There’s been a major breakthrough in creative sentencing for environmental crimes in Alberta, with the Alberta Energy Regulator ordered to use an open-bidding process, rather than hand-selecting beneficiaries.

The creative sentencing mechanism allows judges to order penalties beyond fines when a company is found guilty of illegally polluting the environment. These penalties often include funding reclamation activities, scholarships or research projects.

Recipients of funds via creative sentences are usually selected behind closed doors by legal counsel, in a secretive system.

This was the case in 2010, after Syncrude Canada Ltd. was found guilty in the death of 1,600 ducks that landed on an oilsands tailings pond.

The University of Alberta, the Alberta Conservation Association and Keyano College were all approached privately about the prospect of receiving creative sentencing funds before being awarded $2.45 million in funding as part of Syncrude’s sentence.

But in response to a new ruling the Alberta Energy Regulator will take a different approach to creative sentencing in Syncrude’s latest conviction.

An open-bid process for new Syncrude conviction

On January 2, 2019, Syncrude was fined $2.75 million — including $950,000 in creative sentencing — for a 2015 incident in which 31 great blue herons were found decomposing in an abandoned pond that had been used for tailings waste.  

The pond, which was not in use but had not been reclaimed for several years, was situated 300 metres from a heron rookery containing 26 nests in a densely wooded area.

Details of the heron deaths in a statement of fact prepared during the course of legal charges being brought against Syncrude.

In his ruling, Judge Charles D. Gardner directed the Alberta Energy Regulator to post a request-for-proposal within seven months on the government’s purchasing website.

Proposals must improve the environment in the areas of wildlife, migratory pathways, sustainability and reclamation in Alberta.

“I like the creative sentencing approach,” said Barry Robinson, a Calgary-based lawyer with Ecojustice.

“I think the open bidding is a positive step to making the most effective use of creative sentencing dollars.”

Creative sentencing used since the ’90s

Alberta has used creative sentencing for environmental crimes extensively — at least 92 times since 1993. Environmental crimes are prosecuted by the Alberta government but in 2014, responsibility for prosecution of the energy sector was handed over to the province’s energy regulator. The AER uses creative sentencing as well.

Creative sentencing is designed to address the root cause of a crime, remediate environmental damage and put money back into the communities where the infraction occurred.  

The biggest beneficiaries to date have been Alberta’s universities and colleges, which receive funding to conduct environmental research and support scholarships. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the Alberta government have also been beneficiaries.

In his ruling, Judge Gardner specified beneficiary organizations must not have been in a conflict-of-interest relationship with Syncrude over the last 24 months.

It’s unknown if the open-bidding process will become the norm for creative sentencing under the Alberta Energy Regulator, but the January ruling sets a strong new precedent.

The court order allows the regulator to approach beneficiaries to apply for funds under the open-bid process, but recipients are required to submit a formal request.

Creative sentencing passed off as ‘corporate social responsibility’

The new ruling also stipulates resulting projects must be identified as funded by court order.

Projects funded by creative sentencing are rarely identified as resulting from an environmental conviction.

Convicted companies are often listed as ‘sponsors’ or ‘donors.’

For this reason, the new language requirement is welcome to Chilenye Nwapi, a research fellow at the Canadian Institute of Resources Law, who has critiqued creative sentencing for easily being passed off as corporate social responsibility.

He finds the new creative sentencing order “largely positive.”

“The order quite rightly ensures that Syncrude does not benefit reputationally from funding any creative sentencing project,” he said. “The order provides for transparency and accountability by requiring the [Alberta Energy Regulator] to file a report to the court describing any projects awarded together with the terms of the award.”

The court order also allows, for the first time, that for-profit organizations may be beneficiaries.

Nwapi takes issue with the court provision that the regulator “may” give preference to not-for-profit organisations in the procurement process.

“To ensure that the funds are used judiciously, the order should have mandated preferential treatment for not-for-profit organisations,” Nwapi said in an emailed statement.

How Syncrude and Friends Benefitted from ‘Creative Sentence’ in 2010 Oilsands Duck Deaths

Syncrude convicted twice for breaking same laws

Syncrude pleaded guilty in the January 2019 conviction for the 2015 deaths of 31 herons.

Court documents indicate the company failed to disclose the existence of a sump pond in its waterfowl protection plan.

The omission is troubling in light of the company’s high-profile 2010 conviction where it was found Syncrude failed to deploy bird deterrents when a storm drove birds down in 2008.

