Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Pushor, for joining the environment committee again. I imagine you're a very busy person.
To recap, 5.3 million litres of industrial waste water at the Kearl oil sands operation north of Fort McMurray has been seeping into groundwater and reaching surface water at the site since at least May 2022.
In April, you provided this committee testimony that there is no evidence that process-affected water, which is a technical term for contaminated tailing effluent, has reached the waterways. Now we know that's not the case.
There have been contaminants found in water bodies, groundwater, muskeg, and tributaries of the Athabasca River, which is where members of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation harvest food. It has also flowed as far north as the Northwest Territories, who were also not notified. I'd note that since this crosses a territorial and provincial border, it is certainly a concern for this committee and the federal government.
Why did you withhold those facts with respect to the contamination outside of the tailings ponds in your testimony in April?