Alberta premier says changes coming to ensure prompt reporting of oilsands spills

Area First Nations and the Northwest Territories government have said they should have been kept in the loop on the spills from Imperial's Kearl mine tailings ponds.

Premier Danielle Smith says laggardly public notification of Imperial Oil oilsands wastewater spills has illuminated the need for Alberta to ensure future alarms are sounded quicker.

Smith says her government is working with the province’s oilsands regulator to develop better policies to give affected groups timely notification.

“Good practice and being a good neighbour (means) more communication is better,” Smith said Tuesday at an unrelated news conference in Mundare, Alta.

“That’s going to be our approach going forward. I’ve talked to the environment minister about that and the energy minister about that and the regulator about that.

“We’ll be working with the (Alberta Energy) Regulator to develop new processes to make sure that any time there is an incident that the comms are clear, that we have radical transparency and, just even as a courtesy, make sure any impacted party has a heads-up so they don’t have any fear based on the misinformation they see on social media or in the media.”

Area First Nations and the Northwest Territories government have said they should have been kept in the loop on the spills from Imperial’s Kearl mine tailings ponds.

The N.W.T. has called it a violation of its agreement with Alberta for timely updates on emerging threats to their shared watershed.

The first wastewater release was spotted and reported in May as discoloured water near a tailings pond at the Kearl site north of Fort McMurray.