When AER was EUB (before the Alberta gov’t made it ERCB after the regulator got caught breaking the law and spying on innocent cookie making grandmothers), it allowed Encana/Ovintiv to illegally frac repeatedly directly into Rosebud’s drinking water aquifers, and then frac them again trying to cement them shut to stop the water flow, breaking every law and regulation in place in Alberta to protect groundwater. Community-wide drinking water contamination was the result.
Last page in retired Justice Perras’ report on the EUB spying scandal; during the scandal, Alberta gov’t changed EUB to ERCB (as if that would fix corruption there)
After my lawsuit went public, Alberta gov’t changed ERCB to AER with new legislation, complete with an “Ernst” clause.
Worse, the AER engaged in fraud to cover-up Encana’s crimes, and bullied and ruthlessly targeted the harmed citizens, including judging me a criminal in 2005 in writing without any evidence, later magically changing that to me being terrorist in its 2012 court filing by lying outside lawyer Glenn Solomon, also without any evidence, enabled by judges at every level, including at the supreme court of Canada with Rosalie Abella lying, changing AER’s finding me being a criminal then terrorist to magicaly finding me to be a vexatious litigant instead (two years before I filed my lawsuit), again without any evidence.
The corruption to protect polluting law-violating oil gas frac bitumen and coal companies operating in Canada, goes all the way from our politicians (no matter what stripe) and non-regulating regulators, throughout our courts to the top.
I’ve observed the AER and its previous corrupt circle jerking incantations for decades. It’s a crime organization, nothing more than a data-fudging, cover-up agent of the worst kind, a law-violating bully of a scam artist. Instead of regulating the companies that the regulator knows are breaking the law, AER bullies and tries to frighten and intimidate Albertans poisoned and harmed by criminal companies, all nicely enabled by our courts.
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Brandi Morin@Songstress28:
Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation councillor Mike Mercredi tells Alberta Energy Regulator CEO Laurie Pusher re: tailings spills from oil sands, “You allow eight regulated cancer causing agents into the water. You’re allowing regulated murder…it’s slow industrial genocide. How many bodies? How many billions are you gonna be making before we’re all dead?”
Indigenous environmentalists slam AER, federal inaction over the Kearl Mine leakage by Jeremy Appel, Oct 3, 2023, Alberta Native News
(ANNews) – Indigenous climate advocates are harshly criticizing an Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) report into Imperial Oil’s Kearl mine
intentionally? leaking 5.4 million tonnes of contaminated water, which concluded that the oil company followed all required regulationsmeaningless, given the industry is self regulated, even after it failed to notify members of the downstream First Nations.
While it was initially reported that the AER concealed the leakage from Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and Mikisew Cree Nation for almost a year until contaminated water surfaced in February 2023, the regulator knew about the leakage for years prior, according to reporting from The Canadian Press.
Groundwater reports Imperial submitted to the AER in 2020 and 2021 acknowledge that tailings were intentionally?seeping from the ponds intendedbut not really?to contain them.
In May 2022, the First Nations were first informed that discoloured water had surfaced from the pond, but Indigenous leaders were then kept out of the loop until February, when the AER issued an environmental protection order against Imperial after 5.4 million tonnes of toxic water escaped from the pond.
Mandy Olsgard, an environmental toxicologist who worked with nearby First Nations, said the regulator would have known about the seepage since 2019.
“They knew there was seepage to groundwater,” said Olsgard, adding that the AER and Imperial decided to “just manage it internally,” rather than notify the public.
The seepage continues, with hydrocarbon levels in test wells exceeding provincial guidelines, CP reported.
“There is no indication of adverse impacts to wildlife or fish populations in nearby river systems or risks to drinking water for local communities,” industry doesn’t look appropriately, so they can claim this.Imperial spokesperson Lisa Schmidt told CP.
Then why the hell, five months later, did AER’s chief cover-up agent extraordinaire, “chief scientist,” arrive in Fort Chip to meet with impacted First Nations communities, bringing bottled water for AER?
An AER report said Imperial followed all existing rules in reporting the leak, but acknowledged the rules have major shortcomings. Self regulation of toxic polluters is in place to make sure they get away with horrific violations against air, water, land, fish, birds, wildlife and the public interest and common good. So special for industry, like self regulators for lawyers in Canada granting law licences to known convicted rapists of kids.
Mikisew Chief Billy-Joe Tuccaro, who has called for a stop-work order at the Kearl site, said he has no reason to trust Imperial or the AER.
“They say they have contained the seepage. They have not. The fact that they did not tell us about the seepage for nine months is the tip of the iceberg,” he told CP.
A statement from Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, which has called on the federal government to intervene, expressed similar doubts about the AER’s integrity.Integrity? AER has none, most oil and gas companies operating in Alberta don’t either.
“We do not believe that the Kearl leak was an isolated incident, and we do not believe the regulator would inform the public if another incident occurred,” the band told CP.
Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) issued a blistering Sept. 27 news release decrying a lack of accountability from the AER. That’s how self regulators roll: zero integrity, zero truth, zero accountability, zero responsibility, just lots of secrets and lies and abuses against our environment, communities, families and drinking water
“They don’t live there, they don’t drink the water. Oil and gas groups have spent millions, if not billions, aiming to weaken policies so they can continue to get away with destroying our planet. Their only interests are their bottom lines—our community and our rights mean nothing to them,” said ICA executive director and Athabasca Chipewyan member Eriel Tchekwie Deranger.
Deranger added that the AER’s conclusions “are unfortunately not surprising.”
“It only affirms that spills, leaks and overflows are considered acceptable and normal within the Canadian colonial system,” Deranger said. “Standard ‘business as usual’ holds no consequences for industry. It’s the land, waterways and the people that are expected to shoulder the consequences for them.”
The release noted that the AER report came days before the annual Day for Truth and Reconciliation across Canada.
“We can’t truly work toward reconciliation until the whole truth is told about the oppressive colonial systems and practices that caused, and continue to cause, harm to our lands, waterways and rights of our peoples,” said ICA engagement manager Jamie Bourque-Blyan, a member of Buffalo Lake Metis Settlement.
She called the Kearl spill, and ensuing coverup, just “one example of these harms,” with Athabasca Chipewyan and Mikisew Cree nations “left in the dark about the tailings breach and increase in toxic chemicals in the waterways and environment often used to practice inherent Indigenous and treaty rights, including those of harvesting foods and medicine, and practicing land-based ceremonies.”
The report also came a week after the UN Climate Ambition Summit in New York, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to “build a cleaner and more prosperous future for all.”
Despite his rhetoric, Trudeau continues “to miss the mark when it comes to upholding human rights, including Indigenous rights,” said ICA digital media coordinator Katie Wilson, a member of Peguis First Nation.
“Not once did Trudeau mention Indigenous rights in his address last week and this report from the AER further demonstrates the sincere lack of interest by colonial governments in upholding Truth and Reconciliation, as long as it impacts industry wealth,” Wilson added.
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