Environment Committee on April 20th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to the 58^th meeting of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development.

We have several substitutions this afternoon.

Ms. McPherson is back to replace Ms. Collins. Ms. Pauzé is replaced by Ms. Michaud, who is familiar with our committee, since she has been here in the past. Ms. Goodridge is replacing Mr. Lake, and Mr. McLeod is replacing Mr. Duguid.

Welcome all.

Ms. May, it's a pleasure to see you again.

With us, from Imperial Oil Limited, are Mr. Brad Corson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Simon Younger, Senior Vice-President, Upstream; and Ms. Helga Shields, Manager, Environment, Regulatory and Socioeconomic.

Welcome to our committee today. As you know, we always start with opening statements. You have 10 minutes for an opening statement before we go to rounds of questions.

I see that Ms. Michaud would like to raise a point of order.

You have the floor, Ms. Michaud.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Mr. Chair, I would like to move a motion which has already been sent to the clerk.

However, before I read it, I would like to make a verbal request.

I know the committee is only hearing three witnesses today and that the two hours will only be used for the three of them, but I was wondering if we could pretend that we have two panels so that after the first hour, we would reset the time and proceed as if it were the first hour. This would give members who have less speaking time more time to ask questions, as this is a very important meeting. My request may require some discussion. I would ask you to do that.

To come back to my motion, this is what I propose:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(1)(a), the Committee require that any requests for documentation made to witnesses be complied with and that a copy be provided no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, May 5, 2023.

This is simply a formality to ensure that if other members and I ask the witnesses to table documents with the committee, that it actually happen before a specific date.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

All right.

Your motion is on the tabling of documents.

I missed some of it because I had toconfer with the clerk. In your motion, are you asking that we restart after the first hour with a first round of questions for six minutes? Is that in your motion or are you asking for that verbally?

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Verbally.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

All right.

As regards the written motion, I think it's obvious everyone will agree that, when we ask for the tabling of...

[Damien Kurek, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

I'm sorry, Chair. This was just distributed, so it didn't have a notice of motion. It's being moved now outside the speaking order, and I'm not sure if that's procedurally—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

It's being moved as a point of order. It pertains to the subject matter at hand that we're dealing with, so it probably wouldn't even need notice. It's a very routine motion.

Can you repeat your motion Ms. Michaud?

You are asking, in fact, that the witnesses respect the...

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, if it's the subject matter at hand, it's not a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Okay, so it's not a point of order per se and it can't be moved on a point of order, but Madame Michaud had the floor. Is that sufficient...?

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Madame Michaud raised a point of order and then started talking to the subject at hand, so it's out of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Okay. I thought we could deal with this in a friendly manner, since it's pretty straightforward.

Ms. Michaud, let's recap. You are simply asking that when we request additional documents, that they be provided.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Absolutely.

It's as simple as that. It's for the benefit of all of my colleagues.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Understood. You wish to move a formal motion.

Can we just agree unanimously that when we ask for documents, we expect that we'll get the documents at some point?

[Damien Kurek, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

Chair, I don't think there are any issues. I'm just concerned that if we start going out of the agreed framework of committee proceedings, it goes down a path that can lead to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Okay. Just a second.

Ms. Michaud, I don't think anyone is objecting, but this is not a point of order. We would ask you to table your motion when it's your turn to speak.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Without further ado, I will give the floor to Mr. Corson for ten minutes.

[Brad Corson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Imperial Oil Limited]

Good afternoon, chair and members of the committee. Thank you for the invitation to be here today.

My name is Brad Corson. I am the chairman, president and CEO of Imperial. Joining me are Simon Younger, senior vice-president of Imperial's upstream operations, and Helga Shield, Imperial's environment, regulatory and socio-economic manager.

I'd like to acknowledge that we are meeting today in Ottawa on the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation. In this meeting today, and every day as we carry out our business, we do so on the traditional territories of first nations, Métis and Inuit, who have lived on and cared for these lands for generations. We are all entrusted with caring for the land, and that is a responsibility Imperial takes very seriously. We come today fully committed to our reconciliation journey.

I am deeply apologetic for what has happened at Kearl. We are committed to correcting the situation and ensuring it does not happen again.

