad Corson, also mentioned:  

  • The tailings pond leak, first identified in May 2022, was not yet contained.  
  • That no harm has been done to river water and wildlife, though we note the data necessary to determine that had still not been made publicly available at the time. 
  • Only referred to the smaller incidents of affected surface waters, but had to be pushed in questioning to recognize the much larger and more significant leak below ground. Imperial was unable to provide evidence at the time showing safe contaminant levels below ground. 

Coverage of the Imperial hearing is available here: https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/varcoe-a-bloodbath-imperial-ceo-in-hearing-spotlight-as-questions-mount-from-mps

On April 24, the final hearing included the Alberta Energy Regulator, the Government of Northwest Territories and Municipality of Wood Buffalo. Because this AER is responsible for much of this issue, much of the hearing was focused on the AER CEO, Laurie Pushor.  

The AER doubled down on the regrettable circumstances of the incident but characterized the incident as a “communications” issue. After being questioned about why it took so long regulator to issue an Environmental Protection Order for the leak, MP Patrick Weiler stated “I don’t think we have just a communications problem here; we might have a coverup problem. We don’t have just a pollution problem, I think we have some serious governance problems at play here.” 

The regulator was also unable, or unwilling, to provide answers about timing of when they communicated the incidents to the Government of Alberta. AER CEO, Laurie Pushor, repeatedly referenced the independent review currently being conducted by the regulator’s board of directors, which would be able to provide answers once it was completed.  

Coverage of the AER hearing is available here: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/04/25/news/we-might-have-coverup-problem-mps-grill-alberta-energy-regulator-ceo-over-oilsands  

For more robust coverage of the hearings, view our Twitter threads which followed the hearings live and captured critical moments:  

 
Find links to recordings of all three hearings on this page: 

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