Mr. Speaker, on April 17, I asked the Minister of Energy a very simple question: What would it take for the government to protect Canadians, to respect indigenous rights and to actually enforce our environmental laws?
The minister told me that Canada has strict standards, independent regulations and a strong safety record, but we have heard this before. None of this matters if the government refuses to enforce the legislation, refuses to enforce the laws that are in place in Canada to protect Canadians, to protect our environment and to ensure that indigenous rights are respected. If we do not enforce that legislation, it does not matter, and the government has shown time and time again that it will not use the tools at its disposal to protect the environment in northern Alberta.
In April, Imperial Oil's pipeline north of Cold Lake released 843,000 litres of bitumen and salt water that contained hydrocarbons, heavy metals, sulphur and other contaminants. That came after the Kearl disaster, when approximately 5.3 million litres of contaminated waste water spilled beyond the mine lease. When Parliament investigated Kearl, Imperial Oil acknowledged that seepage from its tailing system occurs and that the company's approach is to manage that. It is not to fix it, not to protect communities downstream, not to ensure that the water people are swimming in and drinking and that the animals and wildlife are using is clean, but to contain and manage it.
The Athabasca watershed contains enormous volumes of oil sands tailings, and indigenous nations have been raising concerns about contamination and the protection of their water for years. I think about the incredible work that Chief Adam, Chief Tuccaro and Grand Chief Mercredi have done. They have called out the environmental disaster that is happening on their land, yet the government fails to protect the environment in northern Alberta.
It is not just limited to the oil sands. I think of the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Those are the headwaters that provide drinking water to millions of Albertans, yet Albertans have had to repeatedly fight proposals for coal mining in these watersheds. Corb Lund's “water not coal” campaign helped mobilize hundreds of thousands of Albertans around a single message that our water is more important than corporate profits and more important than coal mining by an Australian company.
We are still waiting for the federal government to bring in selenium regulations. We are still waiting for the federal government to use the tools it has at its disposal to protect our water. The government can use the Species at Risk Act, it can use the Impact Assessment Act and it can use the Fisheries Act, yet it chooses time and time again to fail to protect the water and the land in northern Alberta and in our cherished Rocky Mountains.
Once again I ask the government this: Why, when Albertans so desperately need the federal government to step up and use the tools at its disposal to protect Albertans, does the government continue to sit on its hands?