Environment Committee on March 12th, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

I call this meeting to order. We're going to continue with our study on the oil sands and Canada's water resources.

We want to welcome to the table again Cynthia Wright. She's had a busy week with us at committee on two separate issues. Welcome back. She is the acting assistant deputy minister for the environmental stewardship branch of the Department of the Environment. She is joined by Albin Tremblay, who is the chief enforcement officer, and Fred Wrona, who is the acting director general for water science and technology.

From the Department of Health we have John Cooper, who is the director of the water, air and climate change bureau in the healthy environments and consumer safety branch. He is joined by Roy Kwiatkowski, who is the director of the environmental health research division of the first nations and Inuit health branch. Welcome. We have Wadieh Yacoub, who is the medical officer and director of health protection, first nations and Inuit health, of the Alberta region.

Welcome to all of you.

We'll turn to our opening comments. Please keep them within ten minutes.

We'll go to you, Ms. Wright.

[Cynthia Wright, Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Environmental Stewardship Branch, Department of the Environment]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm here today on behalf of Environment Canada and my colleagues to describe to you some of the roles and responsibilities that we have as they relate to oil sands and to describe some of our priority work in this area.

As you well know, the management of the environment is a shared jurisdiction between the federal and provincial governments. At the federal level, Environment Canada's role relates to the management of transboundary issues, including those related to water, migratory birds, species at risk, and toxic substances.

Environment Canada has responsibilities under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, the Species at Risk Act, the Migratory Birds Convention Act, and the Fisheries Act. We are also involved with activities that are enabled under the Canada Water Act, such as cooperation with jurisdictions on research and monitoring. Through this work we provide our knowledge and technical expertise to inform the decision-makers at all levels of government in Canada.

Slide 3 shows that there are three ways in which Environment Canada interacts with the oil sands. The first is through the fulfilment of our statutory and regulatory obligations. The second is through the provision of expert advice to regulatory authorities in the environmental assessment process. The third is through research and monitoring, including collaboration in multi-stakeholder environmental management initiatives. We'll describe a bit of each of these.

Next is slide 4. I'll speak briefly to our statutory and regulatory obligations under the Fisheries Act, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, the Migratory Birds Convention Act, and the Species at Risk Act.

We'll go on to slide 5. Environment Canada administers subsection 36(3) of the Fisheries Act, which prohibits the deposit of any deleterious substance in water frequented by fish.

The Province of Alberta issues permits for the oil sands tailing ponds. One of the requirements of those permits is that there not be a discharge of water into the environment. The general prohibitions of the Fisheries Act, however, would still apply and could be used in the event of a spill or an unusual discharge. The department does monitor the oil sands activities. It has conducted 18 inspections over the past few years and has not yet found any violations of the Fisheries Act.

The Canadian Environmental Protection Act is a keystone piece of legislation to reduce the release of harmful chemicals in the environment. Under Canada's chemicals management plan, 98 high-priority substances have been identified as potentially substances in the oil sands sector. These substances are currently being assessed. The act has other relevant provisions, including reporting requirements under the National Pollutant Release Inventory, and emergency provisions that include the requirement for emergency plans for a number of substances associated with the oil sands.

Next is slide 6. The Migratory Birds Convention Act and its regulations ensure the conservation of migratory birds. Specifically, the act prohibits the damage or destruction of migratory birds, nests, and eggs. It prohibits the deposit of substances harmful to migratory birds in any waters frequented by migratory birds. It is under this act that Environment Canada laid charges against Syncrude for allegedly depositing, or permitting the deposit of, a substance harmful to migratory birds.

The Species at Risk Act, as you well know, was created to protect wildlife species from becoming extinct by providing for recovery of species due to human activity and by ensuring the sound management of species of special concern so that they don't become endangered or threatened. The act includes prohibitions against the killing, harming, harassing, capturing, or taking of species at risk and against destroying their critical habitat.

Slide 7 relates to how Environment Canada provides expert advice in support of federal environmental assessments. This advice includes technical advice related to water quality, quantity, and prediction modelling; ambient air quality and mine fleet emissions technology; cumulative effects of oil sands development and the need for integrated monitoring; and migratory birds, species at risk, and their habitat. Environment Canada has been involved in about 12 environmental assessments for oil sands projects, including five joint panel reviews.

