What's in Place
The Fisheries Act is a federal act with rules that guide the conservation and protection of fish and their habitat, as well as regulation of the fishing industry.
The Fisheries Act and its regulations define pollution standards people and companies must meet to protect fish and their habitat. The Northwest Territories Fishery Regulations, which detail commercial and sportfishing rules in the NWT, exist under the federal act.
The Fisheries Act was amended and updated in 2019 to prohibit “the harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat.” The act also disallows the deposit of possibly harmful substances into waters frequented by fish, “unless authorized by regulations under the Fisheries Act or other federal legislation.”
Now, regulations are being developed to provide more detail to these rules. One set of regulations under development (Oil Sands Mining Effluent Regulations) will be of particular interest to NWT residents living downstream of large oil sands operations in Northern Alberta.
These regulations have been proposed to determine a water quality standard for effluent (wastewater) released back into the environment from oil sands tailings ponds. Environment and Climate Change Canada, the federal department leading the development of these regulations, has stated on its website that “the proposed regulations would set national baseline effluent quality standards and environmental effect monitoring provisions for all oil sands mines.”
As a rationale for the proposed regulations, the department has stated that releasing this treated wastewater “will help slow the growth of oil sands tailings ponds, and reduce the associated environmental and health risks” of storing toxic metals in tailings ponds.
More information on the development of these potential regulations can be found here. There is no current documents or proposals up for public review, but if that happens, that information will be posted on this website Get Involved.
The new Fisheries Act was first introduced in 2018 and received assent on June 21, 2019. Previous amendments to the Fisheries Act, in 2012, reduced protection to only recognized commercial, recreational, or Aboriginal fisheries. The amended act in 2019 provides blanket coverage for all fish and fish habitat in Canada.
Federal departments are now developing regulations for the amended act, working with Indigenous governments, while also consulting provinces and territories, industry and environmental groups on proposed rules.
According to media reports, a Crown-Indigenous working group was formed early in 2022 to develop recommendations for the Oil Sands Mining Effluent Regulations. The Department of Environment and Climate Change Canada is also seeking feedback from the Alberta government, as well as industry and environmental non-governmental organizations. More information is available here.
The federal government plans to release draft regulations for the Fisheries Act in 2024 and make the regulations final by 2025.
The Oil Sands Mining Effluent Regulations would allow oil sands producers in Northern Alberta to release wastewater from tailings ponds. How will this affect waters downstream in the NWT?
Some experts have argued that releasing treated waste from oil sands operations will reduce the potentially disastrous consequences of a tailings pond failure. But should these operations be allowed to keep expanding if they aren’t taking steps to reduce their own liabilities?
In January 2022, the Canadian government declared some rules from the Metal and Diamond Mining Effluent Regulations did not apply to certain NWT mining operations, with the NWT’s own Waters Act taking precedence. Could our Waters Act standards also take precedence over the Oil Sands Mining Effluent Regulations?
If oil sands tailings water is to be discharged into nearby rivers on purpose for the first time, should this be considered a new development? Would it trigger an environmental assessment in Alberta and/or the NWT?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, several meetings have been taking place with the Government of Alberta and senior representatives at Imperial Oil to receive the most updated information about the monitoring. I have also met with Minister Savage, the Alberta minister of environment and protected areas on this issue.
We have been informed that the water quality results have been stable and show no impact to downstream waterways or drinking water. Environment and Climate Change Canada's Fisheries Act direction was issued to prevent potential impact to fish not because impacts were...
View complete statement within contextThank you very much, Mr. Chair. So I see under commercial fisheries and contributions, there's a little bit of a difference, which I assume is that, that sunset there.
Can the Minister speak to whether or not there are any expected legislative changes required to the Fisheries Act coming forward from changes to the fisheries sector expected in the next year and if they have the resources to fulfill that work? Thank you.
View complete statement within contextOkay, thank you. I want to be very clear to the House, and to the people that are listening here, no release of oil sand process water is currently allowed under the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act or the federal Fisheries Act, so it's not allowed. It's not allowed.
When you talk about what we're doing, I'm not in as I said previously, I'm not in there to make it public out there, slamming. We're trying to work behind the scenes, do the work we need to do, and we do have a relationship with our Indigenous governments. But for that detail of exactly, we've...
View complete statement within contextMerci, Monsieur le Président. I raised the issue of discharges from the Alberta tar sands tailings in our last sitting. I was very pleased to hear the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources say in the House, on December 7th, "we're not supportive of this presently or even in the future." By the way, I am still waiting for the research on the impacts of potential discharges that the Minister promised back then.
It is hard to get a sense of the scale of these tailings ponds. They cover 220 square kilometres and the volume would be the equivalent of Olympic swimming pools that...
View complete statement within contextThank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to be clear, there's no releases of oil sand process. Water is currently allowed under the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act or the Federal Fisheries Act. The Alberta government has said its regulations will not be in place until at least 2023, and the federal government regulations will not be in place until at least 2025.
At ENR, we have employed sciences and experts as part of the GNWT water management and monitoring team who are reviewing the proposals to authorize each release, including those with regulatory expertise. We...
View complete statement within contextThank you, Madam Chair. I was hoping the Minister could give me an update in relation to the Metal and Diamond Mining Effluent Regulations under the Fisheries Act, and any work being done under our corresponding Waters Act.
View complete statement within context