Following that 2010 conviction, the University of Alberta’s Colleen Cassady St. Clair was awarded creative sentencing funds to conduct bird-protection research.

As a part of that research Cassady St. Clair made six science-based recommendations for Syncrude to incorporate into its waterfowl protection plan and that included the documentation of all ponds in the plan area.

In 2019 Syncrude announced new measures to protect birds, including increased monitoring of water basins and improved deterrent systems.

Yet, as the 2019 conviction shows, the contaminated sump pond that led to the death of the 31 herons was not incorporated into Syncrude’s waterfowl protection plan.

“We were all aware that some ponds were not included,” Cassady St. Clair told The Narwhal. “I advocated that we needed to get all the ponds on that list.”

“It’s an unfortunate situation that’s easy to judge in hindsight,” she said, adding some of these facilities have been in operations for decades, spanning a changing regulatory environment. “It’s harder to predict these things than it is to spot them in the rear-view mirror.”

Cassady St. Clair said she is “delighted” with the open-bid process, adding it is new for Alberta but resembles what happens at the federal level.

Syncrude spent $16 million to remediate the sump pond in 2016.

“Our perspective is we’ve agreed to the fines and are saddened by what happened,” said Syncrude spokesperson Will Gibson.

– With files from Carol Linnitt

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The lethal mix of migratory birds and oilsands tailings ponds are in the news again this month.

On September 20 we learned another 123 birds died or will be euthanized after landing on a Suncor tailings pond. And on September 27, Syncrude Canada will appear in court for failing to prevent the deaths of blue herons at an Alberta oilsands site, the very same crime the company was convicted of in 2010 after an estimated 1,600 ducks met the same fate on one of its tailings pond.

Convictions like Syncrude’s are supposed to help to prevent the deaths of waterfowl on oilsands sites. So why are we here again?

The outcome of the 2010 trial, in which Syncrude was found guilty of both federal and provincial crimes, resulted in a $3 million penalty, the lion’s share of which — $2.45 million — was handed out to a small group of beneficiaries in the largest “creative sentence” in Alberta’s history.

For certain crimes, judges can order creative sentencing penalties over and beyond fines; they can include reclamation activities, scholarships or research projects, for example. Creative sentencing projects are meant to compensate for harm caused by the crime and prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

A deeper look at what happened to the $2.45 million provides a glimpse into the intriguing world of creative sentencing and how companies like Syncrude, along with a tightknit network of organizations, can quietly benefit from environmental crimes while avoiding public scrutiny.

Companies Can Look Charitable Through Creative Sentencing

My research team at Mount Royal University (co-investigator Gillian Steward and research assistants James Wilt and Cassie Riabko) found creative sentencing beneficiaries are usually hand-selected by both prosecution and defence and presented to the judge for consideration. There is no opportunity to apply for creative sentencing funds and no rationale is provided to the public as to why certain candidates are chosen over others — though our research shows connections to offending companies sure can help.

We studied 83 creative sentences for environmental crimes in Alberta and found a closed system where sentencing goals were not made public and much information is not in the public domain. This includes final financial reports and even some of the final creative sentencing projects themselves.

Creative sentences certainly take more work for the Crown to put together. In Alberta, they have been praised for providing quick funding to charitable organizations —the University of Alberta is the leading beneficiary —and for attempting to compensate for environmental harms through education, research and conservation projects. But creative sentencing fines have also been directed to wealthy industry groups including the The Canadian Association for Petroleum Producers and even to a government department.

How #Syncrude and Friends Benefitted from ‘Creative Sentence’ in 2010 #Oilsands #DuckDeaths https://t.co/7cLOF6hbyn #AbLeg @jpaskey

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) September 22, 2017

Our analysis shows there is a troubling lack of transparency around the public recognition of funds that may obscure the fact that companies are funding these projects as the result of a criminal conviction, rather than an act of generosity.

For example, many sentences portray convicted companies as “sponsors” or “donors.”

In 1999, Hub Oil was found guilty after an explosion killed two workers and was ordered to pay for two named scholarships at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.

Although the creative sentence was explicitly part of Hub Oil’s conviction, the company is listed as a “sponsor” of the scholarships on the institute's website — meaning a possible reputational boost for what is seen publicly as philanthropy.

The same holds for the listing of The Devon Canada Corporation Bursary at Olds College; this came from a $60,000 creative sentence ordered after Devon was convicted under Alberta’s Water Act.