We will go to slide 8. Environment Canada has extensive expertise, and we undertake to share that information broadly. We carry out ecosystem science in this region of the Mackenzie Basin, and we collaborate with the provinces, territories, university, industry, and other stakeholders. For instance, we are engaged in the Cumulative Environmental Management Association.

We also chair the Mackenzie River Basin Board and conduct research in support of the board's primary goals. We are engaged in research related to ecosystem impacts, including downstream effects on such things as water availability, ecosystem flow needs, and contaminants.

Environment Canada also led earlier research conducted in the oil sands region as part of the northern river basins study, the northern rivers ecosystem initiative, and the Peace-Athabasca delta technical studies. This work has influenced a number of industry regulations and operating standards that apply to the oil sands. We've also undertaken targeted research on oil sands-related contaminants.

Slide 9 shows a number of key Environment Canada priorities that, going forward, will help support decisions related to the oil sands activities. For instance, some of our current research includes continuing the assessment of toxicity and potential effects of tailings pond waters, assessment of acidifying emissions from oil sands and their impact on lake ecosystems, and assessment of the impacts of changes in flow and water levels in the Peace-Athabasca delta.

As I previously mentioned, we also have extensive work under the chemicals management plan, which has organized work related to the oil sands sector and identified 98 potential substances whose risk we are currently assessing. Some of these substances are related to the mining and extraction activities, such as purchased drilling fluids, and others relate to upgrading activities. As risks are identified, we will manage those risks, and of course we continue to carry out our enforcement responsibilities.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Thank you very much. Thanks for being under time.

Mr. Cooper, you're on.

[John Cooper, Director, Water, Air and Climate Change Bureau, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Department of Health]

Thank you. I would like to thank the committee for inviting Health Canada to appear before you today.

We can move to slide 1 to give a sense of how I'd like to approach this. Initially, I'll briefly discuss the roles and responsibilities of Health Canada as they relate to health and water. Then I'll move to a consideration of the Athabascan region and the particular potential sources of health risk associated with that area. Third, I'll briefly discuss some of the health concerns that have been raised. As you're aware, Dr. John O'Connor and the people of Fort Chipewyan have raised concerns about cancers. Some studies have looked at this issue and have come to certain conclusions, and I'll briefly touch on those. Finally, I'd like to discuss the way forward and give conclusions about where we need to go in the future.

One of our primary roles in Health Canada is drinking water quality. It's important to understand that responsibility for drinking water quality is shared between federal and provincial governments. The federal government has responsibility for the safety of drinking water on passenger conveyances--ships, trains, and airplanes--and on federal lands.

In the context of first nations, Health Canada works with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada to assist first nations in dealing with the issue of safe drinking water. To be more specific, first nations have day-to-day responsibilities for the provision of drinking water, the operation of the treatment systems, and the testing that goes along with that. Health Canada provides advice and ensures that monitoring programs are in place on first nation reserves.

In terms of shared federal, provincial, and territorial management of drinking water, Health Canada is responsible for developing the risk assessment of chemical, microbiological, and radiological contaminants. These guidelines are used as the basis for standards and regulations in all the provinces and territories. In other words, these become enforceable standards in all jurisdictions across Canada and provide a common benchmark for safe drinking water.

I would like to give a quick overview in terms of how effective this approach is. I would suggest that since the Walkerton and North Battleford crises in 2000 and 2001 respectively, both the quality and the management of drinking water have improved substantially. This improvement includes the adoption of a multi-barrier approach, which essentially means that it's not sufficient just to have a good treatment system or a treatment plant. Instead, you really need to focus your attention on major issues, such as the protection of the source water of lakes, rivers, and groundwaters. This is key to protecting health. You must also ensure that you have operators and training in place.

The provinces and territories have all updated their legislation, regulations, and policies since 2000 and 2001. That said, we still face challenges in drinking water. In particular, I would point to water supplies in small communities. Those communities lack the capacity and the resources to provide the treatment and protection to which larger communities have access. Health Canada works with provinces, territories, industries, NGOs, and the academic community to try to move this issue forward so that we can address this challenge.

