Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks again to all the witnesses who have come today to provide their testimony.
Just to recap, 5.3 million litres of toxic tailings from Imperial Oil's Kearl Lake leaked into nearby waterways. Most agree that this includes the Athabasca River. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said the Imperial Kearl Lake mine had no affect on local waterways or wildlife.
When he was here back in December, Imperial Oil CEO Brad Corson corroborated the same when he said that he was happy with how his company had dealt with this disaster. He also said there was “no process-affected water” that had entered waterways, despite the fact that Imperial Oil's own reports conceded that some tailings had entered into a nearby fish-bearing lake.
These are all attempts to minimize this environmental disaster. These attempts by both Premier of Alberta Danielle Smith and the CEO of Imperial Oil are extremely distressing.
Chief Tuccaro, I've read your letter to the Prime Minister. I agree with the four recommendations that you've made. I think anybody would, given the chance to read it. I'll highlight them just to get them on the record here.
The requests are collaboration on immediate actions with respect to the availability of safe drinking water; enhanced information sharing; taking action on health risks and funding for a Fort Chipewyan health study; and action to assess and correct tailings risks, which is a federal and indigenous audit of risks for all tailings facilities in the region.
I would note that, from research on this study, it has come to light that most of them are actually designed to leak.
Request number four was to take action on the tailings reclamation crisis, including support for enhanced indigenous-led monitoring and training, and identifying actions and real solutions to tailings.
I want to thank you for taking the time to write that letter. Thank you for advocating to our government. I want to say that we're broadly supportive of all your requests and recommendations. We're working to ensure better outcomes for your citizens. Your community deserves better, Chief. From us, I want to apologize from Canadians.
I wasn't satisfied with the answers that we received from Imperial Oil CEO Brad Corson back in December. I heard from members of your community that they weren't either. We're going to keep holding them to account and demanding better from these oil companies. It's an absolute disaster, which continues to occur.
Before I go on, Chief Tuccaro, do you have any reflections on progress with that letter or anything that you'd like us to know that you've made recommendations for since writing the letter?