Environment Committee on April 24th, 2023

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

I made a motion that says that we accept everybody's testimony as being on the record and truthful and faithful, without the necessity of being sworn in.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

The problem is that we've already agreed that Mr. Pushor—and he's accepted—would give an oath. That's done. I'm sorry about this, Mr. Pushor. We can't reverse that, but you can—

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

You accepted a unanimous decision without asking each of us unanimously if we agreed to that. You just nodded, and perhaps somebody on our side said, “Okay”, but as for agreeing unanimously around this table, no, we did not all agree to it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

I didn't see any objections when I asked for unanimous consent, so I consider that we had unanimous consent. Therefore Mr. Pushor, for better or worse, must take the oath, but if you want to ask that everyone take the oath, then that's a motion we can vote on. I would prefer doing that without debate, because we're just cutting into valuable testimony. It's a valid motion, and we can vote on it.

Are you making the motion, first of all, Mr. McLean? If you are, I would ask that somebody call the vote.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

The motion I said is on the table here, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Okay.

[Terry Duguid, Liberal, Winnipeg South, MB]

What's the motion?

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

The motion is that everyone should swear an oath.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

No, the motion is that everyone is considered to be appearing before Parliament and therefore is subject to giving testimony honestly and faithfully.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Okay. Madam Clerk, that doesn't conflict, though, with Mr. Pushor taking a formal oath, does it?

Does everyone agree with Mr. McLean's sentiment, which is a noble sentiment?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

We still have to have Mr. Pushor take the oath.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Pushor, would you prefer a religious oath or a solemn affirmation?

[Laurie Pushor, President and Chief Executive Officer, Alberta Energy Regulator]

I'm sorry, but I'm not hearing anything.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

He said a solemn affirmation before.

[The Clerk]

Please repeat after me.

I—and then state your name—

[Laurie Pushor]

I, Laurie Pushor—

[The Clerk]

—do solemnly, sincerely, and truly affirm—

[Laurie Pushor]

I'm sorry. This isn't working, and I'm struggling to hear you.

[The Clerk]

That's okay. I can speak louder.

I—and then state your name—do solemnly, sincerely, and truly affirm and declare the taking of any oath is according to my religious belief unlawful. I do also solemnly, sincerely, and truly affirm and declare that the evidence I shall give on this examination shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

[Laurie Pushor]

I, Laurie Pushor, do solemnly, sincerely, and truly affirm and declare the taking of any oath is according to my religious belief unlawful. I do also solemnly, sincerely, and truly affirm and declare that the evidence I shall give on this examination shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

[The Clerk]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Okay. With that, you have five minutes for an opening statement, Mr. Pushor.

[Laurie Pushor]

Thank you, Chair and committee members, for the invitation to appear today, where we meet on the traditional territory of the Anishinabe people.

My name is Laurie Pushor, and I'm the chief executive officer at the Alberta Energy Regulator.

Before I begin, I want to acknowledge the first nations, Métis and stakeholders I am meeting with and who testified at this committee. These are lands where they have told us they practise traditional ways and exercise treaty rights, all downstream from oil sands operations, and they need to be confident in the safe, effective operation of the industry.

It is clear that neither Imperial nor the AER met community expectations to ensure that they are fully aware of what is and what was happening. For that, I am truly sorry.

Our board of directors has initiated a third party review into the AER's actions, processes and communications surrounding the incidents and will publicly post the findings of that review. We are committed to working alongside communities to strengthen our processes and engagement and to build relationships, enhance transparency and broaden communication around our work.

The timeline at Kearl begins with incident one, which was reported on May 19, 2022, as “discoloured surface water found on lease”. It was reported to an AER inspector and to the Environmental and Dangerous Goods Emergencies centre, or EDGE, where incidents are assessed and relevant agencies are contacted.

The day after notification, an AER inspector was on site to assess the situation, and Imperial was directed to undertake a geochemistry and root cause analysis, install groundwater monitoring wells to determine where the water was coming from, and implement a water quality sampling and monitoring program to report to the AER every two weeks.

At that time, Imperial had a duty to inform any person who it knew, or ought to know, might be directly affected by the release.

On June 3, samples identified an indicator of industrial waste water, but assessments were inconclusive and suggested it could be attributed to natural sources.

On August 16, Imperial reported to the AER that the chemistry of the discoloured water was consistent with industrial wastewater. With that information, the AER issued two notices of non-compliance on September 2 related to releasing a substance into the watershed and failing to contain industrial wastewater.

On November 29, Imperial confirmed that industrial wastewater was seeping through a common fill layer, mixing with shallow groundwater and surfacing at locations on and off-site. Through December, Imperial was required to install additional seepage interception and delineation groundwater wells and submit action plans for source control, delineation and remediation of the release. Imperial's plan would not have allowed the work to be completed before spring runoff and therefore needed further mitigation.

Incident one evolved in a manner that required technical expertise and rigorous on-site inspection to evaluate and understand what was occurring.

By the end of January, the AER had collected sufficient evidence and scientific analysis and was completing an environmental protection order for incident one when incident two occurred. On February 4, 2023, Imperial reported incident two to EDGE as a two-cubic-metre on-site release of industrial wastewater due to an overflow of the storage pond.

AER staff inspected the site the next day and observed that the impact extended off-site. Imperial also confirmed that day that the estimated volume released had increased to 5,300 cubic metres. Two days later, on February 6, the AER issued an EPO to Imperial covering both incidents and requiring Imperial to submit and implement plans related to the control and containment of the seepage, delineation of the impacted area, sampling and monitoring of groundwater, wildlife mitigation and monitoring, remediation and communications. The AER released a public statement regarding the EPO and notified regional stakeholders and indigenous communities.

Since the EPO, the AER's technical experts are ensuring diligent oversight of Imperial's actions to meet the expectations of that EPO. Intensive water monitoring is ongoing by multiple agencies, including the AER, the Government of Alberta, Imperial, and Environment and Climate Change Canada. We have shared our water-testing results with communities and are posting those to our website.

I and AER staff have also been in regular contact with indigenous communities and stakeholders to provide updates, answer questions and listen to concerns. We appreciate the frank conversations that we continue to have.

As the AER is investigating, there will be some aspects of the incident on which it would be imprudent for me to comment at this time.

As an organization, we remain committed to making improvements at the AER to better meet community expectations.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you, Mr. Pushor. You were right on time. I appreciate that.

We'll go next to the Government of the Northwest Territories. I assume it will be Mr. Shane Thompson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, giving the five-minute opening comment.

Go ahead, please.