Health Canada also has responsibilities related to food. They are primarily in relation to the level of exposure to chemical contaminants in retail food, which is regulated under the Food and Drugs Act. However, in the context of the meeting here today, I think the issue is more in terms of country foods. Health Canada conducts risk assessments of country foods and provides advice in terms of health protection to provinces so that they are able to issue advisories specifically in relation to the consumption of fish and other food taken from the wild.

Health Canada also has responsibilities related to environmental contaminants. Cynthia Wright has already gone into the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and the chemicals management plan, which assesses and manages chemicals considered at risk and looks at industrial sectors, so I won't add anything to that area.

Finally, Health Canada has a role in environmental assessments and in identifying the potential health risks associated with development projects.

Now, if I can turn my attention to the Athabascan region and the potential sources of health risk, I'll give a brief overview of that.

Certainly there are contaminants of concern. These are mostly in the source waters and these derive from natural sources, such as the bitumen that leaks into the rivers and lakes, and also arsenic and mercury that come from natural sources. But the Athabascan region has had a history of development that includes a uranium mine that I understand is no longer in operation. There are pulp and paper mills, the agricultural sector, and of course, the petroleum industry, the oil sands. All of these factors contribute to the overall quality of the source water, which is a primary concern.

Accordingly, when we're engaged in environmental assessments, our advice is to focus on source water quality monitoring and protection, the prevention of leaks and spills; and if there are leaks or accidental spills, it's important to notify downstream treatment operators and citizens of a release so they can take action to prevent any health risk. Having said that, there are issues with source water quality. The quality of drinking water is good in all the communities downstream of the oil sands.

I'll move now to country food. Yes, there have been issues with country food. There has been an advisory issued by Alberta since 1990 that relates to the consumption of walleye, and it's related to mercury contamination.

I'm sure the committee is aware of Dr. John O'Connor's concern--and the community of Fort Chipewyan has raised concerns over the years--about the frequency of cancers occurring in the community, rare cancers such as bile duct cancers and colon cancers. There was a preliminary and fairly limited study presented in 2006 that indicated that there were no significant increases in the cancer rate.

Subsequent to that, a more rigorous and complete study was conducted by the Alberta Cancer Board, and they concluded that the observed rates of cancer, the rare cancers, the bile duct cancers, were within the norm, not outside the expected range of these cancers. They also did indicate that the overall cancer rate was slightly higher than expected. The conclusions they reached or the explanations they linked to that finding were that this could be due to a simple matter of chance because of the very small sample size, it could be related to increased detection because of the more rigorous examination of the charts and medical history of the community, and it could also be related to a real health risk.

In conclusion, the study, at least so far, indicates that the rare cancers are probably within the expected range. There's indication that the overall cancer rates may be higher, and we would suggest that this needs further study.

The treated drinking water is safe; however, drinking directly from source water would not be advisable. In terms of the way forward, clearly, protecting source waters is key and preventing leaks and accidental spills is our priority. I think all of us do not want to see any added contamination of the system. We think it's very important that the province continues to monitor the source and the treated drinking water and that governments take regulatory action as required.

In terms of Health Canada, one of our priorities is to continue developing guidelines and to identify and assess and manage contaminants under the chemical management plan. We have a continuing role in providing advice and support in any further cancer studies, and certainly in terms of working with first nations communities to ensure safe drinking water and improvement of health status.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Thank you, Mr. Cooper.

Mr. Scarpaleggia, could you kick us off on the seven-minute round, please?

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Thank you for your presentations.

Going back to the health studies on the first nations people of Fort Chipewyan, how many studies have been done either by the government or by outside scientists? Is it just one or two studies that contradict each other; therefore, we conclude that there's no real conclusion to draw from them? Could you repeat how many studies there have been?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Mr. Yacoub, please.