The Beneficiaries of Syncrude’s $2.45 Million

Three beneficiaries were awarded funds in Syncrude’s creative sentence: the University of Alberta ($1.3 million), Keyano College ($250,000) and The Alberta Conservation Association ($900,000). Each of these organizations had previously received creative sentence funding and Syncrude was a donor or had done contract work for each. (In the case of U of A, the donations were to other parts of the university.)

Groups at the forefront of environmental change were not chosen. For instance, Ecojustice, the environmental law group that first brought the charges against Syncrude in 2010, did not receive creative sentencing funds.

The bulk of Syncrude’s creative sentence went to research into improving bird monitoring and deterrent systems in the oilsands. The award was perhaps puzzling given prosecutor Susan McRory spoke at length during Syncrude’s sentencing hearing about the company’s failure to use existing research into bird deterrence. (It hadn’t deployed any bird deterrents by April 28 when ducks died on a frothy tar-like mat, despite knowing birds migrate in that month.)

McRory said Syncrude even failed to used its own research from the 1980s that predicted “an event similar to what happened in this case.”

A duck on Syncrude's Aurora tailings pond. Photo: Todd Powell, Alberta Fish and Wildlife

Despite this, University of Alberta professor Colleen Cassady St. Clair had impressed the judge as an expert witness for the prosecution. She was awarded a $1.3 million creative sentence to research and provide advice to industry on how to improve bird monitoring and deterrent systems for birds in the oilsands. She was also ordered to work with an industry advisory committee and to make all research public.

Cassady St. Clair hired dozens of researchers who in turn produced research used to make 43 scientific recommendations to industry. Syncrude was court-ordered to respond to St. Clair’s report but was also told it could choose to implement recommendations if they were “reasonable, reliable and cost effective.”

In a written response, Syncrude mentioned 21 of the 43 recommendations, avoiding any mention of specific cautions against the use of lasers for bird deterrence and the use of berms to attempt to separate more toxic from less toxic tailings.

Cassady St. Clair said she told Alberta Justice that Syncrude’s response was vague and seemed to be part of a risk management process. The ministry did not appeal the company’s response although the court gave it the right to.  The bird monitoring program was privatized and largely out of public view.

In an interview Cassady St. Clair said she remains hopeful the recommendations will positively impact bird monitoring and management.

“I think it could have a ripple effect over time,” she said.

Of fresh charges against Syncrude for bird deaths on a sump pond, she told CBC there were other bodies of water that needed to be monitored on these sites.

The Alberta Conservation Association (ACA) was given $900,000 to purchase land west of Edmonton known as Golden Ranches with the goal of preserving waterfowl habitat.

ICYMI: What You Need to Know About NAFTA’s Investigation into Oilsands Tailings Leaks

The award came through a contact: ACA's corporate lawyer* worked for the firm that Syncrude was using. She set up for the ACA to provide a proposal as to what it would do to compensate for the loss of waterfowl. Compensating for harm is one of the goals of creative sentencing. (Another Syncrude case lawyer declared his conflict of interest to the court as a board member of a partnering organization for that land purchase.) At the time, the ACA didn’t know if the property owner would sell indicating the speed at which the proposal had to go before the judge.

Syncrude is listed as a donor on a sign near the purchased property and, in a separate project, is listed as a sponsor of the Alberta Conservation Association “Discover Guide.”

Keyano College, located in Fort McMurray, received $250,000 to develop a new wildlife management diploma program. In its creative sentencing proposal to the court, Keyano said the program would include Indigenous and part-time students.

But after surveying industry partners, Keyano discovered companies prefered to hire general environmental managers with wildlife expertise, rather than wildlife managers.

In its final report to Alberta Justice, Keyano did not mention Indigenous students. It did note that the college requested a change to the creative sentence to allow it to embed new wildlife courses into its existing environmental management program rather than developing a new diploma program. But we were unable to find a new creative sentencing order in the public domain. The college said 33 students had graduated from the newly enriched program as of 2016.

Keyano also recorded an unspent $29,143 from the creative sentence would be put toward a research project conducted in partnership with Syncrude. No court response to this proposed partnership exists in the public record.

Where To Go From Here?

Looking back, Syncrude’s creative sentence can be said to be investing in research and education — but given the new Syncrude charges, it didn’t seem to address weaknesses in the system: identifying reasons for and preventing bird deaths on oilsands water sites. Perhaps, the notion of preventing migratory birds from landing on tailings ponds some 640 football fields in size is just not doable. But companies are obliged to try.

