Kearl Expansion's DFO Approval Draws Environmentalist Ire

Gabriel Zarate, February 28, 2008, Slave River Journal -- The federal government’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has authorized Imperial Oil's Kearl oil sands project to proceed, while a federal judge considers a ruling relevant to Kearl’s expansion. Environmental groups are protesting the continued development while they await their day in court.

“It’s a very backward system and there’s a lot of resistance to changing it,” argued Lindsay Telfer, director of the Prairie Chapter of the Sierra Club. “But it needs to be overhauled.”

According to Sean Nixon, lawyer for Environmental Defence, a judge’s ruling in a case like this can take between four to six months, putting a potential decision between May and July 2008. In the meantime there is no law preventing the Kearl development from going forward.

Simon Dyer, senior policy analyst at the Pembina Institute said the DFO had discretion of whether to grant Kearl’s permits or wait a few months until the judge’s decision.

“We consider that [Kearl’s license from the DFO] not very respectful to the process. What’s the rush?” Dyer asked. “It makes a mockery of the environmental assessment process.”

According to Nixon, an injunction could have been filed to prevent the Kearl expansion from proceeding while a decision was pending. But if the decision had gone against his group, it would be liable for an “undertaking for damages.” That means it would have to pay the income the Kearl project would have earned during the period it was halted. In a project as large as Kearl such damages would be more than Environmental Defence could afford.

“It doesn’t mean that they’re right,” Nixon said. “It’s a money obstacle.”

Environmental Defence was the organization that challenged against the Kearl expansion in court in January 2008. It represented four environmental groups in the challenge.

During the court challenge Nixon argued the panel approving the Kearl expansion didn’t look hard enough at the environmental reclamation process, which did not satisfy federal requirements.

Nixon pointed out no piece of land has ever been certified as environmentally reclaimed by the Alberta government after an oil sands extraction operation, despite decades of oil sands mining in Alberta.