[Dr. Wadieh Yacoub, Medical Officer, Director, Health Protection, First Nations and Inuit Health, Alberta Region, Department of Health]

To my awareness, there are only two studies for human health. The two were conducted, and the first one was in 2006, by Alberta Health and Wellness. They did a review of the health status of the community of Fort Chipewyan. In that review, they looked at not just cancers but the whole range of chronic diseases and so forth. In that study in 2006, they reported directly to the community the findings of the last study, and it reflected increased rates of diabetes, of renal disease, of hypertension, but they didn't find any increased rates of cancers at the time. However, with the continuing concerns being voiced by the community, by the physician, a more specific request was made to the Alberta Cancer Board to do a review of the first study.

They did, and this was done with the participation of the community and with the participation of federal and provincial jurisdiction, but the Alberta Cancer Board was the lead. It is the lead because it is the body that has the data on cancer for all Albertans in Alberta.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

That study has been completed?

[Dr. Wadieh Yacoub]

Yes, that was just released in February of this year, and it was shared with the public. It is available, and the officials are ready to go and visit the community and also sit with them and go forward on what they do next.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

What was the result of the latest study, the one that was released in February?

[Dr. Wadieh Yacoub]

The more recent study, the more rigorous—and I say rigorous because it has been peer-reviewed by professors around the world—found the following. The initial concern that was voiced was that there were findings of a rare cancer, cholangiocarcinoma. The initial numbers cited were six cholangiocarcinomas in the community. Off and on in the media, these numbers were reviewed to six, to five, to four, to three. That's why the investigation was undertaken, to verify this.

The final finding of the community, by the cancer board, is as follows. There were only two cholangiocarcinomas confirmed. One of the two is only confirmed clinically and by ultrasound. That means it's not fully confirmed by pathology. But I submit to you that there are two cholangiocarcinomas in that community.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

So this was basically to respond Dr. O'Connor's concerns or to his study.

If one looks at what Alberta Health and Wellness is saying and at what the Alberta Cancer Board is saying, it was just a rogue study by Dr. O'Connor, I guess. Is that what we're saying?

[Dr. Wadieh Yacoub]

Dr. O'Connor never undertook a study. Dr. O'Connor only suggested that there were six cases he had seen.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Oh, I see. Okay, thank you so much.

Ms. Wright, does the NPRI, the National Pollutant Release Inventory, include data on the chemicals in the tailings ponds?

[Cynthia Wright]

The chemicals in the tailings ponds are not being released into the environment, so most of the NPRI reporting would be related to air emissions in the oil sands area.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

I see. Does Environment Canada from time to time send an inspector to the tailings ponds to inspect, on a sort of fact-finding mission, what is going on in the tailings ponds? Where do you get the data to suggest that the ponds would not be leaking, for example?

[Cynthia Wright]

I'll let my colleague Monsieur Tremblay répondre à cette question.

[Albin Tremblay, Chief Enforcement Officer, Department of the Environment]

Thank you, Cynthia.

In recent years, a total of 18 inspections were done of oil sands tailing ponds. In addition to these inspections, under the Fisheries Act, we have an agreement with the Alberta Environment Department, which does regular inspections of the monitoring wells. These follow-up inspections are mandatory, under the permits issued by the province. If the information obtained by the province indicates that there is a potential violation, especially of the Fisheries Act administered by Environment Canada, the province informs us. This is one of the conditions of the agreement with the environment department.

Inspections are thus done directly on the sites, not necessarily for the oil sands tailing ponds, but for all operations carried out there, such as processing.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

As concerns the oil sands tailing ponds, what type of inspection do you perform? What is the procedure when you inspect a site?

[Albin Tremblay]

There are no inspections as such done on the oil sands tailing ponds, except for the information we receive from the environment department. As Ms. Wright mentioned, in principle, there are no emissions of any kind released by tailing ponds, unless they come from underground water. This is monitored through inspection of the monitoring wells.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Who inspects the monitoring wells?

[Albin Tremblay]

They are inspected by the Alberta Environment Department.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Do the department representatives go on site or do they receive the information directly from the companies?

[Albin Tremblay]

Both. In general, the companies, using clearly defined processes, ensure that the data is not disturbed and provide information to the environment department. The department checks the accuracy of this information on a regular basis. It carries out its own well inspections to check the information obtained from the companies. Based on this information, we receive this data, and use it to determine whether there have been any violations.