Imperial strives to build strong and lasting relationships with indigenous communities based on mutual trust, respect and shared prosperity. We have broken this trust with these incidents and by failing in our commitment to provide sufficient communications to neighbouring indigenous communities. This communication breakdown has led to a significant amount of misinformation, which has contributed to fear, confusion and anger in these communities. I deeply regret that this has happened.

The process of rebuilding trust will take time, and it will require listening and learning. All of us at Imperial have dedicated ourselves to this important journey.

A core principle of Imperial’s business is to operate in an environmentally responsible manner. We work tirelessly to do the right thing, and this situation is not reflective of how we operate and who we are as a company. We are disappointed in this recent performance. We can and will do better—I promise you that.

The two incidents being discussed today represent a failure to deliver superior environmental performance. This is our first environmental protection order at Kearl, which is one too many, and we want it to be our last. I, alongside all Canadians, expect Imperial to meet or exceed the environmental protection standards set by provincial and federal regulators.

I would like to reassure Canadians that we are working diligently to address these issues with the urgency they deserve.

I will now outline what happened and the steps Imperial is taking to clean up, act and communicate following the incidents at Kearl. We have provided a map of our operation to aid the committee in understanding the scope of the two incidents.

The first incident is related to seepage from the Kearl tailings containment system in four isolated areas near our lease boundary, covering a total area of about one hectare.

Last May we discovered pools of discoloured water. We proceeded to inform the Alberta Energy Regulator and local indigenous communities. Discoloured surface water can occur naturally in this region, and we shared with communities that we were investigating the source of this water.

Our investigation was complex and required multiple months of technical studies. Ultimately we determined that this discoloured surface water was made up of natural groundwater and precipitation along with some water that seeped from our operations. Throughout the investigation, we also determined there were no impacts to fish populations in nearby river systems or risks to drinking water for local communities.

The Kearl facility has an advanced seepage interception system that is designed to capture anticipated seepage from the tailings pond into subsurface groundwater. This is a regulatory requirement. Our investigations determined that the four surface pools resulted from seepage that occurred in shallower layers not captured by this system.

We completed all of our regulatory notifications and followed our established process with the indigenous communities for initial notification. However, our communication with indigenous communities fell short: We did not speak directly with the leaders and we did not provide regular updates. I'm sorry for that.

During subsequent meetings with community environment committees, we stated that the matter was still being investigated. We didn't want to go back to the communities until we fully understood the situation and had a finalized plan. However, we should have provided the indigenous communities with the same information we were giving the AER regarding the findings and planned mitigation measures. We recognize that this was a mistake and we have corrected it.

Addressing this situation was and is a priority for our company. There are over 200 people working on remediation efforts, which include expanding our seepage interception system with additional draining structures, pumping wells, permanent fencing to protect wildlife and increased water well and wildlife monitoring.

Regarding the second event, which is unrelated, earlier this year there was an overflow from a drainage pond at Kearl, resulting in the release of 5,300 cubic metres of water. This pond collects water from surface water drainage systems and the seepage interception system.

As is standard policy, local indigenous communities and the Alberta Energy Regulator were informed of this release after it was detected. An environmental protection order was issued shortly thereafter. We profoundly regret this incident. It never should have happened. The water that overflowed quickly froze. All impacted snow and ice in the area were removed and Imperial continues to work with the AER on cleanup certification.

Water from the overflow did not enter any rivers, the closest being the Firebag River, which is approximately 2.5 kilometres away. Monitoring continues to show that there have been no impacts to local drinking water sources, and there is no indication of impacts to wildlife.

The overflow was caused by a combination of equipment problems and process failure. As a result, we are implementing measures on site to prevent an event like this from happening again.

I would like to reiterate that at Imperial, safety and protecting the environment are core values. That includes protecting our people, local communities and the environment.

Kearl has a robust water monitoring program. We first started testing in the region in 2008, years before we began production. Recent tests continue to show that drinking water in the region is safe. However, we understand that this situation has contributed to a lack of trust, and communities continue to worry about their own safety and that of their families, friends and neighbours.

