The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) has laid nine charges against Imperial Oil for environmental violations after 5.3 million liters of contaminated wastewater leaked from its Kearl oil sands site in northern Alberta two years ago. 

The charges, announced in January, stem from a catastrophic spill that began on January 30, 2023, but wasn’t reported to regulators until February 4 — a delay that sparked outrage among affected Indigenous communities. 

Six charges were laid under the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act, including failure to report the release immediately and failure to take responsible measures to remediate and manage the contamination. Three additional charges under the Public Lands Act relate to the accumulation of waste material and damage to public lands. 

For Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, the charges represent a belated step toward accountability, but also reveal deeper problems with industry oversight in the oil-rich province. 

“The community of Fort Chip has been harmed drastically,” said Chief Adam in an interview with Ricochet Media. “People don’t feel safe when they drink the water. They don’t even feel safe when they eat fish. They don’t even feel safe when they eat the wild food.”

Chief Adam expressed frustration that Imperial Oil representatives have claimed the leak is contained while recent reports suggest otherwise. 

“Now with the new report that came out… it still says that it’s getting into the ecosystem and it hasn’t stopped whatsoever,” he said. “The (Imperial Oil) president, the VP of operations, should be put in jail. And even the board of directors, because they all knew of this and they kept quiet about it.”

The chief’s concerns have been amplified by the AER’s recent appointment of Rob Morgan, a former oil and gas executive, as its new CEO. 

“The AER is just a collection of ex-CEOs of oil companies and coal plants and everything industry. There’s nothing credible in regard to somebody that’s going to sit there and take a view from the other side. It’s always one sided, rigged one way,” Adam said.

The timing of these developments is particularly concerning as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith pushes to ramp up oil production following discussions with U.S. President Donald Trump. 

Adam told Ricochet that he messaged Smith about her “holiday” meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago: “I told her straight up that regardless of what you promised Donald Trump, we’ve got to work hard, make sure that we do this right, and come away with a good regulatory system before we even do anything, because how could you promise Donald anything if you have a broken regulatory system here in Alberta?”

The ACFN is currently pursuing a $500 million lawsuit against the AER for failing to notify the community about the leak. The regulator is attempting to have the court case thrown out, arguing they maintained proper oversight. 

The impact on community health remains a pressing concern, following decades of elevated cancer rates that Fort Chipewyan members attribute to industrial contamination of their traditional territories. The struggle for accountability stretches back to 2009, when Dr. John O’Connor, a physician who practiced in Fort Chipewyan for nearly two decades, raised alarms about multiple cases of a rare bile duct cancer appearing in the small population of about 1,200 people.

Instead of prompting immediate investigation into these health concerns, O’Connor faced charges of causing “undue alarm” from Health Canada — charges that were later dismissed after the community rallied to his defense. Years later, the pattern of illness continues. Adam told Ricochet that he had just returned from Fort Chipewyan, where he learned that three community members had undergone colonoscopies within the past two weeks. 

“It’s on the rise and it’s going to continue to rise and it don’t look good from here if we don’t do anything about it,” he warned. 

The mounting deaths in Fort Chipewyan have left the community grappling with both grief and frustration over the lack of action on their concerns. Despite years of calling for comprehensive health studies and environmental monitoring, the community has seen little meaningful intervention to address what they view as an ongoing health crisis linked to industrial pollution.

The situation echoes warnings from decades past. “When the industry first developed the whole region, they did it without consulting us,” Adam recalled. “Our people went to the hearings in the past and always condemned the fact that this was happening in our traditional territories…our elders said the people will one day be getting sick in our communities. This was back in the 70s. And those people are still alive today, and they say they should have listened to us back in the day.”

With Alberta currently pumping out 5 million barrels of oil per day — 4 million from the Fort McMurray region alone — Adam argues the current pace of development is unsustainable. 

“We can’t sustain anymore because we can’t even sustain this growth and manage it with all the environmental problems that are coming from it.”

The ACFN, under Adam’s 17-year leadership, has developed its own water policy that he believes could serve as a national standard. “That water policy is downstream from the oil sands and there’s not going to be anything better than that one… That’s the top standard of a water policy when you’re living in the oil sands.”

His message to industry executives, regulators and government officials is clear: the time for empty promises and inadequate oversight is over. The mounting sickness and death tolls in his community demands real accountability, and he won’t stop fighting until justice is served. 

“Eventually, we’re going to end up in court. When we do end up in court, the truth will reveal that we have a broken system and it’s not working.”