“We’ve always speculated that there was something wrong in regards to the AER [and] raised concerns that were alarming to the nation and the community of Fort Chip from the development upstream,” said Chief Allan Adam.

Research published earlier this month in the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment journal says the “AER’s stated policy of ‘routine inspections’ following tailings spills is not supported by the evidence.”

After reviewing a decade worth of spill reports, Edmonton-based ecologist Kevin Timoney found only a fraction of spills — roughly three per cent — were inspected and, in the vast majority of cases, the regulator relied on information provided by oil companies instead of doing its own inspections. Five per cent of the spills had no inspection data at all.