We want communities to feel safe and to know that they are heard. Over the last three months, we have met with leaders and environmental staff and have hosted in-community open house meetings. I have personally met with several chiefs and presidents to hear their concerns and to better understand their expectations of Imperial.

We have invited all communities to visit Kearl to see our remediation efforts and to perform their own water sampling and monitoring, and the majority have done so. In addition, we responded immediately to community requests for drinking water for emergency backup purposes.

We recognize that the traditional lands on which we operate provide water, food and medicine for first nations and Métis communities in the region. We have heard their concerns, and we are very sorry.

I would like to conclude by expressing my sincere apologies again, on behalf of Imperial and all of our employees, for the two incidents that occurred and the related communication shortfalls. We must and we will do better. I can assure you that we are committed to restoring the trust we have broken.

Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today. We look forward to your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you, Mr. Corson.

We'll go to the first six-minute round. I believe it's Ms. Goodridge who's leading off.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for that testimony. It was nice to hear the land acknowledgement at the beginning. I want to bring to the attention of everyone here that when you went to Fort Chipewyan and did a community town hall nearly a month after these events, you did not do that. You did not start with a prayer and you did not acknowledge the elders. That created a lot more frustration in my community and in the entire region.

I profoundly hope that you have learned a lesson. Going up for a one-hour town hall and not starting with a land acknowledgement and a prayer is not how we do things in northeastern Alberta. That is not how we do things. I hope that is a step towards doing things a little differently.

I was born and raised in the Fort McMurray area. I've lived there just about my entire life. My family has been very involved in oil sands development for three generations now, and I'm raising the fourth generation. This is home.

It was very concerning, because there was no information. There were weeks when there was a vacuum of information.

As part of doing my duties as a member of Parliament, I was in Fort Chipewyan on March 1 and February 28. At that time, I had elders telling me they didn't don't know what was going on but not to drink the water. That was the level of fear, and there was no water there.

I'm wondering whether you can tell us when you provided the community with water and when you provided the community, and the leadership in the community, with information surrounding the breaches.

[Brad Corson]

Yes. Thank you for that question.

First I want to comment on the land acknowledgement reference you made. That was a significant oversight on our part. I am disturbed that we did not do that at the beginning of the meeting. I will tell you that it is common practice for us, as a company, to routinely offer land acknowledgements at our meetings. I don't know the circumstances of that particular day, but it was wrong. We should have offered a land acknowledgement. We discussed that internally and we recognized that it was a mistake. We have raised very clear expectations on the importance of recognizing the land and the important relations we have with the Indigenous communities in all of our operations and all of our offices. Again, I'm apologetic for that, and I expect we will do better in the future.

With regard to the water issue itself, again, as we undertook a very rigorous testing process to understand the extent of this issue at Kearl, all of our sampling has confirmed that there has not been any impact to the drinking water supplies. However, to the point you made, the vacuum of information, the lack of our providing updates, created a lot of uncertainty in the communities—

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Not to interrupt—I'm sorry—but it didn't just create uncertainty; it created fear. The fear was real. It was palpable. I was up there. People were afraid, and I didn't have any more information for them. The municipality was doing its best. They didn't have any information.

It is worth highlighting that this was real. It was not just uncertainty; this was fear.

[Brad Corson]

Yes, fear was going to be my next word. There was uncertainty and fear.

It's horrible that it happened. I feel very sad that it happened. I place a high priority and a high value on those relationships. All of us, as individuals and as human beings...none of us want to be fearful of things as basic as water.

As soon as I, the management team and our organization became aware of that and that there was fear in the community, we immediately authorized providing drinking water. Again, that was despite the fact that we had data that said that the water was fine to drink. That didn't matter; it was all about fear—

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

I appreciate that, but the community didn't have the same information that you had. Therefore, it is kind of a moot point.

I'm going to move on. We heard some pretty damning testimony surrounding the communication and when different first nations got communication. It seemed that there wasn't consistency in when certain first nations versus Métis versus different indigenous communities heard from Imperial and how they heard from Imperial.

I'm wondering if you would be comfortable tabling with committee the communications that you had so that we can see when the communications happened.

[Brad Corson]

Yes—