Looking back, we found the overall creative sentencing system is one that operates in haste. Beneficiaries who are privately approached by the Crown scramble to put relevant proposals together between conviction and sentencing dates but when changes are made after the fact, that’s kept out of the public domain. Many mentioned a fund with wide latitude that organizations could apply to would be a good idea. Alberta Environment is considering that idea, too.

Perhaps more troubling, is the system of close ties that binds friendly beneficiaries to offending companies. Ultimately, with no specific direction from the court otherwise, companies and beneficiaries can credit creative sentence projects like philanthropy, rather than a court-ordered punishment.

If the court considers a creative sentence in the blue heron case perhaps it should strongly consider ordering research into eliminating tailings ponds altogether.

*Owing to author error, a previous version of this article incorrectly stated that a lawyer on the Alberta Conservation Board helped pave the way for a creative sentence proposal. It was the ACA corporate lawyer who helped pave the way for a creative sentencing proposal in the Syncrude 2010 case, and not an ACA Board member. The ACA Board was not involved in the creative sentence. We regret the error. 

Image: Dead mallard drakes on Syncrude's Aurora tailings pond. Photo: Todd Powell, Alberta Fish and Wildlife

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Conservation group Keepers of the Athabasca is asking the Alberta government to review water usage rules for oilsands companies as the province struggles with unseasonably low water levels and raging wild fires.

Current rules set out under the Surface Water Quantity Management Framework allow two oilsands majors, Suncor and Syncrude, to continue water withdrawals for their operations even when water levels are extremely low. All other oilsands operators are required to abide by set limits.

Alberta is currently fighting 65 forest fires, some near oilsands projects, that are being fueled by extremely dry conditions. Twenty fires are currently considered “out of control.” This week the government initiated a province-wide fire ban. Water bombers are currently being used to suppress the flames.

“Due to little snowfall and almost no rain so far this spring, there has been little run off into the lakes, rivers and streams,” Jesse Cardinal from Keepers of the Athabasca said. “Add in the major forest fires actively being fought around the province, and water is simply in great demand at this time.”

Cardinal is asking the province if oilsands companies are required to slow production and water withdrawals from the Athabasca River in the face of low levels.

According to Simon Dyer from the Pembina Institute, Suncor and Syncrude insisted on the “seniority of their water licences” during development of the current water use rules.

The two companies argued “their reliance on old infrastructure should allow them to continue to withdraw water from the Lower Athabasca River, no matter how low the flow gets,” Dyer wrote in a letter to Alberta Environment.    

Dyer recommended the province implement a strong ecosystem limit that would place absolute restrictions — for all oilsands operators — on water withdrawal during low flow.

The provincial government ultimately declined to place a zero-withdrawal limit on the two companies and, according to Dyer, “continues to hold Syncrude and Suncor to a lower environmental standard…putting at risk the aquatic ecosystem of one of Alberta’s most ecologically and culturally important rivers.”

The Keepers of the Athabasca want to know if the NDP will consider revising water use rules in light of extreme conditions induced by climate change. The group argues current rules are based “on our once vibrant past when water was plentiful.”

The limits placed on water withdrawals were also designed to protect aboriginal use of the Athabasca River for navigation and traditional activities. But according to John Rigney, resident of Fort Chipewyan, the water levels are too low to support traditional hunting.

“Spring hunts have been very poor due to poor navigation on the river — we simply cannot get to our hunting spots because the water levels are so low in certain areas.”

Rigney added the remote community of Fort Chipewyan is also facing difficulty importing food and supplies.

“We are a community that needs our supplies barged in and flown in,” he said. “This time of year they’re mostly barged in, but that is not happening right now, as the barge can’t navigate, as water levels are so low.”

Image Credit: Twitter

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Organizers of the Tar Sands Healing Walk, a 14-kilometre spiritual walk through lands impacted by oilsands (also called tar sands) extraction in northern Alberta, have announced this year’s Healing Walk on June 28th will be the last.

“It was a difficult decision to make,” admits Jesse Cardinal, co-organizer of the Healing Walk. “We felt the original goals of the healing walk of letting local communities know that they had support for the issues of mass industry in the territory and gaining further attention of the issues of tar sands development in a way that was non-aggressive were achieved.”

“Our work will continue in the territory, with the people and communities, but, will look different, so I wouldn’t really call it an end, as a new beginning,” Cardinal told DeSmog Canada. Cardinal is a member of the Kikino Metis Settlement in northeastern Alberta.

