The Alberta Energy Regulator's $50,000 fine for Imperial Oil for tailings leaks at one of its oilsands facilities is a paltry measure in the face of its massive profits, according to several critics.

On Aug. 22, the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) announced Imperial Oil must pay a $50,000 administrative penalty related to tailings water leaking from the Kearl oilsands facilities in northern Alberta, about 137 kilometres northeast of Fort McMurray.

Last year, it came to light that toxic tailings had been seeping from the Imperial Oil-owned site for nine months and downstream communities were not properly notified. It took a massive spill of 5.3 million litres in February for the long-term seepage, which Imperial Oil first noticed in May 2022, to be made public through an environmental protection order. This sparked outrage from Indigenous communities, the public and politicians.

“A $50,000 penalty for a company that made $20 billion in profits over 2022 and 2023, to me, is a feeble slap on the wrist from an industry-captured regulator,” Liberal MP Patrick Weiler told Canada’s National Observer in a phone interview.

For a company like Imperial Oil, $50,000 is “pocket change,” said Aliénor Rougeot, program manager of climate and energy at Environmental Defence, in an interview with Canada’s National Observer. “I don’t even know that they would notice that. It’s probably a rounding error,” Rougeot said.

In the second quarter of 2024, Imperial Oil reported $1.13 billion in profit.