Province faces questions about silence over year-old Suncor charges

The Alberta government is facing questions about why the public wasn't told when oilsands giant Suncor and two of its contractors were charged a year ago with dozens of counts in connection with allegations of dumping undertreated waste water into the Athabasca River and providing false or misleading information to the province about it.

The charges, laid in February 2008 under Alberta's Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act, related to the monitoring of waste water from a Suncor-owned work camp that houses up to 3,500 people at the company's operations north of Fort McMurray, Alta.

The province never went public with the news and CBC Television was the first to break the story, on Tuesday evening.

The treatment plant operator, Rodney McCabe, and his company, R&D McCabe Ltd., were each charged with 90 counts. Suncor and camp operator the Compass Group of Canada were each charged with 43 counts.

According to Alberta Environment, the charges against Suncor and Compass Group have been reduced to one count each. Suncor currently faces one charge of exceeding approved limits and Compass Group is charged with failing to report exceeding approved limits. The next court appearances for Suncor and Compass Group are on April 2 in Fort McMurray.

CBC News has now learned that McCabe and his company pleaded guilty to six charges last week: two charges of giving false and misleading information, two charges of failing to report and two charges of exceeding approved limits. McCabe is scheduled to be sentenced in May.

On Wednesday, Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner said the government wasn't trying to keep the charges a secret, and he thought everyone knew about them. 

"I certainly got the briefing on it myself and was under the assumption all along that this had gone through a process or news release or disclosure or whatever," Renner told reporters at the Alberta legislature.

Last month, the government held a news conference to announce charges against Syncrude, another northern Alberta oilsands producer, in relation to the deaths of 500 ducks on one of the company's tailings ponds last year.

Opposition parties raised the issue of the silence over the Suncor charges in the Alberta legislature during Wednesday afternoon's question period.

"These charges were laid a year ago... right in the middle of an election," Liberal Leader David Swann said. "Was this buried for political advantage?"

"The charges were laid against the company, and I would think that at least in this province, under a Conservative government, people are innocent until proven guilty," Premier Ed Stelmach said in response.