The Healing Walk is the only grassroots event to bring people face to face with Canada’s oilsands, one of the largest oil reserves and industrial projects in the world. Participants in the annual event walk through the industrialized landscape, passing by active oilsands facilities releasing toxins into the air, chemical tailings ponds the size of lakes and a barren land in an otherwise lush and green region of Alberta's boreal forest.

But all this is secondary to the Healing Walk’s core theme: hope that the land, water and people drastically impacted by two decades of rapid oilsands extraction will one day heal.

Healing Walk is Not a Protest or a Rally

“We're not going out there for yet another protest, yet another rally. We're out there to be together, to heal, and those two things are very appealing in a context of seemingly endless struggle,” says Chelsea Flook, a Healing Walk organizer since 2010.

“[For participants] the focus on the space being primarily a healing space is a very strong draw,” Flook told DeSmog. Flook is originally from Ontario, but she is currently based in Edmonton and works for the Mother Earth Action Cooperative.

Organizers have been clear from the beginning that the Healing Walk is not a protest. No one shouts out political chants during the walk that takes place just north of Canada’s famous oil town, Fort McMurray. The only banner present is the one leading the procession with the words “Stop the Destruction. Start the Healing” painted on it.

Healing Walk procession in 2013. Photo by Zack Embree.

Instead, participants are led by First Nations elders along the so-called ‘Syncrude Loop’ (oilsands company Syncrude has an operation nearby) as they pray and make offerings in the four directions: north, south, east and west. To complete the loop on foot takes about six hours.

“Making prayers to the four directions woke up the spirit of the land, the water and the people. It has awoken a creative force within the people that will suffocate the destructive force that is the tar sands. That is a pretty powerful warrior to deal with,” says Clayton Thomas-Muller, MC of this year’s Healing Walk and Idle No More campaigner.

Clayton Thomas-Muller with Eriel Deranger of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (left) and Melina Laboucan-Massimo of the Lubicon Cree Nation (right). Photo by Zack Embree.

The Healing Walk is a 3-Day Gathering: Workshops, Communal Meals, Camping

The two days prior to the actual walk have the outward appearance of festival. Tents cluster together (camping is free for participants) in a field on the shores of Lake Gregoire, also called Willow Lake. Communal meals and workshops covering a wide range of oilsands-related issues, from First Nations treaty rights to pipelines, take place at the campsite — an hour’s drive from the starting point of the Healing Walk at Crane Lake Park.

“You come as an individual but you leave as part of the whole which is part of the beauty of the Healing Walk,” says Thomas-Mueller, who is a member of the Missinipi Ethinewak or Big River Cree in Manitoba.

A participant of last year's Healing Walk. Photo by Zack Embree.

“This year, we are focusing mainly on local voices. Some of the people we have speaking, have never been heard of before, but are concerned about what is happening in the Fort McMurray indigenous territory. So more going back to being a grassroots event,” Cardinal says.

Local indigenous voices will include Matthew Whitehead, a traditional knowledge carrier from Fort Chipewyan, Annette Campre and a resident of Fort McKay, who will lead workshops on education and spirituality. The physician who first noticed and researched high rates of cancer among Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation members – Dr. John O’Connor –will speak as part of a health panel.

Last year’s Healing Walk attracted well over 500 people, the largest turnout thus far. Internationally known speakers such as 350.org founder Bill McKibben and author Naomi Klein were among them.

Naomi Klein speaking at last year's Healing Walk event. Photo by Zack Embree.

“At last year’s walk, I saw a fundamental shift in energy that let me know we have already won,” Thomas-Muller told DeSmog Canada.

Will the land ever heal? Organizers are optimistic

For many a ‘win’ for First Nations as well as non-indigenous Canadians over the oilsands industry is hard to see. Despite a few pipeline project delays – notably Keystone XL in the U.S. and Northern Gateway in B.C. – the oilsands industry has expanded rapidly and relatively unimpeded under the current federal government.

And yet Healing Walk organizers believe one day the land they have guided hundreds of people through over the last four years will heal.

“I do believe so, but not in my lifetime," Cardinal says. "The destruction is too big. But way down the road when our existence here is different, and more people have demanded an energy future that isn't destructive to the land, air, water and all living beings will we achieve harmony." Cardinal is a coordinator with the Keepers of the Athabasca, the main organizing group behind the Healing Walk.

A sign designates an industrial area under restoration. Photo by Zack Embree.

“It will take a couple of lifetimes for the land to recover, but a metamorphosis will take place and create new life. Indigenous people will be a part of this and those who do not follow their lead will be left behind. The circle of life will continue,” Thomas-Muller says.

