By Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News An Indigenous environmental organization focused on water protection is slamming the Alberta Energy Regulator’s (AER) decision to exempt Suncor’s plan to release millions of tonnes of tar sands tailings into the Athabasca River from an environmental impact assessment. “This is why we need federal oversight,” Jesse Cardinal, executive director of Keepers of the Water, told Alberta Native News. “This is what happens when you offload all of this responsibility to the provinces.” The exemption was first reported by online news outlet Canada’s National Observer, which obtained a July 2026 letter from the AER to Suncor stating that the tailings release is not a “mandatory activity for the purposes of environmental assessment.” Alberta Native News has not independently viewed the AER’s…
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