Healing Walk organizer Chelsea Flook, who is not indigenous, believes the only way to get there and avoid the catastrophic effects of runaway climate change at the same time is to follow the lead of indigenous peoples.

“We need to take direction from indigenous communities, to honour their ways of knowing and being. It might mean some awkward dancing between worldviews, it might entail some moments of discomfort,” she says.

“But by supporting Indigenous communities' struggle to protect the land [in the oilsands], we can also fight back against the 'business as usual' plans of industry that entail a six-degree climate warming scenario,” Flook said.

Image Credit: All photos by Zack Embree.

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Critics cried foul last week after oilsands giant Syncrude was awarded the inaugural Towards Sustainable Mining Environmental Excellence Award at the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) industry gala held in Vancouver on Monday, May 12.

The Fort McMurray-based company was recognized for its work in land reclamation, the attempt to re-establish ecosystems destroyed during oilsands development.

The company was specifically lauded for its work with fen wetlands, a sensitive and complex peat ecosystem that is a key part of the Boreal Forest and the local watershed, through its Sandhill Fen Research Watershed Initiative research project.

“We're quite pleased to have been selected. We see it as a demonstration of our commitment to improving our reclamation process,” said company spokesperson Will Gibson by phone. “It underscores our need to meet the public's expectations, and part of that is constant improvement.”

But, for some, labelling any work done in the oilsands as 'sustainable' may be premature, if not entirely contradictory. 

An 'industry award'

“It's industry giving awards to industry,” said Carolyn Campbell of the Alberta Wilderness Association, a conservation group working to conserve ecosystems and wilderness in the province. “It's misleading to say they are taking a significant approach to sustainable mining. Tar sands mining is inherently unsustainable. The push for fossil fuel development is destroying the boreal wetlands.”

For Campbell, attempts to bring back ecosystems that have been under pressure from mining for decades is too little too late. “This needed to be considered 40 years ago,” when the first oilsands developments began, said Campbell.

Most people may have heard of peatlands – Canada is the world's largest producer of peat moss for horticultural purposes – but few know about the importance, and uniqueness, of fens. While similar to peat bogs, fens are distinguished by a high water table and a slow, regular flow of water which makes them much more rich in minerals and much less acidic than bogs.

Fens support a specific set of vegetation and animal life and, because of these unique characteristics, are considered much more difficult to reproduce than other peatlands – which already present an enormous ecological challenge. Fens are an integral part of the northern Boreal ecosystem, which itself is tied to the health of Canada's important watersheds, like the adjacent Athabasca and Peace River watersheds. While fens are a small part of the entire Boreal forest, their loss has a significant impact on the surrounding ecosystem.

Their importance isn't lost on Gibson, who stressed in the interview that Syncrude is committed to monitoring their 52 hectare test site for the next 10 to 20 years in order to better understand and replace the fens that have been removed during oilsands development.

Gibson strongly rejects the ideas that Syncrude's reclamation work is simply window dressing. “Over half of our [research and development] spending goes into reclamation projects,” he said, adding, “would people prefer we do nothing?”

Reclamation cannot offset conservation

“Of course, they shouldn't be doing nothing,” Eriel Deranger told DeSmog Canada in a telephone interview. Deranger is a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), located over 200km northeast of Fort McMurry and directly downstream from the centre of oilsands development. Her traditional territory lies in the Athabasca watershed and has been significantly affected by industrial development to the south. 

“Reclamation work needs to be done. But it can't be used to justify the further expansion of the tar sands,” Deranger said. She is also a spokesperson for the annual Healing Walk, which brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to visit the oilsands region and discuss industry's impacts.

For Deranger, the question isn't only about whether the fens can eventually be brought back, but the immediate and ongoing impacts that are justified through what is branded as 'sustainable development' of the oilsands.

The destruction of key parts of the northern Boreal ecosystem has a direct impact on the ACFN's and other First Nations' access to their traditional territory and to their way of life.

“The real issue,” she said, “is that these projects are going to be erasing these ecosystems for 50 to 100 years. That also means the loss of our treaty rights for 50 to 100 years.” And while it's clear that there have been advances in reclamation techniques, she said, the pace of development in the oilsands has greatly outrun any improvements.

The uncertain science 

Recent scientific reports have presented mixed results about the potential for reclamation. A 2013 study from the Université de Laval's Peatland Ecology Research Group found that the various mosses found in peat fens were able to withstand water with higher salt contents – similar to what they would be exposed to in reclamation areas – at a higher degree than expected, which researchers felt showed a strong indication that fens could be re-introduced post-mining.

At the same time, they highlighted that the study was done in limited laboratory settings, and that the complexities of a natural environment would complicate the re-establishment process.

Even if fens can be re-introduced, another peer-reviewed report questioned whether reclamation efforts could ever truly re-create or undo the damage of the original fens in the first place.

In a 2012 paper, researchers Rebecca C. Rooney, Suzanne E. Bayley, and David W. Schindler from the University of Alberta concluded that regardless of the ability to re-establish fens, the destruction of peatlands – which store a large amount of carbon in the ground, acting as a massive natural carbon sink – would result in the release of seven years worth of mining and upgrading emissions at 2010 production levels into the atmosphere.

They also noted the difficulty of recreating the water flow necessary for fens will mean that any eventual reclamation results would cover 65 per cent less territory than fens covered pre-mining.

Of the total area currently mined for oilsands, only 0.12 per cent of the land has been certified reclaimed, with some seven percent currently in progress of being reclaimed. The only certified reclaimed site is Sycrude's Gatweay Hill, which received the official reclamation distinction from Alberta Environment in 2008.

While the site has been vaunted as an industry success, Deranger sees it as a disturbing precursor to reclamation projects as the future for her people's territory. Gateway Hill, she said, is a clear sign that industry-styled reclamation projects cannot be used as an offset for protecting untouched land.

“I see fenced-in areas that have no relevance or value to First Nations people. They're fenced-in regions that they tout as a conservation zone,” she said.

"These areas were once areas that housed wild buffalo, that hunters and trappers utilized, that fishers utilized, that we considered sacred sites. And we're talking about creating a big sign that says, 'Look at the successes of this industry!' Why don't we juxtaposition it with, 'Look at what industry has destroyed.' Frankly, it's a little bit absurd and insulting."

Image Credit: Syncrude's Gateway Hill from CAPP

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The province of Alberta has recently released a development plan for public schools that enlists Suncor Energy and Syncrude Canada in the creation of future Kindergarten to grade three curriculum. Oil giant Cenovus will partner in developing curriculum for grades four to 12.

The oil and gas industry’s involvement in the province’s educational development is creating concern among opposition parties and environmental organizations.

NDP Education Critic Deron Bilous called granting partnership status to industry “appalling.”

“Kindergarten to grade three is a very formative time in a child’s education where their minds are still developing. It is outrageous and appalling to have oil and gas companies involved in any way in developing curriculum for Alberta’s youngest students,” he said.

Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Mike Hudema said “it’s definitely very disturbing that the Alberta government would see oil giants Syncrude and Suncor as key partners in designing Alberta’s K to three curriculum. Big oil doesn’t belong in Alberta’s schools.”

He added, “It’s time that the Alberta government realizes that what’s good for the oil industry isn’t what’s good for the rest of Alberta and especially not our children. While oil may run our cars for now it shouldn’t run our government or our schools. Ever.”

A page from the Alberta Government’s Curriculum Redesign document. Click the image to see the whole presentation.

Canada’s oil and gas industry has taken a notable interest in curriculum design and the general project of ‘energy literacy’ in recent years.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), the country’s largest oil and gas lobby body, caused uproar last year when it partnered with the Royal Canadian Geographic Society in the creation of ‘Energy IQ,’ described as “an energy education resource for all Canadians…to engage Canadian teachers and students through curriculum-linked in-class learning tools, and to increase energy knowledge among the general public and community leaders.”

The province of Alberta has recently released a development plan for public schools that enlists Suncor Energy and Syncrude Canada in the creation of future Kindergarten to grade three curriculum. Oil giant Cenovus will partner in developing curriculum for grades four to 12.

The oil and gas industry’s involvement in the province’s educational development is creating concern among opposition parties and environmental organizations.

NDP Education Critic Deron Bilous called granting partnership status to industry “appalling.”

“Kindergarten to grade three is a very formative time in a child’s education where their minds are still developing. It is outrageous and appalling to have oil and gas companies involved in any way in developing curriculum for Alberta’s youngest students,” he said.

Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Mike Hudema said “it’s definitely very disturbing that the Alberta government would see oil giants Syncrude and Suncor as key partners in designing Alberta’s K to three curriculum. Big oil doesn’t belong in Alberta’s schools.

He added, “It’s time that the Alberta government realizes that what’s good for the oil industry isn’t what’s good for the rest of Alberta and especially not our children. While oil may run our cars for now it shouldn’t run our government or our schools. Ever.”

Cameron Fenton, national director for the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, wrote the partnership was “dangerous” and granted CAPP access to not only young and impressionable minds, but to the credibility of a trusted educational institution like the Royal Canadian Geographic Society.

“What’s potentially more concerning is the role that Canadian Geographic is playing. As a respected educational resource and publisher, their reputation is providing political cover for CAPP to present a dangerous and disturbing narrative and vision of the future of energy and climate change in Canada. Were CAPP to be taking this project forward on their own they would be the subject of great scrutiny by teachers, students and the public, something they probably hoped to avoid by using Canadian Geographic to take their industry spin into classrooms from grade 3 on up.”

Fenton suggests Canadians should keep in mind CAPP’s “dubious distinction of being Canada’s most vocal proponent of tar sands, fracking and other fossil fuel development.” He adds the industry lobby group is the largest in the country and has been a key player in Canada’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, eliminating environmental laws, and undermining climate legislation. They are also a big spender when it comes to oilsands advertising.

Energy IQ only tells a portion of Canada’s energy story, says Fenton, and ignores crucial parts of the conversation, like the calls from reputable energy and insurance agencies to leave 80 per cent of fossil fuel reserves in the ground.

The industry-sponsored curriculum caught its own wave of backlash from students in Vancouver who gathered more than 600 hundred signatures in protest of the materials.

“Propaganda has no place in our schools,” their open letter to Canadian Geographic read. “The content of your program appears to be highly focused on the oil and gas industry, yet it is presented as something that deals with all possible types of energy.”

They continued, “we demand that our education system continues to maintain a progressive perspective when discussing energy-related issues. As such, we, the undersigned, ask that the Energy IQ Program is not used at our school.”

CAPP has led Energy in Action programs in Alberta since 2004 to teach children about the petroleum industry and its role in environmental stewardship. In 2011 Alberta awarded CAPP the Friends of Education Award for the program. More than 59 oil and gas companies have participated in the outreach program which has run through more than 80 schools across Canada.

Image Credit: Government of Alberta via Flickr

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Former Syncrude CEO and chairman Eric Newell has been tasked with spearheading an expert panel on the effect of energy technology on oil sands development.

The Council of Canadian Academies is convening the panel on behalf of Natural Resources Canada to do an overview of the available literature in order to report on how “new and existing technologies be used to reduce the environmental footprint of oil sands development on air, water and land.”

Newell was one of the architects of oil sands development in Alberta. In the early 1990s, he campaigned aggressively as part of the National Oil Sands Task Force, a group that sought to triple production within 25 years. The campaign was extraordinarily successful, reaching its goal within only eight years, reshaping Northern Alberta in the process.

Since retirement, Newell has served as chair of the Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC). The CCEMC collects funds from large facilities that emit more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gasses per year and redistributes them to develop technologies that reduce carbon emissions. He holds honorary doctorates from University of British Columbia and University of Alberta.

This spring he appeared on a Canada 2020 panel alongside Green Party leader Elizabeth May and several others discussing how to bring carbon taxing back into the federal discussion. Although Newell has been a vocal proponent of transparent carbon pricing as an incentive for companies to lessen carbon emissions, his stance was criticized for being overly optimistic regarding the continued necessity of oil sands extraction in meeting future energy needs. 

In the past few years, the Alberta government has appointed several former oil sands executives to key positions of environmental stewardship. In 2007 the provincial government named still active Suncor Energy Inc vice-president Heather Kennedy as Oil Sands Sustainable Development Secretariat.

“It’s not only unusual, it’s completely unacceptable,” NDP Leader Brian Mason told the Edmonton Journal. “It’s an incredible conflict of interest the likes of which I haven’t seen from this government.”

Then early this year, Premier Alison Redford named Gerry Protti, the founding president of oil industry lobby group the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, as head of the Alberta Energy Regulator. The move provoked cries of outrage from First Nations and environmental groups.

Director of Communications for the Council of Canadian Academies Cathleen Meechan stresses that Newell was chosen for his experience, not his industry connections. “We recruit people to sit on our table based on their expertise and based on their background,” she says. “They’re not invited to come to the table to represent a certain sector or stakeholder group.”

Chairs for previous panels convened by the Canadian Council of Academies have included David Strangway, a former head of geophysics for NASA, and John A Cherry, director of the University Consortium for Field-Focused Groundwater Contamination Research.

The results of the report will be available online 24 months after the complete panel has been formed.

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